Oklahoma City, OK
Laney Colbert-Stevenson was the daughter of James Colbert, (a mixed blood Chickasaw), and a negro woman named Dinah. James Colbert was a descendant of James Logan Colbert. The Colbert family was one of the most influential families in chickasaw history. James Colbert's wife Susan "Susie" Colbert was a member of the Choctaw Tribe. His children with her are a mix of white, Chickasaw, and Choctaw blood. Below is a summary of James Colbert's and Susie Colbert family.
In addition to having children with Susan James-Colbert, James Colbert had two children with a slave named Dinah.
Dinah was owned by James Gunn. At James Colbert's request, Gunn freed Laney as a young child before the move from Mississippi to the Indian territory. As a free person, all her children were also free.
To insure Laney and her children remained free, James Colbert had his son James Issac (Jim) Colbert and grandson James (Holmes) Colbert watch over the family. On multiple occasions, prior to the end of the civil war, Laney's sons were kidnapped and sold into slavery. When these acts would occur against Laney's family, the Colberts would take legal action.
One such case occurred when James Gunn's daughter Rhoda Potts, claimed Laney and her family were their slaves. Rhoda and James Gunn's widow claimed that they did not know James Gunn freed Laney and sold Laney and her children to Robert Jones. At the time, Laney and her family were living with James Colbert's wife Susan James. James Colbert took the matter to court in Texas. Laney's freedom was upheld in court. Robert Jones appealed the decision and the case was taken to the Texas Supreme court. The Texas Supreme court agreed with the lower court's decision and ruled against Robert Jones.
On another occasion, Laney's sons were kidnapped. Charles Cohee, a Stevenson cousin, testified before the Dawes commission about kidnappings. On both occasions, Holmes Colbert went into Texas and brought the Stevenson men back to Indian Territory.
On another occasion, Laney's daughter and son were kidnapped. Louisa Patterson, Holmes Colbert's half sister through his mother, testified before the Dawes commission about kidnappings. The Moncrief family placed Laney's daughter Louisa, a free person, into bondage. Louisa escaped the Moncriefs and left the Arbuckle area and went down to the Red River, near Colbert, Oklahoma, where Holmes Colbert lived, for his protection.
Civil War timeline
1858 March 16th –Chickasaw Legislature outlaws marriage between Chickasaws and negroes
1860 Chickasaws own about 975 slaves
1861 Civil war starts -- The Chickasaw Nation sides with the rebels and declares war against the United States of America.
1865 April -Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox
1865 July - Chickasaws formally surrendered being the last of the Five Civilized Tribes to surrender
1865 September – in second week, peace negotiations between the Chickasaws, the Loyal Chickasaws, the Chickasaw Freedman and the Government are held at Ft. Smith, Arkansas. The Civil War for the Chickasaws was concluded with the treaty of Ft. Smith. Any people in slavery by the Chickasaws prior to the 13th were considered Chickasaw Freedman.
1865 October -Governor of the Chickasaw Nation advised slaveholders to make suitable arrangements with freedman. Freedman start leaving Panola County, Indian Territory for Pickens and Pontotoc Counties. Elmira’s Dawes Folder states Elmira, Dick, Cornelius, and Louisa’s sons were living at Holmes Colbert farm near Milo, OK during this time. Emma Cohee-Gibbs and Zack Stevenson’s Dawes folder states Holmes Colbert’s mother Sarah "Sally" Mclish-Colbert-Humphreys was living on farm near Milo, OK during this time. Records show Frazier McLish, Ed Colbert also lived on or near Milo on Spring Creek.
1866 The 10th Cavalry "Buffalo soldiers" were stationed at Ft. Arbuckle
1967 September - At Ft. Arbuckle, the 10th Cavalry “buffalo soldiers” had 99 enlisted men and one officer
1867 Stevenson and other Freedman families start moving west to North and South of Arbuckle Mountains
1867 Sarah Stevenson-Roberts family moves to Spring Creek near Milo, OK
1870 The 10th Cavalry "Buffalo soldiers" moved to Ft. Sill. Ft Arbuckle closed.
After the Civil War, the relationship between the Stevensons and Holmes Colbert ended. The Stevensons and many other free born blacks, and freedman left the eastern part of the Chickasaw nation along the Red River and moved to the western frontier of the Chickasaw nation.
