Willoughby Thompson Examination by the
Commission
Meridian,
Mississippi, April 18, 1901.
In the matter of the application of
Willoughby Thompson for identification as a Mississippi Choctaw.
Willoughby Thompson, being first duly
sworn by Acting Chairman, Iams Bixby, testified as follows:
Examination
by the Commission.
-
What is your name?
-
Willoughby Thompson.
-
What is your age?
-
I was born in 1863, thirty
seven years old.
-
What is your post office
address?
-
Hale, Mississippi.
-
What county is Hale in?
-
Clark.
-
How long have you lived in
Mississippi?
-
All my life.
-
Never lived out of the State?
-
No sir.
-
What is you mother’s name?
-
Julia Thompson.
-
Is she living?
-
Yes sir.
-
Where does she live?
-
She lives at the same place,
right by me in Clark County. Both of our post offices are the same.
-
Through which one of your
parents do you derive your Choctaw blood?
-
My mother.
-
What proportion of Choctaw
blood do you claim?
-
1/8, I suppose: my mother was
one quarter, my grand father was one half.
-
Has your mother ever been
recognized in any manner as a member of the Choctaw tribe of Indians by
the Choctaw tribal authorities or by the authorities of the United
States?
-
No sir.
-
Are you married?
-
Yes sir.
-
What is your wife’s name?
A. Maggie
Thompson.
Q. Do you
make application on behalf of you wife?
A. No sir
Q. Have you
any children?
A. No sir.
Q. Then,
this application is solely on you own behalf?
A. Yes sir.
Q. Is you
name on any of the tribal rolls of the Choctaw Nation, in Indian
Territory?
A. No sir.
Q. Have you
ever made application to the Choctaw tribal authorities in Indian
Territory to be enrolled as a member of that tribe?
-
No sir.
Q. Did you,
or anyone for you, in the year 1896, make application to the Commission
to the Five
Civilized Tribes for citizenship in the Choctaw Nation, under the Act of
Congress approved June 10, 1896?
A. No Sir.
Q. Have you
ever been admitted to citizenship in the Choctaw Nation by either , the
Choctaw tribal authorities, the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes,
or by the United States Court for the Indian Territory?
A. No sir.
Q. Have you
ever made application prior to this time to either the Choctaw tribal
authorities, or to the authorities of the United States to be admitted or
enrolled as a citizen of the Choctaw Nation?
A. No sir.
Q. Is this
the first application you have made of any description?
A. Yes sir.
Q. Is it
your purpose to make application for identification as a Mississippi
Choctaw?
A. Yes sir
Q. Do you
claim your rights as a beneficiary under the provisions of the Fourteenth
article of the Treaty of 1830?
A. Yes sir
.Q.
Have you ever received any benefits as a Choctaw Indian?
-
No sir.
-
Have any of you ancestors
ever received any benefits as Choctaw Indians?
A. No Sir,
not as I knows of.
Q. Who among
your ancestors, were residents of the old Choctaw Nation in Mississippi
and Alabama, and acknowledged members of the Choctaw tribe of Indians in
180, when the treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was entered into between the
United States and the Choctaw tribe of Indians?
A. I
couldn’t answer that; I don’t understand you. My grandpa was named
Willoughby Trotter.
Q. Have you
any evidence showing that Willoughby Trotter was a recognized member of
the Choctaw tribe of Indians at that time?
A. Yes sir.
All I know anything about, I just knew he was kin to the Indian.
Q. Do you
know what kind of an Indian he was?
A. Choctaw.
Q. Did
Willoughby Trotter remove from the Territory occupied by the Indians in
Mississippi and Alabama to the present Choctaw Nation, Indian territory,
at the time of the removal of the other members of the Choctaw tribe of
Indians from 1833 to 1838?
A. Did he?
No sir
Q. Did he
within six months after the ratification of the treaty of 1830, signify
to the United States Indian Agent of the Choctaw Indians here in
Mississippi his intention to remain in Mississippi and become a citizen of
the United States?
A. No sir, I
don’t know anything about that.
Q. Have any
of your ancestors ever claimed or received any land in Mississippi as
beneficiaries under the provisions of the 14th article of the
treaty of 1830?
A. No sir,
not that I knows of.
Q. Is there
any additional statement that you desire to make in support of your
application?
A. No sir,
nothing as I knows of. If I understand you ---no sir.
Q. Have you
any documentary evidence, affidavits, written testimony of any
description, deeds or patents, or any proper papers showing that your
ancestors were ever recognized as members of the Choctaw tribe of Indians
in Mississippi in 1830, or that they ever complied, or attempted to
comply, with the provisions of the 14th article of the treaty
of 1830, or that they have ever received any benefits under that article
of said treaty?
A. I want to
submit some proof at a later date.
Permission is
granted to the applicant to file proper documentary evidence in support of
the application within a period of thirty days from this date.
The
decision of the Commission as to your application for identification as a
Mississippi Choctaw, will be determined at the earliest possible date, and
a report of the same made to the Secretary of the Interior conformable to
the 21st section of the Act of Congress of June 28, 1898, and a
copy of the same will be mailed to you at you post office address as given
in your testimony.
(This
applicant has no appearance of being possessed of Indian blood and does
not speak the Choctaw language.)
R.S. Streit, being
first duly sworn, upon his oath states that as stenographer to the
Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, he reported the proceedings in
the above entitled cause, in full, and that the above and foregoing is a
full, true and correct translation of his stenographic notes of said
proceedings on said date.
R.S.Streit
Subscribed and sworn to
before me at Meridian, Mississippi, this 27th day of April,
A.D. 1901.
______________________ Notary Public. [Go Back]
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