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CHAPTER SEVEN. Adapting
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180 6' chapter seven Adapting In 1910, Stan and Tinna Gibson bought forty acres of land from Dennis and Bertha Sixkiller for $485. Over the next few years, the Gibsons built a three-room house and a barn, dug a well, tilled fields, and put up a fence. In short, they made a home. In 1915, a field clerk working out of the office for the superintendent for the Five Civilized Tribes, D. H. Shannon, learned of this transaction. Legally, the Gibsons’ title was worthless. Dennis Sixkiller was restricted and unable to sell his land without authorization . The field clerk nonetheless worried that the Sixkillers were taking advantage of the Gibsons because, he noted, Sixkiller was “three-quarterblood ” and his wife, the daughter of Oscar and Annie Cannon, was “onethirty -second blood.” The clerk rationalized that because Gibson and his wife, the daughter of Steve and Nannie Dog, were categorized as full bloods, they presumably had “no business ability whatsoever.” In short, Shannon distrusted Dennis Sixkiller, about whom he wrote, “Does not appear to be to overly anxious to vest good title in Stan Gibson,” whom he pitied as a dupe. Shannon also was frustrated that Stan Gibson sought to avoid conflict with his neighbors and was content to receive either a valid title or his money back. If they lost this farm, he said, they would move to and improve his wife’s allotment. Shannon would not have that, and by 1916, he arranged for the removal of restrictions against Sixkiller’s selling this forty acres and the conveyance of legal title to Stan Gibson.1 Allotment complicated things in Cherokee communities, in part because it empowered manipulative and uninformed outsiders to exercise authority over indigenous peoples’ lives. Angie Debo considered the staff adapting 181 of the superintendency to be political appointees who owed their positions to the spoils system rather than to any experience with or concern for Indian allottees.2 Simply put, men like Shannon may have understood the policies they were enforcing through the bureaucracy to which they belonged, but they knew nothing of the history and culture of the indigenous people among whom they worked. If he had taken off the blinders of blood quantum, Shannon would have seen that there was nothing inherently suspicious about the arrangement between the Sixkillers and Gibsons. They had conducted the sale of Dennis’s land as Cherokees had sold improvements to each other for generations. That they needed to go through the removal of restrictions process to convey legal title may not Tinna Dog, daughter of Steve and Nannie Dog. Photo courtesy of Gail Crittenden. [44.214.106.184] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 10:51 GMT) 182 adapting have been apparent to either couple. Or, it may have been, but they may have decided not to involve themselves in an evaluation of their own competency by federal officials. It is possible that Shannon was correct when he accused Dennis and Bertha Sixkiller of being stereotypical manipulative mixed bloods preying on incompetent full bloods, but I doubt it. Why? Kinship. After his mother died, Stan Gibson was raised by his maternal uncle Abe Sixkiller in his household. Dennis was the son of Abe Sixkiller. In other words, Dennis and Stan were more like brothers than neighbors, and Stan was making his home on his extended family’s land. Dennis, Stan, and Tinna also were from families who opposed allotment, which likely contributed to their avoidance of the removal of restrictions process. Lacking an understanding of the kin ties relating these people or the sociopolitical Stan Watie Gibson and Tinna Dog Gibson with their daughter, Nannie. Photo courtesy of Jack D. Baker. adapting 183 history of their community, Shannon saw stereotypes acting out their prescribed roles rather than human beings negotiating the normal affairs of their lives in customary ways.3 Ignorant of the gender norms among Cherokees, Shannon also ignored the wives in these households. That was a mistake. The field clerk made his assumption that the Gibsons had no business sense because they were full bloods. In addition, Stan, in particular, was characterized as an easygoing man of few words. I do not know whether or not Stan was savvy with money, but he did not have to be: Tinna was the shrewd manager of their family’s finances. Shannon never explained how Stan got $485, which was a considerable amount of money at the time, but Tinna likely designated it for this purpose. She was...