Pauline Carpenter Brown

Pauline Brown was born in 1931. Her childhood was spent in the country on her mother's allotment of land. Eventually, she was sent to Goodland Indian Orphanage for schooling, because her mother had died and her father was rarely home.

Time at Goodland proved to be both good and bad for Pauline. Although she had friends there, Brown was not allowed to speak Chickasaw.

"When some of the Chickasaws got together we would speak our language and we thought that was good, but they (school officials) thought it was bad."

This did not deter Pauline from growing up to be a fluent speaker of the Chickasaw language and notable historian of the Chickasaw culture. She served on the Chickasaw Language Committee, the Chickasaw Nation Historical Society and the tribal election board. One highlight of Pauline's career was portraying Widow Harjo in the award-winning, feature-length film, "Pearl."

Pauline Carpenter Brown passed away on April 27, 2022.