Oral history interview with Marjorie Lasley

Little Thunder: My name is Julie Pearson-Little Thunder with the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program at Oklahoma State University. Today is Friday, September 27, 2019, and I'm interviewing Marjorie Lasley for the Chilocco Alumni Association. We're at your sister's home here in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Marjorie, you're Muscogee Creek, a Chilocco graduate from the class of '50, and you served in the Navy as a nurse from '54 to '56. We'll be talking about your time at Chilocco, your service as a nurse, and some of your career highlights after you finished. Where were you born, and where did you grow up?

Lasley: I was born at Boynton, Oklahoma, and that's where I grew up until I was fourteen years old. Went to school there at Boynton.

Little Thunder: What did your mother and father do for a living?

Lasley: My father was a laborer, and my mother, of course, was a homemaker.

Little Thunder: How many brothers and sisters?

Lasley: (Laughter) I can't remember exactly. I believe it's four.

Doris Lasley: There was five of us, so it was four.

Little Thunder: This is Doris helping. (Laughter) What was your exposure to Creek language and culture growing up?

Lasley: I think probably the greatest was church attendance at Grave Creek Church over in Hitchita. That was our, probably, main affiliation with that.

Little Thunder: How did you like school at Boynton? Any outstanding school experiences?

Lasley: Not that I remember. It just went fairly well, I suppose, as school is 2:00supposed to go.

Little Thunder: When and how did you end up going to school at Chilocco?

Lasley: We were not able at that time to attend many things at Boynton. We didn't have a car and stuff like that. My mother, I think, kind of encouraged us to attend school. She wanted us to attend school, and I really did, so my sister and I decided that that's what we'd do. I was fourteen when I went to Chilocco and was up there for four years.

Little Thunder: Did you go at the same time as your sister, Doris?

Lasley: It wasn't Doris, it was Frances, my older sister.

Little Thunder: The older sister, okay, interesting. So you went with Frances to Chilocco.

Lasley: Right.

Little Thunder: What was one of the hardest adjustments you had to make at Chilocco?

Lasley: Probably being away from home because I was only fourteen. That was my 3:00first time, so I was quite homesick. I guess I made it.

Little Thunder: You had your sister there. Any other students that took you under their wing?

Lasley: Most of the students, after you became acquainted with them and had some friends, it was a different situation. That helped. Too, I guess keeping busy, that helped, too. Of course, going to school.

Little Thunder: What was one of the easiest adjustments you made at Chilocco?

Lasley: I don't really know what was the easiest adjustment. It seemed like it was always just about the same to me.

Little Thunder: What were some of your more memorable classes?

Lasley: Probably music and home economics and weaving. I suppose that the 4:00academics weren't that--. Well, math, sometimes that was of an interest to me, and geography. I think probably those were my interests.

Little Thunder: In music class were you learning an instrument?

Lasley: No, I was in choir. Of course, we had presentations at times.

Little Thunder: Did you ever travel with the choir outside of campus?

Lasley: No, I didn't do that.

Little Thunder: What do you remember about the National Guard activities at the school?

Lasley: The only thing I remember is I think there were some veterans there, but I don't really remember actually being involved in that. I'd just hear about it, 5:00and that's about it.

Little Thunder: Who were some of your favorite teachers?

Lasley: The home economics teacher and my weaving teacher, and then, I believe, it was my math teacher.

Little Thunder: And weaving, you were doing what kind of weaving?

Lasley: We did belts and then afghans. As you got better, you'd go on to a bigger project.

Little Thunder: Neat. What was the food like?

Lasley: As far as I was concerned, the food was fine to me.

Little Thunder: What did you do for fun?

Lasley: If we weren't working, we'd go out on the campus in the evening. We had 6:00basketball games, and then we'd go to the little area where they'd have cokes and stuff like that in the evening and just have fun there.

Little Thunder: How often did you go home?

Lasley: At Christmas and then in the summer.

Little Thunder: Were you able to catch a ride, or how did you get home?

Lasley: I think the buses would bring us to where our families would meet us, and usually it was here in Okmulgee.

Little Thunder: What impact did going to Chilocco have on your knowledge of other tribes?

Lasley: Quite a bit because I really wasn't that familiar with any other tribes. I think probably that was the greatest impact that I had.

Little Thunder: What kinds of intertribal friendships? what were some of your most important friendships?

Lasley: I guess I really didn't pay that much attention to the different tribes. Everybody was just there. I suppose I would get concerned after a while, but I didn't pay much attention to that.

Little Thunder: What was one of the funniest experiences you had when you were in school?

Lasley: I can't really recall that now.

Little Thunder: How about a difficult moment at school?

Lasley: Probably being late. Sometimes I might run late, getting involved with 8:00something else in the dormitory or something. Then I'd have to hurry and run to school.

Little Thunder: What kinds of work detail did you have?

