USA > Oklahoma > A standard history of Oklahoma; an authentic narrative of its development from the date of the first European exploration down to the present time, including accounts of the Indian tribes, both civilized and wild, of the cattle range, of the land openings and the achievements of the most recent period, Vol. I > Part 10
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5 Charles Bougie (or Bogy) was a native of Kaskasia, who came to Arkansas Post with the first garrison of American troops, in 1804. Nuttall described him as a courtly, well preserved gentleman of seventy when he met him in 1819.
6 According to Jacob Fowler's journal, Glenn's trading post was situated on the Verdigris, a mile above its mouth, while other trading post (presumably that of Bougie) was located at the rapids, several miles further up stream.
" Gregg's "Commerce of the Prairies," Vol. II, pp. 23-24.
8 The keel-boat was usually from fifty to seventy-five feet long and fifteen to twenty feet beam. The keelson extended from stem to stern. It was a staunch vessel, well modeled, sharp bow and stern, and built by skilful workmen after the most approved methods of
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stream much of the way by men who walked on shore or waded in the shallow water at the edge of the river, while others used oars or poles to aid in propelling the craft against the current. The first troops who came to Fort Smith were transported by keel-boat, as were the supplies for that post until the steamboats began to ply the river. It is probable that keel-boats also ascended Grand River as far as Chouteau's trading post, seventy-five miles above the mouth of that stream, though it was necessary to time such voyages in seasons when the river was at a favorable stage. Such voyages were slow and tedious, the progress up stream, even under the most favorable circumstances, seldom being more than twelve or fifteen miles per day.
The first steamboat arrived at Fort Smith in 1820. From that
shipcraft of that day. Such a boat had a carrying capacity of ten to twenty tons, a draft of thirty inches light, and cost, usually from $2,000 to $3,000. Amidship was the cabin, extending four or five feet above the hull, in which was stored the cargo of Indian mer- chandise. On each side of the cabin was a narrow walk, called by the French voyageurs "passe-a-vant," on which the boatmen walked in pushing the boat along with poles. The appliances used for ascending the river were the cordelle, the pole, the oar and the sail. The cordelle was a line, sometimes 300 yards long, which was fastened to the top of the mast erected in the center of the boat. The boat was pulled by this line by a long string of twenty or thirty men, who walked on the shore. When an obstacle was encountered which prevented the men from walking along the bank, the line was made fast to some object on shore and she was advanced by the men on board who pulled on the line. This process was called "warping." There were shallow places along the river where it became necessary to use poles. The oars came into use when it became necessary to cross from one side of the river to the other. * The crew of a keel-boat was called a "brigade," and fre- quently consisted of as many as a hundred men, although this num- ber included many trappers and hunters who were not regular boat- men. They went well armed and every boat carried on her bow a small cannon called a "swivel." The captain of the boat, called the "patron," did the steering. His assistant, called the "bosse- man," stood at the bow, pole in hand, and gave directions to the men at the cordelle. It was necessary that these officers should be men of great energy, physical strength and personal courage. * The boatmen employed on these voyages were French Canadians and Creoles. The rations furnished consisted of pork and beans and lye hominy, and from this allowance pork was cut off when game could be procured by the hunters. There was no coffee and no bread .- Phil E. Chappell, Vol. IX, "Kansas Historical Society Collections," pp. 71-72.
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time on, steam navigation played an important part in the life and affairs of the Indian Territory, until the coming of the first rail- road. As already stated, Fort Smith continued to be regarded as the head of navigation on the Arkansas River for some years, but, later on, many of the steamboats extended their voyages to the mouth of the Grand River, which they ascended to the boat land- ing at Fort Gibson.
