I Lived All My Days in the Choctaw Nation

 Virtual Trail of Tears

All My Days

Orange Butler, Choctaw Freedman Q&A 27 November 1902

 

As I review applications submitted by freedmen of a certain age, I notice a subtle consistency in their stories that requires attention when determining whether that individual came west with an enslaver. The question posed by the Dawes Commissioner seems innocent as they attempt to determine if someone was living in the Choctaw Nation after the Civil War. However, it remains unclear if that is how the person (freedman) perceives the intent of the question. Frankly, the question appears broad, if not vague, on the surface if you aren’t paying close attention; “How long have you lived in the (Choctaw Nation?)” That’s my emphasis. Many Freedmen's responses to that question seem to say the same thing: “All my days” or “All my life.” For that formerly enslaved person of a certain age, the question could include a life before Indian Territory, and living in the Choctaw Nation. “All my days” takes on a different meaning if that individual came west during the time of the Removal. 

There is another clue to whether Orange Butler had knowledge of life prior to living in the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, West of the Mississippi River. At least twice, he was an “Indian” who “owned” his mother by the name of Pitchlynn, and when asked if he was an Indian, Butler responded that he was “some kind of mixed blood, I guess he was Choctaw.” Following that exchange, Orange informed the examiner that Pitchlynn “died in Mississippi.” That is when Orange offered enough information to conclude that his mother may have come west with the daughter of the Indian who died in Mississippi, who was named Betsy Harris, also a Choctaw Indian. 

When Orange Butler sat down with the Dawes Commissioner to answer his questions about his right to a land allotment in the Choctaw Nation in 1902, he was 68 years old. That estimates his year of birth around 1834, indicating that if he came west with his mother, it would have been near the end of the Choctaw Removal in the same year, 1834. © Terry Ligon 2025

Orange Butler Line#13