Indian Ball Games

 

                                        Choctaw Ball Player, by George Catlin, 1834

 

 

I apologize for neglecting my blog site. Three of our children have come through town with their families so we have been enjoying visiting with them. I have been spending whatever writing time I have had to post on the Lone Tree Hiking Club Facebook site, trying to drum up interest in our club, and also to work on my book, which I'm beginning to think will never be finished.  

I could post several more entries about the Furniture Catalogue, which continues to fascinate me, but I thought I would get back to the Chickasaws instead. My daughters have recently visited the Chickasaw Culture Center down in Sulfur Oklahoma, which is worth a visit for anyone, whether a history buff or not. It looks like there have been several additions to the experience there since I visited it a couple of years ago.

For one, there have been several buildings added to the Chickasaw village. Also there was a craftsman making flutes. He also had drums, bows and arrows display. He let the kids accompany him with rattles and drums while he played the flute. I hope I get to see his display sometime. I've always been fascinated by the making of arrowheads out of flint stone. I tried when I was a boy, but was a miserable failure. I think it involves heating the stone and then dropping water on the edges. Maybe some day…

The other thing the kids got to see was an Indian ball game. They took a video and it showed both men and women playing. The men use sticks but the women can use their hands. There was only one goal in the demonstration, a pole with the image of a bird on top. The object was to hit the bird with the ball.

The game of stickball has a colorful history. It was originally called the "little brother to war" by the southeastern tribes who played the sport for recreation and also sometimes to settle disputes between tribes. The ball is a little larger than a golf ball and is made of cow or deer hide. Each player has two sticks with a cup on one end. The object of the game is to trap the ball between the sticks and carry or throw it through the goal posts. The French copied the game and called it Lacrosse because of the resemblance of the sticks used to a bishop's crosier.

In the old days teams were blessed and refereed by the tribes' medicine men. The goals were set about a mile apart and there were hundreds of players. About the only rule was that the players had to use the sticks to move the ball. Weapons were left on the sidelines, but players could use their bodies or their sticks to hit each other. Tackling, tripping, and hair pulling were allowed. Fights between individual players were tolerated, but other players were not allowed to interfere. Serious injuries and even death occurred.

Women also play ball, but they use their hands instead of sticks. A ball game between men and women of the Creek tribe was described by Major Ethan Allen Hitchcock in his memoir, edited by Grant Foreman, and published as "A Traveler in Indian Territory." According to Hitchcock, the women were winning in the game he watched.

Fans have always been enthusiastic in Indian ball games. In a game between the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes in 1903 a fight broke out among the fans and the Lighthorse (Indian) Police had to be called in to break it up.

The famous western artist George Catlin was a Indian ball fan, and he attended games whenever he could. He wrote a detailed description of a game that is quoted on the Chickasaw Nation website in an article by Robert Perry. 

Indian ball or stickball is still played and although serous fights and attempts to injure an opponent are penalized, it is still much like the old game. I saw a game when I was nine or ten and it was really violent. Opponents hit and tackled each other and hit each other's sticks to knock the ball loose. I'll never forget it. 

I found some video of Indian stickball on YouTube. It shows excerpts from several games, and you can see what an exciting, challenging game it still is. See "Real Choctaw Stickball."

                          Choctaw Ball Play Dance at Skullyville, Indian Territory, 1834

                                                          George Catlin

 

Chickasaw Education Under the White Man

      

                           Chilocco Indian Agricultural School
                                            1882 - 1980

Ever since before the Removal, there were many white people who abhorred the mistreatment of the Indians: the invasion of their territory by land hungry settlers, the violation of their treaties, the failure of the government to provide education. The list was long. Many religious groups, philanthropists, and other well meaning white citizens sympathized with the Indian.  

Before the Removal, Thomas McKenney, a deeply religious man, served as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. He advocated for the Indians education and integration into white society, but faced with the onslaught of settlers and the hostility of state governments, he eventually recommended the Indians' Removal. After the threats of the treaty commissioners had failed, McKenney approached the Chickasaw with respect and words of persuasion:  

Brothers - Whilst then you cherish a sacred remembrance for the bones of your Fathers, forget not to provide for your children, and never stop a moment, but hasten with all speed to place them in a situation that will secure them against the evils that your Fathers endured … This Brothers is Wisdom. The past I know has been cloudy and dark enough, but, brothers, be not discouraged. The Great Spirit will yet open your way. 

Footnote: The Chickasaws, Arrell Gibson, P 166 - 167

McKenney purported to understand the Chickasaw and to know what was best for them, but to me his words still sound like a threat, and they sound patronizing. But he didn't really understand. He wasn't evicted from a homeland where his people had lived for hundreds of years. And he wasn't part of a culture of which the land was an integral part. His words didn't move the Chickasaws either. They waited another 12 years before signing the Treaty of Doaksville with the Choctaws agreeing to remove to Indian Territory as a last resort.  

From the end of the Civil War in 1866 until the passage of the Curtis Act in 1898, a period of about 30 years, the Chickasaws and the other Five Civilized Tribes governed themselves, and they developed an education system for their children equal or superior to that of any state in the west. The Chickasaw Nation operated neighborhood elementary schools, several "academies," which were the equivalent of high schools, and each year they sent 60 to 100 students away to college. By 1880 the literacy rate among the Chickasaw was 60%.

Footnote: The Chickasaws, Arrell Gibson, P 281

Meanwhile, the other tribes were at the mercy of the federal and state governments. President Grant, who appointed Quaker missionaries as his Indian agents, also formed three cavalry regiments to subdue the remaining plains Indian tribes. General George Custer was one of the Civil War officers who volunteered to help accomplish this mission. The government had decided that the land in the west, once considered useless for settlement, was still too good for the Indian. So the soldiers rounded up the tribes, confined them to reservations, and turned their education over to the Quakers. 

