eight chillun. My wife is 86, and
she lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

[Illustration: Lucinda Davis]

Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves
[HW: (photo)]
[Date stamp: AUG 16 1937]

LUCINDA DAVIS
Age (about) 89 yrs.
Tulsa, Okla.

"What yo' gwine do when de meat give out?
What yo' gwine do when de meat give out?
Set in de corner wid my lips pooched out!
Lawsy!

What yo' gwine do when de meat come in?
What yo' gwine do when de meat come in?
Set in de corner wid a greasy chin!
Lawsy!"

Dat's about de only little nigger song I know, less'n it be de one
about:

"Great big nigger, laying 'hind de log--
Finger on de trigger and eye on the hawg!
Click go de trigger and bang go de gun!
Here come de owner and de buck nigger run!"

And I think I learn both of dem long after I been grown, 'cause I
belong to a full-blood Creek Indian and I didn't know nothing but
Creek talk long after de Civil War. My mistress was part white and
knowed English talk, but she never did talk it because none of de
people talked it. I heard it sometime, but it sound like whole lot of
wild shoat in de cedar brake scared at something when I do hear it.
Dat was when I was little girl in time of de War.

I don't know where I been born. Nobody never did tell me. But my mammy
and pappy git me after de War and I know den whose child I is. De men
at de Creek Agency help 'em git me, I reckon, maybe.

First thing I remember is when I was a little girl, and I belong to
old Tuskaya-hiniha. He was big man in de Upper Creek, and we have a
purty good size farm, jest a little bit to de north of de wagon depot
houses on de old road at Honey Springs. Dat place was about
twenty-five mile south of Fort Gibson, but I don't know nothing about
whar de fort is when I was a little girl at dat time. I know de Elk
River 'bout two mile north of whar we live, 'cause I been there many
de time.

I don't know if old Master have a white name. Lots de Upper Creek
didn't have no white name. Maybe he have another Indian name, too,
because Tuskaya-hiniha mean "head man warrior" in Creek, but dat what
everybody call him and dat what de family call him too.

My Mistress' name was Nancy, and she was a Lott before she marry old
man Tuskaya-hiniha. Her pappy name was Lott and he was purty near
white. Maybe so all white. Dey have two chillun, I think, but only one
stayed on de place. She was name Luwina, and her husban