Mrs. Ella Herring

Interviewer's Name: John F. Dougherty
Date of Interview: November 3,1937

Name: Mrs. Ella Herring (Chickasaw)
Interviewee's Address:918 East 13th Street 
Sulphur, Oklahoma

Place of Birth: Tishomingo, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: April 28, 1891

Name of Father: Noah McGill
Place of Birth: Fort Smith, Arkansas
Employment Information: Sheriff in Tishomingo, Oklahoma

Name of Mother: Eliza Brinder 
Place of Birth: Tishomingo, Qklahoma

My father was Noah McGill, born at Fort Smith, Arkansas, December 25, 1848. My mother was Eliza Brinder, born near Tishomingo. There were ten children.

I was born at Tishomingo April 28, 1891, in a little log house. I went to school in a log house for two years and then I attended Governor Guy's school for Chickasaw girls and boys at Sulphur. We were boarded by the Governor and his wife. There were four teachers.

Father was a sheriff in the Chickasaw nation and later was a jailer at Tishomingo. One day he was to hang a man who had been sentenced to hang and he was a friend of father's. Father tried to resign because he did not want to hang a friend but they wouldn't accept his resignation, so he was forced to officiate as hangman.

Mother has told me of the belief of the Chickasaws in witch doctors. Pashofa dances were held when a tribesman was ill, to rid the patient of the evil spirits which were causing his illness. They always place the patient in a little house facing the east and nobody was admitted except the "medicine man" who secretly performed his craft. The guest danced with great energy around the boiling pot of pashofa and each one in turn was served from a wooden ladle or horn spoon until he was satisfied. In this way each person carried off a portion of the disease.

I remember hearing mother telling of an Indian whom she knew who had lost several children by death. He sent for the "medicine man" and when he was told by him that the deaths were the result of witchcraft the father became furious and killed the old doctor.

When witchcraft was blamed for death or illness, any person whom they suspected of being bewitched was killed. This Indian considered the old doctor the witch or evil spirit who had caused the death of his children.

I have lived in Sulphur for nine years.

Transcribed by Carol Howe and Dennis Muncrief October, 2000.