Chapter 4: The Women's Story

On speaking English and forbidding Chickasaw:

"They didn't want anyone to speak Chickasaw...just English."

-Fanny Hughes Bass (1911-1914)-

"I remember one girl who came after school had started, and I think I was in probably the second or third grade, and she would not go to class...she didn't understand what they were trying to tell her because she did not speak English..."

-Jeanne Liddell Cochran (1929-1933)-

"My mother didn't allow it. My daddy didn't allow it. My mother...talked the Chickasaw language...Well, you see, my daddy was white. And we were in a white district, I guess you would say."

-Ida Bell Hughes Martin (1920-1930)-

Jeanne also recalls her grandmother and mother refusing to teach her and her sisters to speak Chickasaw. She goes on to say that she had an uncle who would teach them. She also says that she regrets not learning fluently. She recalls being told by her grandmother "the way of the Indian was gone, and we had to learn the way of the white people."

On WWI & WWII:

"In my class we knitted dish rags for World War I. They were approximately a foot square...It so happened later on I knitted a sweater for World War II. That was good training for us."

"We...knit scarves and...even packed medical kits...for the men."

-Dorothy Wall Holt (1940-1947)-

The women also recall the amount of emotions that was expressed when the announcement of the War ended. Some hollered, some screamed, and some mourned the loss of their brothers.

The Curriculum:

"...when Thanksgiving came along, we had everything but the turkey...The costumes, the hats, the buckles on the shoes..."

-Fannye Williford Skaggs & Leona Williford Isaac (1933-1947)-

"We were required to write letters...and they read those letters."

-Pauline Williford Adkins (1932-1941)-

"Letters were all censored. And if you put anything in there in there like 'I don't like school' or something about one of your teachers, they would make you do it over. And they read all...outgoing and incoming mail. it was all censored."

-Frances Griffin Robinson (1927-1929)-

Aside from learning manners, literacy, and domestics women of the Chickasaws also shared recollections of memorizing poems, plays, and songs that they recited during programs, and assemblys. Aside from reciting by memorization they performed not only for their parents but they also recall performing for social clubs in the Ardmore community. Performing and public speaking were part of life in the Bloomfield and Carter Academy schools.