Cultural Practices of the Oklahoma Freedmen

Many person speak of Indian ancestry, although few persons can cite customs, languages, or traditions from any particular nations that pertain to their Native American ancestor. References are often made that refer to racial features such as hair length, cheek bones, and complexion. However, the same ancestor sometimes referred to as the "full blood" Indian did not leave any traditions or customs that remain a part of the memory of anyone living in the family today.

Oklahoma's Black Indians and their hundreds of thousands of descendents are among those who have left a legacy of records, from the Dawes rolls to the earlier records created after the Treaty of 1866 was signed. In addition, until the middle of the 20th century, there were Black Indians - Freedmen who still lived and practiced the customs of the nations where they had been born. The WPA Slave Narratives contained more than 25 interviews of Black Indians, who spoke of their lives as Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws and Chickasaws. Their language, burial customs, and diet were formulated by the native culture into which they had been born, lived and eventually died.

Those seeking more knowledge about the customs practiced by these Black Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes will not find lives centered around pow wows, and Hollywood images of the plains nations. These documented citizens of the Five nations were bilingual, bicultural people, seeking to establish new lives for themselves in their new country and their new state of Oklahoma.

Food Practices of the Oklahoma Freedmen

References to these dishes are taken from interviews with some of the Indian Territory Freedmen during the 1930's WPA Federal Writers Project (WPA) Many of these slaves had been slaves on the Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes, and they lived and practiced the culture and customs of the nations where they had been enslaved. Though many of these nations today do not wish to acknowledge that they had Africans live in their nations the fact is that the slaves, former slaves and their descendants continued to live in the tradition in which they had been raised. Indian Territory was their home, their language was that of the nation where they were born and enslaved and the culture that they practiced was that of their fellow compatriots. Though denied many of the priveleges of citizenship, these African Native people shared the same diet, language, and traditions of the land of their birth----Oklahoma.

In regards to food, corn was a main staple of the Indian diet, and thus of the Black Indian diet. Ash cakes, Tom Fuller, variations of hominy and others were common fare in their Black Indian world. Many of the Black Indians spoke of their diets and some of their rememberances of their food ways are recorded here to illustrate their traditions.

Common Food
Eaten by Choctaw Freedmen
-Tom Fuller
-Pashofa
-Hickory Nut Grot
-Tom Budha
-Ash Cakes

As described by
Polly Colbert
Choctaw Freedwoman

"We cooked all sorts of Indian dishes: Tom-fuller, pashofa, hickory-nut grot, Tom-budha, ash-cakes, and pound cakes besides vegetables and mat dishes. Corn or corn meal was used in all de Indian dishes. We made hominy out'n de whole grains. Tom-fuller was made from beaten corn and tasted sort of like hominy."

"We would take corn and beat it like in a wooden mortar wid a wooden pestle. We would husk it by fanning it and we would den put in on to cook in a big pot. While it was cooking we'd pick out a lot of hickory-nuts, tie em up in a cloth and beat em a little and drop em in and cook for a long time. We called dis dish hickory-nut grot. When we made pashofa we beat de corn and cook for a little while and den we add fresh pork and cook until de meat was done. Tom-budha was green corn and fresh meat cooked together and seasoned wid tongue or pepper-grass."

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Common Dishes
Eaten By
Creek Freedmen

-Sofki
-Pounded Hickory Nuts
-Roasted Green Corn

As Described by
Lucinda Davis,
Creek Freedwoman

"When you make de sofki you pound up de corn real fine, den pour in de water and drain it off to get all the little skin off'n de grain. Den you let de grits soak and den boil it and let it stand. Sometime you put in some pounded hickory nut meats. Dat make it real good."

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"One of our choices dishes was "Tom Pashofa" an Indian dish. We'd take corn and beat it in a mortar with a pestle. They took out the husks with a riddle and a fanner. The riddle was a kind of sifter. When it was beat fine enough to got through the riddle we'd put it in a pot and cook it with fresh pork or beef. We cooked our bread in a Dutch oven or in the ashes."

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Burial customs practiced by Freedmen

As told by
Lucinda Davis
Creek Freedwoman

....The Creek sho take on when somebody die!

