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Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: July 12,1937
Name: Green Walker Jr.
Post Office: Soper, Oklahoma
Residence Address:  Route 1
Date of Birth: October 26, 1873
Place of Birth:  near Soper, Oklahoma
Father:   Green Walker
Place of Birth:  Soper, Oklahoma
Information on father:
Mother:  don't remember
Place of birth:   Soper, Oklahoma
Information on mother:
Field Worker: Johnson H. Hampton
Interview #:

Interview with Green Walker Jr.

I was born October 26th, 1873 on Bokchito Creek, near what is now known as Soper, Oklahoma. It was then known as Kiamichi County, Choctaw Nation.

My father's name was Green Walker. I don't remember my mother's name, for she has been dead for a long time. I don't remember my grandfather's name nor my grandmother's name. I have been told they came from Mississippi, with the first bunch that came to this country. I don't know how they came over nor how much they suffered by the weather as they came over, for I never heard anyone say anything about it.

My father was not in the Civil War and I don't think that my Grandfather was either. If my grandfather was in the Civil War, my father never did tell us about it, and my father died at a ripe old age. He never told us that he was in the Civil War and I am pretty sure that if he had been, he would have told us about it. 

When my grandfather came over to this country he located near what is now Soper, Oklahoma. Of course, at that time there was no Soper. He lived there until he and grandmother both died, where they first located. This country was prairie country and the land was fine. It was black land country. My father lived there until his death. I am now living a few miles from where my grandfather first located.

We had a farm of about thirty or forty acres in cultivation. As it was out on the prairie it was not hard to put in this much land. All we had to do was to make rails enough to fence it and break the land, then cut a few sumac bushes, then it was ready for the plow. That was the reason we put that much land in cultivation. We raised corn and some cotton on this land and when we picked the cotton we had to take it to Garrets Bluff, on the Texas side, and have it ginned. The cotton was sold and used in buying such supplies as we needed. We had our corn ground at a water mill which was located on Miller Creek, on the East side of Boggy River. The grass was fine on the prairie; it was high as a man on a horse.

We had cattle, Hogs and ponies on the farm and they ran out on the range. The grass was fine so they just ran out in the open range and got fat. We did not have to feed them even in the winter season. All the indians who lived in our community had plenty of stock. At that time there were no wire fences, the country was open range. All we had to do was brand our cattle and ponies and turn them loose until the next spring, when we gathered them and branded them again. There were plenty of acorns in the creek bottoms which the hogs lived on and got fat, they didn't have to be fed at any time.

Mother had a spinning wheel and a loom. She would make threads on the spinning wheel and then she would put the threads in a loom and weave them into cloth from which she made jean pants and shirts. She would also make socks and mittens out of wool. We had a few sheep for this purpose. father then sold the socks and mittens to other indians when they wanted them.

I did not play any Indian ball, however, I have seen them play. When they had a ball game between two counties it was more of a fight than a ball game. The older people would not let us youngsters play the game.

I have never seen an Indian dance. I have heard that they used to dance what they called a war dance during the war, and had what they called a scalp dance. I never saw them dance. These dances were among the full-bloods mostly. I have seen a dance that was called "Virginia Reel" or something. It was different to the dances they have nowadays. The Indians have quit dancing, I haven't seen an indian dance for several years. In that part of the country where i was reared there were lots of wild game such as deer and turkeys and fish in the creeks. There were lots of prairie chickens on the prairie, the prairie was just full of them, and lots of quail, in fact the country was full of the things that a man would want to eat.

We had a fine country then. There were no white people, all who lived there were Indians. The country was open for the stock where they could roam at will, They had no one to bother them. There was plenty of wild game, no wire fences, in fact, there were not many houses. Most of the houses we had were built of logs.

I went to school at Spencer Academy, a Choctaw Government school, for three terms and I went to Kendall College at Muskogee, for one term. That was about the extent of my schooling. Spencer Academy burned down several years ago and was not rebuilt, so there is no school building there now.

My grandmother and my grandfather were full blood Indians, but my father and my mother were not full bloods, they were mixed bloods. We did not live among the full bloods, in the community where I lived all were mixed bloods. However, we are all Choctaws and have lived in the community all of our lives. We are mixed with white people, where they got it I don't know.

Submitted to OKGenWeb by Moody Dawson, September 2002.