USA > Oklahoma > A history of Oklahoma > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14
11. Where was the general peace council held? When? What were the peace conditions imposed by the Government? Why were they not accepted at the time?
· CHEROKEE
CHEROKEE
CABIN CREEK
OUTLET
CLAREMORE
MOUNDS
·FT. WAYNE
..
TULSEY TOWN
ITAHLEQUAH
CREEK
EFT. GIBSON
FT. DAVIS
COUNCIL GROUNDS
.NEY. SPRINGS
SEMINOLE
NORTH FORK TOWN
PHEASANT BLUFF
KULLAVILLE
PERRYVILLE
CH
C TAW
LIME STONE GAP
FT. ARBUCKLE.
· ATOKAI
BUGGY DEPOT
PT. WASHITA
. ARMSTRONG
ACADEMY
. DOAKSVILLE
FT. MY COLIOCH
MILITARY MAP, INDIAN TERRITORY, 1861-5.
65
LN2
THE CIVIL WAR IN OKLAHOMA
FORT SMITH
CHICKASAW
66
1
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
NATIONAL CEMETERY AT FORT GIBSON
THE BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD
The muffled drum's sad roll has beat the soldier's last tattoo; No more on life's parade shall meet that brave and fallen few. On Fame's eternal camping ground their silent tents are spread, While Glory guards, with solemn round, the bivouac of the dead.
No rumors of the foe's advance now swells upon the wind; No troubled thought at midnight haunts of loved ones left behind; No vision of the morrow's st:ife the warrior's dream alarms; No braving horn or screaming fife at dawn shall call to arms.
Their shivered swords are red with rust; their plumed heads are bowed; Their haughty banner, trailed in dust, is now their martial shroud. And plenteous funeral tears have washed the red stains from each brow,
And the proud forms by battle gashed are free from angnish now. The neighing troop, the flashing blade, the bugle's stirring blast,
The charge, the dreadful cannonade, the din and shout are past; Nor war's wild note, nor glory's peal, shall thrill with fierce delight Those breasts that nevermore may feel the rapture of the fight. Rest on, embahned and sainted dead! dear as the blood ve gave. No impious footstep here shall tread the herbage of your grave; Nor shall your story be forgot while Fame her record keeps,
Or Honor points the hallowed spot where Valor proudly sleeps. Yon ma:ble minstrel's voiceless stone in deathless song shall tell, When many a vanished ago hath flown, the story how ye fell; Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter's blight, nor time's remorseless doom
Shall dim one ray of glory's light that gilds your deathless tomb. -Theodore O'Hara.
67
SIXTH PERIOD. (1865-1875)
PEACE RESTORED-PLAINS TRIBES AT WAR.
New Treaties Made .- Having failed to agree as to the terms of new treaties at their general council at Fort Smith (September, 1865), the civilized tribes sent representatives to Washington carly the following year, again to take the matter up with the Government. All of the civilized tribes agreed to new treaties during the spring and summer of 1866.
Terms of the Treaties .- All of these treaties provided : (1) that there should be no more slavery among the Indians : (2) that the Government might have the right to permit the construction of railway lines across the tribal reserva- tions; (3) for the union of the tribes of the Indian Territory with a general legislative council the members of which were to be apportioned according to population: (4) for the settlement of other or friendly Indians in the Terri- tory, and (5) for a general amnesty and forgiveness of all acts and deeds committed as aets of war between 1861 and 1865. In addition, each treaty contained some provisions which did not appear on the others.
The Freed Slaves .- The Cherokee Council (Union) had volun. tarily abolished slavery in the Cherokee Nation by legislative enact- ment in February, 1863. Under the terms of the new treaties, the Cherokee, Creek and Seminole nations granted the freed slaves full tribal citizenship rights, including lands and annuities. In the Chor. taw and Chickasaw nations the freedmen were granted citizenship but no share in annuities or trust funds and only forty actes of land each.
68
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
70
1
M
ISSUING SUPPLIES TO COMANCHES AT FORT SILL, 1869
69
PEACE RESTORED-THE PLAINS TRIBES AT WAR
Tribes from Kansas Moved to the Territory .- In 1867 and 1868 a number of tribes of Indians moved.from Kansas and settled in the Indian Territory after disposing of their reservations in that state. The Caddoes, Wichitas, and other tribes which had gone north to Kansas during the early part of the Civil War, also returned to their reservations on the Washita.
