Thomas Wildcat Alford (July 15, 1860 – August 3, 1938) was an Absentee Shawnee who became one of the first Native Americans to become enrolled in the American school system intended to conform indigenous peoples to the customs of Christian Anglo-Americans. He attended Hampton Institute and converted to Christianity, subsequently relinquishing his expectations to become chief upon returning to his tribe. Rejected by the Shawnees because of his conversion, Alford became a teacher at an Indian boarding school and played a significant role in advocating for Indian allotment and assimilation. Early life Thomas Wildcat Alford was born on July 15, 1860, near Sasakwa, Oklahoma on the bank of the Canadian River. He was the great-grandson of the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh and born into the Absentee Shawnee Tribe. He belonged to the Tha-we-gi-la clan, one of the two principle clans of the Shawnee. In keeping with Shawnee customs, he was given the name Gay-nwaw-piah-si-ka ten days after his birth. Alford was born into a turbulent era of American history, spending his earliest years of childhood during the time of the American Civil War. As a result, he and his family spent the first eight years of his life as nomads. When Alford and his family were temporarily taking refuge in Kansas, his father, Gay-tah-ki-piah-si-kah, served in the Confederate Union Cavalry. In 1868, Alford and his family finally chose a permanent settlement in the Indian Territory in Oklahoma. Gay-tah-ki-piah-si-kah became afflicted with a disease during the Civil War that would continue to ail him on occasion, and Alford would consequently accompany his father during hunting trips and tribal councils, developing an esteemed reputation among the Shawnee elders. In 1872, the Society of Friends of Philadelphia established a missionary school in Shawnee territory which Alford would attend for two years, learning how to read and write, keep good hygiene, and behave courteously and politely. It was during his enrollment at the missionary school that he was given his first English name, Thomas, by an acquaintance of his father's. In 1874, the missionaries turned the school over to government control and it became the Shawnee Boarding School, which Alford would attend for another two years, extending his studies to include geography, grammar, and arithmetic. Education In October 1789, Alford was selected to be enrolled at Hampton Institute in Virginia to learn the traditions and customs of Christian Anglo-Americans in a tribal response to the