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CHAPTER X INDIAN MISSIONS
THE FIRST MISSION STATIONS
In 1820 the first mission and school among the Indians of Okla- homa was established, for the Osages, in the valley of the Grand (or Neosho) River, in the southern part of what is now Mayes County. It was founded under the auspices of the United Foreign Missionary Society,1 and was called the Union Mission. Its loca-
1 The United Foreign Missionary Society was organized in New York City, July 25, 1817, by the joint action of representatives of the Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed churches. May 5, 1819, this society sent Rev. Epaphrus Chapman and Mr. Job P. Vinal on a tour of exploration west of the Mississippi, with instruction to select a site for a mission among the Western Cherokees, then living in Arkansas. Finding that the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions had already arranged to plant a mission among the Western Cherokees, Messrs. Chapman and Vinal pushed on up the Valley of the Arkansas, to the eastern part of what is now Oklahoma, where they visited the Osages who then lived in the lower valleys of the Grand and Verdigris rivers. Among the em- ployes and engagees at Chouteau's trading post were a number of men who had married women of the Osage Tribe, some of these unions having occurred before the Osages left Missouri, more than twenty years before this time. A number of the mixed-blood people of this French-Osage parentage had formed a settlement near the mouth of Chouteau Creek and it is believed that some of them en- couraged Mr. Chapman to locate his mission station in their neigh- borhood so that their children might have an opportunity to attend school. The original staff of the Union Mission was organized in New York City, whence the members took their departure for the West, April 20, 1820. Mr. Vinal had died at Fort Smith the fall before, according to Nuttall, who mentioned the incident. The party which came west in 1820 consisted of Rev. Epaphrus Chap- man and wife, Rev. William F. Vaill and wife, Dr. Marcus Palmer, six farmers and mechanics, and six young women who were to serve as teachers and assistants. From Pittsburgh, the journey was made entirely by boat. Low water and sickness interfered greatly with the progress of the journey, especially after reaching the Arkansas. Two of the young women died on the way and most of the rest of the party suffered from fevers.
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tion was close to the salt springs where Campbell's salt works had been operated.
In 1823 another mission was established for the Osages by the same society, in the valley of the Grand, near the southeast corner of Craig County. It was called the Hopefield Mission. Both of
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RUINS OF FOUNDATION OF MISSION BUILDING
these mission stations were absorbed by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, by which they were continu- ously operated until 1836, when they were abandoned after the
Major Long met a party of missionaries (nine men, eight women and four children) at Little Rock, as he passed down the river in the autumn of 1820. They were then detained by low water and by sickness. As that party was bound for the country of the Osages it must have been the one destined for Union Mission. It was late in the year when the destination was reached.
In 1825, the United Foreign Missionary Society made overtures to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions with a view to consolidating the work of the two agencies. After nego- tiations extending over more than a year, the two missionary socie- ties were formally merged, in July, 1826, under the name of the latter, and, from that time on, the missions at Union and Hopefield were listed as stations of the American Board. No change was made in the mission staff but the same were merely transferred to the administrative control of the American Board and the two missions continued to be operated under such auspices until they were both abandoned, in 1836, as the result of the removal of the Osages from
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lands of the surrounding region had been ineluded within the limits of the new Cherokee Reservation and the Osages had removed north- ward into Kansas.2
that region. An epidemie of Asiatic eholera prevailed at these two missions in the summer and autumn of 1834. At Hopefield, there were sixteen deaths, including that of Rev. William B. Montgomery, who was in charge of the mission.
2 The site of Union Mission is known and identified but the last vestiges of its buildings have almost disappeared. Upon a wooded summit, near the site of the mission there are several graves. At one of these is a headstone, neatly ehiselled from native stone, upon which appears the following inscription :
IN MEMORY OF EPAPHRUS CHAPMAN WHO DIED 7 JUNE, 1825 AGED 32 First Missionary to the Osages
Say among the heathen the Lord reigneth
The grave is negleeted and all but forgotten and the headstone leans almost to the point of falling prostrate. It would seem, indeed, that the memory of this pioneer missionary, who must have been the first man of English speech to preah the gospel in Oklahoma, should be worthy of more considerate attention by the people of Oklahoma.
Beside the grave of Epaphrus Chapman are the graves of four children of David Redfield, the earpenter of the mission. They died of cholera in 1834. A small, rough sandstone, uneut and unin- seribed, stands at the head of each little grave. Not far distant are the graves of several members of the French-Osage Settlement. The inscriptions chiselled on the carefully cut stones at the last men- tioned graves indicate that they were made by skilled workmen- probably by one of those who had been brought to Fort Smith to work on the construction of the new post, along about 1839, or by one of those employed during the course of the ereetion of the Chero- kee seminaries, ten or a dozen years later.
Epaphrus Chapman was from East Haddam, Connecticut. More than half of the original party which aceompanied him to Union Mission, in 1820, were from Connecticut; the rest being from New York and New Jersey. Rev. William F. Vaill, who was associated with Mr. Chapman in the management of the mission, remained in charge, after the death of the latter, until 1834.
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During this period there were a number of mission stations established among the tribes which afterward migrated to Okla- homa. In addition to those which were inaugurated and operated under the patronage and control of the American Board of Com- missioners for Foreign Missions (Congregational) there were mis- sions planted among the people of a number of the tribes by the missionary societies of the Baptist and Methodist denominations. Mission workers from practically all of these church organizations, who had been employed at the various stations in the southern states, afterward migrated to the West when the Cherokees, Choctaws and Chickasaws came to their new reservations in the Indian Territory. The trials and tribulations of some of these devoted mission workers will be related more fully in a subsequent chapter.
