Today's TulsaWorld newspaper has a guest columnist's piece on an appalling land grab 100+ years ago in Creek Nation, Indian Territory. No, not THE big land grab when the U.S. Government broke its zillioneth contract with indigenous peoples by declaring their territory the 46th state in 1907. This is about a woman cheated of control of her very own allotment.
Written by a former Tulsan and a forever-Okie, Russell Cobb adapted the story of Millie Naharkey from his new book, The Great Oklahoma Swindle: Race, Religion, and Lies in America’s Weirdest State.
https://t.co/CNXx8iOFOC?amp=1
(I pray my link leads you to the article. Holler, if not).
Because I can't wait for Prime to bring Cobb's book to my doorstep (we ARE practicing "social distance" in lieu of Covid-19), I plugged Millie Naharkey's name into Newspapers.com.
From the front page of an October 5, 1922 newspaper:
Because front pages of old newspapers rock, here's a partial shot from the same paper. Look who was en route to Muskogee that week. See "Comrades Attention!" at the top:
I was happy to learn from Cobb's article of Millie Naharkey's hard-fought legal victory against Charles Page, head of the corporation named "Sand Springs Home." Good for her! Although she saw little of the profit from the land thanks to her guardians at 1st National Bank of Tulsa. Imagine what the Bank's lawyers hourly fee was to represent themselves in that lawsuit, I mean, Ms. Naharkey.
Having her repeatedly declared "an incompetent Indian" before a judge and then stealing her inheritance! Reminds me of Wells Fargo's recent fine for twice setting up fake accounts under customer's names so it could profit by moving money around--without knowledge or approval from customers, FFS.
Have you ever wished bankers could be tarred and feathered?
https://law.justia.com/cases/oklahoma/supreme-court/1936/23023.html
If you also read Newspapers.com, here's the 1922 article's link: https://www.newspapers.com/image/608081786/