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heritage ‘Book, Inc.
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OCT 1 8 2006
San Francisco Public Library
REFERENCE BOOK
Not to be taken from the Library
GENERAL COLLECTIONS
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Copyright 1993 By
Angela Y. Walton-Rajl
Published 1993 By
HERITAGE BOOKS, INC.
Publishing Division
65 East Main Street
Westminster, Maryland 21157-5026
www.HeritageBooks.com
ISBN 1-55613-856-3
A Complete Catalog Listing Hundreds Of Titles On
Genealogy, History, And Americana
Available Free On Request
Dedicated to the Memory of my
Choctaw Freedmen Ancestors
Samuel Walton
Sallie Walton
Sam Walton Jr.
Houston Walton
Louisa Ingram (Sanders)
and in Gratitude
to my parents
Samuel Lewis Walton
Pauline Walton
3 1223 07242 9518
I
<2a/?& of Contents
Introduction vii
Chapter One 1
Slavery in the Indian Nations
Myths & Realities
Chapter Two 15
From Slavery to Freedom
Chapter Three 25
Beginning Research in the
Indian Freedman Records
Chapter Four 39
Applications for Enrollment
Chapter Five 73
Additional Freedmen Records
Chapter Six 91
Black Indians of the Upper South
Appendix One 101
Freedman Surnames from the Final
Rolls of the Five Civilized Tribes
Appendix Two 137
Surnames of the Tri-Racial Families
of the Upper South
Index 143
*
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I
Most people can recall a family gathering of their
childhood, listening to their elders speaking about the old
days. For me, my memories focus on those hot summer
days when we would pile into the car to visit my aunt and
uncle in Oklahoma. On the way, my father would always
point to the sign on the bridge just outside Ft. Smith
Arkansas, which crossed over the river into Oklahoma.
Like some kind of warning the sign would tell all travelers
going west that they were "Entering Indian Territory."
Like most children growing up in the 1950's my
imagination was stimulated by TV westerns that
dominated the airwaves with stories of cowboys and
Indians. As a black child, I was always amazed when we
passed the sign over the river, and my father would
comment every time, "You know, Nannie is Indian-she's
a Choctaw." The fact that my great-grandmother had
Indian blood was known and accepted, yet whenever it
was discussed, the subject would always bring an element
of mystery and awe. Usually, the rest of our day in the
small country village of Oktaha, on the border of the old
Creek and Cherokee Nations, would be spent sampling
delicious country food, having lots of cousins to play with,
and, later, a chance to listen to the elders as they would
reminisce about their youth. Again, the sense of awe and
mystery would arise as we'd hear these elderly black
people mentioning the Indians and the fact that so much
of their past was in the Indian Nations. We were quiet as
we listened, yet somehow I never really understood how
we were connected.
On the playground, the situation was different as it
was not unusual to hear little black children boasting of
their ties to the Oklahoma Indians. I remember that most
of my playmates would talk very proudly about having
Cherokee ancestry, and boast that they were connected to
someone who was a chief in the Cherokee Nation. Most
of us were merely joining the verbal bravado, yet some
were quite insistent that they were speaking truthfully
about their family.
Upon my great-grandmother's death, in 1961, her
family Bible was given to my father. In that Bible was a
small sheet of paper illustrating the division of a township,
with "Choctaw Nation" stamped on it. From time to time
as the years went by, if discussion about our Indian blood
would come up, I'd go to the Bible, pull out the map, and
stare at the words "Choctaw Nation," and then at my
great-grandmother's name - Sallie Walton - written below
them. The paper had some indication of a land allotment
given to her. Somehow, this was verification of sorts that
she did have a connection to the Indians. Her physical
features certainly revealed that she was one with mixed
parentage, yet no one in the family had additional details
or knowledge about her background.
In 1991, after moving to Maryland, a chance trip to
Washington D.C. took me to the National Archives. I had
learned earlier that some records pertaining to the Five
Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma were avilable for review
there on microfilm. Without much direction I started
looking through enrollment cards of the Choctaws. Not
recognizing names or even cities that sounded familiar, I
plowed through hundreds of names. I recalled a
reference in the family Bible pertaining to Sallie Walton
as a Choctaw Freedman. I noticed that there were
