Ed Walkinstik-Man-Alone Oral History Interview (1 of 2)

In this interview, Ed Walkinstik-Man-Alone reveals the degradations he has suffered at the hands of the U.S. government and discusses what it means to be a Native American 500 years after the arrival of the white man. He notes that he is that last living member of his family, a part of the Choctaw Nation’s Bear Clan. He was raised by his great-grandfather until he was taken, along with many other Native American children, by the U.S. government during the de-Indianization movement of the 1920s and ‘30s. He and the other children were sent to boarding schools far from home. He recounts in detail the physical, sexual, and mental abuse that they suffered at the hands of their teachers. After the schools were shut down, the children were transferred to orphanages were they were forced to practice Christianity, which ultimately lead to the death of one of Walkinstik-Man-Alone’s friends. He describes feeling as though his identity is missing and that he has had to fight for every piece of it that he has reclaimed, including his own name, which he spent twenty-two years in court fighting for the right to bear. Throughout the interview he returns to his animosity for white American culture and the theme of broken trust. He points out the irony of European settlers coming to America as refugees from religious persecution becoming persecutors themselves.

From there, Walkinstik-Man-Alone talks about his goal to finish his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Oregon State University, stressing his ambition to build bridges for future Native American generations so that they do not have to fight the same battles he has fought. His likewise reveals that his research focuses on the development of 3-D teaching devices for hearing-impaired students. His own hearing was irreparably damaged after he was the victim of a radio-frequency accident while he was working as a radar and electronics specialist for the U.S. government. He explains that he can read lips and hear sound, but he cannot understand speech because all other sounds are drowned out by the severe tinnitus that resulted from his injuries.

Next, he describes his lifestyle travelling around the country hosting free workshops and teaching people woodworking, metalworking, and other crafts in order to help them become more self-sufficient. He lives off of the money he makes by selling handmade bronze bonsai sculptures. The tape cuts off as he begins to describe the removal of thousands of Native Americans from reservations in the American Southwest.

Ed Walkinstik-Man-Alone (Dubdehono Eskiyadoka) was born in Sacramento, California in 1933, although the U.S. government officially lists his birth year as 1938. His father brought him to live on the Choctaw reservation in Oklahoma shortly after he was born. He was raised primarily by his great-grandfather for the first seven years of his life, until the U.S. government forced the tribe off their reservation and sent the children to government schools. After most of the schools were closed, Walkinstik-Man-Alone and some of the other children were sent to cotton cottages and later put in Christian orphanages in Sacramento. Walkinstik-Man-Alone eventually left the orphanage and traveled around the world as a folk musician and folk music collector.

Walkinstik-Man-Alone also worked as a radar and electronics specialist for the U.S. Department of Defense and the Department of Transportation, and in the Navy and the Coast Guard. After suffering 70% hearing loss from a work-related injury, he returned to Sacramento and enrolled at American River College to pursue an associate’s degree in art and special education art. His research on three-dimensional teaching devices for the hearing impaired, led to a Distinguished Service Award and lifetime membership in California’s Scholastic Honor Society, Alpha Gamma Sigma. Walkinstik-Man-Alone was also known for the “Solar Chariot”, one of many mobile homes fueled with alternative fuels that he built. Walkinstik-Man-Alone lived in Philomath, Oregon and, later, Bainbridge Island in Washington state. He passed away in May 2017.

Content Warning: Please be aware that some of the contents of the Ed Walkinstik-Man-Alone oral history interview may be disturbing or activating. Throughout the interview, the narrator shares stories of persecution, abuse and subjugation of indigenous peoples. Connected to this are stories of trauma, both personal and community-wide. At one point in the interview, the narrator also uses racist, derogatory language to describe African Americans that is reflective of a broader culture of racism.