Page 46 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2023 Digital Edition

Oklahoma Blues

by Selby Minner and Irene Johnson part of modern Oklahoma, then called “Indian Territory.”
With them, they brought their African American slaves. It
“Da-dut − da-dah-duh − dah-de-dup!” My bass rang out
across the crowd… I could hardly breathe! He had me starting must be understood that slavery in Indian Territory varied
widely − ranging from resembling white cotton plantations,
the song as a solo − indeed the whole set! Up the steps he to commonly practicing intermarriage and allowing other
came, out from behind the stage and into the light, sporting a extended freedoms. Linda Reese cites, “By the time of the
yellow ice cream suit and a big red guitar. The drums kicked outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the tribes’ members owned
in, the rest of the band, and then… Mr. Lowell Fulson hit the approximately ten thousand slaves.” 1
microphone and the place came alive: “TRAMP! You can call The Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865. Dr. Hugh
me that! But I’m a LOVER!” I was holding the bass line − one W. Foley, Jr. writes, “The Civil War’s presence in Indian
of the greatest bass lines. The man at the top of the West Coast Territory is directly related to Black pride in the area, as the
blues was back home in Tulsa, and Juneteenth on Greenwood Battle of Honey Springs, fought July 17, 1863, witnessed the
was rocking! D.C. was wearing ‘old shiny’ − his green and first pitched combat by uniformed African American troops,
red tux jacket − with his red guitar, Big Dave ‘Bigfoot’ Carr the First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment, who
was in from Spencer, OK, with his sax, Jimmy Ellis on guitar fought alongside Anglo and American Indian troops. Fought
and vocals, and Bob ‘Pacemaker’ Newham on traps. It was just north of what is now Rentiesville, the battle has been
1989 and Lowell Fulson was at home to be inducted into the called the 'Gettysburg of the West.'" It was a running battle
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Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame. He later said he would come there at Honey Springs − some of it actually took place on our
back to play the Traditions Festival in Oklahoma City in the land where my husband D.C. Minner and I established the
fall, but only if he had the same backup band! Such an honor Down Home Blues Club (which hosts the Rentiesville Dusk ‘Til
to play with an Oklahoma legend! Dawn Blues Festival, the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame and
Oklahoma’s unique history and heritage provided fertile the D.C. Minner Rentiesville Museum). Some of the soldiers
ground to grow its particular blues sound. Before we can dive from that battle went on to help found Rentiesville.
into the blues, though, we need to travel back to Oklahoma The end of the Civil War sparked big transitions for the
before it gained statehood in 1907. I call it the wild west − “Twin Territories” of Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory.
where anything could happen. Reese explains, “The government insisted on the abolition of
Between the 1830s to 1850s, Native Americans of the slavery and the incorporation of the freedmen [former slaves]
Five Tribes were forcibly marched on the Trails of Tears from into their respective tribal groups with full citizenship rights.
their homelands in the southeastern United States to the eastern All of the Indian nations were willing to end slavery, but
citizenship rights conferred access to land and tribal monies
as well as political power.” Despite tribal attempts to maintain
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control of their land and tribal monies through the U.S. courts,
Freedmen were ultimately given full rights. The Dawes Act,
which was the federal government’s way of breaking up
commonly held tribal land into individual allotments, granted
Freedmen “approximately two million acres of property, the
largest transfer of land wealth to Black people in the history of
the United States.” 3
Reese goes on, “Freedmen from adjoining states had
slipped into the territory for years, intermarrying with their
Black Indian counterparts or homesteading illegally, but now
the opening of Indian lands to non-Indian settlement gained
momentum and brought hundreds of migrants both Black and
white.” Oklahoma, considered the “First Stop Out of the
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South,” was indeed the “promised land” for about a 30-year
window, offering land allotments and opportunity. It was close
enough to the South to travel by wagon, folks could grow the
Native Americans were forcibly relocated from southeastern U.S. to “Indian same crops, and since it was not yet a state, there were no
Territory” on the Trails of Tears. i oppressive Jim Crow laws.

44 Blues Festival Guide 2023