Long in de night you wake up and hear a gun go off, way yonder somewhar. Den it go again and again, jest as fast as they can ram de load in. Dat mean somebody die. When somebody die, de men go out in de yard and let people know dat way. Den dey jest go back in de house and let de fire go out and don't even tech de dead person till somebody get dar who has a right to touch de dead.

When somebody had sick dey build a fire in de house, even in de summer and don't let it die down till dat person git well or die. When dey die dey lit de fire out.

In de morning everybody dress up fine and go to de house whar de dead is and stand around in de yard outside de house and don't go in. Pretty soon along come somebody what got a right to tech and handle de dead and dey go in. I don't know what give dem de right, but I thinking dey has to go through some kind of medicine to get de right, and I know dey has to drink de red root and purge good before day tech de body.

When dey git de body ready dey come out and all go to de graveyard, mostly de family graveyard, right on de place or at some of the kinfolkses.

When dey git to de grave somebody shoots a gun at de north, den de west, den de south, and den de east. Iffen dey had four guns dey used em.

Den dey put de body down in de grave and put some extra clothes in with it and some food and cup of coffee, maybe. Den dey takes strips of elm bark, and lays over de body till it all covered up, and den throw in de dirt.

When de last dir throwed in, everybody must clap dey hands and smile, but you so hadn't better stomp on any of the new dirt around de grave, because it bring sickness right along wid you back to your own house. Dat what dey said, anyways.

Jest soon as de grave filled up, dey built a little shelter over it wid poles like a pig pen and over it over wid elm bark to keep de rain from soaking down in de new dirt.

Den everybody go back tot de house and de family go in and scatter some kind of medicine round de place and build a new fire. Sometimes dey feed everybody before dey all leave for home.

Every time day have a funeral dey always a lot of de people say, "Didnt you hear de "stikini" squealing in de night" I hear dat stikini all the night! De "stikini" is de screech owl, and he suppose to tell when anybody going to die right soon. I hear lots of Creek people say day hear de screech owl close to de house, and sho' nuff somebody in de family die soon.

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Languages

Spoken by Oklahoma's
Black Indians

Most of the Freedmen of Indian Territory who were adults when freed, were bilingual, speaking both English and the language of their Indian slave owners. In some cases some of the Indian Territory slaves, learned English after slavery ended, when meeting members of their families from whom they had been sold. Many of the Black Indians moved easily from English to their Indian mother tongue, while others had their native Indian language as their language of choice. There were others who preferred English though still understanding their Indian language. These excerpts reveal the language and culture in which the African Indians lived.

As told by Lucinda Davis
Creek Freedwoman

What yo gwine do when de meat come in?
Set in de corner wid a greasy chin!

Lawsy!
.....And I think I learn dem words long after I been grown 'cause I belong to a full-blood Creek Indian and didn't know nothing but Creek talk till long after the Civil War. My mistress was part white and knowed English talk, but she never did talk it because none of de people talked it. I heard it sometime but it sound like whole lot of wild shoat in de cedar brake scared at something when I do hear it. Dat was when I was little girl in time of de War.

Dey say when he was a little boy he was called HoHopothili which mean "good little boy" and when he git grown he make big speeches and dey stick on de "yoholo". Dat mean "loud whooper."

......Dat de way de Creek make de name for young boys when I was a little girl. When de boy git old enough de big men in de town give him a name, and sometime later on when he git to going around wid de grown men dey stick on some more name. If he a good talker dey sometime stick on "yoholo" and iffen' he make lots of jokes dey called him "Hadjo" If he is a good leader day called him "Imala" and if he kind of mean dey sometime call him "Fixigo".

.......One day three men ride up and talk to de old man awhile in English talk. Den he called me and tell me to go wid dem to find my own family. He jest laugh and slap my behind and set me up on de hoss in front of one de men add dey take me off and leave my good checkedy dress at de house!

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As told by Mary Grayson
Creek Freedwoman

(Upon being taken south into Chickasaw country during the war.)Pretty soon we got down into the Chickasaw country and everybody was friendly to us, but the Chickasaw people didn't treat their slaves like the Creeks did. They was more strict, like the people in Texas and other places. The Chickasaws seemed lighter color than the Creeks but they talked more in Indian among themselves and to their slaves. Our master talked English nearly all the time except when they were talking to Creeks who didn't talk good English, and we Negroes never did learn good Creek. I could alway understand it, and can yet, a little, but I never did try to talk it much. Mammy and pappy used English to us all the time.

