Recently I speculated that my father’s mother might have been a native American. That was not based on anything factual but only on my own memories and assumptions. I was wrong. After I wrote that, I decided to investigate—using the internet’s vast resources.
I can now trace her linage back to England, not a mention of any native American connections. Of course, that could also be wrong, but it is supported by documents and seems to be accurate within the limits of my short-term investigation.
What does that mean? Probably nothing. It does not change anything regarding my memories or impact any claim that has anything to do with reality. I was a teenager when my grandmother died. I only had a few memories of her, and this bit of data does not change those at all.
What it would change is my statement of a heritage that would explain my affinity towards Native American images. Well, that now can be explained simply; I like ‘em. Even if my heritage is English, Irish or something else—I like those bold, expressive images. (Although, those English family crests are not so bad!)
What was intriguing was all the last names going back just four generations: Hall, Pinkston, Hendrix, Combs, Morrow, Griffith, Glidewell, Howard, Kea, Young, Hamby, Cannaday and the next generation will add ten more.
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My good friend (and relative), Stanley Nelson, provided me with some gentle corrections to my last post. He points out, accurately, that the tribes in Oklahoma were caught in a no-win situation with the increasingly difficult decision to pick a side in the hostile debate about slavery.
“Concerning the Civil War: the best historical evidence makes clear that leaders of each of the Five Tribes were recruited into the Confederacy via the “Godfather” method: either your brains or your signature will be on the declaration of alliance that marauding Secessionists from Texas had set down before you. The tribes had little choice because the Union had completely abandoned them, emptying its forts of troops and supplies, even after consenting with tribal leaders to leave helpful items like ammunition.”
Like almost all matters, the simplest explanation often loses the nuances that help us understand what occurred. I’m thankful to Stan for his better explanation of the circumstances behind the Choctaw Nations agreement with the Confederacy. He also provided me with an article by Zachery Cowsert appearing in “The Chronicles of Oklahoma” which covers in much more detail (yes, it is a few pages) this time leading up to the decision for the Choctaw Nation to sign their agreement with the Confederacy– which is attached to this post.
Why do we care about this obscured history? Could be most don’t, but I find it intriguing. Of course, this is research for my latest book, so it would be more important to me. I do think one reason to care about history is to appreciate the complications that drive all historical facts. Too often we are presented with a simple black and white version of history that ignores the more subtle underlining reasons certain things occurred.
Our history is very much like our present time. We know the simple, this is right and that is wrong, approach will often ignore the in-between solution, which breeds conflict. History, if we examine it in detail, will guide us to a better solution in the present.
My fiction writing does not require any examination of history. In most of my books there was no research needed. For this historical account of the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma in the 1920s, it is vitally important—because if I don’t get it right, I will likely receive some not so gentle corrections from Stan.
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It’s been almost 4 years since I published a book. Some of that time was, of course, not good for anyone; my issues were health and a lack of interest. The lack of interest was due to declining sales of my older books (it happens to most authors—no new books and you are soon forgotten) and the writing was taking increasingly greater effort.
Writing is work. I know that there are writers who can write a book a day (or so it seems), that is not my case. The fastest I completed a book was about 4 months but that was unusual, mine are normally much longer. The work part is when it is not going smoothly. If you hit a rough spot in the story and are having trouble writing through it—that’s when you will abandon the whole book. That’s what happened to me. Four times, four different books.
Now will I finish something? I don’t know. But I am writing again and that is what fixes the issue. This blog represents that need to write to be able to write. So sorry, but this is practice writing, I hope it isn’t a burden.
Ted Clifton's Grain of Salt Commentary 