"We Came West With the Indians," Isaac Alexander, "Negro Blood Denied"
Not unlike many Dawes Commission interviews of those seeking land allotments, the transcript of the so-called sworn testimony of Isaac Alexander was no more than a summary of his actual interview. Isaac statements that were summarized by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes at South McAlester, Indian Territory on September 8, 1899. The do not reflect the story of a leader, fighter, husband, and father that served his people, and his community when they called on him.
Approximately, three years prior to this so-called “true, full, and correct transcript” Isaac Alexander appeared before the Dawes Commission wheb he applied for citizenship in the Chickasaw Nation on September 9, 1896.
A notice went out across the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations notifying all who there, that applications for citizenship were being taken by the Dawes Commission. This information reached the freedmen communities of these nations with only three months left to file their application before the deadline. This was a hardship for many who had to gather documents and witnesses to testify on their behalf, sometimes miles away from their homes at great expense. To complicate matters more, many of those who would apply were illiterate, making the application process difficult.
The story of Isaac Alexander is the stuff of legends, yet his story has until now been hidden in plain sight. There are many stories that emerge from Indian Territory that subscribe to the dominant narrative of the slave owning tribes and their loss of land and people. What continues to be left out of that story is the loss of land and people of those enslaved, especially those who were the children of “recognized citizens” in each nation. Isaac Alexander’s story encompasses all those issues, and it may be part of the reason the “record” most people are familiar with, is lacking in truth and correctness.
When telling the story of Isaac Alexander, one question is where to begin? As we weave through the story of a man who was born into slavery around 1823, and search for records about him, it is the 1896 Application for Citizenship in the Chickasaw Nation that provides a map that unveils a remarkable story that deserves attention and recognition.
On the 9 September 1896, the Dawes Commission recorded the application for Isaac Alexander, and his extended family for citizenship in the Chickasaw Nation. His claim was written up a local notary and was dated 22 August 1896. On that same day, two other people provided sworn affidavits to corroborate the story Isaac provided, which included the testimony of eighty-year-old Mary James. Mary provided very revealing information about Alexander and his family history.
Isaac was living in Wetumka, Indian Territory in 1896 and gave his age as seventy-two at the time. He provided information about his genealogy and “lineal descent.” His father was named Alex Alexander, who was deceased and was regarded as a half-blood Chickasaw Indian. Isaac continues his saga and says, “we came from Mississippi in 1837.” This statement clearly places not only Isaac, but at least one other person among the Chickasaw that came west to Indian Territory.
Isaac Alexander was a man, seventy-two years old, in one sentence demonstrates a story that is shared at the time, by many other freedmen; “my grandfather’s name on my mother’s side was James Colbert. He was ½ blood Chickasaw Indian.” Isaac continued with his story and provided what can only be described as “intimate knowledge” of the history of his times, intimate knowledge about his grandfather, James Colbert. This was a story told by a man who could not read or write.
Isaac states in his affidavit, “James Colbert helped to make the treaty with the Choctaw Indians for this country.” Isaac did not forget his earlier statement about his mother and provides more information about that line of his family’s history; “my mother’s name was Zilphia Colbert, she was ¼ blood Chickasaw Indian.” These are the types of statements that should have been in that record that generated the 1898 Dawes Land Allotment card, you must ask the question why were they missing, especially because of the existing detail provided in the 1896 application for citizenship?
The details of Isaac Alexander’s life up this point is enough to demonstrate the types of relationships that were occurring in the Chickasaw Nation among the enslavers and those enslaved. Relationships that were allegedly prohibited, yet tolerated, ignored, and never punished. Isaac Alexander’s statements about his grandfather James Colbert can easily be corroborated by a descendant of other descendants claiming a connection to the same James Colbert.
After establishing the names of his father, mother and grandfather, Isaac is like the gift that keeps on giving. Isaac goes on to say; “My grandfather James Colbert died when I was 19 years old. I remember him well. He had long straight black hair. He also owned 9 or 10 slaves at the time of his death.” That statement provides a clue to the date of James Colbert’s death occurring before the emancipation of his slaves, before, the end of the “War of Rebellion in Indian Territory in 1866.”
Isaac goes on to provide details about his mother and wife that are not present in his “testimony” before the Dawes Commission in 1898.
About his mother, Isaac says, “My mother died when I was 20 years old, she had long black straight hair.” Was he trying to solidify the connection to being part Chickasaw Indian or was he just stating a fact? That truth may only be determined by way of a DNA match between the descendants of Isaac Alexander and the descendants of James Colbert.
