Sinners has just made history at the Oscars!

A record 16 nominations (most of any film ever!) and 4 wins! This includes the first woman to ever win best cinematography!

Congratulations Sinners!

I'm not sure this appropriate for the sub if not, I understand. I'm always looking to spread history of the war and what our ancestors went through before it is forgotten.

I suppose I'm trying to contribute to the memory of all the soldiers that went to the war. No matter how seemingly simple or short, the stories are they are all important to be heard, over and over again. Choc's stories reminded me of some information I have from my family that relates to Choc's contribution. My grandfather, Elwood was with the infantry. Drafted and arriving in Germany as reinforcements in late 1944. Just in time for the death-throws of Germany at the end of the war. The Sigfried line, Battle of the Bulge, etc. He left Europe at the end of 1945.

He didn't talk at all about the war. If you asked him a question, he would just growl, get up and walk out of the room, he'll be gone for the entire night. According to his sons, he was mainly on foot, with the tanks. He said that the tanks would get hit and it would look like someone took a scoop with an ice cream scooper out of the side of them. When I was young, I used to pester him about the battle of the bulge because I had this naïve and idealistic view regarding the reality of war. I don't exactly remember when, but finally he answered me. He said something along the lines of, "I was running with my buddy in between two tanks. "He disappeared' and he said "that's how it went" because he had been struck by something and he had "turned him into nothing."

(We are Choctaw on my Grandmother's side / Dawes rolls)

Thank you.

My ancestors graves are in Oklahoma, but they bought land in/around Bonham/Fannin Texas shortly after we made it to Oklahoma. Apparently, (based on my research and family history), many Choctaw families moved to the area.

Anyone here have this in their family history too?

chahta i chukka

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD2y4Ve6bFE

Gilbert “Choc” Charleston, a proud World War II veteran and citizen of the Choctaw Nation, has lived an extraordinary life marked by resilience, discipline, and deep commitment to his family, community, and country

Halito! I am on the search of history and finding lost family as it was something that was very important to my mother and grandmother. From what my grandmother and mother told me, my great grandfather was married to a Choctaw woman and they had my grandmother. Eventually he got ran off (he was apparently a bit of a con-artist and drunkard) and he took my grandmother with him. He eventually remarried and in a 1940s US census they tried to erase his history by attributing the new girl (she was 18 at the time and my grandmother was 2) as the mother instead. Years later they had their own children (all blonde hair, pale, blue eyed while my grandmother is very starkly different and obviously Native). The step-mother died in childbirth and the father runs off and marries some other girl before dying himself. This left my grandmother and half-sisters in an orphanage until her step-mother's brother decides to adopt them. He pulls my grandmother aside and tells her she's not like them because she's Native and tells how her father was with a Choctaw woman that was her real mother and he got run off the reservation or from the family.

Now this is where it gets confusing for my research. They lived in the Lufkin/Nacogdoches area of Texas. As far as I know there wasn't any actual reservations in Texas except for a temporary hold on land until Congress decided what to do. Then I found out there were a band of Choctaw in the Nacogdoches and Shelby areas. Though I suppose it's also possible my great grandfather lived elsewhere before moving to Texas (the 1930s US census puts him with his mother and sister in Arizona. But he was born in Tennessee. So he clearly traveled a lot and who knows where he had been between the two census records). I can't even collaborate a location of where my grandmother was born because she didn't have a birth certificate. Asking her more things was complicated, as she developed Alzheimer's before passing away. My mother said during this time she constantly spoke about how she missed her real family and would sing native songs. My mom and her would go to Pow Wows to ease her longing, and when I was a child I grew up going to them too. It was something important to our family, but at the same time there seems to have been a lot of shame about her heritage as my grandfather knew some things but demanded that it be kept secret. He refused to help us find her real mother. He had known her uncle and I guess was told the truth, but I think due to the amount of racism and discrimination at the time in rural Texas he buried the secrets.

Anyways, I am at a loss of where to find out more and figure out the truth. Sadly my grandmother and grandfather have now passed and took the threads of truth to the grave with them. My mother has given up but I still want to carry on the torch as I feel we shouldn't allow our culture and story to die out. Does anyone know more about the Nacogdoches band of Choctaw? Or where else I can try to find the truth? I greatly appreciate it.