A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 7

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

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This treaty was not ratified by the Creek council. Its terms were protested by a ma- jority of the confederacy, and as a result a new agreement was signed by the chiefs and head men on January 24, 1826. In re- turn for cession of the Georgia lands the United States agreed to pay the nation nearly a quarter of a million dollars and a perpetual annuity of $20,000. The follow- ers of "the late General William McIn- tosh," having supported the former treaty and desiring a new home west of the Mis- sissippi, were promised such land as their

" Most of the Choctaws had not left Mississippi by 1830, and in that year, on September 27, an- other treaty was made with them by which they agreed to cede all their possessions of the Missis- sippi and remove, during the falls of 1831, 1832 and 1833, to the reservation already set aside for them by the treaty of 1825. This treaty guaran- teed self-government to the Choctaws, so far as not inconsistent with the constitution, treaties and laws of the United States and the position of the federal government in exercising general super- vision over Indian affairs.

The United States assumed some unusual obli- gations by this treaty. Choctaw youths, to the number of forty, were to be kept in school at the expense of the national government for a period of twenty years. The government promised to build a council house, a house for each chief and a church for each of the three districts besides the more usual gifts and annuities for education and for the industrial uses of the people.

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19 In their own language . they were the Mus- kogee. Because of their residence between the headwaters of the Alabama and Savannah rivers, in a country broken by creeks and small streams, the early settlers gave them the name "Creeks," and under that title the nation or confederacy has been generally known. The Seminoles were part of the same race and' were considered as a part of the Creeks except in the later treaties. The only serious revolt of the Creeks against the Americans took place in 1813-14, the Creek war, in which General Jackson took a prominent part. This ended in a complete defeat of the Indians and the submission of Weatherford, their leader, followed by the cession of the greater part of the lands belonging to those tribes that had arrayed themselves against the United States. The ex- tended and bloody contest in Florida, from 1835 to 1843, known as the Seminole war, secured per- manent peace with the southern tribes.

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA

committee might select in the unoccupied country west of Missouri and Arkansas. To hasten their removal within the stipulated twenty-four months, an additional one hun- dred thousand dollars was promised the emigrating party, the greater part to be paid when the Indians were safely located on the west side of the river.19

What was known as the McIntosh194% emi- gration to the country beyond the Missis- sippi began about 1828. But the main body remained in their former homes, and other treaties, made effective by action of the mil- itary forces, were necessary before the Creek country became definitely fixed as the home of the nation. The Creeks, after having been betrayed, as they believed, by McIntosh in the earlier treaties, were very suspicious of treaty pledges. Finally, on March 24, 1832, by treaty, the United States commissioners offered the most lib- eral inducements to the remaining Creeks to remove beyond the Mississippi, and in reassurance that the new homes of the tribe should not be intruded upon or in any way jeopardized as they had been in Geor- gia, the United States guarantees . "nor shall any state or territory ever have

" It was found that the Georgia cessions de- scribed in these treaties did not embrace all the lands of the nation in that state, and it required another treaty (dated November 15, 1827) and & payment of nearly $28,000 additional to secure & full relinquishment of Creek Indian title to Geor- gia lands.

19% William McIntosh was a mixed blood Creek, who, for his activity in behalf of the government in the treaty of 1825, was sentenced to death by the tribe and was executed May 1, 1825, by a chosen party of warriors, who shot him as he tried to escape from his house. It was claimed that he had betrayed the Creeks by "selling the graves of their ancestors." Georgia, having relinquished title to its Mississippi lands in 1802 on condi- tion that the government should extinguish all Indian titles in the state, became increasingly urgent that the government should fulfill its agree- ment and remove the Indians. The Creeks resisted

a right to pass laws for the government of such Indians."

