The Extraordinary Life of Lulu Magee Stroud: From Indian Territory to Colorado Springs Pioneer
FRANK SHINES
Digital Transformation Executive ◆ Head of AI ◆ Co-Led 6x Rev Growth, from $5M to $30M ◆ Built IBM Consulting Group to $110M+ ◆ Doc. Film & Music Producer ◆ Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt
Introduction: The Rocky Mountain Connection
I still remember the first time I saw the Rocky Mountains stretching endlessly as my plane descended into Colorado Springs. A curious teenager with a head full of dreams, I was an eager cadet arriving at the U.S. Air Force Academy. I thought I was just beginning my own journey in the shadows of giants, not realizing I was also retracing the steps of my family’s remarkable journey through these very lands.
A Presidential Apology to Indian Country
Last Friday, October 25, 2024, President Joe Biden visited the Gila River Indian Community near Phoenix, Arizona, to deliver a historic formal apology for the U.S. government's role in operating Indian boarding schools over a 150-year period. This marked Biden's first visit to Indian Country as president, fulfilling a promise he made to tribal leaders nearly two years ago. My great grandmother, Lulu Magee of the Creek Nation, was one of the children that was victimized by one of the Kansas boarding schools.
Key points of the event:
Lulu Magee's Early Life: A Legacy of Loss and Survival
In 1882, a child was born into the Creek Nation in Indian Territory, carrying in her blood both the resilience of her Indigenous ancestors and the weight of America's complex racial history. She was my maternal great grandmother. Lulu Magee's early life was marked by profound loss - her mother Carrie Bolduc-Magee died when she was just six years old, leaving her in the care of a grandmother whose own story epitomized survival against impossible odds. Her grandmother had been found as a crying baby in a papoose beside her dead mother during the Trail of Tears, a stark reminder of the price Native Americans paid for white expansion.
Cultural Nurturing Interrupted
The grandmother who raised young Lulu passed down crucial Creek traditions and language, teaching her the ways of their people - how to find safe plants to eat, how to read nature's signs, and how to speak their native tongue. But this period of cultural nurturing would be cut tragically short when Lulu's grandmother also passed away when she was just eleven or twelve years old.
What followed was a dark chapter in Lulu's young life - she was forced into one of the numerous Indian boarding schools that dotted America's landscape, institutions designed to "kill the Indian to save the man." While she retained her Creek Nation native tongue, Lulu was denied many aspects of her cultural heritage.
The Trauma of Boarding School
Like countless other Native American children, Lulu endured the trauma of having her braids cut off, being treated as "dirty," and having her cultural identity systematically stripped away. The schools' mission was clear: to erase Indigenous languages, customs, and connections to tribal communities.
“I remember my braids being cut off; washed like we were dirty; talked to us like we were dirty. We were dressed in uniforms. They took everything from us and handed, like in the military, this bundle with a towel in it; with soap in it; socks; and a uniform. It wasn’t what our ancestors wanted for us when they signed the Treaties. That’s not what we agreed to.” The Road to Healing South Dakota Participant
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A Path to Freedom and a New Beginning
At sixteen, older sister Jenny became Lulu's salvation, rescuing her from the boarding school. Jenny helped Lulu gain employment working as a domestic servant for the wealthy Bowman family, an English household in Kansas. Despite the boarding schools' attempts to erase her heritage, Lulu maintained her connection to Creek culture by returning to "Indian Territory." She continued to speak the language, and passed along to my grandfather and my mother words like "toknawv" for money, "kambakse" for "come and eat." She also maintained Indigenous knowledge of traditional practices like Creek dances, tracking animals and finding medicinal plants which she instilled in her children.
Love and a Shared Vision of Freedom
In 1903, at a Creek Nation-African American church in what is now Chandler, Oklahoma, Lulu's life took another turn when she met Kimbal Dolphus (K.D.) Stroud, her future husband. Their union would prove to be one built on shared values of education, advancement, and resistance against racial oppression.
As Oklahoma approached statehood in 1908, the couple recognized the darkening clouds of Jim Crow laws and racial violence on the horizon. Making a bold decision that would alter their family's trajectory, they fled Oklahoma for Colorado Springs in 1910, seeking a place where their future children might have better opportunities.
Life in Colorado Springs: Struggles and Triumphs
Colorado Springs presented a mixed blessing - while schools were desegregated, allowing black and white children to learn together, discrimination remained prevalent. Black teachers couldn't find employment, and opportunities were still restricted. Yet it was in this environment that Lulu's quiet strength and determination would leave an indelible mark on her family and community.
She bore eleven children, sometimes delivering them by herself, having learned from her Indigenous upbringing how to manage such challenges. Despite facing economic hardship, she never ate until all her children were fed, taking whatever service industry jobs she could find to support their education. Her dedication bore remarkable fruit - all eleven children became honor students who graduated from high school and went on to college, a stunning achievement for that era. They were recognized for their achievements by First Lady Elinor Roosevelt, WEB DuBois, authors and newspapers, the Library of Congress and in congressional hearings. The children became known as "The Remarkable 11."
A Family Legacy of Achievement
Her children's successes reflected their mother's sacrificial love and unwavering commitment to education. My grandfather Tandy attended Howard University and published the newspaper, The Voice of Colorado, his older siblings Dolphus (1928 Olympic hopeful, valedictorian and Phi Beta Kappa Colorado College graduate) was accepted to Harvard University; Kimball Stroud Goffman wrote for The Atlantic ("Black Pride"); Jack Stroud was part of a 12-man team of engineers and scientists responsible for the control system for the Apollo moon mission; and Lu Lu Stroud Pollard went on to found the Negro Historical Association of Colorado Springs. Through her children's achievements in academia, business, science, government, and the arts, Lulu Magee Stroud's influence rippled out into the broader community and across the nation.
She was the first person of color to be accepted as a member of The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Her impact on Colorado Springs was so significant that she would eventually be recognized as one of the city's founding women, with her story preserved in the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum alongside that of General William Palmer's wife. It was a remarkable journey for a Creek Nation girl who had once had her cultural identity stripped away in a boarding school.
Lulu Magee Stroud's legacy is one of quiet resistance and tremendous resilience. Despite attempts to erase her cultural identity, she maintained her Creek heritage while building a bridge to the future through her children's education. She transformed her own trauma into triumph, her hardships into hope, creating opportunities for future generations while never forgetting the wisdom of her ancestors. Her story stands as a testament to the power of cultural persistence and maternal love in the face of systematic oppression, and her influence continues to resonate through the streets of Colorado Springs and the descendants who carry her story forward.
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