Henry Shannon
Mr. Henry Shannon is an elder with our organization
and brings with him a wealth of first hand information and oral history that is
to be treasured. He was born in
Milo
,
Oklahoma
to parents who were last eligible to receive the free land awarded by the
government to Freedmen of the Chickasaw Indians.
Mr. Shannon has experience using the Dawes Rolls and Census
records. “I have always wanted to do more research on the family named "Stevenson",
because there were two major families in Carter County using the same name but
no one knew how or if the families were related and why was the name
accepted in the first place.”
Mr. Shannon attended
Langston
University
for three and one- half years. He has worked in the medical field as a medical
technologist for 37 years.
Along with his work with the Dawes Commission records Mr. Shannon has
extracted the entire census data related to the townships of Akers, Graham
and Tatums,
Indian Territory, later to become the state of Oklahoma. This gives him
knowledge of the families and history that make up a sizable population of
freedmen before and after statehood.
We welcome the addition and contributions Mr. Shannon has contributed to
the preservation of the so called Choctaw and Chickasaw Freedmen.
