A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 6

Author: Hill, L. B. (Luther B.)
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pubishing Company
Number of Pages: 645

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"The arrival of the Cherokees in this country did not fail, as might have been foreseen, to ex- cite the jealousy of the Osages, within whose form- er territory they had now taken up their resi- dence. Major Lovely, the first agent appointed to reside among the Cherokees of the Arkansa, on his arrival, held a council with the Osages at the falls of the Verdigris, and about sixty miles distant from their village. Some quarrel, however, about two years ago arising between the two na- tions, the Osages waylaid 12 or 14 of the Chero- kees and killed them. On this occasion the Chero- kees collected together in considerable numbers, and ascended the river to take revenge upon the Osages, who fled at their approach, losing about ten of their men, who either fell in the retreat, or, becoming prisoners, were reserved for a more cruel destiny. The Cherokees, now forget- ting the claims of civilization, fell upon the old and decrepit, upon the women and innocent chil- dren, and by their own account destroyed not less than 90 individuals, and carried away a num- ber of prisoners."-Ibid, pp. 135-6.

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA

lands lying within the state of Missouri and territory of Arkansas and also all lands west of this state and territory except a reservation fifty miles wide situated in what is now southern Kansas.8

Between the Cherokee country and the old Osage boundary line as established by the treaty of Fort Clark lay a triangular strip of country that, since it was not as-

' The reservation was bounded as follows: "Be- ginning at a point due east of White Hair's vil- lage, and twenty-five miles west of the western boundary line of the state of Missouri, fronting on a north and south line, so as to leave ten miles north and forty miles south of the point of be- ginning, and extending west with the width of fifty miles to the western boundary of the lands hereby ceded and relinquished by said tribes or nations [i. e., to a line drawn from the head sources of the Kansas southwardly through the Rock Saline.]

Osage Settlements in 1819.

Nuttall, in his travels up the Arkansas in 1819, gave the following description of the situation of the Osage settlement and its inhabitants: "If the confluence of the Verdigris, Arkansa and Grand rivers shall ever become of importance as a settlement, which the great and irresistible tide of western emigration promises, a town will prob- ably be founded here, at the junction of these streams; and this obstruction in the navigation of the Verdigris, as well as the rapids of the Grand river, will afford good and convenient situa- tions for mills, a matter of no small importance in the list of civilized comforts. From the Verdi- gris to St. Louis there is an Osage trace, which reduces the distance of those two places to about 300 miles. The low hills contiguous to the falls of this river, and on which there exist several aboriginal mounds, were chosen by the Cherokees and Osages to hold their council, and to form a treaty of reciprocal amity as neighbors. This first friendly interview with the Cherokees was soon after broken through by jealousy, and accompanied on both sides with the most barbarous revenge. Scarcely any nation of Indians have encountered more enemies than the Osages; still, they flatter themselves by saying that they are seated in the middle of the world and, although surrounded by so many enemies, they have ever maintained their usual population, and their coun- try. From conversations with the traders, it ap- peared that they would not be unwilling to dispose

signed to any Indian tribe, was claimed to be open for settlement. But for white peo- ple to occupy this country to the west of them would shut off the Cherokees from an outlet to the hunting grounds of the west.º The Cherokees, it seems, contended strenu- ously for this free access to the west from their first occupation of the Arkansas coun- try. In this we see in another form the

of more of their lands, provided that the govern- ment of the United States would enter into a stipu- lation not to settle it with the aborigines, whom they have now much greater reason to fear than the whites. The limit of their last cession pro- ceeds in a northeast direction from the falls of the Verdigris, and enters the line which was run from Fire prairie, on the Missouri, to Frog bayou, about 60 miles from the Arkansa.

"The first village of the Osages lies about 60 miles from the mouth of the Verdigris, and is said to contain 700 or 800 men and their families. About 60 miles further, on the Osage river, is situated the village of the chief called White Hair.

"The Osages at this time entertained a con- siderable jealousy of the whites, in consequence of the emigration of the Cherokees to their frontiers; they considered it as a step of policy in the government to overawe them, and intended to act in concert with the establishment of the gar- rison. ."-(p. 172, fol.)

