The Freedmen Files

As we celebrate Freedom through the holiday of Juneteenth, let us examine, and celebrate how and when Freedom came to Indian Territory. None of the three gestures of freedom or emancipation in the US affected the enslaved people in the Five Nations. The Emancipation Proclamation, the passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, as well as the Juneteenth announcements in Galveston Texas, all...

This was an effort to capture details from the life of Caesar Bruner leader and founder of the Bruner band of Seminole Freedmen. But the more I researched Caesar the man, the more I learned about the very dynamic structure of the communities of Seminole Freedmen. This is a community of many parts, based in Oklahoma, Texas, Mexico, as well as Florida, The Bahamas, and also the Gullah Geechee commun...

On this first 5th Monday taping, I had a wonderful conversation with Kenneth, founder of the Descendant Freedmen Alliance of Kansas City. Mr. Ford's ancestry comes out of the Creek Freedman Sells family from Taft Oklahoma. He has become a leader in the Kansas City area, in organizing a group of Oklahoma Freedmen descendants to gather, and study their history coming from the Five Tribes. In this co...

This is the story of a man who enlisted in the Union Army when he was in his late 30s and nearly 40, and ended up participating in several major battles in Missouri, Arkansas, and Indian Territory. After the war he became an advocate for Chickasaw Freedmen and even traveled to Washington DC to present a memorial to Congress from the Freedmen Community. Isaac Alexander who also emerged as patriarch...

This episode explores the records that can tell you more about lives of Oklahoma Freedmen many decades before the Dawes era.  Slave Schedules, Indian Pioneer Papers, WPA Slave Narratives, Family Search tribal records, and Ancestry US Marriages, Citizenship and Census 1841-1927, are some amazing collections that might open doors for you. Take a deeper dive into some of these records and hopefully y...

From the 1860s onward after slavery was abolished in Indian Territory, the Freedmen, once enslaved in the Five Tribes found themselves in a quest for the education of their children. As early as the 1860s after the treaties were signed, schools began to appear in the Cherokee Nation. Each decade more schools appeared, most as neiorhood schools or day schools but a few boarding schools some support...

While browsing through Dawes Cards, an interesting community of seventeen Choctaw Freedmen appeared on a series of cards. They were interesting because they did not reside in the Choctaw Nation, and in an unlikely place. Years later they had resettled in Choctaw County Oklahoma, well into the 20th century. Why did they live outside the nation?  Do they still have ties where they were during the ye...

This episode reflects the life of a man born in Virginia, taken to Mississippi, and then to Indian Territory. His name first appears in a letter to the Freedmen's Bureau in 1865. His name appears again in a letter sent to Congress on behalf of Choctaw and Chickasaw Freedmen. Over the years his name would sometimes appear on random documents because he served his community as an interpreter, being...

Today is the 4th Monday, and this year on the 4th Monday I shall take a dive into the many record collections that reflect the Freed people among the Five Nations of Oklahoma. These are records of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole Nations. Many of these records extend decades back before the Dawes Commission. For those who want to take their documented past back to the years bef...

At the top of Honor Heights in Muskogee Oklahoma an old school sits between a large water tank and a hospital. It is visited each year by hundreds of people. However, many who visit the site leave with no knowledge that it was once a school. The site is the Five Civilized Tribes Museum, and the school was once known as Evangel Mission School. It is the only structure of a Freedman School that rema...

From the time of arrival to the present day the old Skullyville District, has had an amazing story to tell. The first group of Native people removed to the West were Choctaws from Mississippi alongty with their slaves. The slaves later became freed and remained in the Choctaw Nation, including those in what was now their home - Skullyville. This episode looks at a fascinating history of the Freedm...

A.G.W. Sango is an amazing man who began life in the Muskogee in 1868. He wore many hats during his lifetime, from being an educator, founder of the Sango Baptist College, co-founder of the Creek Citizens Bank, and the Muskogee Businessmen's League and so much more. Sango was an advocate for the rights of Freedmen in the Creek Nation and he saw the value of associating with many in the area who mi...