It was found that the lands assigned to the Creeks and the Cherokees overlapped, and that in consequence of the two peoples settling and claiming the same lands, "diffi- culties and dissentions" had been caused. The result was the gathering of the repre- sentatives of the interested tribes at Fort Gibson and the making of separate agree- ments with each by which the boundaries of their nations were defined. The treaty with the Cherokees has been described. That with the Creeks was signed the same day (February 14, 1833). A mutual boun- dary line was created on the north and east between the two nations as already de- scribed). The northern boundary as fixed by this treaty has played an important part in the history of Oklahoma divisions. Ex- tending through Tulsa near its eastern end it ran west clear to the Mexican line (or, as now, the Texas Panhandle) and in the original Oklahoma was the northern line of Payne, Logan, Kingfisher and Blaine coun- ties. The southern boundary of the Creek country, by this treaty, was the Canadian river. All the area between these north

this plan to force them from their lands and in 1811 forbade the sale of the remaining land under penalty of death. McIntosh was prominent as the leader of the Creek allies of the Americans dur- ing the war of 1812-15, and fought against the hostile faction of his tribe at Horseshoe Bend in 1814. The lands of the hostiles were confiscated by the United States, and the treaties of 1818 and 1821 alienated large additional areas of the Creek country. The treaty of the latter year was signed only by McIntosh and twelve chiefs controlled by him, while thirty-six other chiefs and head men refused to sanction the agreement. By 1824 a total of fifteen million acres had been ceded, and the Creeks retained some ten million. The Georgian commissioners, appealing to the avarice of McIntosh, persuaded him and his fol- lowers to sign the treaty of 1825, ceding away remainder of the Georgia lands.

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA

and south lines, from near the city of Mus- kogee on the east to the Texas line on the west. embracing the greater part of twenty of the present Oklahoma counties, was guaranteed as the perpetual home of the Creek tribes.20

One of the provisions of the treaty of 1833 with the Creeks related to the Semi- noles, who were really a part of the Creek nation. It was provided that a place should be reserved in the Creek Nation for the Seminoles, and the latter should be con- sidered "a constituent part of said nation." In the previous year (May 9, 1832), by treaty, these Florida Indians had relin-

" The exact boundaries as defined in the treaty of February 14, 1833, were: "Beginning at the mouth of the North Fork of the Canadian river and run northerly four miles thence running a straight line so as to meet a line drawn from the south bank of the Arkansas river opposite to the east, or lower bank of Grand river, at its junction with the Arkansas, and which runs a course south forty-four degrees west, one mile, to a post placed in the ground-thence along said line to the Ar- kansas, and up the same and the Verdigris river, to where the old territorial line crosses it-thence along said line to a point twenty-five miles from the Arkansas river, where the old territorial line crosses the same-thence running a line at right angles with the territorial line aforesaid, or west to the Mexico line-thence along the said line southerly to the Canadian river or to the boundary of the Choctaw country-thence down said river to the place of beginning. The lines, hereby de- fining the country of the Muskogee Indians on the north and east, bound the country of the Chero- kees along these courses, as settled by the treaty concluded this day between the United States and that tribe."

" A tract "lying between the Canadian river and the north fork thereof, and extending west to where a line running north and south between the Main Canadian and north branch will strike the forks of Little river, provided said west line does not extend more than twenty-five miles west from the mouth of said Little river."

A revision of relations and boundaries between the Creeks and Seminoles was effected in the treaty of August 7, 1856, the respective limits of the two nations being defined as follows:

Article 1. The Creek nation doth hereby grant, cede and convey to the Seminole Indians a tract

quished their lands, and had agreed, in case they were satisfied with the new country in the Creek Nation, to remove within three years from the ratification of the treaty and become a constituent part of the Creek Na- tion. By a subsequent confirmatory treaty, signed at Fort Gibson, March 28, 1833, the Seminoles having accepted the terms of the previous treaty, were given a home between the north and south forks of the Canadian river and extending west not more than twenty-five miles above the mouth of Little river, including parts of the present coun- ties of McIntosh, Hughes and Seminole.21

The various treaties above discussed pro- of country included within the following boun- daries: Beginning on the Canadian river, a few miles east of the ninety-seventh parallel of west longitude, where Ock-hi-appo or Pond Creek empties into the same; thence due north to the North Fork of the Canadian; thence up said North Fork to the southern line of the Cherokee country; thence with that line west to the one hundredth parallel of west longitude; thence south along said parallel of longitude to the Canadian river, and thence down and with that river to the place of beginning.

