Wed, Jul 09 2008
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Published May 12, 2008 11:41 pm - OKLAHOMA CITY — When she was born in Indian Territory in 1900, Muscogee (Creek) tribal member Martha Berryhill was not considered an American citizen because citizenship was not granted to members of her tribe by the government until a year later. But Berryhill and thousands of other members of the Five Civilized Tribes in what would become Oklahoma received recognition of a different kind when they became Dawes Roll signees, an acknowledgment of their native heritage that led to an allotment of 160 acres of land to each signee and the end of the reservation system for the tribes in Oklahoma. Dawes Roll allottees honored The Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY — When she was born in Indian Territory in 1900, Muscogee (Creek) tribal member Martha Berryhill was not considered an American citizen because citizenship was not granted to members of her tribe by the government until a year later. But Berryhill and thousands of other members of the Five Civilized Tribes in what would become Oklahoma received recognition of a different kind when they became Dawes Roll signees, an acknowledgment of their native heritage that led to an allotment of 160 acres of land to each signee and the end of the reservation system for the tribes in Oklahoma. On Monday, Berryhill and seven other centenarians who are believed to be the last surviving Dawes Roll signees were honored by Gov. Brad Henry and tribal officials for the sacrifices and hardships they endured during Oklahoma’s birth as a state. Rep. Jerry McPeak, a member of the Muscogee (Creek) tribe, said he set about organizing the ceremony after meeting and talking with Berryhill at a separate event. “I was looking in the eyes of history,” McPeak said. “When you can touch it and see history, it’s special.” Four of the original signees attended the event: Berryhill, 107; Georgia Mae Roebuck Self, 103, and Ruby Lee Trammell Brewer, 102, both of the Choctaw Nation; and Daisy Hawley Blackbird, 105, a member of the Chickasaw Nation and wife of former Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice William H. “Bill” Blackbird, who served from 1952 to 1971. Four other signees were represented by relatives: Eva Cheek Gilbert, 105, and Asa Glenn Purcell, 102, members of the Cherokee Nation; and Dorothy Arnote West, 105, and Irene Exodus Roberts Mills, 103, members of the Choctaw Nation. “This is really a momentous occasion,” Henry said as he addressed the signees and dozens of their relatives and friends who attended the ceremony. “They are Oklahoma. They not only witnessed history, they lived it,” Henry said. “The Dawes Act is not the proudest moment in American history,” the governor added. But he said ancestors of the signees can still learn lessons from the event. “We shouldn’t repeat the mistakes of the past,” he said. Organized in 1893, the Dawes Commission accepted applications for tribal enrollment between 1899 and 1907, the year of Oklahoma’s statehood. More than 101,000 names of members of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole and Chickasaw tribes are listed on the tribal membership rolls and the five tribes continue to use the Dawes Rolls as the basis for determining tribal membership. Land allotments for signees were assigned within the territories of their tribe in what was then known as Indian Territory. 
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