On Ancestry

• Don Cheadle's Ancestry: Descendants of Chickasaw slaves.

• Chickasaw Slavery: Maintained economy with white settlers.

• Dawes Act: Provided land allotments to Freedman.

• Freedman Descendants: Seek citizenship to preserve graves and sacred rites.

• Sovereignty Issues: Recognition and respect for Native American autonomy needed.

Actor Don Cheadle recently discovered that “several generations of his family had been the slaves of members of the Chickasaw Indian ethnic group…in Oklahoma.  The Cheadles were owned by Jackson Kemp, a wealthy and powerful Chickasaw leader who was said to be so brutal that one in three of his slaves …fled.”  In 1937, 93 year-old former Chickasaw slave Kzia Love noted “what life had been like for an enslaved person in Indian Territory.”  Reflecting on her Chickasaw slave master, she told her interviewer “I believe he was the meanest man the sun ever shined [sic] on…He was sho’ bad to whup niggers…He’d beat ‘em most to death…One time he got mad at his baby’s nurse and he hit her on the head with some fire tongs and she died.” (Goff 2013: 81) 

In order for slavery to succeed in American many felt that “alienating Africans from Native Americans was essential.”  “’It has always been the policy of this government,’ admitted the governor of South Carolina, James Glen, in 1758, ‘to create an aversion in Native Americans to negroes.’” (Goff 2013: 81) The Chickasaw adopted slavery in order to maintain an economy with white settlers in the Southeastern United States, but as removal, assimilation and later allotment dispersed the Chickasaw to Oklahoma their hopes of retaining a large reservation and unhindered self-governance were dashed.  Former slaves of the Chickasaw – known as Freedman – relocated to the new reservations.  Specialized registration roles were created for them, and while they were denied entry as citizens of the nation they were awarded allotments.  In this way the Dawes Act was a boon for many Freedman, including Cheadles ancestors who ultimately settled in Missouri where he was born. (Goff 2013:82-83)  The Freedman registration roles have been instrumental in helping ancestors identify their roots, as showcased in the PBS series Finding Your Roots (http://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/), where Don Cheadle was surprised to learn about his own ancestors and was prompted to begin a deeper journey into his own past.

Today the ancestors of the Freedman seek citizenship in the nations displaced by removal not for money, but with an eye to “preserving the graves of their ancestors on Chickasaw land and participating in sacred rights,” according to Angela Molette, the founder of the Freedman Descendents of the Five Civilised Tribes. (Goffe 2013: 84) And as historian Alastair Bonnett sums up in an article in History Today, while issues of sovereignty may hinge on indigenous people’s ability to control membership, “[it] is to be hoped that a way can be found to acknowledge this historical connection which respects the few remaining rights of autonomy left to native American people in what was once their own country.” (Bonnett 2008: 42)

References

Bonnett, Alastair. "Shades of Difference." History Today Dec 58.12 (2008): 40-42. WSU Libraries. Web.

Goffe, Leslie. "America's Black Indians." Diaspora USA June (2013): 80-84. WSU Libraries. Web.