OKGenWeb Project

The Indian Pioneer Papers Collection

About | Interviews | Cemeteries | Microfiche Reference

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: February 15, 1938
Name: Tabitha Faudree
Post Office: Atoka, Oklahoma
Residence Address:
Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:
Father: Bartlett S. Dukes
Information on Father: born Mississippi, Choctaw, cousin to Governor Dukes
Mother: Mary Susan Jones
Information on Mother: Mississippi, Choctaw
Field Worker: Etta D. Mason

My father was Bartlett S. DUKES, a Mississippi mixed breed Choctaw. My mother was Mary Susan JONES. She also had Indian blood in her veins. My father was a cousin to Governor Dukes of the Choctaw Nation. Although we knew we were of Indian extraction we failed to get our names on the Indian rolls, due, my father claimed, to the conniving of a shyster lawyer.

We lived in the Chickasaw Nation near what is now Durant, during the first years of my life. Later we moved to the Choctaw Nation near Caney.

I attended the first fair held in Atoka County. We called our fairs Corn Carnivals and I believe corn was the principal product shown at the fairs. Livestock had not been developed to any great extent at that time. The whole county came though, and most everyone brought something.

There were Merry-go-rounds, Ferris wheels and games of all kinds for entertainment. It proved to be a great get together meeting and fostered a spirit of co-operation and comradeship among neighbors and friends.

Many old Indian relics were exhibited. Also a number of old quilts and homemade counterpanes and coverlets were at the fair and many of these were awarded prizes.

Submitted by Rusty Lange and transcribed by Geraldine King, December 2000.