Sam, Watt, 1876-1944

Watt Sam (October 6, 1876 – July 1, 1944) was a Natchez storyteller, cultural historian, ceremonial leader, and subsistance farmer of Braggs, Oklahoma and one of three first language speakers of the Natchez language known of in the 1920s and 30s. Born to Creek Sam, he grew up with the Cherokee Ceremonial Revitalist Pig "Redbird" Smith, founder of Redbird Ceremonial Grounds. He would grow up to become a ceremonial leader of Greenleaf Ceremonial Grounds where his father and brother, White Tobacco Sam, served as Ceremonial Chiefs. Around 1907 he collaborated with anthropologist John R. Swanton who was collecting information about Natchez culture. Sam was additionally fluent in both Cherokee and Muscogee Creek languages and knew much of their oral traditions. In the 1930s he worked with linguist Mary Haas who collected grammatical information and texts in addition to cultural materials. In 1931, anthropologist Victor Riste made several wax cylinder recordings of Watt Sam speaking the Natchez language, which were rediscovered at the University of Chicago in the 1970s by Natchez scholar Archie Sam, Watt's great-nephew through his father, Creek Sam, and linguist Charles Van Tuyl. One of the cylinders is now at the Voice Library at the University of Michigan. Watt Sam was the biological cousin of the other first language speaker of Natchez, Nancy Raven, a clan mother of Greenleaf, who in Natchez kinship terminology was his classificatory aunt. In some of his stories he used a register of Natchez that he referred to as "Cannibal language" in which he substituted some words with others. As among the Natchez the language was generally passed down matrilineally, Watt Sam did not teach the Natchez language to any of his children but did go through lengths to make sure his children had an English education.