During the time after the Civil War there was a resurgence of interest in the welfare of the Indians. Groups such as the Womens' National Indian Association, The Indian Rights Association, and The Friends of the Indian met, discussed the Indians' problems, sent out teams of investigators, and made recommendations. President Grant appointed many of these leaders to a Board of Indian Commissioners which advised him on how to deal with the Indian "problem." His Commission decided that Indians should be taught English, religion, farming and trades to make them self sufficient. Then they were to be given allotments of land and their annuities ended. This would end the expense of the reservations, and make available huge tracts of land for white settlement. There would be no more need for conflicts and treaties with Indian tribes. The Indians would be successfully integrated into "white" society.

For all their good intentions, all that these benevolent groups did was provide the government with a rationale for what they intended to do already: destroy the Indians' tribal bonds, their age old cultures, and their basic beliefs, in order to give their land to white settlers. The various groups, the Friends of the Indians, and others, continued to meet, blaming the Indians' troubles on mishandling by the government, but they all ended by endorsing the government's programs.

The irony of all this discussion about what was in the best interest of the Indian was that never was an Indian included in the discussion. Really. It wasn't until the 1970's that President Richard Nixon, recognizing that the Native American culture still survived, and that the government still had an obligation under the old treaties, proposed a new Indian policy under which the Indian tribes themselves could be authorized to administer federal
programs for their own benefit, but back to the 1800's.

Footnote: The Great Father, Paul Prucha, P 364. 

The government's plan involved separating the Indian children from their families in order to immerse them in white culture. In 1840 the government, in partnership with the Methodist Church, established a boarding school in Kansas for Indian children called a manual labor academy. It was modeled after similar schools in Europe which were designed to teach poor children to accept their station in life. Children from many tribes including Shawnee, Delaware, Kansas, Peoria, Potawatomie, Wyandot, and Ottawa were taken from their homes and sent to this and other boarding schools. This type of school was to became a model for Indian education for almost a century.
Listening to Our Grandmothers' Stories, Amanda Cobb-Greetham.

The idea was to separate the children from their parents and from their cultures, to teach them to speak English, and to accept white cultural values. The boys were taught farming and trades and the girls were taught domestic skills. Ezra Hayt, Commissioner of Indian affairs in 1877 summarized the so called benefits of these schools:

the exposure of children who attend only day schools to the demoralization and degradation of an Indian home neutralized the efforts of the schoolteacher, especially those efforts which are directed to the advancement of in morality and civilization.

The Great Father, Paul Prucha, P 233.

By 1890 there were 7000 Indian children in boarding schools, often far away from their homes. By 1900 it was clear that the boarding schools were a failure. Many were run like reform schools, using the Indian children as free labor, without teaching them anything useful. As soon as they were able, the children returned to their homes. It wasn't until 1928 that a study was done condemning Indian boarding schools. It showed that the schools were providing poor diets, and inadequate medical care. They were overcrowded, underfunded, and they provided poor education with too much emphasis on labor. The study, the Meriam report, led to some reforms, but not to the end of the schools.

The study's recommendation was that Indian children be integrated into public schools.  This practice, which had actually been going on for some time, started receiving government support, but it was a failure before it started. The Indian children faced prejudice and social isolation, and became underachievers and dropouts.

My grandfather, William H. Paul, and his brother, Smith W. "Buck" Paul, were educated mainly in white schools even though they completed their schooling before the Curtis Act abolished the Chickasaw government in 1898. An early
history of Oklahoma described my grandfather's education:

Receiving the rudiments of his education in the schools of White Bead, Wm H Paul subsequently continued his studies at the Tishomingo Academy, under the instructions of Judge Benjamin Carter, at Savoy Texas, at Austin College, and at Sherman Texas.

From what my mother told me, Uncle Buck went to the same schools as my grandfather.

Footnote: The History of the State of Oklahoma, Luther B  Hill, 1910.

These schools were run by white men. My grandfather's father, Sam Paul, was very progressive in his thinking, and he believed that the Chickasaws' future lay in integration into the white culture. That's the reason my grandparents met. They both attended a subscription school together in Pauls Valley. My grandmother's father had come west from Georgia after the Civil War and settled in Indian Territory, possibly at the invitation of my great grandfather Sam Paul, who actively recruited white settlers to come into the area.

My grandfather and his brother were sent to boarding schools for much of their education. My mother said that her father told her that he and Buck ran away several times, only to be taken back to the school by their father, Sam Paul. They must have attended one of the Chickasaw boarding schools, because the boys were all Indian, and my grandfather described how difficult it was for those who couldn't speak English, which was forbidden, even then. He liked to tell the story of a young Chickasaw boy who wrote a letter home to his parents. The boys' were required to write only in English. The boy was trying to tell his parents about one of his classmates who got a fatal case of diarrhea from eating green apples. His letter came out: "Little boy, green apple, shoot the shoot, dead."

The other story my grandfather told about his boarding school education concerned a teacher, who was a white man and apparently treated his Indian pupils with contempt, calling them "little Indian pups." When my great grandfather Sam Paul found out about this he caught the teacher on his way home from school, pulled him from his horse and whipped him with his buggy whip. As my grandmother used to say: "If you don't like Indians you shouldn't be living in Indian country," but this was before the Curtis Act.  

Even though my grandfather and his brothers faced prejudice, they were educated during the time of Chickasaw sovereignty, and they each got the equivalent of a college education. As long as the governments of the Five Civilized Tribes were able to control their own education system, they provided their young people with the opportunity to become educated and to compete with the white settlers who were coming to the Territory in increasing numbers.


          

Bloomfield Academy, 1900

Many Indian boarding schools survived well into the 20th century and my mother attended one of them, the Bloomfield Academy for girls in Ardmore, Oklahoma. I'll share some of her experiences there in my next post.

Chickasaw Education, the Golden Age, 1867 - 1898

For information about Chickasaw education during earlier periods see posts of Jan. 16, and Jan. 29, 2012.

