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Indian Pioneer Papers - Index

Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date: April 19, 1937
Name: Silla Perryman (Mrs.)
Post Office: Dewar, Oklahoma
Residence address: Northwest part of Dewar in her allotment and she still has a home there by herself.
Date of Birth: exact date is unknown not later than 1828
Other: There are supposed to be six generations under her and I know of
           three, for sure, some say she is 121 years old.
Enrollment No. 5332, Creek Nation
Place of Birth: don't know.
Father:
Place of Birth:
Information on father:
Mother:
Place of birth:
Information on mother:
Field Worker: Grace Kelley
Vol. 8, p. 194-198

One of the oldest indians

Mrs. Silla Perryman is a very old Indian and she gets mixed up in some things.  This interview won't be very long for she got tired and wanted to get her pipe and have a smoke.  She wouldn’t tell me what she wanted, the neighbors told me after she hurried back to her house.  She is almost blind but can see things that are close to her.  She walks about a block with a cane easily but has to be lead if she is going farther.  She has lived on that place almost always as it is her allotment.  She had another house about one-eight of a mile west of the present one years ago.

When I came to this country
(As told by Mrs. Silla Perryman)

I came to this country about two years before I was a woman.  We came to Waw-see-da town between here and Texas.  Waw-see-da had a big crop of beans and they let us have what we wanted.  There were more men than women.  Their women were left behind.  Some had wives and some didn’t.

(I can’t help but believe she was talking about the Civil War but that would make her about 85.  I would like your opinion of that)

p. 196
Early Indian Marriages

In the early days when a man and girl wanted to get married they would just go to living together.  Sometimes the man would have two or three wives.  It didn’t make any difference how poor he was or how much he had.  It was just if he wanted he could get more than one.  When the preachers came they started to marrying the Indians.

Indian Homes
Our houses were log without floors or windows but with a door that opened and shut.

Indian Way of Washing Clothes
We would take our clothes down to the creek and put them on a rock, one at a time, and take a paddle that was made for that purpose, more round than long and had a handle, and whip them until they would come clean.  We used soap that was made form grease and lye made from ashes.

Indian Farming
In the Civil war we ran off and left everything standing, horses, cattle and everything.  When we were told to was “Peace” we came back and everything was gone.  We didn’t raise cotton, but had plenty of corn, both sofke and white flour corn, sweet potatoes, peanuts and rice.  Our—es and plows were homemade, wooden handles and steel blades.

Eufaula, Only Town
There wasn’t any Okmulgee, just Eufaula.  We would go there on horses and get our things in a sack, put the sack across the horse and come home.  We got money from coal royalties.

Wild Ponies
The way we would get horses was:  The men would find a bunch and they would run them and run them till they were tired.  They would have fresh horses to change to when the ones they were riding got tired.  The dogs would help to run them.  When they were tired out the men would get fresh horses and rope or lasso the wold ones, then break them to ride.  There were plenty of them.

There were turkey, prairie chicken and buffalo, lots of them.

Red Root Medicine
Red root was used for almost everything that could be wrong with you, owing to how made and sued.  It made a tea like sassafras bark which was a good laxative, or else it would be made so it would make you vomit.  It was also good to take a bath in.

Ispahacha War
I was a married woman during the Ispahacha War.  We didn’t go anywhere, but both my brothers were on Ispahacha’s side.  Neither of them were killed but a lot of others were.  The man went down by Green Leaf (Indian) Town. (Close to Okemah).  That was where their worst fighting was.

I belong to the Tulsa Canadian Town and Little Cussehta Methodist Church.

Grave of John Perryman
John Perryman was a Civil War soldier on the Confederate side.  He is buried right south of the Coal Creek bridge south of here on the Henryetta, Dewar highway.  The people who live there plow right over the grave.  It looks like it would be against the law to plow over a grave.  He was my only husband.  I had five children but they are all dead, my sisters and brothers are dead too.

Submitted to OKGenWeb by Joan Case <lcase@manti.com> 02-1999.

Also see Perryman Clearing House