Artist’s Inspiration
Harold Stevenson was profoundly influenced by his direct association with Indians. He grew up as neighbors with Choctaws. His models were often Indian. His grandfather, Dove Stevenson, a country doctor, administered life saving medicine during the Spanish Flu (1918). He would sew up the guts of a young man split open in a knife fight. He helped bury their dead. His partner of forty years was Indian. The Trail of Tears is a mural-size tribute to a nation of people he loved. It was dedicated to the Idabel Public Library for all to enjoy. Sometimes, Harold referred to the painting as Tears Not Allowed.
Images and Emotions
The Trail of Tears depicts a Choctaw Indian standing outside the Indian Territory. The painting shows the geographic location of the Choctaw Nation. It is now recognized as the 10-county area of southeastern Oklahoma. The farthest corner is McCurtain County. The county seat is Idabel, Harold’s hometown where he was born and reared. The golden tribal nation is bordered to the south by the Red River which separates the territory from neighboring Texas. Trading between Choctaws and Spanish and French outposts has been documented. According to Army field notes, a band of Choctaws returned lost or stolen ponies to the outpost in exchange for ammunition.
The Encounters
“Prior to removal; the Choctaws were generally regarded as having peaceable relations with encroaching nation states. Prior to the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, Pierre-Joseph De Favrot (1749-1824) was a French and Spanish soldier assigned as commandant of the Spanish military fort in Baton Rouge Louisiana, land held by the French. In the spring of 1780, De Favrot accounted for a typical supplying of trade for ‘ammunition for the savages.’ In the summer of 1780, he reported muskets and gunpowder were ‘given to a Choctaw who brought back a horse that had been stolen belonging to the King’ (De Favrot 1780:3)”. More about the Red River boundary land.
The Church
During the late nineteenth century, Choctaws were being converted to Christianity. Suffering from displacement, starvation, and illness, the tribe began to accept the aid and education of Christian missionaries. This influence is shown by the shadow of the cross on both the tribal nation territory as well as branded across the heart of the Indian.
Indian education often called for assimilation rather than cultural acceptance. The unbuckled belt of the Indian represents shedding the efforts of forced assimilation and an attempt to re-establish the cultural dress of ancestors. The long dark hair shall not be shorn.
Finding Hope
In the bottom-left corner of the painting is a fragmented segment of the international icon for “no.” Its bright red message reflects the idea that something is not good. Hope exists as the “no” slides off the bottom of the painting and only a section remains as a small discomfort.
Provisioning
The cast iron “squirrel pot” shown in the center-bottom of the painting expresses one of the few items passed down from the Lloyd Tugwell and Robbie Everidge Tugwell family. One of few items that remained in their position from the ancestral march to Indian Territory. Indians accepting the mandate to remove were issued a cooking pot “big enough to cook a squirrel.” Not every woman was in love with her cooking pot.
On the fifth day [of treaty negotiations], an Indian woman entered the discussion room. Upon overhearing the talk between Felix R. Brunot, who was serving under President Ulysses S. Grant as Chairman of the Indian Commissioners, and a tribal elder; the Crow woman appeared unable to remain silent any longer.
“I am woman and ought not to speak…but I want to speak…. You bought our land before, and gave us kettles that would not hold water.”
(Brunot et al. 1874:123)
Contained in the pot, still pervaded by the cross, is a bison skull and feathers. These are important artifacts of Indian culture.
Trail of Tears can be viewed during regular open hours at the Idabel Public Library.
Upcoming Exhibitions:
March 10 – Jun 7, 2020 Museum of the Red River, Idabel OK.
© Dian Jordan