        

                                        Mississippia Paul Hull

During the Civil War Chickasaw society was disrupted, and the Nation's schools were closed. The Chickasaw Nation officially supported the Confederacy, but many wanted no part of the white man's war. Soon after the war started, the Confederate army took over Indian Territory and occupied Fort Arbuckle. My great great grandfather Smith Paul had the foresight to move away from the fort before the war started. He moved west, into the vicinity of what is now Paul's Valley. As my great aunt Sippia put it:

Just before the war broke out he had made a trip to the locality and realized that it was a wonderful place for farming. Very soon he had a home built for us, it was of hewed logs. The house was built of single rooms but close together …. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the friendly plains Indians came around the locality where my father had his farm. They were the Comanches, Caddos, Apaches, Cheyenne, Osages, and I think some Delawares. One mixed band located at Cherokee Town, another on my father's farm, a band of Osage across the river, and a band of Caddo Indian under old lady White Bead, five miles up the river. And the government realized that they must do something with and for these Indians, so they appointed my father as an agent, to issue them rations. This was one reason that my father did not have to go to war.  

So Smith Paul was appointed by the Confederacy, as Indian agent supplying rations to the plains Indians living the vacinity of his farm.

My great great grandmother Ela Teecha's older children, Tecumseh McClure and Catherine Waite, along with Ellen's brother Ja-Pawnee, went to Kansas with their families during the Civil War. They stayed with the Sauk and Fox tribe which remained unaffiliated with either North or South.

Aunt Sippia described her life during the war between the states:

During the Civil War we had to spin and weave all of our cloth, to make our clothes, and knit our hose. I was anxious to do what everyone else did and they let me, although I was only about nine years old, I wove enough cloth to make me a dress, even though it looked rather knottie, they made me a dress out of it. The cotton from which we spun the thread had to be picked from the seeds with our fingers, we usually did this work at night. The pecans grew in this locality in great abundance as they do today, and we ate nuts and picked the cotton off the seeds and my mother would tell us Indian legends. We learned by putting the cotton down by the fire and getting it warm, it was much easier to get the seeds out. It was during those early days that a man came through the country with what he called a miniature gin, similar to a cloths ringer of today, and this helped us to get the seeds out faster. Of course people came in to see how it worked and everyone wanted to try and turn the handle and my brother, boy like turned it and broke the handle off. My mother used to make straw hats for the boys out of wheat straw and in the winter they would catch coons and she would make them caps out of the skins. My father would make us shoes out of cow hide, he could do a little of everything, but this was only in war times. How I disliked them, and how glad I was when we could buy shoes ready made.

This is the kind of practical education Aunt Sippia got during the war. I wish she we could hear some of the stories her mother told her.

After the Civil War, the Chickasaw government was reorganized, and under the leadership of Governor Cyrus Harris a new constitution was written outlawing slavery. In 1867, with $65,700 released by the federal government from the Chickasaw trust fund, the Chickasaw Nation established 11 neighborhood schools. In 1876 that number was increased to 23, and also four academies, Bloomfield for girls, Wapanucka coed, Chickasaw Male Academy, and the Lebanon Orphan school were opened. These schools were operated by Chickasaw citizens, and most of the teachers were Chickasaw. The Chickasaw government provided $3 per student per month for the neighborhood schools, $200 per student annually for students at the academies, and $350 per student per year for 60 to 100 students selected to pursue higher education in the states.

This period of Chickasaw independence has been referred to as the "Golden Age" of Chickasaw education. At this time the Chickasaw educational system surpassed that of all the other tribes, and that of the whites in neighboring states. By 1880 60% of Chickasaws could read and write. Bloomfield Academy was known as the Bryn Mawr of the West.

There were also missionary schools at this time. The Pierce Institute in White Bead, and Hargrove College in Ardmore were operated by the Methodists, and St. Elizabeth's Academy for girls was opened by the Catholic Church near Purcell.

Footnote: The Chickasaws, Arrell Gibson. P 280. 

In addition to the Chickasaw government schools and the mission schools, some Chickasaw communities hired their own teachers. Aunt Sippia told about her father hiring a teacher for her and her brothers after the war:

For quite a while after the war, we were the only settlers in this section of the country. My father hired us a private teacher. It was not easy to get teachers to come and live on this frontier, so our education was quite limited.

It was during this time that the federal government was forcing the plains tribes onto reservations. Ulysses S. Grant, the first President after the Civil War, was approached by representatives of the Quaker church asking him to let them establish missions on these reservations so they could convert the Indians. President Grant's response was:

If you can make Quakers out of these Indians it will take the fight out of them. Let us have peace.

Grant appointed many Quakers as Indian agents, and also missionaries from other denominations. The Quaker Laurie Tatum was appointed agent to the Comanches and Kiowas near Fort Sill, and my great aunt Sippia attended his school. Here is her description:

At the early age of sixteen I was married to Jim Arnold, a Texan, and one little girl was born to us, named Tamsie. After five years I was left a widow. Knowing they had a school for Indians at Fort Sill, I decided to go up there to school. I boarded with a Mexican woman who had been ransomed and married and raised a family. She was ransomed by a soldier by the name of Chandler who afterwards married her. I took my little girl along with me and Mrs. Chandler took care of her while I attended school. While I was there I met William Hull, an Englishman, who was employed to work for the government to work under the Indian agent Tatum. After he met me he decided to come down and live near my father. He was a professional blacksmith. This was on the main travel road of the freighters to Fort Sill and Fort Cobb. He accumulated quite a fortune at that business. Then we were married.

