From the Chickasaw Nation to Skullyville

The Treaty of 1866 abolished slavery in the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nation. For many however, living in Chickasaw country, that was not easily adhered to, and many people who were being held enslaved, had a difficult situation to face.
some Chickasaw held slaves were sold on the auction block illegally after slavery ended, in spite of their leaders having signed the Treaty.

Some former soldiers returning home, found that their families were still held in bondage and they were then threatened with death if they were to return in their Union Army uniforms. One group of individuals wrote a letter to the Fort Smith Freedmen's Bureau office seeking assistance. The result was that Federal soldiers had to intervene to have the enslaved, released. One interesting case is gleaned from an interview found in the Indian Pioneer Papers.

Indian Pioneer Papers, interview with William Nail, of the Choctaw Nation.

For those Union army soldiers returning home, their fears and concerns were expressed in a letter to the Freedmen's Bureau. I wrote a detailed article about their letter in a blog post several years ago.

The tensions felt by many former slaves in Chickasaw country, brought about a small migration of former Chickasaw slaves to the Choctaw Nation, and into what is now Le Flore County. That area at the time was Skullyville County, and it became home for numerous Chickasaw Freedmen, who found life unbearable in the rural parts of the Chickasaw Nation. Thus many of those seeking a more peaceful and welcoming life, found their home in Skullyville, and many of their descendants remain there to this day.

Ardena Darneal's mother was Fanny Parks a, Chickasaw Freedwoman. Like others from Chickasaw. Fanny found the Oak Lodge community in Skullyville to be a better place. Subsequently shd had a relationship with Silas Darneal, a Choctaw man from the local area, with whom she had a child, Ardena. 

The family remained in the Skullyville Oak Lodge area, and descendants are still present and active, in the same part of the old Skullyville Community today. Those struggle to establish a new life in freedom, found some peace and were able to plant their family seeks on the soil of Skullyville, where their legacy is strong.

From Skullyville: The Lone Slave of Fort Coffee Academy

When studying the slave schedule of 1860 from the Choctaw Nation one small entry was out of the ordinary. Instead of listing the name of a slave holder, and the number of people enslaved there was one unusual entry---the slaveholder of record was "Fort Coffee Academy".

This kind of entry is most unusual, and there is nothing written about the 50 year old woman who toiled at the Academy in the school at Fort Coffee. The school was established in the 1840s for Choctaw males, and much can be found about both Fort Coffee Academy as well as New Hope, a school for females. However, the lone enslaved woman who worked at the Academy, is not mentioned. Beyond the mention of a few instructors or school staff, it is no surprise that an enslaved woman would not garner a mention by name.

The school did not last very long, and by the end of the Civil War, it was gone. Only a few images of the school exist. One photograph of the school exists and that photo reflects the remains of the school when it was in a state of deterioration and disrepair. The school was built on the site of the remains of the old military fort, but it was burned during the Civil War, and the Choctaw Nation no longer focused on the site for a school.

After the war, when slavery ended, with the Treaty of 1866 the few enslaved people who lived in the area, worked as servants for many Choctaw households in the area. No knowledge exists at all of this woman, past her prime, but working at the school.

It can only assumed that she was cook, cleaner, and tended to numerous tasks that required physical labor at the school. Was she treated kindly? Did she endure sexual harassment in the all male environment of the school? Was she required to also live on the premises? Did she have a room or her own? Would the privacy of a lone female slave even have been considered? Did she sleep on the floor, near the fireplace? Did she have children and family of her own for whom she pined? If she had children, could she visit them? Or would she have had to wait until freedom came to connect with her own family? And importantly, did she live to see freedom and to breathe free air?

Though there are no answers, and the likelihood of a slave having freedom of movement is slim. With the daily demands of a school, there was always food to prepare, clothing and bedding to wash, and fires that needed tending. The work of this lone slave had to be difficult, lonely and sad.
There was nothing on the slave schedule indicating that a separate cabin for this enslaved woman existed, as there is no tic mark reflecting a "slave dwelling" counted. So chances are that her life consisted of every task focused on the school and her place of rest was most likely the same place as her work. On a mat perhaps, near a hearth or fireplace in the winter and near a doorway in the warmer months.

This 50 year old woman forever unnamed, would have been in her 90s if she lived until the Dawes era. Identifying her is an impossible task, but acknowledging her presence in the northernmost part of the Choctaw Nation, is as important as calling her name. She is not to be forgotten.

The Skullyville Freedmen's Project (Continued)

Indian Territory Map 1894

Choctaw Freedmen who lived in Skullyville resided in 4 primary communities: Braden, Brazil, Spiro, and Oak Lodge. A few others had relatives in Mountain, nearby Fort Smith, and some had relatives also in nearby Cherokee Nation. This is a continuation of the Freedmen on the Dawes Roll in the Skullyville Community.

