Bettie's List: Indian Territory Freedmen History Month

Monday, February 8, 2021

Indian Territory Freedmen History Month

The Council of Chickasaw and Choctaw Freedmen 1868-Watson BROWN

Living in the shadow of the Choctaw Council House a freedmen leader emerged that challenged the system of oppression within the nation regarding the former slaves that lived among the Choctaw Indians.

Watson BROWN at the time of his application for a land allotment as a Choctaw Freedman was the tender age of seventy years. Initially, the BROWN family was placed on the Chickasaw Freedmen roll but was transferred based on who was his last slave owner; James BROWN.

Like so many of the freedmen records there is little information documented in the Dawes interview packet that reveals the name of Watson’s parents. Whether he provided that information to the commissioners we don’t know, hopefully that information will be discovered by descendants of Watson BROWN.

Choctaw Freedman Dawes Land Allotment Card#1205 Front

CHOF#1205 Rear

Approximately thirty years earlier Watson BROWN was a member of the Choctaw-Chickasaw Freedmen Council that consisted of thirty-six individuals. The council sent four members of their organization to Washington, D.C. with a petition to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The representatives were instructed by the association to “present the views set forth in our petition of this date (1868) and respectfully urge the government to take early action in all matters affecting our interest.”

"...We respectively pray that we be removed from the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations at an early day and that the sum of three hundred thousand dollars, before mentioned, be used by the government as the government may deem fit, for our use and benefit..."

What the former slaves of the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians did was not an easy decision for them and it was not a decision that did not have possible adverse consequences to them and their families. Their actions were one of the earliest forms of political protest in Indian Territory by former slaves and it was a determined act to receive “equal justice” for them as an emancipated people.

The story of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Freedmen is an incredible American story that has gone largely unnoticed. We should all be proud of the men and women who stood firm in their determination to be recognized as citizens with the “rights and privileges” in the only nation of their birth!