""A number of families were now about to settle, or, rather, take provisionary possession of the land purchased from the Osages, situated along the banks of the Arkansa, from Frog bayou to the falls of the Verdigris, a tract in which is em- braced a great body of superior alluvial land. But, to their disappointment, an order recently arrived, instructing the agent of Indian affairs to put the Cherokees in possession of the Osage purchase, and to remove them from the south side of the river. It appeared, from what I could learn, that the Osages, purposely deceived by the interpreter, at the instigation of the Shoutous [Choteaus], had hatched up a treaty without the actual authority of the chiefs, so that in the pres- ent state of things a war betwixt the Cherokees and the Osages is almost inevitable, unless the latter relinquish the banks of the Arkansa, as Messrs. Shoutou wish them. The Osages, in a re- cent council, said they would have no objection to dispose of their lands, provided the whites only were allowed to settle upon them."-Nut- tall's Journal, p. 215.

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main cause of the alleged incompatibility between the Indians and the whites. The restrictions of state or territorial govern- ment and the settled occupations of white men constrained the Indians in the exercise of all their nomadic habits and customs. That such constraint should not be imposed and that a country should be set aside for the Indians to dwell and work out their own destiny was the policy adopted by the government early in the nineteenth century and continued practically without change until the close of the Civil war.10

A deputation of Cherokees went to Wash- ington to protest against their confinement within the limits of white man's govern- ment. In the negotiations that followed may be found the practical origin of Indian Territory as a country entirely separate from state and territorial jurisdiction and subject only to federal regulations. Although the Indian deputies in Washing- ton were not clothed with plenipotentiary powers, the secretary of war, as a final ex- pedient to settle existing difficulties, offered the chiefs who were present seven million acres of land in exchange for the lands that they then owned on the Arkansas (some- thing over four million acres). Further- more, in order to avoid the imposition of any local government that might conflict

with the Indians, the secretary also proposed that the western boundary of Arkansas (as it existed then) should be moved east forty miles, and that the Cherokees should be set- tled on the strip thus taken from Arkansas. The negotiations finally resulted in the sign- ing of the Cherokee treaty of May 6, 1828, which in many respects is the most inter- esting of all such agreements considered in this history.

It opens with the usual expression of the desire upon the part of the United States to secure the welfare and promote the con- tentment of their Indian wards, by giving them "a permanent home, which . ·

· shall remain theirs forever-a home that shall never in all future time be embarrassed by having extended around it the lines, or placed over it the jurisdiction of a state or territory, nor be pressed upon by the ex- tension in any way of any of the limits of any existing territory or state." After re- ferring to the difficulties of the tribe in their reservation within the territory of Arkansas (as assigned by the treaty of 1817) and promising them a new country beyond the jurisdiction of a territory or state, the treaty defines the west boundary of Arkansas and then proceeds to lay off the limits of the Cherokee Nation to the west of that line.11. The government having agreed to remove

" The policy of concentrating all the Indians in one region was opposed even then by argu- ments that seem to have uncovered some of the vital defects of the plan. Said Nuttall, in 1819:

"It is now also the intention of the United States government to bring together, as much as possible, the savages beyond the frontier, and thus to render them, in all probability, belliger- ent to each other, and to the civilized settlements which they border. To strengthen the hands of an enemy by conceding to them positions favorable to their designs, must certainly be far removed from prudence and good policy. To have left the aborigines on their ancient sites, rendered venerable by the endearments and attachments of patriotism, and surrounded by a condensed popu-

lation of the whites, must either have held out to them the necessity of adopting civilization, or, at all events, have most effectually checked them from committing depredations. Bridled by this re- straint, there would have been no necessity for establishing among them an expensive military agency, and coercing them by terror."-Nuttall 's Journal, p. 160.

