National Archives Lobby- Fort Worth, TX

Author: Josie Lockhart | Major: English | Semester: Fall 2024

Hi! My name is Josie Lockhart, and I am a student in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences majoring in English-Creative Writing. I am working under the guidance of my mentor, Dr. Lisa Hinrichsen of the English Department. For this project I will create a chapbook composed of thirty original poems and several works of photography that center around the Native American experience. Because I am Cherokee, this project is very personal to me. I aim to bring back life to the dismissed and forgotten Native Americans of today and yesterday. The topic for this project manifested itself within me quite easily. Around six months before I needed to choose a topic, I discovered that my great-great grandfather lived in a Native American residential school in Oklahoma. This news broke my heart and made me realize that I didn’t truly understand my family’s history, Cherokee history, or Native American history at all. So, what’s a Creative Writing major to do? Well…write about it! But first, I had to research!

This semester I traveled to the National Archives in Fort Worth, Texas. The Fort Worth location of the Archives holds the majority of the Native American records in the United States. The experience I had was unlike any before. Prior to the visit, I completed an online course to ensure that I knew the proper way to handle the materials in the archives and make the most out of my visit. Having a game plan before arriving at the archives isn’t just helpful, it’s mandatory. In addition to the online course, I was able to view a catalogue of records they held at the Fort Worth facility and make a list of the record collections I wanted to view along with their ID numbers. Then, I emailed an archivist to let them know what records I was interested in. After I created my plan, I packed my bags and headed to Fort Worth. After leaving my hotel and getting caught in the horrendous DFW morning traffic, I finally arrived at the archives where I was immediately greeted by an archivist, Jenny. The records I wanted to view were all on microfilm, which was something I never worked with before. After many failed attempts and a lot of help from Jenny, I learned how to use a microfilm machine and view the records. After a couple of failed attempts, I finally got the hang of it and was able to feel like a real researcher. I looked through many, many record collections. My findings were incredible. I was able to look through “Intruders” indexes and records for Indian Territory and the establishment of the Cherokee Nation. “Intruders” were people illegally living on land owned by the different Cherokee Nation. This is interesting because according to the records I viewed, many of these “Intruders” were marked as Black. After speaking with another knowledgeable archivist named Barb, many of these Black “Intruders” were actually Cherokee Freedmen. Cherokee Freedmen were slaves owned by Cherokee citizens and were supposed to be given Cherokee citizenship once they were freed. This discovery introduced a new topic for my writing and set me on track to research the Cherokee Freedmen even further.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find any records from my great-great grandfather’s boarding school. Although, I was able to view some correspondence ledgers from the Dwight Mission Indian Training School, which was a boarding school not far from my hometown. I wasn’t able to view individual student records, but I was able to look through letters from the headmaster. They were interesting and provided a lot of insight into how the school functioned. Overall, I’m very, very happy with my findings. Next, I plan to further my research on Native American incarceration through history and up to the present.