Lasley: I think probably my special one was going to work in the kitchen. We went so early, but I still liked that. It seemed like it was a lot of fun to me working back there. I think I liked the instructor back there, too, so that helped. Then we had work details before we went to school to clean up where we lived to keep that clean, and we'd have areas like sweeping the halls and stuff like that.

Little Thunder: How early did you have to be in the kitchen?

Lasley: I think it was five o'clock.

Little Thunder: That is early. (Laughs) What did you do after you left Chilocco?

Lasley: I attended Hillcrest Nursing School in Tulsa.

Little Thunder: Okay. I didn't realize they had their own nursing school.

Lasley: Oh, yes. I think I graduated in May and was in nurse's training June 10.

Little Thunder: How long was the training?

Lasley: Three years.

Little Thunder: And afterwards, after you graduated from the nurse's training?

Lasley: I worked about, to me it seemed like a longer period than that, but I must have just worked a little bit over a year because in June of '54, I was in the Navy.

Little Thunder: And you volunteered.

Lasley: Yes.

Little Thunder: What prompted you to volunteer?

Lasley: A teacher at Hillcrest.

Little Thunder: Did she talk about the rewards of it?

Lasley: No, she didn't say anything. It was just she told us that she had been in the service. I don't know. There was just something about her that I thought, "This might be what I need."

Little Thunder: She probably traveled a little bit.

Lasley: Yes, yes.

Little Thunder: Also the Vietnam War was going to be happening soon.

Lasley: No, it was not Vietnam. Mine was Korea, the Korean Conflict.

Little Thunder: That's what was going on, yes.

Lasley: I really think it was over when I went in.

Little Thunder: Okay, right. Were there any other Native students in your nursing program?

Lasley: Let's see. I think there was about four of us.

Little Thunder: That's good. How did you end up choosing the Navy?

Lasley: Because the teacher was from the Navy.

Little Thunder: Okay, she was a big influence. Had you been to the ocean ? Were you kind of interested in--.

Lasley: No, not particularly. I didn't even know where I'd go. That would just be where they sent you. After I got there, of course, I just loved the ocean and the beach, but I never did before going there, no.

Little Thunder: What was the first place that they sent you?

Lasley: New York, St. Albans, New York, at the Naval hospital there.

Little Thunder: What was that like? You moved from a really small hospital in 12:00Tulsa to--.

Lasley: It was scary because getting at things and traveling there and not ever being in a big city like that, it was so confusing to me, but yet at the same time, I could always find people that would help. I really didn't have that much of a problem.

Little Thunder: How did you get to St. Albans?

Lasley: I rode a train, and then a taxi took me, I think, the last bit from the train to the--.

Little Thunder: From Tulsa?

Lasley: From Tulsa? Oh, no, I flew there.

Little Thunder: Oh, you flew, okay. Was that your first time flying, as well?

Lasley: Yes.

Little Thunder: A big adventure.

Lasley: Scary adventure, too.

Little Thunder: What was your experience like with the other doctors and nurses 13:00at St. Albans?

Lasley: It was fairly good. It was like any other place. I think mainly people are the same, but it seemed like they moved at a faster pace. That kind of concerned me because I was thinking maybe I didn't quite get what they were having up there, because it seemed like they were more advanced than where I was.

Little Thunder: Were you treating any veterans from the Korean War even though that was probably over by then? Who were the patients?

Lasley: Oh, yes, that's what they were treating. I went to the Naval hospital and that's what they had.

Little Thunder: Mainly veterans.

Lasley: Yes, people that were still involved with that.

Little Thunder: Was there any kind of boot camp equivalent for nurses?

Lasley: St. Albans was. We stayed there I think for six weeks.

Little Thunder: I see. Then where did you go after St. Albans?

Lasley: To Portsmouth, Virginia.

Little Thunder: When was your first time going out on the ocean?

Lasley: I could not remember that.

Little Thunder: Maybe somewhere between New York and Virginia there?

Lasley: It wasn't when I was in New York, I don't believe. Now, I take that back because we did go to the Statue of Liberty out there, and I don't remember it making that big of an impression on me. It was the water, but I think maybe where the beaches were, that was the way I kind of remember.

Little Thunder: When you weren't working, what did you do for fun out there in Virginia?

Lasley: Probably that, out to the beach.

Little Thunder: And you'd never been in that part of the country before. What 15:00really struck you about Virginia as opposed to Oklahoma? What was so different?

Lasley: I don't know. I don't really know that it was that much different. It was a town, and you could go shopping, so that really wasn't that different. Maybe being near the ocean was what we really come to enjoy. That was about the main thing.

Little Thunder: And you did two years? Is that right?

Lasley: Two years.

Little Thunder: Did you ever seek out a classmate from Chilocco or run into somebody on the East Coast?

Lasley: I did, and I don't remember how that happened. It wasn't from Chilocco, 16:00but it was an Indian, a lady that had married a man that was in the service. I don't know how I met them or remember anything about that. We found each other, and we talked. I lost contact with them, of course.

Little Thunder: But you sort of hung out for a little bit together.

Lasley: Yes.

