• Interview with Salena Ryles
              LeFlore, Oklahoma

Salena (Phillips) Ryles is a full blood Choctaw woman and was born in the state
of Mississippi in 1890. Her parents, James and Martha (Baker) Phillips in company with twelve other families, left Mississippi in 18__ and traveled overland from there to the Indian Territory, in response to an opportunity given the Mississippi Choctaw who lived within the Indian Territory the right to enrollment as citizens as ruled by Judge William H. H. Clayton, United States District Judge of the Central Territory.  However that ruling was made by Judge Clayton after the arrival of that group of Mississippi Choctaws and merely confirmed the granting of such rights.

That group settled in an area which now lies between the towns of LeFlore and Summerfield, in LeFlore County. For one reason and another, most of the group sickened and died within a few years after their arrival. The father of Salena was killed by a brother-in-law one year after their arrival, while her mother passed away soon afterward leaving her an orphan at the age of five years. It was fortunate for the helpless girl that a kindly and most charitable Choctaw lady Mary LeFlore, took charge of her and provided her with a home and in due time sent her to Wheelock Academy to be is educated. While Selena was at the Wheelock Academy a Mr. W. W. Appleton was the Superintendent in charge. In addition to the commodious buildings which served as classrooms and living quarters dormitories and the like, a large stone building was provided for holding religious services and Sunday School.

Salena remained at this school until she reached the age of thirteen-and then returned to the home of Miss LeFlore where she stayed until her marriage in 1907. In the e meantime, both she and her husband had been given allotments of land which  were located on the line of Latimer and LeFlore Counties, near the town of LeFlore, on the west side of the creek.

As before noted, many of the group which had trekked their way from Mississippi to the Indian Territory in the early '90s, soon sickened and died. All who succumbed are buried at an old Choctaw Church Cemetery now known by the name of Springfield Church. Mosquito screen for doors and window were then unknown in the rural districts. Drinking water was to be had only from creeks and shallow wells.

The water obtained from the creeks was often found to be fairly alive with larva, or wiggletails, as they were then known.  The boiling of drinking water before using it, for the purpose of killing  the larva was not practiced to any extent and deadly malarial fever was rampant as a result of the lack of knowledge concerning it and, no doubt, many persons were sent to an early death through such lack of  knowledge. Only the strong could possibly survive such living conditions.  Not only were the parents of Salena victims of these unhealthful conditions, but her first husband, an Indian, died while still a young man, as did all of the friends of her parents, leaving Salina alone, of all who had come to the Indian Territory in quest of a home among their tribesman, as a survivor  of the hopeful band.

After the death of her Indian husband, Salena was united in marriage to Mr. James Ryles, a white man, with whom she lives upon the lend , which vas allotted to her and her first husband.