Charlsie Foust Allen - Ardmore

Since the beginning of this nation, people have been moving west. White people had already settled southeastern Oklahoma while it was still part of Arkansas Territory. With passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1832, those settlers were notified they would have to vacate the land that had become part of the Choctaw Nation.

The settlers burned their homes, barns, communities, and the courthouse with all its records and moved back to Arkansas. Each of the five tribes used a permit system to bring artisans, skilled workers, and professionals into tribal lands to build businesses, provide education to tribal children, and establish professional services. The permit system opened the floodgates to a white invasion. Pickens County was one of four counties in the Chickasaw Nation along with Pontotoc, Panola, and Tishomingo with the nations capital located in Tishomingo. Approximately 5,000 Chickasaw citizens occupied the four new counties. All land was owned by the tribe communally, but a citizen could establish farming or ranching rights to any portion of land so long as he or she occupied the land being claimed. It was common practice for white men to marry Chickasaw women, and in fewer numbers white women also intermarried, in order to gain tribal citizenship. They could then claim large tracts of land for running cattle or lease small portions of land to white and black settlers who entered the nation under the permit system.

As word of the many opportunities in Indian Country circulated in the United States, more and more people poured into the land. By 1890, there were approximately 50,000 intruders and 5,000 citizens in the Chickasaw Nation with the preponderance of intruders located in Pickens County in communities along the railroad tracks. The intruders established businesses and cities, cultivated the land, and ran large herds of cattle on the open plains. The rest of the Chickasaw Nation often referred to this area as the Free State of Pickens. The intruders made their own laws and virtually took the western half of the Chickasaw Nation for their own.

Colberts Ferry was a popular entry point into Indian Territory. Ben Colbert, a Chickasaw citizen, established a ferry across the Red River north of Dennison, Texas. White settlers entering the Choctaw Nation filtered west toward Pickens County and north toward the Unassigned Lands soon to open for settlement. This picture was made about 1900. Colberts Ferry operated from 1850 to 1899. (Courtesy of the McGalliard Collection, Ardmore Public Library.)

Henry Baker Tussy entered Pickens County in 1869 working for the Addington Ranch northwest of Ardmore. In the Indian Pioneer Papers interview, Tussy remembered that federal militia would not let us think about settling. They called us nesters. The militia cut the wires and [drove] our cattle back across the Red River. He is seen here mounted on the white horse. (Courtesy of Betty and John Stanton.)

This unidentified family is typical of the intruders. They simply moved onto the land, built homes, and began to raise livestock and crops. The photograph was probably made in western Chickasaw Nation because of the scarcity of short, stubby oak forests common in the eastern areas. On the left the house is built against a small hill and may include a dugout room. (Courtesy of Sally Gray.)

Early homes were made of logs. The open spaces between the logs were filled with mud, sometimes mud with chopped hay stubble, and later with cement. Many settlers dug cellars into the earth. These cellars were used to store root vegetables and home canned meats and vegetables as well as a shelter from the tornado storms, and sometimes they served as an extra bedroom. (Courtesy of Sally Gray.)