The practice by some of the plains tribes of taking hostages deserves some explanation. The Comanche, Wichita, Cheyenne and others would raid farms in what is now Texas - then Mexico - and take horses and hostages. They traded both among themselves, and often asked for ransoms for the hostages, usually children. Chickasaw hunters played a role in ransoming some of the hostages in those early days after the Removal. Some of the hostages were treated like slaves and some were accepted as members of the tribe. The mother of the famous Comanche Chief Quanah Parker had originally been a hostage. When given a chance to rejoin her white family, she chose to remain with the Comanche. See my post of 2/12/2011, Nadua, Cynthia Ann Parker

Back to Aunt Sippia's story:

The school I attended in Fort Sill was under the supervision of the Quakers. Of course I attended their church, it all seemed strange to me, for when they went in the church they usually sang a song first, then they sat and waited for the spirit to move them. Sometimes someone would pray or talk and then again there were times when no one would either talk or pray, they would sit quietly for a while and then leave.

While my father was not such a religious man he realized that we must have the uplifting influence of having the gospel preached. So he hired a preacher by the year by the name of E. Couch from Texas, to preach to us regularly every Sunday, he made his home with us. By that time there were more people living in this part of the country but miles and miles apart, but they would come to this service and my father and mother always arranged to have a splendid meal for the entire congregation, as that was one of the pleasant occasions that we looked forward to. Then later my father built a frame church himself, having the lumber freighted from Atoka. J.M. Hamill, Superintendent of Colbert School and pastor at Ft. Arbuckle also preached to us.

The Colbert School was one of the original Chickasaw Academies. It was a boys' school.

It is remarkable to me how these people, with their own culture and traditions, so recently uprooted from their homeland and having to rebuild their society on the frontier, had the desire and the foresight to see the value of education in preparing their children to compete in white society. Aunt Sippia sent her oldest daughter Tamsie to Liverpoole, England. to school. I don't know much about the education that Tecumseh McClure provided for his children, but his sister Catherine went to great lengths to educate hers. Fred Waite, her oldest son was sent to finishing school in Bentonville Ark.. He later attended Illinois Industrial University in Champaign, Illinois, and Mound City Commercial College in St Louis, Mo. Fred Waite later became Attorney General of the Chickasaw Nation. Fred's younger brother Amos was also educated in the East, and he returned home to start the first subscription school in Pauls Valley in about 1890. Subscription schools were private schools for which parents paid a fee for their children to attend. Catherine Waite also educated her daughters. After her husband's death in 1874 she moved with her younger daughters to Oberlin, Ohio, so that they could attend college there.

        

                   Thomas and Catherine Waite and Three of Their Daughters

Chickasaw Education After the Removal

After the Removal, the Chickasaws were despondent. Many had died and were continuing to die from exposure, malnutrition, and disease. In the new land the people lived clustered around government supply depots, instead in clan based villages as before. In the Removal treaty Chickasaw district had been included in the Choctaw Nation, a situation which the individual Chickasaw could never accept. In addition, the Choctaw had located the Chickasaw district far to the west of the Choctaw settlements, to create a buffer between them and the hostile plains tribes, who considered the eastern tribes as intruders, and repeatedly raided their settlements. The Chickasaw's only protection was Fort Towson, which was a full 70 miles east of their border. 

As a result, the Chickasaw were unable to even move into their district until 1844, when Fort Washita was built on its eastern border. Still most of the tribe waited until 1851, when Fort Arbuckle was built further to the west. It was only then that the Chickasaw began to establish their own farms and schools. In the meantime many of the Chickasaw lived in Choctaw settlements where there were some schools. Others remained in the vicinity of the old government supply depots, living off periodic annuity payments.  

     

       Map of Indian Territory: Note Ft. Towson in southeast corner, 

                 Ft. Washita just inside Chickasaw border,

            and Ft. Arbuckle in middle of Chickasaw Nation.

In spite of these handicaps, the Chickasaw did have some opportunities to educate their young people during the postremoval period. One of them was the Choctaw Academy in Blue Springs, Kentucky. The Choctaw Academy had been established in 1824 by the Baptist Church. Its superintendant was Richard Mentor Johnson, who had been vice president under James Van Buren. Johnson had first achieved notoriety as a Colonel in the war of 1812 when he allegedly shot and killed the great Shawnee Chief, Tecumseh. He used the following jingle during his campaign for vice president: "Rumsey Dumsey, Rumsey Dumsey, Col Johnson killed Tecumseh." 

In spite of Col. Johnson's notoriety as an Indian fighter, he did apparently have sympathetic feelings for the Indians and also for other victims of prejudice and oppression. Like Thomas Jefferson, he had a Negro mistress, and for many years he devoted himself to the education on Indian youths. The US government originally sent 25 students per year to the Choctaw Academy, and the number was later raised to 45. The Chickasaw removal treaty provided $3000 annually for ten years to send 10 young men to the Choctaw Academy, and several of the graduates later became leaders of the tribe. After the ten year period the Chickasaw made a contract with Plainview Academy in Connecticut to provide higher education to Chickasaw youths.

Footnote: Wikipedia under Richard Mentor Johnson, and Oklahoma, by Arrell Gibson, P 161.

The Choctaw also developed neighborhood primary schools and academies, equivalent to high schools, and some Chickasaws took advantage of these schools.

In about 1843 or 4 my great great grandmother Ela-Teecha's first husband, Jason McClure, was fatally stricken with hydrophobia, better known as rabies. My great great grandfather, Smith Paul, who had been working for McClure, then married Ela-Teecha. By the way, I don't believe this implies a scandalous affair by my great great grandmother while she was  married to McClure, as has been suggested by some. Smith Paul and Jason McClure were both Scotsmen, and they were friends. It was a difficult time. Ela Teecha was left alone by McClure's death to care for two small children. She was thirteen years older than Smith Paul, but she needed a husband, and so they were married. It was a practical and a compassionate arrangement.  

