The Saga of Rebecca Williams Daughter of Bill and Rachel Colbert

Excerpt from Inteviews in Petions to Transfer
National Archives, Ft. Worth Texas - Perry Files  File #1

This is a complicated story, most of which will be found in the documents attached to the Perry Files from the National Archives in Fort Worth, Texas. This file reflects several people who are the children of Bill and Rachel Colbert, most of whom were placed on the Chickasaw Freedmen Roll. Their names are Ellen Perry, Nancy Fulsom, Rebecca Williams, Prior Allen, Dicy Jiggetts, Robert Burney and Bill Colbert.

It is through the testimony of daughter Rebecca Williams that much of this story comes, thus her story is the focus.

If one looks at her Dawes card, one will see a simple card, with two people, Rebecca and her son David.

National Archives Publication M1186
Chickasaw Freedman File #877

Reverse Side of Card

The interview is a one sentence statement--the typical summary written by the Dawes Commission.

The "official" Dawes Interview of Rebecca Wiliams (later found to have been given by Julius Fulsom)

But in the petition to transfer to the rolls by blood, another story emerges. It is the story of a mixed blood African Chickasaw woman, Rebecca Williams--nee Colbert. Her mother was a Chickasaw woman called Rachel Colbert. Her father was a mixed Black-Chickasaw man who was a slave known as Bill Colbert. Bill Colbert was the son of Chickasaw Burney and an African slave woman.

In 1906 Rebecca submitted a petition to transfer to the roll of Chickasaw by Blood. Her rationale was that she was raised by her mother before the Civil War--her mother being a Chickasaw Indian. She never lived as a slave. Her father did live as a slave, and until the war ended, he resided with his master Frank Colbert. Her parents did not live together--several miles apart.

And then her story emerges on how she came to be placed on the Freedman roll. She appeared at the Dawes Commission to enroll as a Chickasaw by Blood. She was not allowed to go into the proper tent where Chickasaw Indians were permitted to go. And from there, her story emerges.

Petition to Transfer: Perry Files #1

The line of questioning directed to Rebecca refers to her as "Aunt Becky" an expression often directed at African American women. They were going to charge her with fraudulently enrolling as a freedman, because she was seeking to be placed on the roll reflecting her Chickasaw by blood status. She was requesting that her name be removed from the Freedman roll

Perry Files

Rebecca then points out that it was not she, who testified at the Dawes Commission, but a man who testified and who even gave the name of the wrong person as her mother, citing the name of Charity Allen, and not her real mother Rachel Colbert. In addition---he did not even include all of Rebecca's children. She then described in her interview, the scene that unfolded when she tried to enter the tent for Indians.

Perry Files

Rebecca continues to describe the exchange:

The scenario that she described was that of a woman who realized that something was being stolen from her----her own identity. Thus the denial of her being able to register in the category into which she identified brought about strong emotional stress. She wept aloud and her reaction caused a scene at the enrollment.

It must be stated that Rebecca never denied her father. She was simply claiming the identity that she had--that of being a Chickasaw, and the scenario that she described was being forced to forego one for the other. She had the blood of both parents and she, as a mixed blood Chickasaw was not allowed to enter the same arena where other mixed bloods went since those who were mixed white and Chickasaw were entering in a place she was not permitted to enter, simply for having a black father.

On her behalf, a witness was brought in who could verify the situation that Rebecca Williams described. Dan Russell, saw the exchange between Rachel and the commissioners and verified that what she described was true.

These pages are all excerpts from Petition to Transfer File Number 1. It is noted that the often seen summaries were also not only mis-statements, but in many cases, the person whose name appears on the card, was not allowed to speak at all about their history. And cases such as this one focusing on Rebecca Williams, all speak to the mixed blood, African Chickasaw and African Choctaws, who were forced to wear the "Freedman" badge of slavery, as the rolls were being constructed.

Many justify the cases as being that the "tradition" was matrilineal one, however, in this case the mother of these Freedmen---Rachel Colbert was Chickasaw. They were given the status of Freedmen because of a father who had been enslaved. Yet, in this case--the father Bill Colbert himself was the son of Burney a Chickasaw, thus he-a mixed blood Freedmen carried the blood of his Chickasaw father, but was still himself a "Freedman", because of his African mother. And all of his children were place on the rolls as Freedmen, in spite of their Chickasaw mother.

There were letters in the file that indicated that her name was stricken from the Freedman roll, however and she and her siblings were allowed to be transferred to the roll by blood. However, there does not appear to be a number "by blood" for them, on any database, although they were removed from the Freedman roll.

The complexity of families from both Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations is immense. But the fact remains that these children from the communities knew who they were. And in some cases, their identity was being forever stolen by a racially biased policy that sought to punish African descended citizens for being who they were---the children of their parents, carrying the blood of their African fathers.

There are 70 pages in this file. Surprisingly, the final page reflects that of a multiple generation hand-drawn pedigree chart, for the children of Bill and Rachel Colbert. Because of the series of interviews, and the words of daughter Rebecca, all of the descendants of Bill and Rachel Colbert can speak to their well documented past.  Whether or not they or their descendants today can enroll in the nation as Chickasaws, they can point out that they descend from their Chickasaw mother Rachel, daughter of her Chickasaw parents, and they also descend from father Bill Colbert, who also carries the blood of his Chickasaw father Burney. They are all the children of their Chickasaw fathers.

(This is the last and final posting for a 30-day commitment to post an article every day, during November, for Native American Heritage Month. The goal was to document a family of Freedmen from either Choctaw and/or Chickasaw Nation, who had a family tie, a blood tie to either group. The families came from the category classified as Freedmen. Many had strong family ties to those recognized as citizens by blood. Many who descend from the families presented this month, are not allowed to enroll today---a practice followed by the former slave-holding tribes to this day.

Although the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma did finally re-admit Freedmen descendants in 2017 after a decades-long series of court battles from the 1980s, all of the former slave holding tribes have at some time in the past century disenfranchised their former slaves or the descendants of their former slaves, and prevent their continued presence in the tribes. Yet, many of the same descendants still speak to their historical tie to the tribe, and embrace this history as still being a relevant part of their history and their current identity.

Many who descend from Freedmen, do not have the blood of an Indian parent, but they do have the blood of their parents who were born in, and died in the Indian Nation where they were enslaved. They were born, lived, toiled and died as people of an Indian-influenced and Indian-nurtured culture. They carried the blood of their fathers and mothers of Indian Territory, regardless of the color.

The Freedmen descendants are not invisible, nor are they going away. It is to their history and their heritage that this series of posts for November 2019,  has been dedicated.)