The Chisholm Trail and the Overland Cattle Trade .-- The Chisholm Trail was a wilderness road which was first marked by the wheel tracks of Jesse Chisholm's wagons as he passed southward from the site of Wichita, Kansas, to the old Caddo-Wichita Agency, near the present town of Anadarko, in the spring of 1865. Two years later, in the spring of 1867, the first herds of Texas cattle were driven northward to Abi- lene, Kansas, over the Chisholm Trail, for shipment to Chicago. During the ensuing twenty years, the Chisholm Trail bore an im- portant part in the history of the western part of the Indian Terri- JESSE CHISHOLM tory. It was not only a highway of traffic and travel by wagon and stage coach, but it was also the route over which millions of cattle slowly grazed toward the shipping station and market.
Proposed Territorial Organization .- During the winter of 1866-7, Representative R. T. Van Horn, of the Kan-as City (Missouri) district, introduced a bill in Congress, the object of which was to provide an organized territorial government for the Indian Territory. The bill was never discussed on the floor of the House of Representatives. though it occasioned considerable interest at the time.
70
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
War With the Tribes of the Plains .- Throughout the period of the Civil War, most of the Indians of the wild tribes of the Southern Plains region (i. e., Comanches, Kiowas, Apaches of the Plains, Arapahoes and Cheyennes) were on the warpath. In October, 1865, the chiefs and head men of these tribes were induced to sign treaties at the peace coun- cil which was held at the mouth of the Little Arkansas River (Wichita, Kansas). Peace lasted through the follow- ing winter and spring. Then war broke out on the Plains again. Frontier forts and military posts which had been abandoned at the outbreak of the Civil War were reoccupied and many new ones were es- tablished and the war was vigorously pushed by the gov- ernment. In October, 1867, a great peace council was held in the valley of the Medicine Lodge River, in Southern Kan- sas, at which new treaties were signed. By the terms of these treaties, the Indians of all of these tribes agreed to accept reservations in the western part of the Indian Territory. It was hoped that there would be no GEN. GEORGE A. CUSTER more Indian war in the country bordering on the Great Plains, but the next year many of the wild tribes were again off their reservations and on the warpath.
A Winter Campaign .- Throughout the summer and fall of 1868, the troops stationed in Western Kansas, Eastern Colorado, Eastern New Mexico and Western Texas were kept in almost constant pursuit of bands of Indian warriors who were raiding settlements and attacking coaches and wagon trains on the overland trails. It was finally decided
71
PEACE RESTORED-THE PLAINS TRIBES AT WAR
that a winter campaign should be undertaken. Gen. George A. Custer was placed in command of the troops in the field for this purpose. Organizing part of his expedition at Fort Dodge, Kansas, General Custer moved southward in November, 1868, to the North Canadian River, in the Indian Territory, where Camp Supply was established. A few days later, in command of his own regiment, (Seventh U. S. Cavalry) General Custer marched on south to the valley of the Washita, where he found and attacked the village of the Cheyenne chief, Black Kettle, November 27, 1868. This chief and most of his warriors were killed and a large
FORT SILL IN 1871
number of prisoners were taken. The campaign was con- tinued throughout the winter and the following spring found most of the Indians staying on their reservations. Two new military posts were established as the result of this campaign, namely, Camp Supply and Fort Sill.
Progress Toward Peace .- Several of the tribes of the Plains region showed a willingness to settle down on their reservations and remain at peace. These included the Arapahoes, Plains Apaches and one band of the Comanches (Peneteka). Most of the Cheyennes and Kiowas were sullen and dissatisfied and one band of the Comanches (Quahada)
72
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
refused to be bound by any treaty whatever and persisted in remaining off of the reservation and in raiding settlements and stealing horses in Texas.
The Quaker Agents.
About the time that the campaign on the Washita was in prog- ress, a committee representing the Society of Friends, called on Gen. U. S. Grant, who had recently been elected to the presidency; and asked him to consider the propriety of appointing religious men as Indian agents-agents who would as far as possible, secure upright, moral men as agency employees-in the certain belief that the effect
THE QUAKER AGENTS
on the Indians would be much better than that which commonly prevailed at the time. After listening to the deputation with great interest, General Grant replied: "Gentlemen, your advice is good. Now give me the names of some Friends for Indian agents and I will appoint them. Let us have peace." Such ready aegnieseence to the spirit of their petition from the victorious warrior was a real surprise to the peaceful followers of Fox. As the result of their recommendations, President Grant appointed ten Friends (or Quakers) as Indian agents in the spring of 1569. Among these were Lawrie Tatum, agent for the Comanches, Kiowas, and Apaches, Brinton Dar- lington, agent for the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, and Thomas Miller, agent for the Sae and Fox, Absentee Shawnees, Pottawatomies and Kickapoos. Quaker agents were also appointed for Wichitas, Caddoes and affiliated tribes, the Kansas (or Kaws) and the Osages in 1870-71.72.