                                                            

                                Smith and Ela-Teecha (Ellen) Paul                            

Ellen's older son, Tecumseh, was fourteen at that time, and Smith sent him to Boggy Depot where the Choctaw had a school. He stayed with William Guy, one of the conductors for the Chickasaw Removal who had married a Chickasaw woman and had remained in Indian Territory. Tecumseh was later a student at Post Oak Grove, in the Chickasaw Nation. After his education Tecumseh moved back in with the family, and later married a full blood Chickasaw named Mary McKenzie. Tecumseh McClure became a respected leader among the Chickasaw. He served in the Chickasaw senate and later became governor.  

Footnote: Leaders and Leading Men of the Indian Territory: Choctaws and Chickasaws, by Harry F. O'Beirne, 1891. P 308 

Ela-Teecha's daughter Catherine stayed with the family, and in about 1848 or 1850 she married Tom Waite, a farmer from Illinois. I'm not sure how much education she had, but as you will learn later, her dedication to providing education for her children was remarkable.  

With the building of Fort Washita in 1844, Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian missionaries began to establish churches, and when Fort Arbuckle was built in 1851, the Chickasaw provided the churches with funds to create schools in the new Chickasaw communities. Four academies were established: the Colbert and Burney Institutes for boys, and the Bloomfield and Wapanucka Academies for girls, as well as six neighborhood schools with an enrollment of 180 students. The Chickasaw achieved their independence from the Choctaw in 1854, and by 1856 they had written a constitution and had established their own government. Unfortunately the Civil War erupted in 1861, and again disrupted Chickasaw society in its attempts at nation building.

Map of Chickasaw Nation: Note Colbert Institute, Wapanucka Academy,

                Burney Institute and Bloomfield Acadamy

In 1851, when Fort Arbuckle was built, Smith Paul started farming in the area adjacent to the fort and soon he had won a contract to supply corn to the government for the soldiers there and also for the many Indian tribes which came to the fort for rations. This situation provided a unique education for Smith and Ellen's children: Sam, Jesse, and Mississippia, or 'Sippia,' who were 16, 14, and 6 when the Civil War began. According to my great uncle Buck, his father Sam was able to communicate in the languages of all the Five Civilized Tribes, as well as those of the Caddo, Comanche, Kiowa, and Wichita. He once hosted and served as interpreter at a meeting of the Intertribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes.  

 Map of Ft. Arbuckle Area (from Advancing the Frontier, by Grant Foreman)

Note six lines extending from left side of map pointing to: 1. Road to Wichita Mts, 2. Smith Paul's farm, 3. Area Reserved for Indian Purposes (campground for visiting tribes), 4. Road to Ft. Belknap, 5. Spring, 6. Ft. Arbuckle.

Uncle Buck also said that his father Sam completed the third reader in primary school and that he attended military school for two years. I have no further information about the 'military school.' It might have been provided by the officers of Ft. Arbuckle, but it was also common for Indian children to be sent east to school. Sam Paul obviously continued his education informally, because in addition to serving in the Chickasaw legislature, he also edited two newspapers and worked as an attorney in the Chickasaw court system. Sam's younger brother Jesse's education was probably similar to Sam's, but he suffered an untimely death, probably in the late 1860's, and little is known of him. Aunt Sippia left a description of her education after the Civil War which I'll include in my next post.

                                                          Sam Paul

  

Chickasaw Education in the Old Country

In the old days the Chickasaws, had a culture, long of history and rich in tradition and practical knowledge about their world, and there was much for a young boy or girl to learn. A girl had to learn which season was best to plant and harvest the three sisters - corn, squash and beans. They had to learn how to store the corn in corn cribs and the fruit in hay stacks, how to cure the meat in smoke houses for the winter, and how to season their cooking with spices and bear oil to cook the food for which they were renowned. The boys had to develop the toughness, the tracking skills and stealth which made Chickasaw warriors feared by the other tribes in battle. They had to learn to hunt, to recognize the signs of the deer and the bear in the forest. Some developed the wisdom and judgment to become leaders, and others were chosen to become healers. 

The Chickasaw lived in clans. There was the Minko clan from which the king or Minko was chosen, the Imosaktca or fish clan, to which my great great grandmother belonged, whose men were known as great fighters. The Tcukilissa or timber people who lived in the forest, hunting and fishing, and stayed to themselves. There were also the wildcat, bird, deer, raccoon, wolf, alligator, and skunk clans, each with its own place in the hierarchy, and each with its own special characteristics, but all were united as Chickasaws.  

The Chickasaw had legends about their origins west of the Mississippi River, and how the Great Spirit, Ababinili, had brought them to their home in the east, guiding them with a staff which he caused to lean in the direction they should go. There were legends about the origin of corn and tobacco, and about how the rattlesnake got its rattles. There were funny legends about how the rabbit fooled the alligator or the coyote. There were legends that taught lessons, like the story of a great hunter Ubiahuntatok, who challenged the great forest creature, Ihoff, who hung him up in a tree to teach him a lesson about humility. 

                           Ihoff and Ubiahuntatok, an illustration by Freda deOdis Flatt

                        from The Hunter Who Was Not So Great, A Chickasaw Legend

                                                    as told by Dorothy Milligan

To the Chickasaw there was no division between the spirit world and the physical world. There were good spirits and evil ones, spirits of the forest, and the spirits of the departed. Dogs were always kept nearby because they could see and warn the family when spirits were near. Special charms and ceremonies protected the Chickasaw from evil spirits and enlisted the aid of friendly ones. 

Since Chickasaw villages were distinguished according to clan, they were essentially extended family groups. Families were close, and lineage was traced through the mother. The mother's family, especially the aunts and uncles, were responsible for the care and education of children.  

In addition to traditional education, the Chickasaw benefitted by their intermarriage with several British and Scottish traders during the mid-eighteenth century. These white men taught their families to speak and understand English, and several of their sons became tribal leaders, advising and translating for the Chickasaw Council in treaty negotiations. This enabled the Chickasaw to negotiate more effectively with the US government than the tribes who had to communicate through interpreters. 