Card No.     Names on Card                                (Post Office)
731               Griffin Folsom and family                 (Brazil)
732               Julia Brown and son                          (Spiro)
733               Joseph Thompson, son and g-son      (Oak Lodge)
734               Sylvester Freeman and children        (Brazil)
735               Cora Lena Folsom and children        (Braden)
736               Jordon Kingsbury -only name           (Braden)
737               Lige Kingsbury --only name              (Braden)
738               Edmund White and family                 (Brazil)
739               Cora Wilson and son                          (Brazil)
740               Silas Johnson -- only name                (Braden)
742               Martha Henderson and children        (Braden)       
743               Ida Norman and children                   (Brazil)
744               Lizzie Anderson and children           (Braden)
745               Thomas Colbert and family              (Oak Lodge)
746               Robert Wright and family                 (Brazil)
747               Sarah James and family                    (Brazil)
748               Mose James -- only name                 (Spiro)
749               Clayton Piner and children               (Oak Lodge)
750               Phoebe Brown and son                     (Walls)
751               Thaddeus Eubanks                            (Cavanaugh)
752               Ceasar Brown  -- only name             (Spiro)  
753               Alexander Garrett --only name         (Brazil)
754               Andrew Eubanks -- only name         (Brazil)
755               York May and sons                           (Oak Lodge)
756               Peter McCarty -- only name             (Oak Lodge)                       
759               Mary Brown and family                   (Brazil)                                     
760               Louis McKinney and daughters       (Brazil)                               
761               Ada Harris and children                   (Brazil)                                         
762               Lucinda Johnson and children         (Walls)
763               Andrew Pulcher and family             (Walls)
764               Ned Pulcher and family                   (Walls)
766               Peter Cass, mother niece and nephews   (Walls)
768               Solomon Campbell -- only name     (Brazil)
774               Jack Le Flore -- only name              (Oak Lodge)
777               Sam Walton and family                    (Oak Lodge)
SUGAR LOAF COUNTY
Card No        Names on Card                            (Post Office)
670               Polly Ann Eliza Crow - only name (Heavener)
671               Davis Frazier -- only name             (Houston)
672               Jeff Anderson  -- only name           (Wister)
673               Joe Perry -- only name                    (Wister)

Sugar Loaf is included with this project because of its proximity to Skullyville. Interestingly, only four cards actually came from the Sugar Loaf area, by the time of the Dawes Commission. Just as interesting was the fact that the cards reflected only isolated individuals. No families were reflected on any of the four cards. Each card simply held one name. Thirdly and possibly the most interesting fact was that Polly Ann Eliza Crow, Davis Frazier, and Joe Perry were related to each other. Those three individuals were all a part of my family and all were direct descendants of Kitty James Crow. Kitty and James, who were deceased by that time, and they the grandparents to Sallie Walton, my great grandmother.

The  small presence of Freedmen in Sugar Loaf is interesting to note, and more study of the people enslaved in both communities will be conducted.

The Skullyville Freedmen's Project

My Great grandparents, Sam and Sallie Walton lived in the Oak Lodge are in the Skullyville district of the Choctaw Nation. They were Choctaw Freedmen. Sallie was born in the Choctaw Nation, her father was Choctaw and her mother Amanda was a slave. Sallie's grandparents were Kitty and James Crow.

Skullyville was once known, before the Civil War, as Iskuli Town. Today it is an unincorporated community in Le Flore County Oklahoma, about one mile east of Spiro Oklahoma. In the 1860s there were 41 slave holders in Skullyville. And in nearby Sugar Loaf, there were 16 individuals who were slave holders in that area.

When Freedom came, many survived, and chose to work the land where they were born, lived, and toiled for decades. By the time of the Dawes Commission in the late 1890s, there were 77 households of Choctaw Freedmen living in Skullyville. Most appeared in front of the Dawes Commission around the same time.

For this first part of the Skullyville Freedmen's Project, the names of those who survived and remained in Skullyville are presented here in the order in which they appeared.

Card No.      Names on Card              (Post Office)                     
675                 Albert Gary and family   (Spiro)
678                 Prince Pitchlynn and family (Oak Lodge)
679                 Anna Craig and children (Oak Lodge)
680                Anna Dennis and children (Brazil)
682                Eddie Eubanks and children (Braden)
683                Joe Thompson and family (Oak Lodge)                      
684                Henry Eubanks -- only name on card  (Brazil)     
687                Milly Butler and daughters (Oak Lodge)                                    
688                Martha Draper and son  (Oak Lodge)                                           
689                Jessie Byrd --only name on card  (Oak Lodge)                            
690                Rachel Brown and sons and grandchildren  (Oak Lodge)
691                 Albert Fisher and family (Spiro)
693                Ben Thompson and family (Oak Lodge)
694                Elsie Jackson and children (Oak Lodge)
695                James N. Spring and family (Oak Lodge)
696                Ben Evans -- only name on card (Oak Lodge)
697                David McCurtain and children  (Oak Lodge)
698                Edna Williams and son (Braden)
699                Rice Rogers only name on card  (Braden)
702                Moses Eubanks and family (Oak Lodge)
703                Lilly Parker Burris and children (Oak Lodge)
704                Squire Hall and mother (Spiro)
705                Henry Choate  -- only name on card  (Brazil)
706                Maria Brown and son (Brazil)      
707                Hense Windham and siblings, nephew and children (Oak Lodge)
708                Eliza Brown and children and grandchildren (Brazil)
709                Annie Blackwater and grandchildren (Brazil)
710                Rose Wilson -- only name on card (Brazil)
711                 Malindy Brown and husband (Brazil)
712                Jensy Russell and children (Brazil)
713                Henry McCoy and children and grandchild  (Brazil)
714                Willie Stewart--only name on card  (Brazil)
715                Felix Triplett -- only name on card (Mountain)
716                Chester Brown and siblings (Brazil)
717                Mary Mabry and children and brother  (Brazil)
718                William Stewart and daughter (Brazil)
720               Emma Neighbors and son (Brail)
721               James McGee -- only name on card (Oak Lodge)
723               Effie Washington and children (Oak Lodge)
724               Katie Bradley and daughters (Oak Lodge)
725               Aaron Mabry (residence confirmed on memorandum) (Oak Lodge)
728               Lidie Mabry (only name on card)  (Brazil)
729               William Folsom and family  (Oak Lodge)

Sample of a Skullyville Freedman Enrollment Card

(End of Part 1)