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Historical records matching James Alfred Self
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About James Alfred Self
By design, the allotment process pitted family members against each other, promoting greed over interdependence and intergenerational collective care. When Emma Gregory went to the regional office of the Dawes Commission in October 1899, the Bureau of Indian Affairs designated her younger brother, James Self (1871-1945), as her trustee. Self then had authority over Emma's daily life, including her residence and activities and that of her son, Audie Lee. Self also would have overseen Gregory's finances, in particular her tribal payments, allotment land, and any profit from the sale or transfer of her designated parcel. Emma Gregory would never regain full agency over her affairs during her life. 9
The arrangement of legal guardianship between Gregory and Self had incredibly high stakes, specifically as his fortune rose while hers declined. Between 1900 and 1920, Self underwent a series of significant changes in his profession and class. On the day he accompanied Gregory to the Dawes field office in October 1899, he was a farmer who owned his own home. Two years later, on March 27, 1902, Self—legally acting as Gregory's trustee—applied for an allotment homestead. 10 It is unclear whether his sister was even present at the field office in Kellyville, Indian Territory, during this appointment. Self was designated as legal representative for several of his family members, including Emma and her son. 11 James Self apparently kept the property for himself and his descendants. A decade later, he appears in archival sources as a retail grocer, working for a wage, his house mortgaged. By 1920, he was an oil producer with employees and owned his home. 12 James Self's life modeled a trajectory of success in the booming settler colonial economy of early 20th century energy production at the same time Gregory's experiences embody the tenuous status of an "incompetent" person during the allotment era.
References
- Disability Studies Quarterly. Home / Archives / Vol. 41 No. 4 (2021): Fall 2021 / “Competency, Allotment, and the Canton Asylum: The Case of a Muscogee Woman.” By Anne Gregory. < link >
- 9. James A. Self, grave marker, Sunrise Cemetery, Kellyville, Creek Nation, digital image s.v. "James Alfred 'Jim' Self," FindaGrave.com. https://www.findagrave.com/
- 10. Gregory's land was located directly beside her son's, just west of the border with the Cherokee Nation, just north of the confluence of the North Fork Canadian River and the Canadian River, and close to the town of Eufala. Today, their adjacent plots are on the banks of and possibly partially submerged beneath Eufala Lake. E. Hastain, Hastain's Township Plats of the Creek Nation (Muskogee, OK: Model Printer Co., 1910), 258-59.
- 11. "I, John H. Self, do hereby make application to have the lands hereinafter set apart as homesteads for myself and those whom I lawfully represent, the same being a pert of the lands already selected as allotments for myself and those whom I lawfully represent, as follows: Emma A. Gregory (Sister); Audie Lee Gregory (Nephew); Blanche C Self (Sister); Cordelia A. Self (Sister); Peggie Lee Self (Daughter)." "Emma A Gregery," "Land Allotment Jackets."
- 12. Digital image s.v. "James W Self," 1900 United States Federal Census, available at Ancestry.com; digital image s.v. "James A Self," 1910 United States Federal Census, available at Ancestry.com; digital image s.v. "James A Self," 1920 United States Federal Census. Available at Ancestry.com.
- 13. A document created by the Department of the Interior Commission to the Five Civilized tribes, Muscogee Land Office on October 11, 1899, shows testimony by John A. Self regarding the tribal roll payments of Gregory and her son. This document was included among Emma Gregory's Canton Asylum notes. A copy of the document was provided to the author by Susan Burch.
- 14. Archival sources suggest that James Self enlisted attorneys and a doctor to support his request to have his sister institutionalized. Overstreet and Don Carlos, attorneys, telegram to J. Blair Shoenfelt, June 22, 1905, Case files on Insane Indians, 1905-1907: Emma Gregory, Record Group 75, National Archives and Records Administration-Fort Worth.
- 15. Historian Sarah Whitt writes, "complex social and political structures of legal guardianship, competency, and sanity rendered Indian people vulnerable, ultimately, to territorial dispossession — which demonstrates the key role that Canton played in ongoing process of territorial acquisition on a case-by-case basis of land theft and expropriation." Whitt, False Promises, 120; "Emma A Gregery," "Land Allotment Jackets"; "James W Self," 1900 United States Federal Census; "James A Self," 1910 United States Federal Census; "James A Self," 1920 United States Federal Census.
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James Alfred Self's Timeline
| 1871 |
August 27, 1871
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Many, Sabine Parish, Louisanna, United States
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| 1898 |
August 23, 1898
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Oklahoma, United States
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| 1946 |
May 3, 1946
Age 74
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Bristow, Creek County, Oklahoma, United States
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