Oklahoma Freedmen of the Five Tribes with Author, Angela Walton-Raji

Join Janice Gilyard and Cherekana Feliciano for an interview with Angela Walton-Raji (Author, Genealogist, and Blogger) as she shares information regarding her new book:  Oklahoma Freedmen of the Five Tribes. Angela Walton-Raji a native of Fort Smith Arkansas is known nationally for her genealogical and historical research and work. Among her specialties are Oklahoma Native-American records, Arkansas Black history, and Civil war history on the western frontier. Her website Arkansas Freedmen is the only website documenting history around the historical community of Fort Smith. She documents the seldom spoken history of the Ft. Smith Freedmen’s Bureau Field Office site, the 1866 treaty signing site that abolished slavery in Indian Territory, and the history of Freedmen of the Five Tribes in nearby eastern Oklahoma. She is a descendant of Choctaw Freedmen and she is the only professional genealogist in the country devoted to documenting this unique history of African people in bondage in all of the Five Tribes outside of Fort Smith, in nearby Indian Territory. In addition, she focuses on the history affecting tribal Freedmen that occurred on the grounds of the National Historic site in Fort Smith. For more than 30 years, Ms. Walton-Raji has spoken nationally at most major genealogy conferences, and statewide conferences such as the Arkansas Historical Association and she is the founder of two large and ongoing genealogical communities AfriGeneas.com, and she cofounded a genealogy institute the Midwest African American Genealogy Institute (MAAGI), now in its 9th year. www.arkansasfreedmen.com www.african-nativeamerican.com