Sarah Grant, Lydia Jackson, "A Riddle, Wrapped in a Mystery, Inside DNA"

Originally Published Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Bettie's List-Lydia JACKSON Chickasaw Freedwoman # 391

This article has been updated and includes additional new information since first published in 2010

   The Dawes Commission handicapped the former slaves in Indian Territory known as freedmen from the beginning by not properly conducting AND recording their interviews for land allotments and citizenship in the tribes of their birth. For the most part, the majority of the people who were placed on the Freedman roll and sought a transfer will discover their jackets are nothing more than a summarization of the oral interview taken at the time. In order to establish their rights as “Citizens by blood” at the time of the Dawes enrollment process, the vital information that would substantiate their testimony was left out to the oral interviews that were sent to the Department of the Interior for review.

 

   Lydia Jackson was a woman involved in the Equity Case #7071 lawsuit that involved approximately two thousand people who sought a transfer from the Choctaw and/or Chickasaw Freedmen rolls. In 1907 they sued the two tribes along with the Department of the Interior for twenty million dollars which was calculated to be the value of land they should have received had they been declared "citizens by blood" because they had father's who were recognized citizens of the Chickasaw or Choctaw Nation.

   Ben LOVE was a recognized citizens of the Chickasaw Nation and named as the father of Lydia JACKSON who was born about 1842, according to the information on Lydia's Dawes card #391. Lydia was the daughter of Sarah Grant, an enslaved woman that gave her age as seventy-four when she applied for citizenship and a land allotment in September of 1898. 

   Sarah's oral interview doesn't provide any information on how and when she came west, but her age suggests she more than likely was part of the numerous slaves brought to Indian Territory with Benjamin Love.

 Don Martini: Who was Who Among Southern Indians a genealogical notebook 1698-1907 pp399-401

  
   Lydia Jackson the focus of this story and the woman attempting to gain rights as a Chickasaw citizen for herself and five children, fathered by Calvin Jackson, a non-citizen has a file that is part of the Joe and Dillard Perry, "Petition to Transfer Files." There are at least three files contained in this database that apply to Lydia Jackson, Chickasaw Freedman Card # 391; and her children Frank Chickasaw Freedmen Card # 394, Josie Chickasaw Freedman Card # 392, John Chickasaw Freedman Card # 393, Jenny Davidson Chickasaw Freedman Card # 390 and Dora Johnson on card #395. 

   Sarah GRANT, Chickasaw Freedman Card # 200; the mother of Lydia Jackson has the summarization of her interview by the Dawes Commission and aside from her age and who enslaved her, tells the commissioner, "My husband is dead. My children are all married and have families." 

   Interestingly, it is Jennie Davidson, a daughter of Lydia that provides the lion's share of the information about this family, their connection to one another and who enslaved her mother Lydia; Ben Love. Jennie provides the names of her siblings, their ages and members of their family's, spouses and children if any. The document that has that information was created in 1898, at the time of the Dawes enrollment process. 

   There was an even more interesting letter in Jennie Davidson's file that has to be mentioned. The letter is dated January 3, 1906; from Muskogee, Indian Territory. Addressed to Jennie Davidson who was living in Ardmore, Indian Territory; the commission acknowledges the receipt of a letter from Jennie, about a month earlier, on December 11, 1905. The letter sent by Jennie was an application seeking a transfer from the freedman roll to the roll of citizens by blood. Remember, Jennie's mother Lydia, was the daughter of a recognized Chickasaw citizen, Benjamin Love.

   The twist to this particular story, one that detrimentally affected hundreds of other people with similar circumstances was "an opinion" by the Assistant Attorney General for the Department of the Interior on November 11, 1905, "that were no application for enrollment as citizens by blood of the Choctaw or Chickasaw Nationhood been made prior to December 25, 1902, there was no authority for the reception of applications for their enrollment as citizens by blood of said nations." The commissioners letter closed with the advice it would not be necessary to "forward additional evidence in this matter at this time."

   Clearly, Jennie, Lydia and Sarah demonstrated a great deal of courage in seeking the truth about their "lineal descent" and fought to have the record corrected. Sadly, Sarah past away before any resolution could be obtained and the descendants of these brave women have a lot to be proud of, but the truth has yet to be realized.

  

   There is one more aspect of this story that must be told. Recall that on Sarah's Dawes card, she identifies Tom Grant as her enslaver. Looking at the Love family, lo and behold, Tom Grant was married to one of Ben Love's daughters, Mary Jane. 

   Two things come to mind with this information. Ben Love had access to Sarah and very well had the power and ability to impregnate her and be the father of Lydia in 1842? When I first came across this story it intrigued me because it was part of Equity Case #7071, which my Great Grandmother, Bettie Ligon was the lead litigant.

   It's a funny thing about "lineal descent" and DNA, on the surface, I read this story about Jennie Davidson, Lydia Jackson, and the rest, but didn't make the connection until I was contacted by one of Lydia's descendants. It appears we share some DNA and then it hit me Benjamin Love, the father of Sarah Grant and Bettie Ligon's father Robert Howard Love are brothers, their father was Thomas Love. With the DNA tie and the genealogical evidence, the connection to the Love ancestry is easily proven for the descendants of Thomas and Robert Love. 

   There is one last comment on this subject of Freedmen seeking a transfer to the Citizen by Blood Roll. Okay, maybe more than one comment. The first is, if the DNA is correct and there is no reason to doubt it. Then, what Sarah Grant said about who fathered her child Lydia Jackson, and what Margaret Ann Wilson said about who fathered her child, Bettie Ligon, has to be the truth based on the DNA. 

   That leads to the elephant in the room, the lawsuit for $20,000,000 dollars in 1907. This was the determined value of the three-hundred and twenty acres lost to those individuals who sought to be transferred. The Dawes Commission used every type of excuse from illegitimacy to women who would sell their virtue in an effort to get land and money they were deemed ineligible.

   There was no protection for these women who gave birth to Benjamin and Robert Howard Love's children. The women were abused and the children stigmatized and the justice system denied them their due process when it deemed their applications were too late. However, the fact their Dawes Cards were processed in 1898, with clear information that suggest they exerted their blood ties to be placed on the blood rolls, the commission ignored this and frankly, omitted that information from the Department of the Interior for a proper evaluation. 

   The abuse, the loss of wealth and continued denial of the descendants of Lydia Jackson and the thousands of other people is a stain on the Department of the Interior, the Chickasaw Nation and the Choctaw Nation as they all silently continue to abuse the very idea of "lineal descent."

Don Martini: Who was Who Among Southern Indians a genealogical notebook 1698-1907 pp399-401

Photo Courtesy of Frank Overton Collection
Lydia Jackson seated front row center