Stella Mason (née Manuel; born c. 1901 – died April 30, 1918) was a

Muscogee The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek or just Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language; English: ), are a group of related Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands Here they waged war again ...

/Creek

Freedman A freedman or freedwoman is a person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self- ...

, whose guardians and lawyers plundered her oil rich estate in

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

. Her court case was published in newspapers and later was the subject of a publication. The exploitation was part of a pattern of abuse against Freedmen among the

Five Civilized Tribes The term Five Civilized Tribes was applied by the United States government in the early federal period of the history of the United States to the five major Native American nations in the Southeast: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Cr ...

. The plundering by lawyers and guardians continued after she died, through the estate of her 1-year-old son, Isaac Mason Jr. A grand jury was convened to investigate guardianship cases and recommended sanctions against various attorneys and a judge, including those involved in her case.

History

Mason was orphaned in 1915. Her property was leased to ''Prairie Oil and Gas Company'', a division of

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...

from 1900 to until 1911, when it was spun off after the Sherman Antitrust decision ''

Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States ''Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States''(1911), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled that John D. Rockefeller's petroleum conglomerate Standard Oil had illegally monopolized the American petroleum industry and order ...

''. C. Benjamin Jefferson, "colored", was appointed as her guardian. She married Isaac Mason while still a minor at boarding school in

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

In 1916, she gave birth to their son. She filed for divorce from her husband around May 1917, stating she felt he married her for the money. Mason came of age and became entitled to her inheritance on May 21, 1917. At this time, her estate was valued at about $130,000 USD. Family members visited her with attorney Coody Johnson. Attorney and community leader A. G. W. Sango went to Washington D.C. and returned to Muskogee with her and her husband to retrieve her estate from her guardian. Lawyers Vilas K. Vernor and Ed K. Brooks arranged for her to sign a contract with them (after midnight) contracting them as her sole lawyer for $5,000 per year for five years paid in advance. County judge, Enloe Vassallo Vernor (1879–1944) was involved in investigations of her lawyers. He was himself later prosecuted. Mason died on April 30, 1918, and she was buried at the Blackjack Cemetery (formally known as Taft Cemetery) in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

Zitkala-Sa Zitkala-Ša, also Zitkála-Šá (Lakota language, Lakota: , meaning Northern cardinal, Red Bird; February 22, 1876 – January 26, 1938), was a Yankton Dakota writer, editor, translator, musician, educator, and political activist. She was also kn ...

co-authored ''Oklahoma's Poor Rich Indians: An Orgy of Graft and Exploitation of the Five Civilized Tribes, Legalized Robbery'' (1923) about Stella's experiences and similar abuses.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Stella 1918 deaths Date of birth missing Muscogee (Creek) Nation people Native American people from Oklahoma 20th-century Native American women 20th-century Native American people Year of birth uncertain Creek freedmen