11 " The United States agree to possess the Cherokees, and to guarantee it to them forever, of seven millions of acres of land, to be bounded as follows, viz .: Commencing at that point on Arkansas river where the Eastern Choc- taw boundary line strikes said river, and running thence with the western line of Arkansas to the southwest corner of Missouri, and thence

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from this new reservation all white settlers, placing them on the east side of the new western boundary of Arkansas, the Chero- kees soon.began moving to their home. By the treaty a small military reservation about Fort Gibson had been defined, the post itself having been established four years before. Probably because the treaty of 1828 had not been made by duly accredited repre- sentatives of the Cherokees, and also because a part of the Creek Nation had settled within the Cherokee territory, a new treaty

with the western boundary line of Missouri till it crosses the waters of Neasho, generally called Grand river, thence due west to a point from which a due south course will strike the present northwest corner of Arkansas territory, thence continuing due south, on and with the present western boundary line of the territory to the main branch of Arkansas river, thence down said river to its junction with the Canadian river, and thence up and between the said rivers, Arkansas and Canadian, to a point at which a line running north and south from river to river will give the afore- said seven million acres. In addition to the seven millions of acres thus provided for the United States further guarantees to the Cherokee nation a perpetual outlet, west, and a free and unmolested use of all the country lying west of the western boundary of the above described limits, , and as far west as the sovereignty of the United States and their right of soil extend."

" The old western boundary of Arkansas (above referred to) was the starting point, it being forty miles west of the present Arkansas line, and for about twenty miles the Cherokee boundary fol- lowed this old territorial line. Until the recent obliteration of the Indian boundaries, as a result of statehood, this twenty miles of boundary be- tween the Creeks and Cherokees remained as a definite reminder of the time when Arkansas ter- ritory projected forty miles within the present Oklahoma. The description in article 1 of the treaty follows:

"The United States agree to possess the Chero- kees, and to guarantee it to them forever, and that guarantee is hereby pledged of seven millions of acres of land, to be bounded as follows, viz .: Beginning at a point on the old western territorial line of Arkansas territory, being twenty-five miles north from the point, where the territorial line crosses Arkansas river-thence running from said north point south on the said territorial line to the place where said territorial line crosses the

was made at Fort Gibson on February 14, 1833. The limits of the Cherokee Nation as defined by this treaty were practically the same as marked the nation until the obliteration of Indian boundaries by the state government.12 (See map.)

In transferring the lands of the Indian country to the various civilized tribes, the most solemn guarantees were given, so that, if a pledge of a government at one period of national history is inviolate through sub- sequent periods, no action of the govern-

Verdigris river-thence down said Verdigris river to the Arkansas river-thence down said Arkansas to a point where a stone is placed opposite to the east or lower bank of Grand river at its june- tion with the Arkansas-thence running south, forty-four degrees west, one mile-thence in a straight line to a point four miles northerly from the mouth of the North Fork of the Canadian- thence along the said four miles line to the Can- adian-thence down the Canadian to the Arkansas -thence down the Arkansas to that point on the Arkansas, where the eastern Choctaw boundary strikes said river; and running thence with the western line of Arkansas territory, as now defined, to the southwest corner of Missouri-thence along the western Missouri line to the land assigned the Senecas-thence on the south line of the Sene- cas to Grand river-thence up said Grand river, as far as the south line of the Osage reservation, extended if necessary-thence up and between said south Osage line, extended west if necessary, and a line drawn due west from the point of begin- ning to a certain distance west, at which a line running north and south, from said Osage line to said due west line, will make seven millions of acres within the whole described boundaries. In addition to the seven millions of acres of land thus provided for and bounded, the United States further guarantee to the Cherokee nation a per- petual outlet west and a free and unmolested use of all the country lying west of the western boun- dary of said seven millions of acres, as far west as the sovereignty of the United States and their right of soil extend. Provided, however, that if the saline, or salt plain, on the great western prairie shall fall within said limits prescribed for said outlet, the right is reserved to the United States to permit other tribes of red men to get salt on said plain in common with the Cherokees -and letters patent shall be issued by the United States as soon as practicable for the land hereby guaranteed."

