African-Native American Heritage Month Alice Lamey "and still, she persist!"

 African-Native American Heritage Month

Alice Lamey Chickasaw Freedwoman, Card #888 Enrollment #3680

Originally Published

Monday, October 10, 2011

Alice Lamey et al.

Alice Lamey was one of those brave women of Indian Territory who persisted in her claims of possessing Chickasaw blood and was determined to have the Dawes Commission and the Chickasaw Nation acknowledge her family as Chickasaw Indians by blood.



Image Courtesy of
Carlotta "Kemp" Wheeler
Design by Terry Ligon

It is unfortunate the decisions of the Dawes Commission and the so called customs of the Chickasaw Nation denied the ancestry of Simmion Lamey and his children. They were enrolled as Chickasaw Freedmen despite the insistence of Simmion’s father being a full blood Chickasaw.



Senate Document 298 (59th Congress, 2nd Sesson p.2)



The actions of the Dawes Commission with the approval of the tribes meant that thousands of people who actually possessed “Indian blood” were left off the citizenship rolls based on the antebellum custom of determining race by the “status” of their mother.

Senate Document 298 (59th Congress, 2nd Session p.8)

In other words if you mother was a slave your "blood" was contaminated and you were not considered to be an "Indian by blood." Only if you mother happened to be "Indian" or "white" you would be considered an Indian. It would appear these attitudes continue with the leaders in the Five Slave Holding Tribes today.  

Senate Document 298 (59th Congress, 2nd Session p.5)

When the attorney’s for the freedmen sought a transfer to the “citizens by blood” roll the Dawes Commission and the tribes completely ignored the mandate that people with Indian blood should be placed on the blood roll; in other words, basic genealogy and lineal descent.

When analyzing documents of “mixed blood” African-Natives we begin to see the pattern and nature of the Dawes Commissions refusal to acknowledge everyone who possessed Indian ancestry.

When the Dawes Commission refused to accept an application for citizenship by blood based on Simmion Lamey’s father, they used the status of his mother, Rose Alhuntubby being an enslaved woman and completely ignored established laws on lineal descent. Their decision was enough to deny this family and all of their descendants to ever be considered Choctaw or Chickasaw.



Alice Lamey et al. F-100 Joe & Dillard Perry Files



As the records will bear out the Lamey family was not alone in having their rights refused which resulted in another miscarriage of justice. Each member of this family would have been allotted three hundred and twenty acres of land that was given to those with Choctaw or Chickasaw. Along with the rights and privileges of citizenship the Lamey family to this day has not been properly acknowledged as being Chickasaw.



Image of Tippie Lamey Courtesy of
Carlotta "Kemp" Wheeler
Graphic Design by Terry Ligon

  

Clearly the Dawes Commission’s actions have made it difficult for all of the “transfer cases” on Bettie’s List to prove their “Indian blood.” The fact that most of the Five Slave Holding Tribes disingenuously claim they will accept anyone with Indian blood on the Dawes Roll, probably does not mean this class of people?

It will take a great deal of moral courage on the part of the tribes to acknowledge the many wrongs their ancestor’s have done.

It will take even more courage for the people and leaders of these tribes to acknowledge that there are people with "Indian blood" who are today being excluded based on some racist custom rooted in slavery.