 people. From her mother, Mary learned how to use herbs and roots for healing. From both of them, she learned independence and tenacity.
Mary, like a turtle, was a traveler. She stayed in close contact with her relatives in Kansas, and when she was old enough, she moved to Kansas to go to school. She lived with her cousins, the Isaiah Walker family, during her teenage years. Mary, like her mother, was also a beauty. About 1856, Mary had a baby girl whom she named Catherine after her mother.
Mary McKee and her daughter returned to her mother’s home in 1867. Mary and her mother petitioned the government for Mary’s rightful land allotment and pay. She attempted to explain that she had gone to Kansas for schooling and always intended to return home to her mother. For all her effort, she only ever received one $21 annuity payment. The Wyandot people of Anderdon did not fully welcome Mary back. They were split into two groups over the issue of “enfranchisement,” and another member simply meant less for each person there. Nevertheless, she persevered and kept up the battle.
In 1877, Mary wrote a formal petition to the Minister of the Interior for her fair share of the Reserve. It was a difficult struggle, but finally some ten years later on February 24, 1887, at 2 p.m. in Ottawa, the “absolute purchase of the 50 acre tract in Anderdon Township to one Mary McKee was granted for the consideration of $1.” It was registered with the Department of Indian Affairs on March 2, 1887. Under the reign of Queen Victoria, and carrying her name, the paper she had long fought for gave Mary McKee part of the land set apart in Anderdon for Wyandot Indians. Mary received her 50 acres in the Second Concession of Anderdon.
Before Mary received her property, however, her mother passed away. Katie Quoqua Clarke died in 1876, when Mary was 36 years old. Mary and her daughter Catherine were living with her. Her step-father, James Clarke, continued to live with Mary for 19 more years before he passed away in 1895 at the age of 91 years.
During Mary’s adult life, one of her great joys was traveling to Oklahoma to visit her relatives who had moved to Oklahoma from Kansas. Each year Mary stayed in the home of her Uncle Bertram N. O. Walker and Aunt Mary (Mrs. Isaiah) Walker. Mr. B. N. O. Walker, a member of the Big Turtle clan, was a bachelor and one of the tribe’s most colorful and talented persons. He was an avid storyteller, poet, singer, musician and businessman. Using his Wyandotte name, “Hen-Toh,” he wrote two books – “Tales of the Bark Lodges” and “Nubbins.” Evenings spent in his home would have been filled with wonderful conversation and traditional stories of Old Fox and Old Coon, Rabbit, Beaver, Otter and other animal characters.
In 1911, Mary met anthropologist Marius Barbeau. Mr. Barbeau was interested in interviewing Mary about her knowledge of the Wyandot people and in particular recording her use of the Wyandot language. In August 1912, Mary told Mr. Barbeau some of the old stories, and sang him some Wyandot songs which he recorded on wax cylinders. He also photographed her outside her home in Amherstburg, Essex County, Ontario. In 1912, she sold Mr. Barbeau her all Wyandot artifacts for $60. Mary was described by Mr. Barbeau as “a refined Wyandot, aged 73, belonging to Anderdon Township, Essex County, Ontario, and one of the very last to speak the language of her nation on the Detroit River.”
By 1914, Mary had become too feeble to make her annual journey to Oklahoma, so she sold to her house to Annie Splitlog Gibb and moved permanently to the home of B. N. O. Walker in Oklahoma. Her house remained in the Gibb family for many years. It was modernized over the years and at one time was jacked up, had a basement put under it, and windows cut through its log walls. In 1949, Mary’s official document granting her 50 acres of the Anderdon Reserve was in the possession of Norman Gibb, son of Annie Splitlog Gibb. In recent years, it was in the possession of Annie’s grandson, Russell Dupuis. From Oklahoma, Mary wrote to friends in Canada, principall