MISC - Tony Wade Interview - Cole, McClain County, Oklahoma     June 21, 1937
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Name:Tony Wade
Date of Birth: 29 Dec 1864
Name of Father: C. T. Wade
Place of Birth: Hopkins Co., TX

I came to Indian Territory in 1867, at the age of three years. My
father settled on a lease which he took from Jim Tibble, an Indian, near
the Red River.

My first home here as I remember was of logs and was one room about
12 x 14 feet, covered with boards which my father made himself, and it was
covered clapboard fashion.

What furniture we had we made ourselves. The chairs were logs, split
open then four holes bored in them, two holes near each end with logs
put into the holes with the flat sides up. The beds were on the same
order.
 
As I grew up I hired to a Mr. Gordon to ride the range. This man had
some eighteen thousand head of cattle and we would just range them from
Criner back to the Red River, a distance of about one hundred and
twenty-five miles. Cattle are strange creatures; they always have a
leader and as long as we could keep that leader headed right we would
not have any trouble to speak of. The ranch was called the Bar Six, and
this was the brand 6 (with a bar across the top of it).
  
After I was married I went back to farming again. I raised some cotton
and corn until the Cheyenne country was opened and then I made
that run. We were on a line. There was a line of men as far as you could
see and at twelve o'clock a cannon was fired as a signal to go, and when
that cannon was fired the fight started. People started in a dead run,
some on foot, some in wagons and some on horseback. When anything or
anybody got in the way he, she or it were just run over and on they
went. I reckon I did not run fast enough for I did not get a claim.

Every time I would stop to stake, a flag would already be set, so I just
gave up the run and decided to camp and stay awhile anyway. I stayed a
year in that country and it was very interesting to watch those Cheyenne
Indians at work.

The Government built houses for them which were small. They were
also given a team, plow tools and a wagon to each family. Those Indians
would put their plows in their houses and would live in teepees in the
yards. They would take off all the breeching and backbends of the
harness and just have the harness and tugs. They would take the wagon
bed off and cut poles and floor the wagon with them; then all who could
get on it would start across the prairie, all singing.

One time I came up on one of them plowing. He had a pair of little
Indian ponies that would weigh about five or six hundred pounds a piece,
and had two plows, one a fourteen inch and the other a twelve inch. He
had the twelve inch plow tied on behind the fourteen inch one and was
trying to plow both of them. One of the ponies could not have pulled
either one of the plows.

I was herding cattle that winter. The winter was awful hard and one
night we had fifteen head of cattle frozen to death. We just rolled the
carcasses away. After two or three days some Indians came up and pointed
to those dead cattle and said, "Give'em heap beef, Indian". They skinned
those cattle and cut the meat into quarters and ate it.
 
The Cheyennes did not do as much curing of meat as the Chickasaws.
Sometimes they would roast meat on a stick held over a small blaze of
fire and sometimes they would cure meat in the sun and air, some of it
would be eaten raw.

If they decided to move, the squaws would tie the tops of the
teepees to the saddle horns, bind the papooses on their backs, get on
their ponies and go down the road dragging the teepees, while the men
would  walk along behind with their guns or bows and arrows. When they
got to wherever they were moving, the squaws would stand the boards to
which the babies were laced, up against a tree or anything that might be
handy; she would then set up the teepee. Then the buck would come up
and fall down on the ground inside the tent and that started their
housekeeping. They had no furniture at all and no beds only a few
blankets and some cooking vessels, a frying pan and a bucket for water
was all.

One time my uncle and aunt met a chief they called "First Man". The
chief said, "You trade 'em white squaw, have many ponies".  Uncle said,
"Fifteen", and thought no more of it. In two or three days up came that
Indian with those ponies and said, "Here, count ponies and bring white
squaw". My uncle had quite a time trying to make him understand it was
only a joke.
 
After a rain the squaws would walk over the prairies, gathering up
the terrapins and then they would have a big fire and just toss those
terrapins into it alive and roast them; then they would hull them and
eat them.
 
If an emigrant came through and happen to lose a horse or steer,
people would make up enough money to give him another horse or steer,
and generally they would give him from one to four hundred dollars in
money and wish him well on his way and think nothing of their gifts.
 
I came back to near Criner and took a lease on the old Arbuckle
Trail which was a trail from the Arbuckle Mountains to Fort Sill. At
that time there were no roads and people would not have known what a
bridge was. The traveling was done just mostly by direction. Game was
plentiful. There were lots of deer, turkey, quail, coon, mink, opossum
and some few buffaloes, and fish of all kinds. I have chased many an old
gobbler and caught him. Quail and prairie chickens were thicker than
tame chickens are today.
 
Our principal food then was corn bread, biscuit, coffee and meat,
turkey, deer and beef. We would haul our supplies from Gainsville, Texas
or Ft. Smith, Arkansas.
 
I know nothing of my father at all as he and mother separated when I
was too small to even remember him. Mother is buried somewhere in
Oklahoma, I don't know where.

Biography done from the Works Progress Administration (WPA)
Indian-Pioneer History Project in Oklahoma
Interview done June 21, 1937   Cole, Oklahoma