Laney settled north of the Arbuckle mountians near Wildhorse creek. Most of her children settled in the same area. Her residence was recorded by a survey team in 1897. Laney lived in township 1W and 1N which later became part of Garvin County. Many of her descendants still live in the area today.
Post Civil War Chickasaw Nation - The Negro Question
As sovereign nations, the Choctaw and Chickasaws determined membership into their nation. Neither nation allowed negroes to marry into or be adopted into their nations. For mixed bloods negro and indian, these tribes, in most cases, excluded them from membership. Most of these rules stem from the fact that the mixed bloods controlled membership into the tribe and these mixed bloods were slave owners. As slave owners, many Chickasaw laws mirrored laws of the southern states designed to limit the rights of negroes.
As part of the treaties the Five Civilized tribes signed, at the close of the civil war, there were provisions for freed slaves. All the tribes adopted their freedman into their tribe except the Chickasaws. The Chickasaws went back and forth for years on the adoption question of the freedman. At one time wanting to adopt the freedman, but, as politics changed, their choice also changed.
In the land of their birth, the free born mixed bloods and the Chickasaw freedman were left with few rights concerning property and education compared to the freedman of the other Five Civilized Tribes. The freedmen in the deep south had more rights and opportunities then Chickasaw freedman.
1883 May 21st - Choctaw act defining the rights of the freedmen
1887 February 8th - General Allotment Act (Dawes Act) – 24 Stat. 388. The act authorized the president to survey tribal land and divide the arable land. The original act exempted the Five Civilized Tribes and several others from the act.
1893 March 3rd - An Indian Office appropriation bill, contained a rider which created the Dawes Commission. The commission’s purpose was to convince the Five Civilized Tribes to agree to give up their community-held tribe’s title to Indian lands, using an allotment process that would transfer the land titles to individual Indians.
1896 June 10th - (29 Stat. L. 321) – This congressional act gave the Dawes commission the power to determine tribal citizenship.
1896 July 8th - Dawes Commission announced that it would accept applications for citizenship until September 10, 1896. The application had to be a signed and sworn statement containing all the facts supporting the claim, and the applicant had to provide proof that a copy had been furnished to the tribal chief. The enrollment process became a nightmare of bureaucratic paperwork that placed the burden of proof of tribal membership on the applicants themselves. Mixed-blood black Indians were all enrolled as freedmen with no Indian blood.
1896 August 27th – Laney signed affidavit stating she was the daughter of James Colbert a Chickasaw by blood.
1896 September 6th - Laney Stevenson, a mixed blood Chickasaw, and her descendants applied for enrollment as citizens by blood registering their written application to the Dawes commission at Pauls Valley.
1896 October 29th – Answer received from the Dawes commission regarding Laney's application for citizen by blood. Her application was rejected.
Laney Stevenson died sometime between 1896 and 1898.
1898 June 25th - 30 Stat. 495. Curtis Act (Indians in Indian Territory) section 21 - Choctaw freedmen will be allotted 40 acres. The Curtis Act also provided that on July 1, 1898, "all tribal courts in Indian Territory shall be abolished"
1898 Fall – The Dawes Commission tries enrollment for a second time. They start accepting enrollment applications. Dawes commission staff steer negro-indian mixed bloods to freedman’s tent for enrollment.
1898 September – Peter Hamilton, Laney's grandson, appeared before the Dawes commission at Pauls Valley and applied for enrollment. He stated his mother was a freedman. The commission determined Peter was on the 1896 census roll of the freedmen, that he had lived in the nation since the end of the civil war, and his mother was a slave of a Choctaw Indian (Susan Colbert). They enrolled him as a Choctaw Freedman.
1898 November 23rd – Elmira Stevenson appeared before the Dawes commission at Pauls Valley and applied for enrollment.
The following table shows the results of the Dawes commission enrollment process. In numerous cases, sibling with the same mother and father
were enrolled in as freedman in two different tribes. During that time period, citizenship was typically determined by the mother. Children of the same mother should all have the same tribal enrollment.