There was one treaty in which the Chickasaw were especially shrewd, the Treaty of Chickasaw Bluffs signed in 1801 for the construction of the Natchez Trace, a 400 mile road from Nashville Tennessee to the Mississippi River at Natchez, Mississippi. The road crossed both the Chickasaw and Choctaw Domains. At the insistence of the Chickasaw, the treaty stipulated that all businesses in the Chickasaw Domain be operated by Chickasaws. The Natchez Trace later became the most heavily traveled road in the southwest, and all the ferries, roadhouses, and trading posts were operated by Chickasaws.  

                                                  Map showing Natchez Trace

The Natchez Trace brought prosperity to the Chickasaw, who had seen the game in their hunting grounds dwindle over the years. The Council also requested that the rations paid by the US government to tribal members be paid in specie instead of in goods. Thereby the Chickasaw learned to use money in purchasing supplies and trading their produce. In 1829 the Chickasaw created a code of written laws.  

In 1819 the US Congress passed the "Indian Civilization Act" which subsidized Christian missionaries in establishing schools among the Indian tribes. When missionaries came to enlighten the Chickasaw they were treated with courtesy, but the Chickasaw showed little interest in their religion. The Chickasaw Council contributed money for schools, but later complained that the missionaries spent more time preaching than teaching.  

My great great grandmother Ela-teecha was born in about 1796, and she married a Scotsman named Jason McClure in about 1828 or 9. She had two children by him, Tecumseh in 1830, and Catherine in 1831. Ela-teecha was of the Imosaktca or fish clan, and she almost certainly lived with McClure in an Imosaktca village. She is said to have spoken English fluently, but since she was taught by her husband she spoke it with a Scottish brogue. Ela-teecha had a brother, Ja-pawnee, and four sisters. I only know the name of one sister, Kaliteyo, because my aunt was named for her. Little Tecumseh and Catherine were seven and six at the time of the Removal, so I'm sure some of their education was conducted according to tradition.  

Footnote 1: There are some who think Jason McClure came to live with the Chickasaws as a missionary, but in an interview with him reported in A Traveler in Indian Territory, the Journal of Ethan Allen Hitchcock, he's not described as a missionary, and there's no mention of him doing missionary work.   

                                    Jason, Ela-Teecha, and Tecumseh McClure

In 1830 the Indian Removal Act was passed, and the mission schools were closed in order to put pressure on the Indians to cooperate with the Removal to Indian Territory, the future state of Oklahoma. The Chickasaw held out until 1837, when they finally agreed to join their close relatives the Choctaw in Indian Territory. The Removal was a great tragedy for the Chickasaw people. Many lives were lost, and they found themselves in a strange land, surrounded by hostile tribes. But what was possibly as bad was the separation from their homeland and the spirits that protected them there, and the breaking up of the clans, which changed forever their way of life.

Sam Paul, Part Eight

Sam and Jenny Paul at Mt Vernon in Washington DC during Sam's visit to testify before Congressional Committee on Indian Affairs (Front row, fourth and fifth from right.)  

When Sam Paul was chosen as the leader of the Chickasaw Progressive Party, his life took on a new purpose. I can't say he was a changed man. He had the same fiery temper and the same ruthless determination as before, but instead of chasing criminals (and women) he decided to lead his people into the future.  

His first action was to travel to Washington, D.C. to lobby for the Progressive cause. (See post of Oct. 29, 2011, Sam Paul, Part Seven) In a speech before the Joint Congressional Committee of Indian Affairs he pointed out that the recent laws disenfranchising intermarried white citizens went against the Chickasaw constitution.  

On his return to Indian Territory Sam Paul bought a newspaper, The Chickasaw Enterprise, whose previous owner was being forced to sell because of intimidation by the Chickasaw Government. Sam installed his nephew, Fred Waite, who was currently constable of Pauls Valley, as editor, and they proceeded to publish articles supporting individual ownership of land and rights for white citizens.  

This statement of the newspaper's position was published in October of 1889: 

The Enterprise is an Indian newspaper and is owned and edited by an Indian. And, we do with the best interests of our people at heart say we shall continue to further advocate the speedy acceptation by our citizens of their land in severalty and the inauguration of a territorial form of government.(The Outlaw Statesman, by Mike Tower, P 89 ) 

Fred was no easier to intimidate than his uncle Sam. He was not only a constable, he had previously been one of Sam's deputies, and had before that ridden with Billy the Kid's "Regulators" in New Mexico. Fred had a college education and soon would be elected to the Chickasaw legislature and later be named Attorney General. The story of Fred Waite is told in the book, Outlaw Statesman, by Mike Tower.

Fred Waite, about 1880

Sam Paul took his mission seriously. He bought another newspaper in Ardmore, Oklahoma, The Chickasaw Chieftain, which he edited himself, quite an accomplishment for an Indian whose education had consisted of tutoring by itinerant teachers. Sam enlisted the help of his sons Bill and Buck in gathering news.  

Sam also opened a law practice in Pauls Valley and I suspect he had little trouble getting white clients needing someone to represent them in Chickasaw courts.  

Sam made speeches throughout the territory, advocating eventual statehood with equal rights for both Indians and whites, and when the first land was opened to white settlement in the famous land run of 1889, it was Sam Paul who fired the gun to start the race. He believed so fervently in the benefits of white settlement that he made trips to Texas and Arkansas to invite families to come to Indian Territory.  

Being a politician in the Chickasaw Nation wasn't for the faint of heart. Sam Paul was shot at once during a speech before a large crowd in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. He ducked down behind the podium momentarily, and then stood back up and finished his speech. On another occasion he rode into a meeting of Pull-backs with an armed escort, and delivered a speech to them while his men trained guns on the crowd.  