Little Thunder: Did you write letters home or call? How did you stay in touch with your family when you were out there?

Lasley: Letters and telegrams. I remember that.

Little Thunder: Oh, telegrams, wow. How did it feel when you got back to Tulsa?

Lasley: Felt a little lost.

Little Thunder: You had to readjust.

Lasley: Yes. You didn't have the advantages like you did when you were in the service, I think. You could go to the officers' club, have nice things to eat and all that stuff, and here, you're going to be paying for that. (Laughter) We would go play tennis and all with the courts there. Buy things at the shops. I don't remember what they were called, but canteens, I suppose.

Little Thunder: Right, so just back to regular routines.

Lasley: Yes.

Little Thunder: Where did you find work when you got back?

Lasley: I think my first job was at the VA hospital in Oklahoma City.

Little Thunder: What kind of an adjustment was that?

Lasley: It was an adjustment because I really worked in dependents when I was in the Navy. I worked with women and children. Then I came back, and I was working on the wards with men. I really didn't adjust to that well, so then I was on to something else.

Little Thunder: Did you just look for another nursing job?

Lasley: Yes.

Little Thunder: And what was the next job you found?

Lasley: I think it was at Baptist in Oklahoma City.

Little Thunder: How did you like it there?

Lasley: I liked it fine.

Little Thunder: Were you assigned to any particular--.

Lasley: Med surg.

Little Thunder: Nurses, like other caregivers, can sometimes experience burnout. 19:00What kept you going?

Lasley: Well, I didn't know what else to do. You had to take care of yourself, so I didn't--. I don't know if burnout--did we have burnout then? Was that even mentioned? (Laughter)

DorisMaybe we weren't allowed to have burnout. (Laughter)

Little Thunder: What was one of the most rewarding moments in your nursing career?

Lasley: You mean over all the years? I don't know if there's even one. Just helping people, I think it's important to me to help them to get well. I guess that would be the main thing.

Little Thunder: It's a good feeling when they leave.

Lasley: Yes, because I think that's why I went into it, because my sister was 20:00ill before I finished high school. She was in the hospital in Muskogee. When I'd go stay with her, then I'd see the nurses and doctors coming in. I just felt like that might be something that I would like to do.

Little Thunder: That's kind of how you discovered your vocation, when your sister was sick.

Lasley: Yes, it is.

Little Thunder: Was this Frances, or was this a different sister?

Lasley: Frances.

Little Thunder: That's a neat story. How long have you been retired?

Lasley: About twenty-two years.

Little Thunder: What are a couple of things that you like doing now that you've retired?

Lasley: I like being outside, of course, so I have a small garden, but since I'm limited--.

Little Thunder: So you have a little garden; you work outside. That's one of the things you enjoy doing.

Lasley: Yes, and I've always loved music. I always wanted to play the piano, so even when I was in the service, I took piano lessons.

Little Thunder: Oh, that's wonderful!

Lasley: When I got out, I didn't have a piano. At the nurse's--where we stayed when we were in the Navy, we had a piano there, so I said, "I can just practice here and then go down and take my lessons." That's what I did, but I never was that good. I've always tried that, so I still try that. Then I paint some but haven't painted in a long time.

Little Thunder: That's neat. How much have you kept in touch with your 22:00classmates from Chilocco over the years?

Lasley: I guess not. Even in nurse's training, I'd never hear anything from any of them. There's only one. I taught nursing at St. John's for a year, and I have one student that writes to me still. Then in the Navy, I had one friend from Philadelphia. Still sends me a card every Christmas.

Little Thunder: Those are important, those long-time friendships. Are you a member of any Native veterans groups?

Lasley: I guess not.

Little Thunder: And you've mentioned you stay in contact with some of the people, that one woman that you met. The one in Philadelphia, she was someone 23:00that you had met while you were--.

Lasley: Yes, we were at Portsmouth together, and we were friends.

Little Thunder: Okay, in the service. I know you aren't able to make all the Chilocco reunions, but when you do, why are they important to you?

Lasley: It's nice to see the people that you knew.

Little Thunder: How about the Chilocco veterans breakfast? Have you been to that event?

Lasley: I don't think so.

Little Thunder: It's Saturday mornings, usually, I think. It seems like sort of mainstream society is trying to follow the lead of the Native community in being more welcoming to veterans now. Do you think things have changed, that attitudes are more welcoming to veterans?

Lasley: I think it's changed very much within the last maybe couple of years. Maybe it just kind of started slowly, I'm not sure, but it seems like it's 24:00really come to the forefront in the last couple of years.

Little Thunder: What would you like people to know or remember from either your service experiences or Chilocco experiences?

Lasley: Probably just remember that if you really want to do something and work hard enough, I think probably you can make it. I'm going to say, it's not going to be easy, but then I don't know of anything that maybe is that easy.

Little Thunder: Is there anything else we should talk about that we haven't covered?

Lasley: I don't think so.

Little Thunder: Thank you for your service, Marjorie, and thank you for talking with me today.

Lasley: Thank you.

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