"My Indian Grandmother"
How apropos that on the first day of Women’s History Month we can also celebrate the life of a woman who displayed unwavering strength to fight for her rights as a citizens of the Chickasaw Nation and would not back down until everyone who had an ancestor that was recognized as a citizen was enrolled on the Chickasaw or Choctaw citizen by blood roll.
Thirty-three years ago I had never heard of Bettie LIGON until I saw the image you see now. My father began telling me the story of his “Indian Grandmother” and to be honest I didn’t believe a word he said about her.
My father gave me the responsibility of preserving our family’s
photographic history and he charged me with sharing that history with my
brothers and sisters. What began as a simple organization and copying job has
turned into thirty-two years of sharing with not only my siblings but a
community of researchers, educators and family historians that my father would
be very pleased to know it was all because of his “Indian Grandmother” Bettie.
For many years I wanted to find a document ANY document that
provided an exchange between Bettie and a Dawes Commissioner that would reveal
her voice. Then one day I finally got my hands on her record contained in the
Joe and Dillard PERRY “Petition to Transfer” files. It was one page and two paragraphs
that told me everything I ever wanted to know about my father’s “Indian
Grandmother.”
That voice I longed to hear was captured in those two paragraphs. They let me know she was tenacious, determined and willing to sacrifice everything for her family and the people in her community who were being denied their heritage and rights to the three-hundred and twenty acres of land and citizenship in the nation they were born in.
HAPPY 156th BIRTHDAY
HAPPY WOMEN’S HISTORY
MONTH!