1900 May 31st - 31 Stat. L. 221. This statute directed the Dawes commission not to receive or consider new applications for citizenship, unless the commission could find the applicant’s family on a previous citizenship roll.
Chickasaw citizenship became based upon names on previous rolls, not the amount of an individual's Chickasaw blood.
1902 March 21st- an agreement was made between the United States and the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, which was confirmed by act of Congress July 1, 1902, and ratified by Choctaws and Chickasaws September 25, 1902 (32 Stat. 641, c. 1362).
This agreement superceded the Curtis Act and was known for creating the Choctaw and Chickasaw citizenship court, and provided for the allotment of land to each member of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes of 320 acres, and to each freedman "land equal in value to 40 acres of the average allottable land of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations."
1902 December 25th – Last day to enroll before the Dawes Commission
1903 May 25th – Dawes rolls submitted to the Secretary of Interior for approval
1903 June 11th – Secretary of Interior approves rolls
1904 March – Land allotments were selected
190? Certificates for the selected allotments were distributed
Stevenson fight for rights
Many lawyers involved in the citizenship battle waited for a case in which mixed blood negroes recieved their citizenship by blood. In the Joe and
Perry Dillard case the Department of Interior overuled Tams Bixby's and the Chickasaw lawyers rejection of their application for citizenship.
1904 November 26th - The Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs recommended that Joe and Dillard Perry (negro and Chickasaw mixedbloods) be declared citizens by blood of the Chickasaw Nation, and that the Department direct the transfer of their names from the roll of Chickasaw freedmen to the roll of Chickasaws by blood.
1905 February 21st - To get a second opinion, the case was sent to the assistant Attorney-General. The Assistant Attorney-General held that Joe and Dillard Perry are entitled to enrollment as citizens by blood of the Chickasaw Nation. Approved by the Secretary of the Interior the same day.
1905 October 11th – Attorney Von Weiss files petitions for transfer of names of Laney's and Mobile Stevensons descendants from freedman rolls to the by blood roles. Peter Hamilton (Laney and Mobile's great grandson) was one of the petitioners. He was denied Chickasaw by blood registration by the Dawes Commission.
1905 October 23th – Tams Bixby, commissioner to the Five civilized tribes, writes a report to the Secretary of Interior to convince him not to hear the petitions. He states Peter Hamilton, Laney's grandson, probably is part Chickasaw, but, is not entitled to citizenship by blood since he was not on previous membership roles. (This justification is based on the 1900 May 31st - 31 Stat. L. 221)
1905 November 18th - The Assistant Attorney-General changed his mind and held that Joe and Dillard Perry were not entitled to enrollment as citizens by blood of the Chickasaw Nation. The law required applications for citizenship by blood be filed before 1902. Their second application was filed in 1905.
1906 February 12th – Attorney Albert Lee submits petition for Dick Stevenson and Laney's other children requesting transfer from Freedmen roles to the Chickasaw by Blood roles.
1906 June 15th – Tams Bixby denies Dick Stevenson’s petition for transfer from Freedmen roles to the Chickasaw by Blood roles. Bixby states Stevenson's possible Chickasaw blood is immaterial since there is no evidence the Stevensons were on any previous Chickasaw/Choctaw citizenship roles.
(This justification is based on the 1900 May 31st - 31 Stat. L. 221)
1906 October 10th - In the Dillard case, after the 1896 enrollment files were submitted, they showed during the first Dawes application process, most mixed negroes (with indian blood) had applied for citizenship by blood including the Dillards. The Assistant Attorney-General held that freedmen Joe and Dillard Perry were entitled to enrollment as citizens by blood of the Chickasaw Nation since they had applied before the 1902 deadline and their father was a Chickasaw nation citizen .
1907 Oklahoma becomes a state. The freedmen and free born negroes in the Chickasaw Nation become United States Citizens and are entitled to the protection other people outside of Chickasaw Nation recieve.
1909 September 10th – The Bettie Ligon case filed on behalf of the freedmen with Chickasaw/Choctaw blood
For more information about the life of a Chickasaw slave, read the article in the link http://newafricanmagazine.com/the-africans-and-american-indians/