Family Honors Choctaw Matriarch with Scholarship
In the 1880s, two Choctaw sisters packed their bags and moved from Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory. They headed for Daughters College in Kentucky on a scholarship from the tribe.
“There were scholarships for any Choctaw who wanted to study,” says James Chastain. His grandmother, Lina, and aunt, Rosa, were those Choctaw sisters.
When Lina and Rosa returned to the Choctaw Nation, Rosa taught piano, and Lina married Garvin Chastain. The couple began a legacy together.
Garvin owned a hardware store in Hartshorne, Indian Territory, where he sold the gun used in the last Choctaw execution in 1892. He acted informally as a substitute for a bank there, with his huge safe that Choctaws trusted him to safeguard their cash. When local leaders organized the First National Bank of Hartshorne, they showed that same trust in Garvin by choosing him as the first president of the bank.
With Lina at his side, Garvin became one of the most respected and trusted men in town. They eventually took their land allotments in Chickasha where two railroads crossed. Their youngest son, Colwell Clarence Chastain, recalled how Garvin built one of the largest homes there. They encouraged others to join them in Chickasha to take their allotments adjoining them, creating an outpost of typical Choctaw hospitality. It was assumed that any sports team competing in Chickasha would enjoy that Choctaw hospitality.
“My father [Colwell] said he never once went down to breakfast and knew the names of everyone sitting at the table,” James says.
When the Great War came in 1918, Colwell was sent to France with the 90th Division. With the death of his father, Senator Gore arranged for him to return from the AEF occupying army a month before the rest of the division to resume his studies at the University of Oklahoma. To deal with the complicated legal problems he eventually changed to study law. He married Josephine Kneeland in 1928, grieving the loss of his mother, Lina, a few weeks before. Colwell was a lawyer, county judge, and state legislator. Both Colwell and Josephine held advanced degrees and were avid storytellers. They passed those traits on to their son, James, born in 1939.
James’ winding road of educational pursuits included Harvard, Munich, Germany, six years service in the Army Reserves, and University of Oklahoma, ending with a Ph.D. that led James to become a history professor from 1967 to 1998. A historian of French and German history, James took a sabbatical his final year and traveled to the South of France where he has remained in retirement.
To recognize his Choctaw heritage, his daughter, Christine Chastain, spoke with James about forming a scholarship through the Chahta Foundation.
“I found the applicants very, very qualified,” James says. “The Choctaws believe in education, and certainly, my family believes in education.”
They named the scholarship in honor of their Choctaw matriarch, Lina Dunn Chastain, who began the legacy of formal education in their family that continues through a new generation of Choctaw students.
Credit: Sarah Elizabeth Sawyer
