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Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
Date:
Name: Czarina Samuel Dandridge
Post Office: Atoka, Oklahoma Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:
Father: Place of Birth: Information on father:
Mother: Place of birth: Information on mother:
Field Worker:
We had camp meetings and as my father owned the only ox wagon in the village he would first take his family and leave them at their camp, then he would go back to the village and bring others to camp till all were established in there camps.
The Indian church was called Lukfata.
The Indian women would cook for days before the meeting began. There would be barbecued beef for all that came.
The Indians were all very religious and all were Presbyterians. Our minister was James Dyer, and Indian. He did not need an interpreter for there were no white people in our settlement. Songs were lined and sung by the congregation, then two more lines were read and sung until the song was finished. The singing and preaching comprised the service.
The young people enjoyed these camp meetings, too. It was a get-together time for them and many a happy gatherings were planned for the future.
The older women wore shawls on their shoulders and a shawl or colored handkerchief on their heads. The girls and young women wore bright colored dresses and red ribbons on their heads. Of course one was never really dressed properly if they wore no beads.
Sometimes our dresses were beautifully beaded. Colored stockings and gloves for the children in the village were spun and then knitted by my mother. The thread was dyed with pokeberries, bois d'arc, and sumac.
When there was to be a wedding the women of the village would prepare a wedding feast. All the relatives of the bride and groom met at a camping place the day before the wedding, and feasted. When the time for the wedding came all the male relatives brought a gift and placed it on the bride's head. After the wedding they divided the dowry among her women relatives. At the feast the women ate the food which the men had brought; and the men relatives ate the food the women had brought. Much fun and frolic and dancing followed the wedding.
Those were happy days for us youngsters. We rode horses, paddled canoes, ran races, played ball, and many other games.
Transcribed and submitted by NAME <CindyYoung@aol.com> 12-99