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) CHAPTER XI
INDIAN AFFAIRS
At the beginning of this period the Osage Indians claimed all of Oklahoma north of the Canadian River and south of that stream they claimed to own all of the land lying west of the Kiamitia. East of the Kiamitia the country was claimed by the Quapaws, though they seldom came into Oklahoma and the southeastern part of the state was occupied at times by bands of Caddo Keechi In- dians. In the southwestern part of the state, in the vicinity of the Wichita Mountains and near the Red River, were the Indians of the Wichita and affiliated tribes. Roving over the plains of the entire western part of the state were the Comanches and the Kiowas. The Osages were always at war with all of these tribes except the Quapaws, and though related by ties of a common descent and language, even these they treated with harshness and contempt.
As early as 1785, bands of Indians, belonging to several of the tribes which had been allied with the British during the American Revolution, crossed the Mississippi and settled in the Province of Louisiana, which then belonged to Spain. Among these were one band of Delawares and one of Shawnecs, both of whom settled in Missouri for a time, and one of Cherokees, who settled in Arkansas. There were also a few families of Choctaws who came to the upper Red River country about the same time.
The Indians of all of the tribes living east of the Mississippi felt the pressure of the white settlements in increasing degree. In the autumn of 1808, a delegation of Cherokees journeyed from their home country in the mountains of North Carolina, Northern Geor- gia and Eastern Tennessee to Washington, where they called upon President Jefferson to ask his counsel and assistance in the adjust- ment of their tribal affairs. One part of the delegation claimed to represent those of the Cherokee people who wished to follow the ways of civilization, not only in their manner of living but also in their desire to organize their tribal government on a plan some- what similar to that of the states. They therefore desired permis- sion to do so regardless of the fact that others in the tribe did not Vol. 1-5
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wish to join with them in pursuing sueh a course. The rest of the delegation expressed a desire to continue in the eustoms and ways of their fathers. For this reason and also because game was becom- ing very scarce in their country, they asked permission to move to the country west of the Mississippi River. After duly eonsid- ering both requests, President Jefferson replied that the Govern- ment of the United States was friendly to both parties and that, as far as possible, it would gladly grant the requests of each party. Permission was given to those who had expressed a desire to move west to send an exploring party for the purpose of examining the valleys of the Arkansas and White rivers, within the limits of what afterward beeame the State of Arkansas. This was done and, upon receiving a favorable report many Cherokee families moved to the new country west of the Mississippi. The lands thus selected were confirmed to the Western Cherokees by a treaty entered into on the 26th of December, 1817.
The lands to which these Cherokees (theneeforth known as the Western Cherokees) moved had long been elaimed by the Osages, who naturally regarded the neweomers as intruders, so there was trouble between the two peoples almost from the first. It was mostly in the nature of petty warfare, the Osages making raids into the district oceupied by the Cherokees for the purpose of stealing horses and earrying off an oeeasional eaptive, and the Cherokees making swift and sure reprisals. In time the Cherokees came to have such a wholesome respeet for the prowess of the Cherokee warriors that they became desirous of having a strip of territory between their own country and the Cherokees settled by white people.
TECUMSEH'S VISIT
In the early part of 1811, Tecumseh, the great Shawnee war chief and leader, visited the bands of Osage Indians who were then living in Oklahoma. He came to persuade them to join in the pro- posed Indian confederaey which he was striving to organize for the avowed purpose of checking the further extension of white settle- ments toward the West. The Osages were greatly moved by the fervid appeal of this masterful leader. He visited the Osages at Clermont's Village, near the foot of the historie Claremore Mound in Rogers County. The people of the bands of Big Traek and White Hair (Paw-hu-ska) were also gathered there at the time.
While the natural sympathies of the Osages no doubt went out to Tecumseh and to the eause which he had come to plead before
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them, they felt constrained to decline his invitation to join in con- pact which meant certain war with the whites. All of their dealings in the past had been with the French traders of St. Louis, by whom they had always been fairly treated. These traders were all loyal American citizens at that time and their influence was against Tecumseh and his ambitious designs. They therefore refused to take part in his supreme effort to stay the westward sweep of the white man and his settlements. Tecumseh went his way disap- pointed.1
It is a fact worthy of note that about the same time that Tecumseh visited the Osages, several white mnen also came among them and tried to incite them to make war on the frontier settlements. It is probable that these were emissaries or agents of some of the British authorities in Canada. Similar efforts were made to incite the Indians of the Upper Mississippi and the Upper Missouri to rise against the American frontier just about the same time. The Osages refused to listen to them.
