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Tuesday, March 2, 2021

Celebrating Women's History Month-Bettie LOVE-LIGON

 "My Indian Grandmother"



March 1, 1865 is the birthday of the woman who became a part of my life and has guided my path for the past thirty-two years. I dare say it is because of her many other people have been influenced by her birth as they have gained enormous knowledge of their family’s genealogical history because of Bettie LOVE-LIGON. 

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!


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