This episode explores the records that can tell you more about lives of Oklahoma Freedmen many decades before the Dawes era. Slave Schedules, Indian Pioneer Papers, WPA Slave Narratives, Family Search tribal records, and Ancestry US Marriages, Citizenship and Census 1841-1927, are some amazing collections that might open doors for you. Take a deeper dive into some of these records and hopefully you will come out with a more indepth understanding about the lives of your ancestors.

From the 1860s onward after slavery was abolished in Indian Territory, the Freedmen, once enslaved in the Five Tribes found themselves in a quest for the education of their children. As early as the 1860s after the treaties were signed, schools began to appear in the Cherokee Nation. Each decade more schools appeared, most as neiorhood schools or day schools but a few boarding schools some supported by the various Church Missions in Indian Territory. This week's podcast looks at some of those schools and thanks to much of the research of the late James McCullough, a close look at education among Cherokee Freedmen provides an amazing array of information in this area. This podcast presents some of this information that has been found.

While browsing through Dawes Cards, an interesting community of seventeen Choctaw Freedmen appeared on a series of cards. They were interesting because they did not reside in the Choctaw Nation, and in an unlikely place. Years later they had resettled in Choctaw County Oklahoma, well into the 20th century. Why did they live outside the nation? Do they still have ties where they were during the years of the Dawes Commission? Are they your ancestors?

This episode reflects the life of a man born in Virginia, taken to Mississippi, and then to Indian Territory. His name first appears in a letter to the Freedmen's Bureau in 1865. His name appears again in a letter sent to Congress on behalf of Choctaw and Chickasaw Freedmen. Over the years his name would sometimes appear on random documents because he served his community as an interpreter, being fluent in Choctaw. From his letters to his acts of service the words of this man made a difference, and for many thanks to Watson Brown, they had a voice.

Today is the 4th Monday, and this year on the 4th Monday I shall take a dive into the many record collections that reflect the Freed people among the Five Nations of Oklahoma. These are records of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole Nations. Many of these records extend decades back before the Dawes Commission. For those who want to take their documented past back to the years before the Civil War, this episode will mention the various record sets that reflecting an amazing presence in these tribal nations. Hopefully many of you are already using these records, and possibly there are some of you who have never used this plethora of reocrds that bring forth our history and our truth.

At the top of Honor Heights in Muskogee Oklahoma an old school sits between a large water tank and a hospital. It is visited each year by hundreds of people. However, many who visit the site leave with no knowledge that it was once a school. The site is the Five Civilized Tribes Museum, and the school was once known as Evangel Mission School. It is the only structure of a Freedman School that remains standing in the state of Oklahoma. Established in 1883, and placed in the Old Agency Building for the Creek Nation, this structure stands beautifully on the hill with only a school bell to hint to visitors that it may have at one time, been a school. Evangel Mission, is a school that we must not forget.

From the time of arrival to the present day the old Skullyville District, has had an amazing story to tell. The first group of Native people removed to the West were Choctaws from Mississippi alongty with their slaves. The slaves later became freed and remained in the Choctaw Nation, including those in what was now their home - Skullyville. This episode looks at a fascinating history of the Freedmen of Skullyville and discusses a fascinating history of a remarkable people who still maintain their identity, as pioneers on the frontier, as pre-statehood Oklahomans, and as citizens of the Choctaw Nation.

A.G.W. Sango is an amazing man who began life in the Muskogee in 1868. He wore many hats during his lifetime, from being an educator, founder of the Sango Baptist College, co-founder of the Creek Citizens Bank, and the Muskogee Businessmen's League and so much more. Sango was an advocate for the rights of Freedmen in the Creek Nation and he saw the value of associating with many in the area who migrated from other states, to Oklahoma. He fought against Jim Crow laws, and the efforts to restrict voting rights for blacks in Oklahoma. He was an amazing leader and one to know from Oklahoma History.

This episode describes the new features of the Freedmen Files. This year there will be a rotatings series each week consisting of biographies, community spotlight, schools/churches and institutions, and an upclose look at the records. This episode focuses on what those features will contain.

In the 1930s Mary Grayson, a Creek Freedwoman, was interviewed as part of the WPA Slave Narratives project. Her narrative is important because it provides a glimpse into the life of an enslaved family and how they fared life on the brink of freedom. Her story also provides an insight into how those who were left behind fared when some were able to get to escape, and the aftermath that followed.