Art. 2. The following shall constitute and re- main the boundaries of the Creek country: Be ginning at the mouth of the North Fork of the Canadian river and running northerly four miles; thence running a straight line so as to meet & line drawn from the south bank of the Arkansas river, opposite to the east or lower bank of Grand river, at its junction with the Arkansas, and which runs a course, south, forty-four degrees, west one mile, to a post placed in the ground; thence along said line to the Arkansas and up the same and the Verdigris river, to where the old territorial line crosses it; thence along said line, north, to a point twenty-five miles from the Arkansas river, where the old territorial line crosses the same; thence running west with the southern line of the Cherokee nation to the North Fork of the Canadian river, where the boundary of the cession of the Seminoles defined in the preceding article first strikes said Cherokee line; thence down said North Fork to where the eastern boundary line of the said cession of the Seminoles strikes the same; thence with that line due south to the Canadian river, at the mouth of the Ock-hi-appo or Pond Creek, and thence down said Canadian river to the place of beginning.

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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA

vided for the disposition of all the country between Arkansas on the east and the line of the Mexican possessions on the west, and from Red river north to the 37th parallel of latitude. Thus early something like definite limits had been assigned to the Indian coun- try. By the treaties with the Choctaws all of the present state of Oklahoma south of the Canadian river was assigned to that tribe (part of which was later given the Chickasaws. See Chapter VI). The Creeks were assigned all the country lying north of the Canadian as far as that well defined line that runs about the latitude of Tulsa and marks the dividing boundary between nine or ten modern counties, and extending

from the west limit of the state to an eastern line that now corresponds fairly well with the main line of the M., K. & T. Railroad from Eufaula north through Muskogee and Wagoner. All of the present state lying east and north of the Creek country as just described belonged, by treaties, to the Cherokees, either as an actual home or as an outlet to the western hunting grounds. The strip lying west of the 100th meridian had not yet become United States posses- sion. As a result of these treaties, the Five Civilized Tribes possessed, by the year 1835, all the country now known as Oklahoma, with the exception of the old public land strip.

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CHAPTER V

THE INDIAN COUNTRY A REFUGE OF BARBARISM.

Though exploration of the western coun- try during the years subsequent to the Louisiana Purchase had resulted in a large amount of information concerning its geography and inhabitants, many years passed before really definite and detailed knowledge of the country set aside for the Indians was possessed by any outside the hunters and trappers whose occupation gave them skilled familiarity with the region. About the time the Indians began moving to their western homes, several expeditions were undertaken largely for the purpose of bringing this country and its inhabitants into closer touch with the government and nation at large, and as a result of those ad- ventures into the wilderness much is known that helps to form a picture of the Indian country as it existed three quarters of a cen- tury ago, while still a refuge of barbarism.

Lewis Cass, while secretary of war, on July 14, 1832, issued instructions to the commissioners (William Carroll, Montford Stokes and Robert Vaux). who had been appointed to visit the Indian country to negotiate with the tribes. Proceeding to Fort Gibson, they were to make themselves acquainted with the claims of the western Creeks and Cherokees, and settle their con- flicting interests, if possible, by compromise (see preceding chapter). "I feel confi- dent," says the secretary, "that the country extending from the Red river north of the reservation called the Perpetual Outlet, and bounded on the east by the territory of Ar- kansas and on the west by the Mexican line, purpose.

is amply sufficient for all the Creeks and Cherokees in the United States. . There are probably 20,000 Creeks in Ala- bama, 4,000 Seminoles who are connected by consanguinity and manners with the Creeks, and about 10,000 Cherokees in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina, who are yet to emigrate. It is the intention of the government that the differ- ent parts of the same tribe should be united together in their new country, so that the Creeks and Cherokees would each form but one people.

