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Choctaw & Chickasaw Freedmen Profile picture
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2 Jan, 4 tweets, 2 min read
Wow! I found an amazing photo on the @okhistory website of Choctaw Freedmen bow fishing in 1902 and decided to try colorizing it on MyHeritage and the results are amazing! The Choctaw term for a fishing bow is "Tanamp Shibata."
Despite this being a central part of our ancestors' way of life pre-statehood, Choctaw Freedmen now cannot apply for Choctaw fishing and hunting licenses because we are not tribal citizens. Being blocked from citizenship also affects our human rights as Indigenous people to our
Indigenous ways of life and to our culture...
Thank you to @brettachapman for the idea to colorize more of our historical photos. It really brings the photos to life.

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More from @ChoctawFreedmen

Choctaw & Chickasaw Freedmen Profile picture
3 Jan
For generations, white and Native historians claimed that Native slave-owners from the Five Tribes were less violent than white slave owners. The story of Lucy, a Black enslaved woman owned by a Choctaw master who was BURNED ALIVE by her female Choctaw owner disproves this myth. ImageImage
In 1858 an enslaved man named Prince confessed to the murder of his master Richard Harkins. He claimed he had killed him with an axe to his head—transforming a tool of his forced labor to a weapon to end the life of his abusive enslaver. After Prince murdered Harkins,
he used a rope to a tie a rock to Harkins’s body and drowned him in a river. When he confessed under probable torture he “named” his accomplices, including his Aunt Lucy who he claimed urged him to kill Harkins for some time and even taught him how to tie the rope around his dead
Read 14 tweets
Choctaw & Chickasaw Freedmen Profile picture
1 Jan
As this clip from “12 Years a Slave” shows, singing was an emotional outlet for slaves and a core part of uniting slave communities. In this clip, enslaved people sing “Roll, Jordan, Roll,” which was composed by two enslaved people of African descent owned by Choctaw masters.
Singing would have been even more important on Choctaw plantations, as there was a good chance most slaves didn’t even speak the same languages. Many slaves didn’t speak English, and only spoke Choctaw—or in some cases, if they had been sold to Choctaw enslavers from an enslaver
from one of the other Five Slaveholding Tribes, they may have only spoke the Cherokee, Seminole, or Muscogee Creek language, not to mention Chickasaw. Further, records indicate that enslavers from the Five Slaveholding Tribes also purchased enslaved children from Mexico.
Read 4 tweets
Choctaw & Chickasaw Freedmen Profile picture
1 Jan
The Choctaw Nation was so afraid that their slaves would undermine them that they not only made it illegal to teach a slave to read and write, but also made it illegal to teach a slave how to SING! Singing was a vital outlet for slaves, and an important aspect of plannind excape. Image
If you understand the history of enslaved people in the Choctaw Nation and music, its is evident that the music created by enslaved people in the Choctaw Nation not only contributed to our Black national culture, but to resistance as well. The creator of “Swing Low, Sweet
Chariot” and “Steal Away to Jesus,” as well as “Roll, Jordan, Roll,” was a couple of enslaved people of African descent owned by a Choctaw master. They were named “Uncle” Wallace Willis and “Aunt” Minerva Willis.
Read 5 tweets
Choctaw & Chickasaw Freedmen Profile picture
31 Dec 20
It’s important to understand that Freedmen of the Five Tribes have very unique records available to us. We know the names of our ancestors and their owners. We also know the names of their parents and their parents’ enslavers. We also have interviews conducted with our family
members by the Dawes Commission. We have access to very unique records that other descendants of slaves may not have. We can map out where our families lived, where their allotments were located, and who their owners were/what other slaves were on their plantations with them.
Not only do we know our ancestors were enslaved but we can trace back who their owners were. Not just general families either, but exactly who their owners were (many were owned by women, etc.).
Read 4 tweets
Choctaw & Chickasaw Freedmen Profile picture
19 Dec 20
Oklahoma is the perfect example of race being a myth crafted to shift control of land and wealth into white communities. Because each individual Native person in the Five Tribes received a land allotment (including women), white lawmakers made all non-Black people legally white.
This allowed for white men to marry non-Black Native women and shift control of Native lands into white communities and hands. Even though most white men couldn’t get a Native land allotment themself, by re-classifying non-Black Natives as white and setting up Jim Crow marriage
laws on racial lines, they were able to control Native women’s lands thru marriage and accumulate wealth. These Jim Crow Laws were the first laws every established after Oklahoma became a state and came into effect on December 18, 1907.
Read 16 tweets
Choctaw & Chickasaw Freedmen Profile picture
19 Dec 20
Many people have asked why it matters that she removed a clause requiring the Cherokee Nation to treat the Freedmen equally in receiving housing funding? I’ll tell you why. Cherokee Freedmen are not eligible for CBIDs, although I think they should be (Freedmen “Blood” should
be counted as Indian Blood). Anyone who has a CBID knows that for most services (especially outside of your tribal boundaries), you need a CBID. You need to present a CBID for healthcare, now Haskell is trying to deny Freedmen based on the fact that they do not have CBIDs.
There are many other services based on CBIDs as well. The Cherokee Nation, under the leadership of @ChuckHoskin_Jr, is urging other tribes and other facilities to treat Freedmen equally and has sent the same directive to their programs. This is great. However, this could change
Read 7 tweets

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