Indian Pioneer Papers - Index
Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: September 2, 1937
Name: Joe Creeping Bear
Post Office: Colony, Okla.
Residence Address:
Date of Birth: Calumet, Oklahoma
Place of Birth:
Father: Creeping Bear
Place of Birth: Wyoming
Information on father: Scout in Army
Mother: Boy Head
Place of birth: Montana
Information on mother: housekeeper
Field Worker: Ida B. Lankford
Volume 21
I am an Arapaho Indian who came to Colony
in February 1891. Five hundred Indians came here with Mr. SEGER. We
settled here in Colony and got ready for school.
Mr. Seger had a log cabin in which he taught
school until the new school was built in 1892. We had old time slates
and pencils to do our writing with and thee picture of Jesus was the first
one I had ever seen and I had never heard of Jesus until I came to Colony.
We also had pictures of rabbits and other things about which Mr. Seger
taught us. The school has been closed since 1933 but I believe it will
be re-opened sometime.
Mr. Seger, my father, Phillip Watan and I set
out the trees around the school building. We carried the little
trees in our arms and set them out and now at this time we have big, fine trees.
We had cows, sheep, tame chickens, wild deer, prairie chickens, and
quail. We wouldn't kill quail as they were too small; we wanted wild deer.
My brother, Stone Hammer Creeping Bear, and I grew up with the Segar
children. We ate and slept with them.
I finished the ninth grade with them and could
make a good living and then I got hurt on a truck and now I am on relief.
This accident happened in 1930 while I was unloading coal and a car
backed on me.
I have lived in Washita County all my life
except for the first six years. Hay would be waist deep and big prairie fires
would break out. We would have barrels of water, wet sacks and take
our coats off and even sometimes our shirts and wet them to try and keep the
fire from our tepees. Later we had cedar log cabins to live in.
We did not depend on the Government to help
us in the old days. We had from three to four hundred head of cattle
and many chickens.
I wish that Mr. Seger was still living but
he is gone. He gave me my schooling and all the rest of the Indians
here wish for Mr. Seger. Mrs. Seger would ride a horse and look over the
fences and when a place needed fixing she would fix it. She loved us
Indians, too. Mr. Seger would not stay in his office, he would get out and work.
He would plow with a walking plow and have a crowd of us Indians
dropping corn in the furrows. We have made such good corn that we have had
to fill our barns full and pile the rest of corn in ricks on the ground.
My home is located on Cobb Creek which runs
by my house, and sometimes we would find a hundred wild geese in a bunch
on the creek.
We would meet and have Ghost Dances.
The Arapaho, Delaware and Caddo Indians would be there and we would dance
all night. At the Ghost Dances we wore blankets and our paints and feathers.
When we got tired we would sleep awhile and get up and dance some more.
Harry Loot Han and I were bad boys and one
night we decided to go into the bakery and steal bread, so we went down to
the bakery and Harry said, "You crawl in" so I did and Mr. Seger was watching
and Harry ran away and Mr. Seger came up to the window and I said, "Harry,
are you there?" Mr. Seger whispered, "yes", and I handed him the bread.
I said, "I'll get some pies, too", and I handed the pies to Mr. Seger.
Then I told him I would get some meat; I handed him the meat and when I climbed
out of the window there stood Mr. Seger with all the things I had
handed him. He took ten of us boys to the chapel and whipped us with switches
before the girls. Then we got into trouble again. We broke into
a commissary and I filled my pockets with peaches and prunes and tried to get out
the window but couldn't. Mr. Seger came along and helped me out and then
chained me to a tree for a while.
I remember one time, the cowboys had wide brimmed
hats and the brims were stiff, while we had hats with brims that flopped
down so we decided to steal sugar and wet it and put it on our hat
brims. The next day the flies swarmed on our hats and Mr. Seger came around
and touched his tongue to our hats and then Mr. Seger said, "You boys have
been in our sugar", so he whipped us again.
Mr. Seger would give each of us Indians a pair
of horses, a cow, three hens and a rooster to take home with us when school
was out if we passed our grades. We sure do miss Mr. Seger and
all want him back. For we were all wild Indians and he brought us here and gave
us training and schooling so we all praise him very highly. When
he died as a very old man, the Indians all gathered and mourned his death.
Now our little town, Colony, is not the same town for the Indians. Mr. Seger
was always kind to the Indians and when we did mean things, he would say "Boys,
I hate to punish you but I have to."
I remember one time two other boys and I were
bad in school and Mr. Seger said, "boys, I won't whip you this time,"
but he took us out, put us on some high tree stumps and made each of us
hold a long iron pipe in our hands and did we get tired!
Oh! How I would like to do over those days
again. Mr. Seger gave us lots of good things to eat while we attended school.
Now I am old and can't work and just sit around and think of olden times.
I live down by the park where I helped Mr.
Seger set out the trees and now the trees are big and pretty. When Mr.
Seger got to be in bad health, he would come to my house and set on the front
porch and talk over the good old times. Although those good times
are forever gone, I know all I can do is to be ready to meet Mr. Seger where there
will be no death and no more parting. We have a fine country.
Washita County is settled up with good lots, fine homes and outside buildings and
tractors in the places of good old horses. We Indians didn't know anything
about farming, trading or anything else. A big part of the old
Indians whom Mr. Seger brought here are dead which makes me feel very sad as I
sit here and think the old days over.
When Mr. Seger brought us here, he had to teach
us how to eat and dress. We would eat cows, horses and other things that
died of disease. There was no other man or woman who would do the wonderful
things and work any harder than Mr. and Mrs. Seger did for us.
I now write a poem that lingers in all of our
hearts here in Colony. I may not be appreciated by the one that it may
fall in contact with.
Dear Mr. Seger is gone, his darling form, no more on earth
is seen.
He is gone to live just o'er the sea on a shore that is ever green.
How sadly he will now be missed by us at Colony.
His place is
sad and vacant for he will never return.
Mr. Seger, darling, is happy with Angel's plumage on,
but our hearts
are sad and lonely to think that he is gone.
Good Master, thou hast taken our loved one to the skies,
but at the
resurrection we know he will arise.
Farewell our darling Mr. Seger, our darling, darling dear,
the hearts
of your loved ones are lonely because you are not here.
Transcribed by Gay & Tim Wall <t31892@nidlink.com>,
November 24, 1998