23
PEACE RESTORED-THE PLAINS TRIBES AT WAR
Thomas C. Battey, a Quaker school teacher, was employed in con- ducting a school at the Wichita Agency. Kicking Bird asked him to go to the camp of his band and conduct a school. Agent Tatum fa- vored the plan, and the Commission- er of Indian Affairs finally approved it. In December, 1872, he went out to the Kiowa camp to open a school for the children of Indians who were still living in a state of primitive savag- ery. He was supplied with a wagon and a long tent, which was used as a school room. With this equipment Battey accompanied the Kiowas in the frequent changes of their village locations during a period of over eighteen months. As an educational experiment it was not a pronounced success, but the presence of the kind- hearted and peaceful teacher among them had a splendid effect upon the restless and turbulent spirits of the THOMAS C. BATTEY Kiowas. He kept a daily journal of his observations and experiences among the Kiowas, much of the con- tents of which afterward appeared in his book, entitled "A Quaker Among the Indians."'
The First Railways in the Indian Territory .- June 6, 1870, the first railway to enter the Indian Territory (the . Missouri. Kansas & Texas) began laying its track south- ward from the Kansas boundary in the valley of the Neosho .
RAILWAY STATION AND A. & P. LOCOMOTIVE AT VINITA, IN 1877
74
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
River. During 1871 and 1872 its construction was pushed southward and southwestward across the Cherokee, Creek and Choctaw nations and thence across the Red River into Texas. The Atlantic & Pa- cific Railway built its line across the Shawnee and Wyandotte reservations, en- tering the Cherokee Nation, and effecting a junction with the Missouri, Kansas & Texas at Vinita, in 1872.
A Race for a Right-of-Way .- Congress had passed an act (ap- proved July 25, 1866), granting a conditional right-of-way across the Indian Territory, from Kan- sas to Texas, to the railway com- pany which should be the first to M., K. & T. LOCOMOTIVE, 1872 (First into Muskogee)
complete its track to the state boundary line in the valley of the Neosho. An exciting race be- tween the tracklayers of two rival companies took place during the early part of 1870, ending in a victory for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas.
The Okmulgee Constitution .- The first of a series of yearly inter-tribal councils was held at Okmulgee, December 5-11, 1870. After much discussion the council voted to appoint a committee to draft a constitution for a confedera- ation of the tribes of the Indian Territory. This com- mittee, of which William P. Ross of the Cherokee Nation, was chairman, proceeded at once to perform the work as- signed to it. The constitution which was framed by the committee provided for a confederation of all of the tribes of Indians in the Territory to be republican in form. All tribes were to be represented in the council in proportion to their populations. This constitution was submitted to the various tribes but was not ratified and adopted.
Peace Council and War Party .- In May, 1871, while the representatives of more than a dozen tribes (including sev- eral of the civilized tribes) were helping the Government hold a peace council at Anadarko, a war party of Kiowas went on a raid into Texas where a government wagon train
,.
75
PEACE RESTORED THE PLAINS TRIBES AT WAR
lakse's
was attacked and the wagon-master and six teamsters were killed. The leaders of this war party were Satanta and Satank. They were afterward arrested, to be sent to Texas for trial.
Defeat of the Quahada Comanches .- In the fall of 1872, Col. Ranald S. Mckenzie with a force of troops followed a raiding party to the Quahada Comanche camp, in the Texas Panhandle country, surprised and captured it with most of the women and children. Shortly afterward the Quahadas visited the Agency (at Fort Sill) for the first time.
.:
INTER-TRIBAL COUNCIL, OKMULGEE (Thirty Tribes Represented)
First Coal Mines Opened .- The building of the first rail- way led to the opening of the first coal mines in the Indian Territory, at McAlester, shortly after the completion of the railway to that point, in 1872.
Outlaw Activities in the Indian Territory .- The lawless clement was never more numerous and active in the Indian country than it was during the ten years immediately fol- lowing the Civil War. Horse thieves, whiskey peddlers, gamblers and sharpers continually intruded upon the reser- vations, ever ready to prey upon the Indians. The white hunters killed thousands of buffalo for the mere wanton "sport" of killing, despite the protests of the Indians and
76
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
the promises of the Government peace commissioners to the contrary. The raids of the white horse thieves and the wholesale slaughter of the buffalo angered the- Indians to the point of hostility and was the cause of more than one outbreak. Thus, the innocent settlers on the frontiers of Kansas and Texas suffered on account of the misdeeds of outlaws and renegades in the Indian country. The lawless whites made the work of the Government tribal agents (most of whom were Quakers) doubly difficult.