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ment in proceeding with the disposal and partition of Indian lands has been too slow or taken with too much care and safeguard- ing of guaranteed rights. A treaty with the Cherokee on December 29, 1835, supple- ments the preceding treaties. In it the United States covenants that the ceded lands should "in no future time, without their consent, be included within the terri- torial limits or jurisdiction of any state or territory." By this treaty additional lands were given the Cherokees "situated between the west line of the state of Missouri and the Osage reservation, beginning at the southeast corner of the same and runs north along the east line of the Osage lands fifty miles to the northeast corner thereof; and thence east to the west line of the state of Missouri; thence with said line south fifty miles ; thence west to place of beginning." This tract, containing about 800,000 acres, was the Cherokee Neutral Lands in Kansas.

Having carried the history of the Chero- kees along to the point where their perma- nent home in the Indian country has been assigned, we now return a few years and trace the movements of the other Indian people whose successive assignments of ter- ritory are important events in the story of the formation of Indian Territory.

" " May 16 [1819]. This morning I left Fort Smith with Major Bradford and a company of soldiers, in order to proceed across the wilder- ness to the confluence of the Kiamesha and Red river. The object of the Major was to execute the orders of government, by removing all the resi- .dent whites out of the territory of the Osages; the Kiamesha river being now chosen as the line of demarkation 22d). The people ap- peared but ill prepared for the unpleasant official intelligence of their ejectment. Some who had cleared considerable farms were thus unexpectedly thrust out into the inhospitable wilderness. I could not but sympathize with their complaints, not- withstanding the justice and propriety of the requisition."-Nuttall's Journal.

As the Osage cession of 1808 had opened the way for the introduction of a part of the Cherokees, likewise the Quapaws, who inhabited the country south of the Arkan- sas, by a treaty of 1818, restricted their original territory by ceding to the United States most of the country on the south side of the Arkansas from the Mississippi river west to a line running through the sources of the Kiamichi, a branch of Red river, and the Poteau, a branch of the Arkansas. The Indian title having been extinguished, set- tlers entered what they considered public land, and within a year after the treaty had partly occupied the country as far west as the line defined in the treaty (some distance west of the present boundary of Arkansas). Some of the pioneers even continued be- yond the west line fixed by the Quapaw ses- sion, but when they were removed in 1819 18 they were allowed to settle without restric- tion on the lands east of the Kiamichi- Poteau line. This seemed to confirm the belief of the settlers that the government intended to dispose of the Quapaw cession as public domain. A disappointment was in store for them when it was announced that the government proposed to set aside the lands relinquished by the Quapaws as a home for the Choctaw Nation.14

The movement of the Choctaws to the

Choctaw Treaty of 1820.

"4 "By a recent treaty, effected through the influence of General Jackson, the Choctaws are now about to relinquish the east side of the Missis- sippi river, and to exchange their lands for others in the territory of Arkansa, situated betwixt Ar- kansa and Red rivers, and extending from the Quapaw reservation to the Pottoe. In consequence of this singular but impolitic measure of crowding the aborigines together, so as to render them in- evitably hostile to each other, and to the frontier which they border, several counties of the Arkansa territory will have to be evacuated by their white inhabitants, who will thus be ruined in their cir- cumstanees, at the very period when the general survey of the lands had inspired them with the

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Arkansas river country had begun about 1800, and in the report already referred to the number of Choctaws in the Louisiana country is estimated at five hundred. In the war of 1812 the Choctaws and Chicka- saws were allies of the United States.15 With the rapid settlement of Mississippi and Alabama and adjacent territory during the early years of the century these tribes were unable to hold their own against the white men. The establishment of state gov- ernments over their country made their situ- ation worse, since they, "being ignorant of the language and laws of the white man, can not understand nor obey them." It seemed impracticable to govern two widely differ- ent races by the same system of laws.

