In the spirit of learning about actual Indigenous Peoples, heres a brief sketch of the life of Cillen Krebs, one of my Choctaw folks... Cillen Krebs was the daughter of Placide Krebs and Rebecca Folsom, and Hugo Ernestus Krebs’ granddaughter. She and her family were Choctaw. She was born in Winston Co., Mississippi, in 1827. Sometime after 1831, when Cillen was a child, her family — her daddy, her very pregnant momma, and nine siblings — left their home for Indian Territory as part of the “Indian Removal”. They made it as far as Holly Springs, Miss. before her momma died giving birth to her new baby sister, Delight. As a young woman living in Skullyville, I.T., she married Tandy Walker. They came into possession of, and lived in, the Old Agency building at Skullyville. They secured the contract to serve as the first stop after leaving Ft. Smith of the Butterfield Stage. Besides running the stage stop and inn, they were also successful farmers. They were slaveowners in Indian Territory. From 1858-1859, Cillen was “First Lady” of the Choctaw Nation, while Tandy served as Chief. Two years later, he enlisted for the Confederate cause, becoming part of the elite Choctaw Cavalry unit with some of his brothers-in-law. Cillin was left with five young children to fend for for the four years her husband was away fighting the Union forces. In August, 1874, her son Henderson murdered Robert McCurtain, his cousin. He then fled. When he finally returned home in 1877, he was murdered by the victim’s brother. in 1877, she was widowed. She died in 1884 in Skullyville. Cillen and Tandy Walker’s slave, Alexander Duncan, and five of his family “born after slavery”, were among only 69 “Freedmen Who Elected to Leave the [Choctaw] Nation” in 1885. They thereby relinquished any claim to lands in, or benefits of, the Nation under the Federal laws after the War. Cillen’s husband was a Mason (his grave is marked); she, like her parents, was a Choctaw, French-speaking Catholic. In addition, she spoke the Choctaw language, English, and the Choctaw/French/Senegalese patois of her parent’s birth home on the Gulf Coast.
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 04:22:29 +0000
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