The Last General Outbreak .- A great many of the In- dians of Western Oklahoma - were becoming restless for various reasons. The Cheyennes wanted to go on the war- path in 1873 but neither the Comanches nor the Kiowas could join them as they had to be on their good behavior until their captive friends were released. So the last general Indian war did not come until 1874. Even then, there were many Indians who refused to join in making war on the whites. Most of the Comanches were hostile but the greater part of the Kiowas, under the influence of Kicking Bird, refused to leave the reservation. Whirlwind, a leading Cheyenne chief, brought his people to the Ageney ( Darlington) and refused to take part in the war. None of the Arapahoes and none of the Plains Apaches left their reserva- tions. The war lasted not only WHIRLWIND through the summer and fall, but also all of the following winter. In the end, the hostile Indians were worn out and disheartened as they had never been before and the peace which followed was a lasting one. It was the last great Indian War cast of the Rocky Mountains and south of the Dakotas. .
77
PEACE RESTORED THE PLAINS TRIBES AT WAR
Summary .- Because of the thrilling events which trans- pired in Oklahoma and especially in the western portion, during the years between 1865 and 1875, and also because of the fame of some of the men who were connected with those events, that period of the history of Oklahoma will always have a most romantic interest to the people of the state. The annals of the five civilized tribes during the same period are less exciting, as might be expected of a people who were recovering from the shock and exhaustion of participation in the Civil War.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS
Sixth Period.
1. Briefly review the treaties by which the five civilized tribes renewed their severed relations with the Federal government. What changes in the conditions formerly existing in the Territory were made possible by these treaties? What Indian tribes were removed from Kansas to the Territory after these treaties went into effect ?
2. What was the Chisholm Trail? Why was it so named?
3. When was the Van Horn Bill introduced into Congress? What was its purpose ?
4. What great Indian peace council was held in the autumn of 1867? What tribes were represented? What was the result of the negotiations which were conducted there ?
5. How long did the wild Indians remain at peace after the Medicine Lodge treaties? Tell about the military campaign in the winter of 1868-9. Where was the Battle of Washita fought? Who commanded the troops in that engagement ?.
6. When were the first railways built in the Indian Territory ? When were the first coal mines opened ?
7. What was the Okmulgee constitution? By whom was it formulated? How was it received and what were the results of the agitation ?
8. What military posts were established in Oklahoma during this period? What posts were abandoned about the same time ?
9. When did the last general Indian war oceur in Oklahoma? How long did it last? What tribes took part in it?
78
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
(Loaded and ready to start from Caldwell, Kansas, for Darlington and Fort Reno.) CHISHOLM TRAIL FREIGHTERS, 1883
79
SEVENTH PERIOD
(1875-1889)
STRUGGLE FOR SETTLEMENT.
The Extermination of the Buffalo .- The building of rail- ways westward from the Missouri River, across the Great Plains, to the Rocky Mountains, led to the rapid killing of the mighty herds of the American bison, or buffalo, which once grazed over the vast region. They were killed by
BUFFALO ON THE GREAT PLAINS
80
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
the thousand merely for their hides. Thousands were also shot down for the mere wanton "sport" of killing. The killing of the buffalo in such numbers was one of the prin- cipal causes of the last Indian wars on the Plains. When the buffalo had all disappeared, the Indians could no longer roam at will over the Plains, for they had depended upon
A HERD OF RANGE CATTLE
the buffalo for food, clothing and shelter. The disappear- ance of the buffalo made way for the flocks and herds and cultivated fields of the white settlers.
The Range Cattle Industry .- When the buffalo herds had about disappeared and the Indians had settled down to a quiet life on their reservations, the cattlemen crossed different parts of the Indian Territory, slowly grazing their herds northward toward the railroads in Kansas. The rich native grasses upon which the buffalo had grazed, still grew abundantly. The cattlemen were not slow to note the
81
STRUGGLE FOR SETTLEMENT
opportunity for their line of business in such a prom- ising field. Soon cattle ranches began to appear, lands being leased on the Indian reservations at a few cents per acre. Lands not included in any Indian reservation were quietly occupied without waiting for permission. During the years between the close of the last general Indian out- break (1875), and the beginning of the agitation for the opening of Oklahoma to settlement, (1879), cattle ranges had been established in many parts of the western half of the Indian Territory.