"The Chickasaws, amounting to about 4,000, are yet to emigrate; but the site of their location is not determined upon, though it is believed an agreement will be · made with the Choctaws for the reception of all the Chickasaws among them in the country assigned to the former, between the Red river and the Canadian." In case this plan failed, the commissioners should look out for a suitable location. The Seminole delegation, searching for a location, would also be in the territory and would confer with the commissioners. Various tribes north of the Ohio were also to be assigned locations.

The Osages had been a source of trouble from the first, and the secretary, for that reason and to make room for other tribes, considered "it expedient to effect a removal of the Osage Indians from their present reservation to a district adjoining the Kan- sas. You will open a negotiation for that By the treaty concluded

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with the Osages June 2, 1825, certain res- ervations were granted to the individuals therein mentioned. As these reservations interfere with the permanent location of the Indians, and as complaints upon that subject have already been made, it is de- sirable to extinguish the titles thus created."

"It is an important object with the gov- ernment," continues Secretary Cass, "to establish a permanent peace among all the tribes west of the Mississippi. The fear of hostilities arises from the habits and man- ners of the Panis, Comanches, and their kindred tribes. The whole subject is referred to you."

"A part of the mounted rangers recently authorized to be raised by an act of Con- gress will be ordered to repair to Fort Gib- son to attend you in the execution of your duties."

The commission thus created began its duties in the Indian country in the fall of 1832. A distinguished guest of the party in its movements over the country now em- braced in Oklahoma was Washington Irv- ing, whose marvelous descriptive power was thus turned to a narration of the principal events and a description of the region tra- versed in the course of the expedition. "A Tour of the Prairies," as Irving called the sketch detailing his experiences, is a classic writing on early Oklahoma. The following quotations are selected to describe, from this writer's observations, the country and inhabitants as he found them in 1832.

"It was early in October, 1832, that I arrived at Fort Gibson, a frontier post of the Far West, situated on the Neosho or Grand river, near its confluence with the Arkansas. I had been traveling for a month past, with a small party from St. Louis, up the banks of the Missouri, and along the frontier line of agencies and missions, that extends from the Missouri to the Arkansas.

Our party was headed by one of the com- missioners appointed by the government of the United States to superintend the settle- ment of the Indian tribes migrating from the east to the west of the Mississippi. In the discharge of his duties he was thus visiting the various outposts of civiliza- tion.

"Having crossed the ford [of the Verdi- gris] we soon reached the Osage agency where Col. Choteau has his offices and magazines, for the dispatch of Indian af- fairs, and the distribution of presents and supplies. It consisted of a few log houses on the banks of the river, and presented a motley frontier scene. Nearby was a group of Osages: stately fellows; stern and simple in garb and aspect. They wore no ornaments; their dress consisted merely of blankets, leggins and moccasins.

In contrast to these was a gayly dressed party of Creeks. There is something, at the first glance, quite oriental in the appearance of this tribe. Besides these there was a sprinkling of trappers, hunters, half- breeds, creoles, negroes of every hue; and all that other rabble rout of nondescript be- ings that keep about the frontiers, between civilized and savage life, as those equivocal birds, the bats, hover about the confines of light and darkness.

"The little hamlet of the agency was in complete bustle; the blacksmith's shed, in particular, was a scene of preparation; a strapping negro was shoeing a horse; two half-breeds were fabricating iron spoons in which to melt lead for bullets.

"Our route lay parallel to the west bank of the Arkansas. . .. For some miles the country was sprinkled with Creek villages and farm houses; the inhabitants of which appeared to have adopted, with considerable facility, the rudiments of civilization, and to have thriven in consequence. Their farms