                                                          Sam Paul

I have the complete text of one of my great grandfather's speeches, which was published in the Chickasaw Chieftain. The speech was delivered in 1891 at a Fourth of July celebration in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, before a crowd of 1000 white men and Indians. Sam Paul's voice was weak due to a throat "affection" which "compelled him to pause and drink water at frequent intervals," but his delivery was "eloquent and forcible." He spoke without notes: 

Ladies and Gentlemen: I have been invited by the committee to come here today and speak on the issues which are now agitating the people of the Chickasaw Nation. I hardly know how to properly address an audience of this kind at a Fourth of July picnic. My speechmaking has been confined to political gatherings of my own countrymen during election campaigns and before the council of the nation. I must ask the indulgence of you all for I have not made sufficient preparation to do justice to the occasion. 

I shall talk to you on the subject of progression, touching upon the allotment question. 

I shall go back as far as 1830. At that time the Choctaws and Chickasaws were located east of the Mississippi River, and owing to the state of laws being extended over them, they became very much dissatisfied, because they could not understand or obey the white man's law, and as they believed, could not prosper under such circumstances. The chiefs and head men of the tribes appealed to the President of the United States to protect them against the laws of the white man; but to their great surprise and sorrow, the President said: "I cannot stop the operation of the laws of the states over your people." Then the Choctaws, becoming convinced that they would have to be governed by the state laws, expressed their desire to cede their country to the United States and secure a new home across the Mississippi. Accordingly, they purchased this land from the United States government and received therefor a patent. In 1837 the Chickasaws made an agreement with the Choctaws to locate within the Choctaw Nation and to have certain rights and privileges. After living in this manner for several years, the Chickasaws became dissatisfied with their dependent relations with the Choctaws, and in 1855 the two tribes, with the consent and under the direction of the United States government, readjusted their relationship, the Chickasaws being given their own district over which they were allowed to establish a government of their own. In addition to $530,000 already paid by the Chickasaws to the Choctaws for a one-fourth interest in their land, they paid $150,000 more for the right of independent government.  

I simply refer to this for the information of those who may not understand the status of the Chickasaws in this country. After all this had been done, the Chickasaws adopted a constitution after the fashion of the United States. Then the Chickasaws were independent of the Choctaws having their own government. There were very few white people among the Chickasaws at that time and such a thing as politics was almost unknown among them. They lived harmoniously, looking forward to the welfare and prosperity of the whole people and they were prospering. The few years they were here in this country they had accumulated herds of horses, cattle and hogs and were opening up small farms on the rich bottoms of the Blue, Boggy, Washita, Canadian, and Red Rivers, and other streams too numerous to mention. But alas! The great Civil War, with its disastrous influence, put a clog in the wheels of the progress of these people. The North on one hand, the South on the other - what were they to do? They were forced to take one side or the other. The result was that a part went to the North and a part to the South. Their little homes were destroyed and their herds confiscated or driven away. When the war was over in 1866, a treaty was made with the United States government, reaffirming all former treaties, with a few exceptions. 

Now we will come down to where it is most interesting. After the war there became two factions among the Chickasaw people. They did not have that friendly and brotherly feeling they had before the war. There arose strife, difficulties, discontent and in many instances there was bloodshed. They became prejudiced toward each other and toward the white settlers and that prejudice had been growing stronger and stronger ever since and has taken a firm root in the politics of the nation as well as in the social life of our people.  

Oh, what wonderful and grand things could have been accomplished in this nation if this prejudice had never existed. I am satisfied that had enterprise been encouraged, as before the war, we would today have one of the finest and richest countries in the world almost. If enterprise had been encouraged, we would not only boast of our rich lands and our free and independent government, but we could boast of our great flouring mills, cotton mills, woolen mills, iron works, machine shops, quartz mill coal mines, oil wells, railroads, colleges, magnificent churches and brick blocks and the hundred and one institutions that go to make up a perfect civilization. This country has better and a greater variety of natural resources than some of the most populous and powerful states in the union.  

About the year 1850 my father moved to Ft. Arbuckle. We were then on the extreme frontier. There were none but the Comanches and other savages west of us. It was very dangerous to live there, but my father was one of those hardy and fearless pioneers who blazed the way for civilization to follow. Many a time we would slip away from our little log cabin just before dark, seeking a hiding place for the night. Often on returning home the next morning, we would find footprints made by these wild Indians all over the yard. Often we would be forced to move within the fort for protection. In after years they became friendly and during the war the Comanches, Caddos, and Osages were located where the town of Paul's Valley now stands. We were also there; having moved from Fort Arbuckle in 1859. Many a scalp dance have I witnessed at Paul's Valley during the war. I have seen barbarity in its most degrading forms and been an eye witness of the transformation that a quarter of a century has wrought in this country. I simply refer to those days that I may contrast the present with the past.    

In spite of the stubborn fight of the Chickasaws against progress and the innovations of the white man, in spite of oppression and restrictive legislation by our government, the country is building up and is already nearly as far advanced in an agricultural sense as any farming community in the west. In spite of the bitter legislative opposition to the construction of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe railroad through this nation, it was built, and instead of ruining this country, as was confidently predicted by the full bloods, it has proved a Godsend to the cause of progress among us. It seemed to put new life in the Indian. He became more energetic and began to acquire the white man's dollar and the white man's ways. 

I cannot recall a single instance where the Chickasaw Nation has encouraged enterprise. Who built the railroad through our land and put opportunities in our hands for gaining riches and contentment? The white man. Who opened up all of these rich and beautiful farms? The white man. Who built the churches and school houses of the nation? The white man. Who built the flouring mills, the cotton gins, the various industries we see on every hand? The white man. Who are the merchants, the mechanics, the agricultural toilers, the professional men - the brawn and brains of the land? White men. Now why is that we should be so bitter toward our brethren in white? In nearly every instance where an Indian is operating with a white man he is prosperous, be he a full blood or half breed; but where you find one who will not associate or have any dealings with the whites, you will find a pauper, when he might be among the well-to-do men of his tribe if he would just lay aside that little thing prejudice. Take the white man out of this nation and we Chickasaws wouldn't exist - well, say twelve months.  

