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OSIYO! (Hello)(Tsalagihi Ayeli)
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Descendants of the Five Civilized tribes
Freedmen, a word, when referred to in Native American genealogy, is somewhat confusing to many. This page will give you information and links that will help with a better understanding what Freedmen means in Native American research.
Freedmen of the Indian Nations, both Black and Indian, descendant from African and American Indian ancestors. Many mixed blood families were forced to choose one culture over another. Because of US contempt for both Blacks and American Indians, many families chose to hide their heritage. But history of survival opened, also opens to the story of the union of these two resilient peoples.
Freedmen of Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, who lived within the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole Nations), were former slaves and Free Persons of Color. Many of these Africans intermarried with Native Americans, and many were slaves owned by Native Americans, who fathered children with African slave women. A much smaller number were Free People of Color who also lived and married persons from within the Nation they were living, their descendants clam ancestry from the Oklahoma Black Indian people. The result being thousands of Americans have Indian and African ancestry. The Treaty of 1866 abolished Slavery in Indian Territory, and the adoption of the former slaves into 4 of the 5 nations. There were over 20,000 Africans that were adopted into these nations before the end of the 19th century.
The
Slave Narrative Collection
Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
Oklahoma Narratives, Volume XIII (369 pages) A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From
Interviews with Former Slaves.
Treaties That Freed the Slaves
Choctaw-Chickasaw Treaty of 1866
Tribal Adoption of Slaves
Only 4 of the 5 tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole), the Chickasaw being the one tribe that did not adopt their slaves. After the treaty of 1866, the government gave the Chickasaw the option of adopting their former slaves as citizens of the nation. With the agreement of the Treaty of 1866, if the tribe did not adopt their former slaves the government agreed to remove the blacks from Chickasaw Country. The Chickasaw tribe did not adopt the freedmen, and the government failed to remove the freedmen from Chickasaw County. With the failure on both the Chickasaw and government to follow through with their agreement of the treaty, the freedmen lived in the Chickasaw Nation, for over forty years, without protection of the law or civil rights.
The Dawes Commission - March 3, 1893 to March 4, 1907
Rolls and Census
Freedmen Roll Numbers
Chickasaw
Nation
Choctaw
Nation
Seminole
Nation
1860
Slave Schedule Index of Indian Lands
Chickasaw Census Index - 1818 -1837 - 1839 - 1847
Wallace Authenticated 1890 to 1893 Index
Military
The 79th and 83rd United States Color Troops
Seminole-Negro Indian Scouts - Medal of Honor Recipients
Other Items of Interest
The 32 Tribes Of Oklahoma - Short histories of each tribe
The Choctaw Freedmen of Oklahoma
The American Indian Heritage Foundation
National Congress Of American Indian
African Native Americans - Photo Exhibit
Freedmen's Bureau Records - An Overview
The United States Board of Appraisers - Cherokee Freedmen Claimants Taken from the House Document #116, 6 January 1896: list of Claimants
Office of American Indian Culture and Preservation - Oklahoma Historical Society
Tennessee State Library and Archives - Suggestions for Native American Research (Cherokee)
If you have information that you would like to share with other researchers and would like to submit that information to the Cherokee site please contact the County Coordinator:
If you would like to adopt a county in Oklahoma check out the Orphan Counties
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| © 2002 - 2017 | ||
| County Coordinator: | State Coordinator: Linda Simpson | Asst. State Coordinator: Mel Owings |
