Indian
Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: May 18, 1937
Name: Betsy Christie
Post Office: Route 1, Shady Point, Oklahoma
Date of Birth: November 13, 1866
Place of Birth: Sugar Loaf County, I. T.
Father: Isaac Adams
Place of Birth:
Information on father: Full Blood Choctaw, Sixtown Clan
Mother: Emily Terrell
Place of Birth:
Information on mother:
Field Worker: Gomer Gower
Interview # 5816
Betsy Christie
was born in Sugar Loaf County - now Le Flore County - Indian
Territory, at a point about two miles south of what is now the
city of Poteau, on November 13, 1866, and is now seventy years
of age. She now resides six miles west of the town of Shady
Point.
Her father was Isaac Adams, a fullblood Choctaw Indian of the
Sixtown Clan.
Her mother was the daughter of James Terrell, a half breed
Indian who came to the Indian Territory at the time of the
removal of the Indians from Mississippi. Both her mother and her
grandfather are buried in unmarked graves near what is now the
Fair Ground, the same being the site of their first home in the
Indian Territory.
Betsy Christie learned much of the experiences of the Indians
from her mother who, herself, experienced the hardships of the
removal and the subsequent problems which it entailed. From her
mother she learned that her people landed at Fort Coffee on the
Arkansas River and immediately set out to find and locate a
place where they could make their home. It is characteristic of
the Indian to want surroundings that are unrestricted in scope.
This characteristic resulted in the party of Indians which
landed at Fort Coffee being scattered over a great deal of
territory in what is now LeFlore County, as each head of a
family wanted to be assured against too close proximity to his
neighbor. The place selected by her grandfather, James Terrell,
and her father, Isaac Adams, is approximately twenty-five miles
south of where they landed at Fort Coffee, and was five miles
away from the nearest neighbor. It was at this place, her mother
was reared and where she and the other feminine parts of the
family underwent severe hardships, especially so during the
Civil War, because of the absence of the masculine members of
the family then engaged in war. During this time, a
concentration point had been established at Doaksville, where
the women whose male relatives were engaged in the conflict
could be congregated for protection and sustenance. She and
three of her sisters walked to this concentration point, a
distance of nearly a hundred miles, and stayed there for some
time. While at Doaksville they fared reasonably well as game was
plentiful though breadstuff was scarce. On returning to their
home-this was before the close of the war-they again suffered
severe hardship, as what stock they had when they left their
home had been taken. They subsisted principally on game and fish
and sometimes terrapin until they could again raise some corn
with which to make bread and "sofka". During this time, all they
possessed was the shelter afforded by the log cabin which her
father, James Terrell, had erected when he settled in the Indian
Territory. It will thus be seen that the Choctaws suffered the
brunt of the hardships which were a large part of these cruel
days.
When she was thirty years of age, Betsy Christie married James
Christie, by whom she had five children, all of whom died in
infancy, and she relates that before her marriage she lived at
the home of her mother which was shared by her grandfather,
James Terrell, and several others of the family connection.
During those years, she recalls that their nearest church was at
Shady Point, then called Double Springs, a distance of about ten
miles from their home. Since it was the custom when attending
services at this church to go prepared to stay all day, they
were all routed from their beds before daybreak and each one was
allotted a task to perform in connection with such preparation.
The task of the boys would be to bring in the ponies to be
ridden by the entire group. The girls would prepare the sofka-which
bore a close resemblance to what we now call hominy-and catch
and prepare the chickens and many other good things, which
entered into the makeup of a bountiful dinner for the day. When
all was in readiness, they would all mount their ponies, often
times as many as three half-growns on one pony, and set out upon
the journey, proceeding in single file, to the church, where,
after the morning service, the dinner would be served picnic
fashion, after which services would be resumed and continued
until late afternoon, when the ponies would again be mounted and
the return journey home begun. These occasions were the delight
of both old and young. A preacher whose name was Luce usually
conducted the services.
Betsy and her husband, Jim Christie, took their allotment of
land, some four hundred acres, at the point where she now
resides, and she is now living alone on a part of that
allotment. She occupies her time raising chickens and turkeys.
She had no schooling whatever as the school at Shady Point was
too far distant from her girlhood home near Poteau to permit
attendance at that or any other school. Yet she speaks English
reasonably well and is above the average in intelligence.
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