Mack McDonald

Field Worker:  John F. Daugherty 

Date:  April 28, 1937
Interview # 1299
Address: Sulphur, OK
Born: December 25, 1892
Place of Birth: Meridian, Mississippi 
Father: William McDonald, born in Mississippi, Farmer
Mother: Lucy Scott, born in Indian Mississippi

My parents were born in a Choctaw colony near Meridian, Mississippi.  My father was William McDonald.  He was a farmer.  My mother was Lucy Scott McDonald.  I was born in the Choctaw Colony, also, December 25, 1892.

We had no Indian school in the colony and the white people would not allow the Indians to go to their schools, so all the schooling I had was at Oak Grove School, near Sulphur.  After we moved here I attended this school only four years.

I was twelve years of age when we moved here in 1904.  Some of our tribe were moved here by the Government, but father paid our way and we came on the train.   In order to receive our allotment with the rest of the Choctaw Indians of this country we had to live on the allotment for five years before we could receive our title.

As a child I attended several Indian weddings and camp meetings.   When an Indian boy and girl decided to marry they didn't get a license.  They went to the father of each and their fathers would agree that their children should marry and they would set the date, and invite all the relatives and neighbors to the wedding.   They would have a big feast at noon and at supper.  Then that night they would have a stomp dance.  That was their wedding ceremony.  There was no preacher to marry them.  The boy and girl would build a log hut in which to live.

The camp meetings were well attended.  Each person would donate money or food and they would camp at the meeting for days.  There were four sermons a day.   One at sunrise, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and another one at night.

We used to have some very interesting ball games.  These were played between goals or stakes.  These were stakes about six inches wide and sixty yards apart.  The teams consisted of nine men.  Four were paired off in twos as guards.

The ball was made of yarn with lead or some sort of weight in the center.   This ball was handled with sticks called cup sticks.  These were made of white oak and were about two and a half feet long.  The large end of these sticks was about an inch square and tapered to a feather edge.  There were holes burned in the small end and the wood was turned back and fastened with a buckskin string.  This was laced through it and the stick was put in water until it was thoroughly soaked.  Then it was cupped and dried.  This cup is what caught the ball.

The side that hit the goal twelve times won the game.  There was much betting at these games.  The women would even bet their skirts, bonnets, moccasins or beads and combs.  The men bet ponies.  It was a very rough game and occasionally boys were killed in it.

I am a farmer.  I married Sybil Smith in 1919.  We have two girls.

(Note included at end of interview: We suggest this is an error as the allottees were not required to live on the lands allotted to them.  Ed.)

Transcribed by Brenda Choate & Dennis Muncrief, February, 2001

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