Isaac continued his affidavit by providing information about his wife Polly Ann McClish who died in 1883. Again, what you will not see anywhere in that 1898 interview he allegedly gave to Commissioner Needles on September 8, 1898, is information about his wife, his grandfather or his children and grandchildren. However, the record and paper trail left by Isaac Alexander is as stated before, the stuff of legends.
In the same document, Isaac provides the names and ages of his seven living children. If he had more children. However, on a separate page, Isaac provides a descendant chart for his and Polly’s seven children and twenty-six grandchildren! It is the page with Isaac’s story about his life that must be returned to for information that makes this man and this interview worthy of all the recognition it can receive.
Isaac indicates he had been issued permits by the Chickasaw Government to operate his “two good farms on the Canadian River in the Chickasaw Nation?”
Isaac Alexander revealed in his interview that he, “was a Union Soldier during the war and was discharged for disability in June 1865.” Isaac would “receive a pension for his disability for the amount of twelve dollars per month “on account of the same disability.”
Isaac served with a friend by the name Quash Carolina in the Indian Home Guards, as part of the Union Army. Quash provided testimony to support Isaac’s in the Civil War as a Union soldier.
“I was a member of Company H of the 1st Indian home guards during the war, and served under the name of quash McLeesh, my slave name. I was the slave of a Chickasaw Indian named Frazier McLeesh. I have known the claimant Isaac Alexander, all my life. We are both Chickasaw colored men. He was in the 79th US colored troops and I remember seeing him when at Fort Gibson, when his regiment came to that place. He went to the war about a year before I did. Just prior to that, our families lived not more than 100 yards apart. We Chickasaw people who have been in the Indian home guards moved into camp near the old Creek agency, on the Arkansas River, near Muskogee, after were discharged, and remained there till March following, when we all came back to the Chickasaw Nation, together.”
Isaac returned to his family and home in the Chickasaw Nation, receiving an honorable discharge for his military service. He was wounded in battle but undeterred from serving his people and his community. For the enslaved people of Indian Territory, the Civil War ended in 1866, after the signing of several treaties with the United States. This was the beginning of another struggle Isaac would offer his leadership in efforts to support his family and community in the Chickasaw Nation.
It was the treaty between the United States and the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations that became the catalyst for Isaac Alexander volunteering again. He joined a group of more than forty freedmen leaders that placed an X mark next to their names on a Memorial to the United States Senate, (Senate Executive Document #82, 40th Congress, 2nd Session.) This group of men were advocating for the civil rights of the Chickasaw and Choctaw Freedmen that were written in the Treaty negotiated at Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1866 that ended the Civil War in Indian Territory.
As a true patriot, Isaac sacrificed the strength and vitality he entered the war with to emancipate himself, and his people, from enslavement in the Chickasaw Nation. Isaac found himself fighting again, on a different battlefield, just two years later because the treaty of 1866 did not have an enforcement clause that would legally secure those rights he valiantly fought for as a soldier in the Union Army.
“I do not know how old I was when I enlisted, but I had grandchildren when I went into the army. I was a sound hearty man when I enlisted and was free from all disease.”
The Chickasaw Nation passed legislation to adopt their former slaves in 1873, (Senate Miscellaneous Document 95, 42nd Congress, 3rd Session) only to rescind the legislation shortly thereafter because the President of the United States and Congress failed to ratify the legislation, before the Chickasaws change their mind.
After constant struggles with the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations over their adoption, and without any assistance from the United States, the Chickasaw and Choctaw freedmen met at a convention, and selected Isaac Alexander and King Blue to represent them and visit Washington, on their behalf.
Despite, setback after setback the Chickasaw Freedmen with the support of men like Isaac Alexander continued their struggle for Civil Rights, citizenship, and inclusion in both nations that they toiled in as chattel slaves. The same nation that brought him west along the same tear-stained trail that saw Isaac ironically become one of the first inhabitants of the Chickasaw Nation west of the Mississippi.
Isaac’s Alexander’s story is vital to telling the story of the Chickasaw nation, he and his descendants may have never gained the status of citizen they so richly deserved, but his Isaac and his story demand to be remembered, every time the tribes commemorate their, removal west. His story demands to be heard when people talk about the United States Colored Troops, because he answered the call for freedom.
Isaac Alexander and his descendants are among the First Families of Indian Territory and the state of Oklahoma, it is time to recognize their contributions. Think about the audacity of the Commissioner who wrote on that application submitted by Isaac Alexander as he described his history and genealogy, and it was reduced to “Negro Blood Denied.”
It is this attitude that appears to continue today in the Chickasaw Nation, and the state of Oklahoma when it comes to people like Isaac Alexander, they are denied the same dignity that others receive without question. Isaac Alexander is a true, American Hero.
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