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As told by Henry Henderson
Cherokee Freedman

I done forgot my Cherokee that I heard when I was young. I been living around with the Creeks so long that I picked up some of their words, like "Lag-ashe" when they mean to set down or take a char; "Hum-buc-sha" is the call for meals or come eat; "Pig-ne-dee" is the Creek way of saying good morning, and "Car-a she" is born bread.

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As told by Betsey Robertson
Cherokee Freedwoman

I never did see my daddy excepting when I was a baby and I only know what my mammy told me about him. He come from across the water when he was a little boy, and was grown when old Master Joseph Vann bought him so he never did learn to talk much Cherokee. My mammy was a Cherokee slave, and talked it good. My husband was a Cherokee born negro, too, and when he got mad he forgit all the English he knowed.

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As told by Chaney Richardson
Cherokee Freedwoman

I've been a good church-goer all my life until I get too feeble, and I still understand and talk Cherokee language and love to hear songs and parts of the Bible in it because it make me think about the time I was a little girl before my mammy and pappy leave me.

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As told by Patsey Perryman
Cherokee Freedwoman

My brother Lewis married a full-blood Indian woman and they got lots of Indian children on their farm in the old Cherokee country around Caney Creek. He's just like an Indian, been with them so much, talks the Cherokee language, and don't notice us Negroes any more.

..... My mother had always been with mistress Judy Taylor and she was the only mother my mama ever had, least the only she could remember for her own mother (my grandmother) died when she was three days old. She was raised by the Indians and could talk Cherokee.

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Religious Practices
of the
Oklahoma Freedmen

Most of the slaves who of the nations in Indian Territory were not allowed to practice any form of religion, however, most of the ex-slaves became part of a church-based community when they were free. Only a few of the slaves interviewed had been exposed to religion or Chritianiy before emancipation. With many, religious practice was simply forbidden by their Indian slave masters. However, it is clear that the desire to worship was strong and when freed from bondage stayed with these Black Indians for the remainder of their lives.

In addition, some of the former slaves, also had beliefs in spirits, and charms, and some referred to the various charms they had used or seen used for protection throughout their lives.

As told by
Nancy Rogers Bean
Cherokee Freedwoman

"I wore cotton dresses, and the Mistress wore long dresses, with different colors for Sunday clothes, but us slaves didn't know much about Sunday in a religious way. The Master had a brother who used to preach to the Negroes on the sly. One time he was caught and the Master whipped him something awful."

"The good Lord knows I'se glad slavery is over. Now I can stay peaceful in one place---that's all I aim to do."

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As told by Henry Clay
Creek Freedman

"They had a little church on the plantation where we set on Sunday and heard the Mistress read out of the Bible to us and then we all sung good songs and prayed. But no school and no reading lessons before the emancipation, I'll tell you.

"I'm glad we are free, and don't have to work any more whether we sick or not, like in slavery days.
I went to church always and am a good Christian, and I hope to see my Maker and both my Masters because they were kind men." "Everybody should have religion, but you got to go slow and not try to change the leopard sports quick like them people done in Africa. I don't they they done a bit of good."
Just trust in God and hoe your row and sidestep away from the great temptation, that's what I say.


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As told by Kiziah Love
Choctaw Freedwoman

"We went to church all the time. We had both white and colored preachers. Master Frank wasn't a Christian, but he would help build brush-arbors fer' us to have church under and we sho' would have big meetings I'll tell you."

One day Master Frank was going through the woods close to where negroes was having church. All on a sudden he started running and beating hisself and hollering and the negores all went to shouting and saying, "Thank the Lawd, Master Frank has done come through!" Master Frank after a minute say, "Yes, through the worst of em." He had run into a yellow jackets's nest.

I ain't never seen many spirits but I've seen a few. One day I was layin' on my bed here by myself. My son Ed was cutting wood. I'd been awful sick and I was powerful weak. I heard somebody walking real light like they was barefooted. I said, "Who's dat"
He catch hold of my hand and he has the littlest hand I ever seen, and he say, "You been mighty sick and I want you to come and go with me to Sherman to see a doctor."

