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Oklahoma History
I have started a project, which is to retrace my ancestor’s Indian Allotment in Oklahoma.
The Citizen Potawatomi Nation are one of a very few, if not the only, official Tribe that settled “Allotments” as any pioneer U.S. Citizen did, rather than be “resettled” to a Reservation. According to the Tribe’s Charter, all direct descendants of the original settlers are in fact, members of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and I am therefore one such member. (yes, I have an ID card for proof of tribal membership).
In 1891, President Benjamin Harrison granted a “Pottawatomi Indian” May Carrie Striegel an allotment of 320 acres in parts of Sections 5 and 8 Township 8 North, Range 1 East of the Indian Meridian, “Indian Territory”. I believe that the Striegel family worked the land until the 1930’s. (The Potawatomi were originally a Great Lakes area “Woodlands Indians” that were friends with the French traders, and often intermarried with the Europeans. Many CPN today have French and other European names) I went to the site, situated between Norman and Shawnee, and found the SW and NW corner of Section 5. I did a lot more snooping around in the Section and can see that this will be a prolonged volunteer project, and very slow trudging. The land is covered with Oak, and has been subdivided quite a few times – I’d say there are now at least 20 residences to work through.
Thus I am on my way to making an accurate plot of my great grandmother’s 320 allotment, as it is subdivided today, just to satisfy my long curiosity.
My next task will be tomorrow, finding my way through the courthouse in Norman, and the “Corner Records” repository (this requires a lot more grit than hacking through the thick Oak forest I’m confronting). My goal is to find enough deeds to show when the original Allotment was split out and to whom, and to find out if there are any corner records for any part of Sections 5 or 8, T8N, 1E, IM.
Wish me luck. Paden Cash and Norman, Oklahoma have been a great help so far. Any tips on making this project more efficient for this Oklahoma Newbie from this Fine Board have been and will always be, very welcomed.
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3 Replies
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Warren,
If you have to visit the Department of Libraries for copies of filed corner records I can make your task a lot easier by providing those records in pdf from a paid subscription service. Just let me know!
btw – I believe Monday is President’s Day. I’m not sure if the county courthouse or any state offices are going to be open for business…
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Paden, that would be great. Please proceed and send bill for your time to [email protected]
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Paden, that would be great. Please proceed and send bill for your time to [email protected]
“Send bill”…ha. Sorry, but down here we don’t charge fellow surveyors for favors. Just glad to help out, that’s all.
Watch out in those cross-timbers. That’s precariously close to where I picked up Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever six months ago. Damned near killed me.
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