This episode describes the new features of the Freedmen Files. This year there will be a rotatings series each week consisting of biographies, community spotlight, schools/churches and institutions, and an upclose look at the records. This episode focuses on what those features will contain.  

In the 1930s Mary Grayson, a Creek Freedwoman, was interviewed as part of the WPA Slave Narratives project. Her narrative is important because it provides a glimpse into the life of an enslaved family and how they fared life on the brink of freedom. Her story also provides an insight into how those who were left behind fared when some were able to get to escape, and the aftermath that followed.

Two weeks ago a major ruling came from the Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Creek Freedmen descendants, declaring that they are Creek citizens. This has energized many in the community of Choctaw Nation descendants, and many have responded by writing letters to Chief Batton, and asking him about the open letter that he wrote several years ago, stating that he...

This is the story of Rebecca Williams from South McAlester in the Choctaw Nation. Her background was of Chickasaw history, culture and life, and her mother was a native woman from the Territory. Her story is significant because she chose to sepak to her truth, especially when she realized that something was being taken away from her. Hers is a story to tell and a story to be remembered.

Jake was enslaved on a plantation in Skullyville in the Choctaw Nation. He was said to have been on the estate of Joseph Hall. In the early days of the  Civil War, a slave uprising was said to have occurred, but Jake was the man who was able to bring the violence to an end, saving the life of one of the Hall family members. Nothing more was ever said about Jake, the enslaved man except that he die...

James Coody John was a remarkable man who emerged as a leader in both Creek and Seminole communities. His was fluent in both Muscogee language as well as English, went on to obtain an education in the east returning to Oklahoma where he would be a man in demand by many who needed his legal skills as much as his language skills. He was active politically working for tribal Freedmen as well as black...

This podcast focuses on Moses Whitmire who was elected as a Trustee for Cherokee Freedmen in response to an act from the tribal council in 1883 that planned to exclude the Freedmen from the Nation in sharing in a  percapita payment that was being allocated to the Cherokee Nation.     Moses Whitmire was elected by the Freedmen to be their trustee and to travel to Washington to negotiage on their be...

This episode describes the work of Annie Keel a Chickasaw Freedwoman who lived in the Choctaw Nation. After slavery ended she was interested in the establishment of a church in her community, and in particular that of the AME Church. She did not have contacts herself, but took the initiative to contact the Chief of the Choctaw Nation for assistance. Her boldness and her tenacity paid off and the A...

This episode explores the remarkable legacy of the Sango family from the Muscogee Creek Nation. From the days before the removal of Creek Indians from Georgia and Alabama, to Indian Territory in the west, the Sangos have left their mark on the soil of Oklahoma. Beginning with Scipio Sango to his son Alexander known better as A.G.W. Sango, this is a story of a strong father and son, who left their...

This episode focuses on the story of Zach Foreman, a Cherokee Freedman who managed to create a small town named after himself. From humble beginnings as a slave, to become a wealthy cattleman, and town leader, his story is one to remember. He became a man of prominence and fortune, though today he is largely forgotten and seldom mentioned among Freedmen leaders from Indian Territory.

There are many stories of freedom and how it came to enslaved people. Those of us who have ties to Indian Territory also have stories of freedom. Some seized their own freedom, and some were told of their freedom. Regardless, though slavery was not abolished till 1866 when the treaties were signed, descendants of Oklahoma Freedmen also join the symbolic commemoration of the end of a 400 year saga...

John Baldridge had an incredible life as a Cherokee slave, and emerged as a freedom fighter, then had two other lives in which his name was made as a religious leader, and also as an herbalist. This is the story of a man well known in the Cherokee Nation, who should be remembered by all who are fascinated by men of courage, intelligence, and strength!

This episode explores a family from the southern part of the Choctaw Nation whose roots extend beyond the Nation, beyond Indian Territory, and even beyond the United States. The head of the family, Zach Dunford was the son of Dock and Charity Dunford, both of whom were elders at the time of the Dawes Commission, and they had records that led to more information about the family's past.