I say "I ain't got noboy at Sherman what knows me."
He say, "You'd better come and go with me anyway."
I jest lay there fer a mintue and didn't say nothing and purty soon he say, "Have you got any water?"
I told him the water was on the porch and he got up and went outside. I set in to calling Ed. He come hurrying and I asked him why he didn't lock the door when he went out and I told him to go see if he could see the little man and find out what he wanted. He went out and looked everywhere but he couldn't find him nor he couldn't even find his tracks.

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As told by
Chaney McNair
Cherokee Freedwoman

Does I believe in Spirits? Sure I do. This old flesh and bones goin' back from what God make it, but our spirits never die. Sometimes the spirits of folks what's dead come back. I've heard of haunted house where there was rappin's and the like but I never did hear any myself. Tell you what I did see, more than once. Back in Ft. Scott where I worked there's a little girl beautiful little girl with long curls. I wondered why God made me black and ugly and that little girl so white. Before I left she died, I saw her lying in the casket. Long time after she came to me in a dream like. I saw a little girl with curls, all dressed in white. Seemed like she was here a minute, then she walked out the door and was gone. She come more than once and stand right here in that door. Sometime that little girl goin' come back all dressed in white and take old Aunt Chaney out the door and I won't never come back.

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As told by Matila Poe
Chickasaw Freedwoman

Master wasn't a beliver in church, but he let us have church. My we'd have happy times singing an shouting. They'd have church when dey had a preacher and prayer meetings when dey didn't.

I don't believe in luck charms and things of the such. Iffen' you is in trouble, there ain't nothin' gonna save you but the Good Lawd. I heard of folks keeping all kinds of things for good luck charms. When I was a child different people gave me butons to string and we called them our charm string and wore 'em around our necks. If we was mean dey would tell us "Old Raw Head and Boody Bones" would git us. Grand mammy told us ghost stories afters supper, but I don't remember any of dem."

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As told by
Chaney Richardson
Cherokee Freedwoman

None of the negroes ran away when I was a child that I know of. We all had plenty to eat. The Negroes didn't have no shcool and so I can't read andwrite, but they did have a shcool after the War, I hear. But we had a church made out of a brush arbor and we would sing good songs in Cherokee sometimes.

I've been a good church-goer all my life until I git too feeble, adn I still understand and talk Cherokee language and love to hear songs and parts of the Bible in it because it make me think about the time I was a little girl before my mammy and pappy leave me.

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As told by
Betty Robertston
Cherokee Freedwoman

Young Master Joe let us have singing and be baptized if we want to, but I wasn't baptized till after the War. But we couldn't learn to read or have a book, and the Cherokee folkds was afraid to tgell usa bout the letters and figgers because tehy have a law you go to jail and a big fine if you show a slave about the letters.

One day young Master come to the cabins and say we all free and can't stay there lessn' we want to go one working for him just like we'd been for our feed and clothes. Mammy got a wagon and we travelled around a few days and go to Fort Gibson. When we git to Fort Gibson they was a lot of Negroes there, and they had a camp meeting and I was baptized. It was in the Grand River close to the ford, and winter time. Snow on the ground and the water was muddy and all full of pieces of ice. The place was all woods and the Cherokees and the soldiers all come down to see the baptizing.

I been a good Christian ever since I was baptized, but I keep a little charm here on my neck anyways, to keep me from having the nose bleed. Its got a buckeye and a lead bullet in it. I had a silver dime on it too, for a long time, but I took it off and got me a box of snuff. I'm glad the War's over and I am free to meet God like anybody else, and my grandchildren can learn to read and write.


As told by
Morris Sheppard
Cherokee Freedman

(After the War)We was married at my home in Coffeyville, and she bore me eleven children right. We never had no church in slavery, and no schooling, and you had better not be caught wid a book in your hand even, so I never did go to church hardly any.

Wife belong to de church and all de children too, and I think all should look afer saving their souls so as to drive de nail in, and den go about de earth spreading kindness and hoeing de row clean so as to clinch dat nail and make dem safe for Glory.