As a result, a treaty was effected, October 18, 1820, between the government and the Mississippi Choctaws, by which a country larger than many of the eastern states was granted to the Indians in exchange for their lands east of the Mississippi. The grant comprised all that part of the present state of Oklahoma between the main Canadian and Red rivers, and from the Texas line on the west to an eastern limit that extended

from the mouth of Little river, in Arkansas, to the old Cherokee boundary at Point Re- move on the Arkansas. A large portion of . western Arkansas, south of the Arkansas river, was thus included in the Choctaw res- ervation.16

When the eastern boundary from Red river to Point Remove was surveyed in 1821, the surveyor reported that 375 white families had settled west of this line and east of the Kiamichi-Poteau line. The Choc- taws who were already resident in the coun- try refused to move into that part of their country west of the Kiamichi and Poteau rivers. The situation promised serious dif- ficulties between the whites and red men. The contest ended with a compromise, em- bodied in the treaty with the Choctaws of January 20, 1825, when the Choctaws ceded to the government, from the land described in the treaty of 1820, all that portion "lying east of a line beginning on the Arkansas, one hundred paces east of Fort Smith, and running thence due south to Red river." Thus was defined the southern half of the western boundary of Arkansas, and finally adopted for that purpose in 1836. By this

confident expectation of obtaining a permanent and legal settlement."-Nuttall's Journal, p. 236. " " The Chickasaws and Choctaws were fear- fully decimated by wars with the Europeans and other tribes. During the early explorations it is said that they had 15,000 warriors, while in 1720 the two tribes could muster less than 1,000 fighting men. The Choctaws allied themselves to the French in the war against the Natchez, whom the Chickasaws aided. The two latter tribes were badly beaten. From 1540 to the establishment of the American republic the Chickasaws and Choc- taws were almost constantly at war. As progress followed the star of empire westward, the rights of these Indians, as they understood them, were more and more circumscribed. In 1765 the Chicka- saws made their first general treaty with General Oglethorpe of Georgia, and in 1786, after the colo- nies had gained their independence, both the Chicka- saws and Choctaws made a treaty at Hopewell and were guaranteed peaceable possession of their

lands. From the date of this treaty the Choctaws and Chickasaws have kept faith with the federal government. The Chickasaws, in the treaty of 1834, boast 'that they have ever been faithful and friendly to the people of this country; that they have never raised the tomahawk to shed the blood of an American."-R. W. McAdams, in Extra Census Bulletin, above mentioned.

" The words of the treaty define the grant as, a tract of country west of Mississippi river, situate between the Arkansas and Red rivers, and bounded as follows: Beginning on the Ar- kansas river, where the lower boundary line of the Cherokees strikes the same; thence up the Ar- kansas to the Canadian fork, and up the same to its source; thence due south to the Red river; thence down Red river, three miles below the mouth of Little river, which empties into Red river on the north side; thence a direct line to the beginning."

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treaty the Choctaws ceded a large triangu- beyond the Mississippi was made Febru- lar strip on the east side of their reserva- ary 12, 1825. tion, and in return the United States agreed to remove all such white settlers as were located within the Choctaw limits.17

As a result of this treaty, and the Chero- kee treaty of 1828 (already described), the two Indian nations that had first been as- signed lands west of the Mississippi were removed beyond the jurisdiction of a ter- ritorial government. The western line of Arkansas having been fixed, no state or ter- ritorial lines any longer shut in these na- tions, and the most solemn guarantee of the government assured them that no such lines ever should be extended around them. The history of the movements by which these two Indian nations were segregated is the history of the principal events in the forma- tion of Indian Territory.

After the early treaties above described had given to the Cherokees and Choctaws the country lying immediately west of Ar- kansas, the next tribe to receive an assign- ment of lands in the Indian country was the Creeks.18 The first treaty with this confederacy of tribes looking to a transfer

By this treaty, in return for Georgia lands, the government offered the Creeks land west of the Mississippi "on the Arkar .. sas river commencing at the mouth of the Canadian Fork thereof, and running west- ward between said rivers Arkansas and Can- adian Fork, for quantity." If the lands thus designated were not acceptable, the Creeks were given the privilege of select- ing others, anywhere in the Indian country except the portions assigned to the Choc- taws and Cherokees.

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 6

Author: Hill, L. B. (Luther B.) Publication date: 1908 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pubishing Company Number of Pages: 645

Author: Hill, L. B. (Luther B.)
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pubishing Company
Number of Pages: 645