“LET THE RECORD REFLECT”

 African-Native American Heritage Month

“Let the Record Reflect”

Winchester “Daugherty” COLBERT Chickasaw Indian Slaveholder

It is unfortunate the Five Slave Holding Tribes engaged in this inhumane institution but it is equally unfortunate for them to remove this chapter from their historical landscape as they promote a “traditional” Native American culture.

 We begin to see time after time how the “ruling class” or “mixed blood” elites in the nations became the dominant slave holders in each nation. In the case of the Seminole nation it would appear their system was based more on the traditional practice of paying tribute to their leaders by way of the blacks among them.

 This was in stark contrast to the system we see in the Chickasaw, Choctaw and Cherokee Nations, where slave holding mixed bloods dominated the institution in order to solidify their control over the economics and politics of their respective nation.

 In Chickasaw Winchester (Daugherty) COLBERT we see how his power and influence was connected to his family’s wealth by owning slaves. This provided a comfortable way of living that was more on the level of southern plantation than the tributary system practiced in the Seminole Nation.

 There appears to be another aspect that is consistent with the institution of slavery among the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, and Creek nations; the leading men had no problem fathering children with an enslaved woman.

What we discover, just like the system of slavery in the south, these men denied the humanity of their enslaved people but had no problem using the women for their pleasure. Like the southern planters the Chickasaw Nation, "race" was used as a barrier to marriage and citizenship, but "race" was not a barrier to exploit enslave women for sex.

From the information on the Dawes card of his son, Nelson COLBERT, apparently Winchester sold him off to a man by the name of Johnson PERRY; which is not the exception to the rule from what I’ve seen in the course of my research. 

Winchester COLBERT comes from arguably the largest slave owning family of Chickasaw Indians and part of the ruling “mixed blood” elite. Families like the COLBERT’S, LOVE’S AND GAINES’ dominated tribal politics and the Chickasaw economy based directly on slave ownership. Contrary to the stories told by the nation even today, the removal to Indian Territory for these families was not the “Trail of Tears” they like to portray. 

Don Martini "Who was Who Among the Southern Indians, a genealogical notebook, 1698-1907"

Senate Executive Document 166 (50th Congress, 1st Session)

These documents demonstrate clearly the Chickasaw Indians knew the value of owning humans as property and as they complain about “finding themselves oppressed, being ignorant of the language and laws of the United States;” they were engaging in the oppressive institution of slavery! The claims of this tribe in which Winchester COLBERT was a leader, coming from a leading family was nothing less than disingenuous. 

Let the record reflect; Winchester COLBERT took part in negotiating the Treaty of Ft. Smith in 1866; and his signature is a part of that historical document.

Western History Collection - Treaty of 1866 - Green McCurtain Collection 

Let the record reflect; among the men from the Chickasaw Nation that signed the Treaty of 1866; Winchester COLBERT, Edmund PICKENS, Colbert CARTER, Peter Pitchlynn, Douglass H. Cooper and my great Great Grandfather Robert H. LOVE ALL owned slaves and many appear to have fathered children by their enslaved women. 

Let the record; reflect that slavery was an integral part of the Chickasaw Nation; so much so that one of the major issues in the Treaty of 1866 was the abolishment of slavery. 

Let the record reflect; following the “emancipation” of the Chickasaw slaves, the nation rescinded its legislation to adopt their enslaved population in 1873, many of their “mixed blood” children were rejected as “recognized citizens.” 

Let the record reflect; for forty years the slaves of the Chickasaw nation were not citizens in the nation of their birth. 

The descendants of those enslaved and the descendants of those who enslaved these men, women and children have an obligation to correct this history but neither can do it without the other.

 Finally let the record reflect; the Chickasaw Nation engaged in the wholesale oppression of people of African and African-Native descent. Ironically, the Chickasaw Nation used their oppression by the United States in their effort to receive favorable treatment when they were forced to move to Indian Territory.

 Let the record reflect they were incapable of showing the same empathy for the people they enslaved and the children they fathered with enslaved women. 

1860 Arkansas Slave Schedule, Chickasaw Nation, Pontotoc