Indian Pioner Papers - Jesse Henry James

Submitted by Brenda Choate   bcchoate@yahoo.com

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Jesse Henry James



Interview #1139

Field Worker: Maurice R. Anderson

Date: March 25, 1937

Name:   Mr. Jesse Henry James

Residence: Pauls Valley, Oklahoma

Date of Birth:  December 23. 1888

Place of Birth: Shady Point, Indian Territory

Father: Adam James, born in Choctaw Nation

Mother:   





I am a full blood Choctaw Indian.  I lived with my father 

and mother at Shady Point in the Choctaw Nation. 



When I was a small boy I have gone to several Stomp Dances, 

given by my tribe, but my father told me that they weren't 

as good as they used to be.  He has told me a lot of the 

things the Indians believed in.  He said that when an 

illicit intimacy between a man and a woman of blood 

relationship was discovered, the Indians subjected the 

offenders to the loss of both ears.  My father said that 

he had known some who had got their ears cut off.  To 

hide the tell-tale evidence of their sin, they would let 

their hair grow out long.  I remember a lot of things that 

he told me like that.



The first day I went to school, when I was six years old, 

my father took me.  It was a little country school, with 

only one large room and the name of it was Brazil.  It 

was located several miles from Shady Point.  A white man 

was my teacher.  I don't remember his name.  I could not 

speak English then.  I could only understand Choctaw language.  

I just went to the second grade, but I learned all the 

letters of the alphabet and all the numbers and how to 

read and write and spell.



My father farmed on his place.  He raised corn and dealt 

in hogs and cattle. Not to any large extend, but he did 

sell quite a number.



There were lots of opossum and skunks.  I have caught 

lots of them in my steel traps.

My father bought me a horse and saddle when I was fifteen.  

I then began going to the white people's dances and I 

was always welcome.



My father and mother had six children, four boys and 

two girls.  My brother, Isaac, and I are the only living 

member of our family.  Isaac lives in the eastern part 

of Oklahoma.  And I live on my homestead, five miles 

southwest of Pauls Valley, Oklahoma.



I was married in 1906 at Shady Point, Oklahoma.  I 

married a full blood Choctaw woman.  



I don't know anything to tell, except that times were 

hard then just like they are now.  I didn't have to 

work until after I married and we moved to Pauls Valley 

on my homestead.  Nearly anyone living around Pauls 

Valley knows about this country since 1907.