University of Virginia Library

18. James, Rhoda

May 15, 1937

Interview with Rhoda James

Field Worker Gomer Gomer

Mrs. Rhoda James was born near Shady Point, Sugar Loaf County, in the Choctaw Nation, some time in the year 1869, and now resides within eight miles of where she was born. Her mother, Emily Tobley, came to the Indian Territory at the time of the Removal of the Indians from Mississippi and settled near Shady Point. She does not know whether or not her father accompanied her, as he died when Mrs. James was a small child. She attended school at Shady Point-then called Double Springs - where for a time John Payne was a teacher. Later the school was taught by Jacob Jackson. The terms of school usually run from September to March each year.

She cannot recall the year in which she was married but assumes it was at an early age. At the time of her marriage, both she and her husband were very poor. They erected a small cabin on the ground where she now lives. Her husband worked around in the community wherever work could be found. He found considerable work making fence rails, for which he received seventy-five cents per hundred. This was usually paid in trade, such as bacon, lard, flour, sugar and dry goods...........

She recalls hearing her mother relate her experiences both before and after the removal. Her mother said that there was considerable opposition among the Indians to being removed from their Mississippi homes to the Indian Territory. This opposition was so strong that quite a number refused to leave their homes, with the result that only a part of the Choctaw people were removed. The oppositionists warned those who consented to the removal that the land then offered them would again be taken from them just as it had been done in Mississippi. According to the mother of Mrs. James, the Choctaws were not accorded the best of treatment while in Mississippi. They were not permitted to hunt on any land owned by Whites, and if any game was killed on such land by the Indians, they would be subject to severe punishment. The Indians were restricted in many other ways and were far from being happy under such restrictions. After removing to the Indian Territory the Indians had not fully recovered from the effects of the trip from Mississippi, before the Civil War with its devastating effects overtook them. The families of such Choctaws as entered the war were left helpless.