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As told by
R.C. Smith

(After the death of his wife)....."I was so dissatisfied that I decided to god own in the mountains by myself for a while. I went down into the McGee Mountains the other side of Atoka.

I am a prophet, yessum, the kind you read about in the Bible. I was born one. I can see and talk with hosts of people. Am Houf, a famous prophet in London say that I was born to be a prophet but I had a poor chance. I wrote to AmHouf and kept up a correspondence with him till his death.

I wandered around in them mountains for days. I never seen a varmit, not even a wolf. One night I took notion I'd go home. When I come to Boggy, just below Atoka, I started to across on a footlog. Just as I started to stop on it I heard somebody say, "Look out, you'll fall." I turned and went to the bridge about a quarter of a mile down the stream, I crossed and come back up to the foot log, I could still hear people talking but I couldn't see nobody.

Next morning I stared on and all of a sudden I heard a Wham. It sounded like somebody loading cross ties. Purty soon I seen about twenty five or thirty people. One real old man and a woman in a wagon with wood on it. I walked on to meet them and the man hailed me with the Odd Fellows sign. The woman had on a gray coat and the man snatched it off her and put it on his shoulders and the woman disappeared. I walked up and tried to touch him but couldn't. Just then I realized that I had seen Father Abraham---Yessum, the one we read about in the Bible. I looked around and recognized my father and a lot more people. Some of them had just been buried but my father had been dead ever since the War. I didn't talk to them as they all disappeared.

When I got home, I had a letter from AmHouf saying that he needed me. I answered his letter but another prophet answered me and told me AmHouf was dead.

I see things all the time. I'm in what they calls "firey trivets." I can foresee and foretell. Moses and the old prophets was in the firey trivets. I'm a natural born treasure hunter. I don't need no instruments to find treasure. I can walk over it at night and tell where it is located. I'm trying to raise one hundred dollars right now to try to finance a trip for me on a treasure hunt. I know just where it is located but it will take a hundred dollars to git it out.

I ain't been able to do nothing for a month on account of the hosts that sourround me. Their presence is so powerful over me that they weaken me.

Prayer and faith can overcome everything. Remember Jesus Christs was called Bellzebub but that didn't make it true.

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As told by
Victoria Taylor Thompson
Cherokee Freedwoman

I been belonging to church ever since there was a colored church, and I thinks everybody should obey the Mster. He died, and I wants to go where Jesus lives. Like the poor Indian I was one time waiting to be hung. Dere he was, setting on his own coffin box singing over and over the words I just said, "I want to go where Jesus lives!"

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As told by
Lucinda Vann
Cherokee Freedwoman

I went to the missionary Baptist Church where Marster and Missus went. There was a big church. The white folks go first and after they come out, the colored folks go in. I joined the Catholic church after the war. Lots of bad things ahve come to me, but the good Father, high up, He take care of me.

We went down to the river for baptizings. The women dressed in white, if they had a white dress to wear. The preacher took his candidate into the water. Pretty soon everybody commenced a singin' and a prayin'. Then the preacher put you under water three times. There was a house yonder where was dry clothes, blankets, everything. Soon as you come out of the water, you go over there and change clothes. My uncle used to baptize 'em.

When anybody die, someone sit up with them day and night till they put them in the ground. Everybody cry, everybody'd pretty nearly die. Lord have mercy on us, yes.

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As told by
Sarah Wilson
Cherokee Freedwoman

"Before freedom we didn't have no church, but slipped around to the other cabins and had a litlte singing sometimes. Couldn't have anybody show us the letters either, and you better not let them catch you pick up a book even to look at the pictures, for it was against a Cherokee law to have a Negro read and write or to teach Negro.

Some Negroes believed in buckeyes and charms but I never did. Old Master had some good boys, named, Aaron, John Ned, Cy and Nat, and they told me the charms was no good. Thier sister Nicie told me too, and said when I was sick just come and tell her.

They didn't tell us anything about Christmas and New Year though, and all we done was work.

I joined the Four Mile Branch church in 1879 and Sam Solomon was a Creek Negro and the first preacher I ever heard preach. Everybody out to be in the church and ready for that better home on the other side.

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