Now this is the class that are in power today, the white haters. This is the class of men who have organized themselves into a militia force and are scouring the country and endeavoring to enforce laws that are an outrage upon an industrious and peaceable people. This is the class of men who are imposing fines and inflicting punishments upon their most intelligent and enterprising citizens. This is the class of men who disenfranchise and are endeavoring to prosecute the white brother whose blood and example have elevated the Indian from the scalp dance to the ways of civilization. This is the condition of affairs in this country today.  

Things have come to such a pass that I do not believe we will ever prosper until there is a change had in our government - a complete change. What I mean by a complete change is to change the tenure of our lands from a system of community to one of severalty and allow individualization to absorb the tribal relation. But as I was saying, the full bloods are so prejudiced toward the progressive half breeds and adopted whites that their eyes are blind to matters affecting their individual welfare and their national life. There is but one path out of the woods, but their foolish prejudice has made them so blind they will not see it.  

During Governor B. F. Overton's administration, he together with some of the men who are now figuring in our governmental affairs, laid a deep and well planned scheme which has worked quite successfully. They leased large tracts of valuable land to white men for a long term of years and at the next legislature passed a law making it a crime to negotiate land leases, providing however that those already made should stand. Thus they used the full bloods' prejudice to keep him in poverty, and they are still so prejudiced that they would rather go hungry than repeal that law. To show their prejudice is stronger than ever, they disenfranchised the white citizens who have built up our country, and the band of desperadoes and disreputable characters they call the militia is out today arresting citizens and worrying noncitizens for violating the Chickasaw laws, as they call it, but I call it for improving the country and trying to build up homes for themselves and their children. Why, a man cannot go into an enterprise of any kind without violating some of their obnoxious laws. The rights, privileges and immunities guaranteed to us by our treaties and constitution have been legislated away from us and we are now powerless to redress these wrongs.  

Speaking of leasing lands, I always was in favor of the lease system, with certain restrictions guarding against monopoly and alien corporations. Under the present system a white man cannot feel as though he had a permanent home here. He is a transient squatter and a violator of law as it is. Would it not be better to have the whole of the territory in an advanced state of cultivation through a safe and equitable land tenure than in a raw, wild state? It seems to me it would be much better, so when the time for allotment has come, each Choctaw and Chickasaw could select a farm ready improved. Of course there should be just provisions made to pay for the improvements and satisfactorily adjust the claims of the men who have equities in the country without an interest in the domain.  

I am heartily in favor of allotment and have been for years, although I bowed to the will of the majority in the late political campaign. My plan of allotting is to class the land as 1, valley; 2, upland; 3, swamp; 4, mountain. I suppose there is good bottom land enough to give 160 acres to each individual, the remainder to be divided according to its value - we will say $5 for valley land; $3 upland, $2 for swamp and $1 for mountain land. So you see the person locating (in) the mountain tracts would have five acres to the valley man's one, reserving all the mineral interest for the benefit of the Chickasaw government - that is for the government to have the right to assess a royalty. After securing patents for our lands, we are to be privileged to dispose of all land in excess of 160 acres, which is inalienable for twenty-one years. Town sites, school and other public lands are provided for in the treaty of '66, the allotment plan of which could be easily modified to suit the condition of affairs in this country today. I believe this is the best and most amicable way by which the land can be allotted, giving to each and every individual his or her pro rata share. The treaty provides for taxes, though I believe it would be wise for us in making these changes to provide when we are to be taxed - say twenty one years from the date of allotment. You see the treaty only provides that there shall be money enough retained that the interest will be sufficient to defray the expenses of the government until such time as the president may see proper. Now the danger is that the president may see fit to assess the people at once, after turning over all monies belonging to the Choctaws and Chickasaws. While I am in favor of individualization of the land, opening the country to capital and encouraging all kinds of enterprise I want to protect the interest of the full bloods, although they regard me as their worst enemy They became prejudiced toward me because in the council of the nation and on every suitable occasion I advocated justice and freedom. Because I labored to repeal all of those obnoxious laws and enact good and wholesome ones - laws that would perpetuate and honor our government, they even threatened to take my life and would today had they the opportunity. Why, I cannot attend to my business at Tishomingo with safety, for fear of organized plots to assassinate me.  

Oh, it makes me shudder when I think of the man they murdered at Tishomingo while I was attending court there last winter. The poor fellow had been bushwhacked within sight of the capital, under the shadow of the court, and cut to pieces without a show for his life. There the body lay concealed in the brush, dragged to the light of day and public sight by the hogs that mutilated it shockingly. The murdered man and his murderers were members of the jury. When roll was called those red-handed assassins answered to their names, but their victim answered not. There they were with blood on their shirts, blood on their hats, blood on their pants - oh, I imagine I can see them now with blood dripping from the very end of their fingers! They did not even find a bill against them. They were turned loose to prey upon some other defenseless, innocent man. There were many cases the past year as heinous as this. 

I long to see the day when a man's life and property will be fully protected in this Chickasaw Nation. This is the class of men who stand between the more enterprising, intelligent and peaceable citizens and complete civilization and prosperity.  

I hope the day is not far off when the tomahawk will be buried and we can join hands in friendship. When we can more completely open up our lands to settlement, our country to capital and business, and give our brothers in white an opportunity to secure a permanent home among us and be our neighbors, elevating us to the highest standard of civilization. Then there will be peace and prosperity throughout "the land of the free and the home of the brave," and not 'til then.  

Sam Paul's proposal was remarkably similar to final agreement made by the Chickasaws  with the Dawes Commission nine years later, the Atoka Agreement, except that Sam's plan would have given more protection to the full bloods. Statehood for Indian Territory was Sam Paul's dream, but unfortunately, he didn't live to see it.