Bio:Mary L. (North) Tasso Oklahoma Indian Nations Cheyenne-Arapaho Kingfisher,Kingfisher County,Oklahoma Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Barbara Clayton:CheyenneOkie@aol.com ******************************************************* USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE:These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access.http://www.usgwarchives.net/ **************************************************************** Copyright 2002: Barbara (Tasso) Clayton **************************************************************** Mary L. North was born on 1 January 1865 in Missouri to a French Canadian named Robert North and an Arapaho woman named Sour Mouth. On 27 October 1879, at the age of 14 years, she arrived at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania and remained there for 4 years and 4 months. Between 8 June 1882 and 25 February 1884, she lived with the John Bachman family in Strasburg, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania during summer vacations from school. Mrs. Bachman taught her how to cook, bake and take care of her home. Mary left Carlisle on 26 February 1884 and was sent to Genoa, Nebraska to work in the Indian Service. She remained there for one and one-half years before going home to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation in Oklahoma. Mary L. North met and married a Cheyenne named Andrew Tasso while they were both working at the Seger Agency in Colony, Oklahoma in 1886. They had eight children born to their union: Drinking Woman, also known as Bessie Tasso, born September 1889, died 24 December 1930; Nettie Jennie Tasso, born 15 November 1892, died 21 January 1981; Maud Tasso, born 10 December 1894, died February 1895; Elliott Tasso, born 18 March 1896, died March 1981; Eva Tasso, born 19 March 1898, died November 1918; Lena Tasso, born 9 May 1900, died 6 October 1965; Richard Gilbert Tasso, also known as Gilbert Gilmore, born 19 May 1902, died 13 February 1978; and Martha Rose, also known as Julia Tasso, born 20 June 1904, died 19 November 1905. Mary (North) Tasso was allotted 154.09 acres on the east-half of the southwest quarter and lots 3 and 4 of Section 19 in Township 16 North of Range 7 West of the Indian Meridian in Kingfisher County. Her Allotment number was 271. Her Trust Patent was dated 6 May 1892. On 19 November 1910, a Fee Simple Patent Number 162008, was issued for 80 acres of the east half of the southwest quarter of section 19 in township 16 north of range seven west of the Indian Meridian and on 16 December 1913, a Fee Simple Patent Number 371856, was issued for lots 3 and 4 of the west half of the southwest quarter of section 19 in township 16 north of range 7 west of the Indian Meridian containing seventy-four and nine-hundredths acres. Mary worked as a cook at the Kingfisher Stage Station in Kingfisher before the opening of the land to white settlement. Mary is listed in the 1906 Atlas of Kingfisher County as living on a farm and as a stockraiser. In 1910, Mary was keeping her own house on her husband's allotment in Kingfisher County. In 1913, she was an assistant matron in service at Darlington, Oklahoma for the Cheyenne and Arapaho School. Mary L. (North) Tasso died 7 August 1951 of heat stroke at 12:30 a.m. in the Kingfisher Community Hospital. Funeral services were conducted by Reverend Willis, Baptist missionary of Geary, accompanied by Joseph Fletcher, at the Baptist Church in Kingfisher, followed by burial in the Kingfisher Indian Cemetery, located ten miles west and two south of Kingfisher. She was survived by three sons, Gilbert and Elliott of Kingfisher, and stepson John of Watonga; two daughters, Lena Whitebird of Kingfisher, and Nettie Crotzer of Wyandotte.