The history and genealogy of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Freedmen was preserved in one of the greatest collection of records we could imagine, The Congressional Record.
This wealth of information on the issues of politics, citizenship, treaty rights, land allotment and more have been preserved from the moment the Freedmen were emancipated and in some rare cases before the Treaty of 1866. The contradictions, arrogance and in some cases, conflict of interest by members of the Dawes Commissioners and staff is all preserved in the Congressional Record.
From 1866 and through the early 20th Century, the Congressional Record allows us to see the generations of leaders like King Blue, Isaac Alexander, Charles Cohee, and W. L. Bennett to name a few have all had their thoughts, and ideas and protest, recording in the records of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate.
Affidavit of W. L. Bennett
W L. Bennett, first
being duly sworn, on oath states that he is 35 years old, a resident of the
Chickasaw Nation, Ind T., and lives at the inland town of
He further states
that it was a rule of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes that when a
person appeared in the tent wherein applications were received for enrollment as
citizens by blood and who looked to be a freedman, he was not allowed to make
application there, but was directed to another tent, In which application for
enrollment as freedmen only was received. It was, further, a rule of said
Commission that no person claiming either as a citizen by blood or as a freedman
would be enrolled if their mother was a States woman. He states that this rule
of the Commission, in as far as it affected freedmen, was shortly changed, and
persons were enrolled as freedmen whether they descended as such from either
mother or father, but that the rule was never changed, so far as affiant can now
remember, in the matter of the enrollment of persons of negro blood who claimed
descent from an Indian citizen.
Affiant further states that so far as he can now remember he does not recall a single instance in which an application was received by the Commissioner in charge of the tent wherein application was made for enrollment as citizens by blood, but that in each and every instance persons of mixed negro and Indian blood, who appeared at that tent and asserted their rights to be enrolled as citizens of the Chickasaw Nation, were directed to the freedmen tent.
W. L. BENNETT
Subscribed
and sworn to before me this the 8th day of March, A. D. 1906
MARY J. TAYLOR,
Notary Public within and for the Southern District of the
My commission will expire
Our Mission
Our Mission: To
ensure that the unique history of the Indian Territory Freedmen and their
descendants is preserved and incorporated in the history of the Five
Civilized Tribes and the United States.
Contact Information
Terry J. Ligon, Founder Estelusti Foundation
- Telephone
- 925.550.6792
- Postal address
- P.O. Box 4366 Antioch, CA 94509
- Electronic mail
- General Information: estelusti@aol.com