Chapter Two

Before I go any further, perhaps I’d better explain that names like Toolate and Ontime aren’t uncommon in Eastern Oklahoma. You see, most of this land over here used to be owned by the Five Civilized Tribes—I mean, the tribes themselves owned it, not individuals in the tribes. That system was all right during territorial days, but before Oklahoma could become a state the land had to be shared out; they had to do away with tribal ownership. So this is the way the government worked it. They set a certain date, right down to the hour, and any child born before that hour got a share of the tribe’s property. He got an allotment, as the saying is. But if he was born after that hour—even a minute after it—he didn’t get anything. He was just a plain hard-up Indian, unless his kinfolks chose to take care of him.

That’s the story behind names like Toolate and Ontime, and a lot of others that have been switched around so much you can