Recently proven siblings & the debate: In addition, his half siblings, through his father's marriage in 1848 to Ahnawake "Annie" SPIRIT, a full-blood Cherokee of the Deer clan, (daughter of The Spirit and Chow-e-you-cah) who came to Oklahoma by way of the Trail of Tears Forced Removal were Sarah A. MAYES (nee McGinnis), Charlotte MAYES (nee Ballard), William Penn MAYES and Elmira MAYES (nee Finn, nee Gladney of the POST/PETTIT lines). "Annie" married Simon Snell, after the death of Samuel Mayes, the father. His half siblings can further be confirmed through the Dawes applications, DNA comparisons of descendants and is also mentioned in Sarah's obituary in The Weekly Chieftain in Vinita, Oklahoma, 1st Edition, Page 3 on June 5, 1890 which quotes her as "Half sister of hon. J.B. Mayes and had a large relation." The relationship of his father with "Annie" was not clearly cited in the book by Starr, and acknowledging the practice of plural marriage was a controversial subject. It was highly debated that there was a different Samuel Mayes in the area of the time. Some genealogists also argued that Joel B. Mayes' father was unlikely to have traveled with gold and cattle to California. One genealogy website forum, as a way of mocking the genealogist's conclusion as Samuel Mayes being like Howard Hughes with a plane to do so much. It seemed to present itself as an Adair vs. them, until twenty years later with the help of DNA connecting the two lines to the same Samuel. In 2017, the Cherokee Phoenix covered the Trail of Tears survivor ceremony for Ahnawake at her grave in Oklahoma. It was the first print publication mentioning the marriage and children of the two, along with their children and half-siblings of the Adair lineage.