for those of you that dont know, iam half choctaw indian, my mom told me an sad, but interesting story the other day, she is jw, and my dad elder, she had her indian boarding school reunion, in oklahoma, and did not want to go, the first i have ever heard of her reunion, in all my life,
she told me this story, similar stories i have heard from indian relatives, when she was a little girl, about 7 , she had 11 brothers and sisters, she lived on tribal lands in oklahoma, her great grandmother signed the 5 civilized scrolls act in 1907 that said indians would give up there ansterial lands and be relocated to indian territory, oklahoma.our tribe was from louisana.
her older family traveled from louisana, to oklahoma, in the dead of winter, on foot and hungry the whole way, over half the tribe died, sickness and malnourishment set in on the journey, and the military escort was berating them the whole way, the exodus, known to history books tday as the trail of tears. the soldiers learned the words tish-pa, which means hurry up.
for some time after they made it to indian territory, they were given dispersments of money, they did not use money, and had no real use for it, it stopped shortly thereafter, the site named skully, to this day, which means money, a new word made up for it.
someone came to the tribal land in oklahoma and said there was a new law, all indian children had to go to an indian boarding school, and get an american education, till the 12 grade.
so they , then and there took all the kids, away, they had never been to school, and helped there parents work there lands, basically farmers,some of the older kids would run off and go back home, only to be rounded up and brought back, their parents were told they would see them every summer,but alias, they would see them only several times over the next 12 years.
they were beat for talking choctaw, on there hands, so after a while they would only speak in whispers to each other, dare the beatings would commence, boys often ran off, while girls submitted, to this day my mom and aunts only speak choctaw to each other, and do so very quietly, the job well done by the schools.
the boys would be sold for slave labor to the chain gangs on the highways, money given to the principal, and she would only see her oldest brothers, when they would run away from the roadgangs and check on her, when her parents were alowed to see them, they would ask where are your brothers little one, she would tell them, and the principal would say , oh they ran off.
days turned into weeks and they turned into years, and still they beat her, and yes they molested many of the girls, there was no one checking on the appointments of the bureau of indian affairs, to run the schools, the mandate was to assimlate the indians into american society.
abuse of alchol, was wide spread and distrust of anything white was merited, people were very prejudiced against indians and would spit at her when she would walk by.
i guess i wouldnt want to go to that reunion either if i was her.
big d