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were well stocked, and their houses had a a dismal series of rugged forests. The look of comfort and abundance. Cross Timber is about forty miles in "Our plan was to cross the Arkansas just above where the Red Fork [Cimarron] falls into it, then to keep westerly, until we should pass through a grand belt of open forest, called the Cross Timber, which ranges nearly north and south from the Arkansas to the Red river; after which we were to keep a southerly course toward the latter river. breadth, and stretches over a rough country of rolling hills, covered with scattered tracts of post-oak and black-jack ; with some inter- vening valleys, which at proper seasons would afford good pasturage. It is very much cut up by deep ravines, which in the rainy seasons are the beds of temporary streams, tributary to the main rivers, and . these are called 'branches.' The whole tract may present a pleasant aspect in the fresh time of the year, when the ground is cov- ered with herbage; when the trees are in their green leaf, and the glens are enlived by running streams. Unfortunately we entered it too late in the season. The herb- age was parched; the foliage of the scrubby forests was withered; the whole woodland prospect, as far as the eye could reach, had a brown and arid hue.

"The conversation now turned [after crossing the Arkansas above the Red Fork] upon the Pawnees, into whose hunting grounds we were about entering. There is always some wild untamed tribe of In- dians, who form for a time the terror of a frontier, and about whom all kinds of fear- ful stories are told. Such, at present, was the case with the Pawnees, who rove the regions between the Arkansas and the Red river, and the prairies of Texas.

They roam the great plains that extend about the Arkansas, the Red river, and , through Texas, to the Rocky mountains; sometimes engaged in hunting the deer and buffalo, sometimes in warlike and predatory expeditions.

"[The party crossed the Red Fork about seventy-five miles, as they supposed, above its mouth, and then entered the Cross Tim- ber.] It was the intention of the captain to keep on southwest by south, and traverse the Cross Timber diagonally, so as to come out upon the edge of the great western prairie. . . The plan of the captain was judicious; but he erred from not being informed of the nature of the country. Had he kept directly west, a couple of days would have carried us through the forest land, and we might then have had an easy course along the skirts of the upper prairies, to Red river; by going diagonally, we were kept for many weary days toiling through

"A consultation was now held as to our future progress. We had thus far pursued a western course, and, having traversed the Cross Timber, were on the skirts of the Great Western Prairie. We were still, how- ever, in a very rough country, where food was scarce. The season was so far ad- vanced that the grass had withered, and the prairies yielded no pasturage. The pea- vines of the bottoms, also, which had sus- tained our horses for some part of the journey, were nearly gone, and for several days past the poor animals had fallen off wofully, both in flesh and spirit. The Indian fires on the prairies were approaching us from north and south and west; they might spread also from the east, and leave a scorched desert between us and the frontier, in which our horses might be famished.

"It was determined, therefore, to advance no further to the westward, but to shape our course more to the east, so as to strike the north fork of the Canadian as soon as

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possible, where we hoped to find abundance of young cane; which, at this season of the year, affords the most nutritious pasturage for the horses, and at the same time at- tracts immense quantities of game. Here then we fixed the limit of our tour to the Far West, being within little more than a day's march to the boundary line of Texas. [In reality they were about 150 miles from the Panhandle of Texas.]

Resuming our march, we forded the North Fork [of the Canadian], a rapid stream, and of a purity seldom to be found in the rivers of the prairies. After crossing the river we again ascended among hills, from one of which we had an extensive view over this belt of Cross Timber, and a cheerless prospect it was,-hill beyond hill, forest beyond forest, all of one sad russet hue, excepting that here and there a line of green cottonwood trees, sycamores and willows marked the course of some streamlet through a valley. A procession of buffaloes, moving slowly up the profile of one of those distant hills, formed a characteristic object in the savage scene. To the left, the eye stretched be- yond this rugged wilderness of hills, and ravines, and ragged forests, to a prairie about ten miles off, extending in a clear blue line along the horizon. It was like looking from among rocks and breakers upon a distant tract of tranquil ocean.

"After proceeding. . we emerged from the dreary belt of the Cross Timber, and to our infinite delight beheld 'the great Prairie,' stretching to the right and left before us. We could distinctly trace the meandering course of the Main Canadian, and various smaller streams, by the strips of green forest that bordered them.

"We had hoped, by pushing forward to reach the bottoms of the Red river, which

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A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I, Part 7

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