More Indians Removed to Oklahoma .- During the first four years of this period several additional tribes of In- dians were removed to the Indian Territory from other states or territories. Among these were the Pawnee and Ponca tribes, both of which were from Nebraska, the North- ern Cheyennes (from Wyoming), and the Nez Perce (nā-pār-să) from Oregon. The last two mentioned tribes were brought to the Territory after having surrendered as prisoners of war. In September, 1878, a band of 300 North- ern Cheyennes. under the leadership of a chief named Dull Knife, left the Cheyenne reservation in Western Oklahoma and went northward on the warpath. Several ranchmen were killed by them in Northwestern Oklahoma.
Proposed Organization of the Indian Territory .- In January, 1879, Senator Stephen W. Dorsey, of Arkansas, introduced a bill into Congress, the purpose of which was to organize the Indian Territory. The five civilized tribes entered a vigorous protest against the passage of the meas- ure. It did not become a law.
The Unassigned Lands .- That part of the lands ceded to the United States by the Creek and Seminole nations (by treaties of 1866) which was bounded on the north by the Cherokee Strip, on the cast by the Indian Meridian, on the south by the South Canadian River, and on the west by the Cheyenne and Arapaho reservation, was never as-
82
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
signed to any Indian reservation. This tract, which em- braced portions of Payne, Logan, Oklahoma, Cleveland, Canadian and Kingfisher counties, was the one on which all the intruding colonies of "boomers" proposed to locate in the various invasions which occurred between 1879 and 1885.
Attempted Settlement of Oklahoma .- In April, 1879, it was announced that railway attorneys had discovered that there were 14,000,000 acres of land in the Indian Territory that belonged to the Government and that these lands were subject to homestead entry. This announcement caused a great deal of excitement. Companies of men were formed in Kansas, Missouri and Texas for the purpose of settling on the unoccupied lands in the Indian Territory. When the first colony of settlers arrived in the Indian Territory early in May, they were promptly removed by United States troops.
Captain Payne Becomes the Leader .-- The proposed settlement of the Oklahoma Country, as the unassigned lands of the Indian Territory had come to be called, contin- ued to interest many people during the latter part of 1879 and the early part of 1880. DAVID L. PAYNE Capt. David L. Payne had become the recognized leader of the movement to settle the Oklahoma Country. During the next five years, Payne led at least eight different attempts to settle colonies in Oklahoma. He was often arrested but never tried. He appealed to the courts and once went to Washington where he appealed to the Secre- tary of the Interior. Though he was repeatedly driven
:
83
STRUGGLE FOR SETTLEMENT
out of the Territory, the Government always declined to prosecute him. His followers were generally. called Okla- homa "Boomers."
Organization of Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association. -March 6, 1883, the cattlemen of the Cherokee Strip held their third annual meeting at Caldwell, Kansas. This meet- ing resulted in the organization of the Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association, which duly incorporated under the laws of the state of Kansas.
The Spiechee War .- In the fall of 1882, hostilities broke out between two factions or parties in the Creek Nation. Some of the followers of Opo- thleyohola, who had remained firm in their attachment to the Union twenty years before, un- der the leadership of Spiechee (or Isparhechar), rose in re- bellion against the existing tribal government. A force of six hundred ' men was raised and placed under the command of Pleasant Porter, by Col. Samuel Checote, the principal chief of the Creek Nation. Gen- eral Porter pursued the retreat- ISPARHECHAR ing band until it crossed the line into the Sac and Fox country. Spiechce led his people to the Wichita Agency. They refused to return to their homes in the Creek country until after the Government had insisted upon bringing about peace between the two parties.
Additional Federal Court .- Early in 1883, Congress passed an act providing that the United States courts at Paris, Texas, and Wichita, Kansas, should have jurisdiction
84
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
over parts of the Indian Territory. Up to that time, all cases in the Federal courts from the Indian Territory had been tried at Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Couch Succeeds Payne .- After the death of Capt. David. L. Payne, William L. Couch, who had been one of Payne's most trusted lieutenants, became his successor as the leader of the "boomers."' During the fol- lowing twelve months, several more efforts were made to colon- ize the Oklahoma country. After Congress first took up the ques- tion of opening Oklahoma for set- WILLIAM L. COUCH tlement (December, 1884), the in- terest in the "boomer" movement died out and no further organized efforts were made to set- tle in Oklahoma after 1885 until the country was opened to settlers by law in 1889.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.