"Don’t be surprised if the ghost of Choctaw Tom is present when Cecile Elkins Carter speaks on the topic of Caddo Indians on Sunday at the Cleburne Conference Center.

Tom, who was believed to be more Caddo than Choctaw, will surely want to hear how his people were robbed of their buffalo, cheated out of their land and generally brutalized into obscurity by folks a lot like us.

I know I shouldn’t take sides in the never-ending debate of who was entitled to the land on which we reside — the white settlers or the Indians — but it’s difficult for me to defend the settlers.

For one thing, I’m more Indian than settler.

For another, I feel a social kinship with Choctaw Tom, who was reportedly as harmless as a sparrow and friendly as a coon dog.

Though not according to Indian fighters like Peter Garland.

What a nice guy he must have been."

Get the Story:
Pete Kendall: Choctaw Tom incurred wrath of Indian fighter during move west (The Cleburn Times-Review 3/22)