WAR BETWEEN THE CHEROKEES AND OSAGES -
As already stated the Osages resented the appearance of the Cherokees west of the Mississippi River, because the lands upon which they settled had long been claimed by the Osages. Most of the incursions of the Osages into the reservation of the Western Cherokees or Cherokees of Arkansas, as they were often called, were for the purpose of plundering and stealing horses. Becoming more bold in their depredations they also carried off prisoners. Although most of these Western Cherokees had migrated from east of the Mississippi in order to be free from the restraints of civiliza- tion, they had been sufficiently influenced by intercourse with civi- lized people to prefer the ways of peace rather than those of war
1 The story of the visit of Tecumseh to the Osages living in the Valley of the Verdigris appears in a book entitled "Manners and Customs of Several Indian Tribes Located West of the Mississippi," written by John Dunn Hunter and published in Philadelphia, in 1823. Hunter claimed to have been captured in some of the frontier settlements east of the Mississippi while a small child, and that he was afterward brought West, where he fell into the hands of the Osages, among whom he was reared. His book was pronounced a hoax by some of the more intelligent pioneers, among whom were Lewis Cass, William Clark and Auguste Chouteau. If so, it is a most clever one, for it evidences geographical knowledge which could scarcely be had from hearsay.
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and there is no doubt but that they would have preferred to live at peace with their new neighbors, the Osages. When they found that the Osages were determined to provoke trouble they were not slow to retaliate. They not only acted on the defensive within the lines of their own reservation, which had been assigned to them by the treaty of July 8, 1817,2 but they also carried the war into the enemy's country at times.
The most noted conflict between the Cherokees and the Osages was that which took place at the Claremore Mound in "the Straw- berry Moon" (i. e., May and June), in 1818. Like other struggles between aboriginal peoples, there was no written record made at the time, so there is some variation in the accounts of the fight at Clare- more Mound. The Cherokees are said to have been led by a chief known as Too-an-tuh, or Spring Frog, and their purpose was to chastise the Osages for killing a number of people during a raid which they had made into the country of the Cherokees on the Arkansas shortly before. Guided by their scouts, the Cherokees moved to attack the Osages at the Village of Clermont, or Clare- more, which was located in the Valley of the Verdigris, near the station of Sageeyah on the Iron Mountain Railway in Rogers County. The Osages retreated to the top of a neighboring hill, where they prepared for defense. This hill is capped by a mas- sive limestone ledge, has steep slopes and affords a most favorable natural position for defensive fighting.
The Osages were armed only with bows and arrows and smooth- bore muskets. The Cherokees, on the other hand, were not only armed with rifles but were also skilled in the use of the same. The advantage as to position was wholly on the side of the Osages but the Cherokees, in addition to being better armed, were also animated by the spirit of revenge. So accurate was their marksmanship and so impetuous were their charges that they gained a foothold on top
2 The treaty of July 8, 1817, was negotiated by Gen. Andrew Jackson, Governor Joseph McMinn, of Tennessee, and Gen. David Meriwether, of Georgia, as commissioners on the part of the United States. John D. Chisholm and James Rogers, as the duly autho- rized deputies of the chiefs of the Cherokees on the Arkansas, signed the treaty in their behalf. This treaty provided that emi- grants who had improved their lands were to be reimbursed for such improvements. The poorer Indians, who had no improvements were to be given a rifle and ammunition and the choice of either a brass kettle or a beaver trap. They were also to be furnished with flatboats and provisions for the westward journey.
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of the hill and, in the end, the Battle of Claremore Mound was a decisive victory for the Cherokees.3
The last battle which was waged between the Cherokees and Osages was fought near the present Town of Coweta, in 1823. The Government had intervened after the conflict at Claremont Hill, but one of the Cherokee chicfs (Ta-kah-to-kah) refused to sign the treaty with the Osages because he said some of the Chero- kee prisoners had not been returned. The Government was unable to secure the return of these prisoners, so immediately after the close of the council which was held between the representatives of the two tribes at Fort Smith, the Cherokees formed a war party to chastise the Osages once more. The Cherokee war party, which was under the command of Walter Webber, immediately started for the Osage country and reached the Osage Town of Pasuga, located on the site of the present Town of Claremore, which was the home of the band of which Black Dog, a noted leader, was chief. Pasuga was found deserted, the Osages having gone on
3 The limestone hill, upon which this battle occurred, has long been known as Claremore Mound, though it bears no resemblance to a mound and it is many times as great in bulk as the most exten- sive artificial earthwork in the United States. Claremore's Village was located about half a mile southwest of this hill upon which the Osages made their stand. According to Nuttall, who visited the Osage country the following year, the Cherokees who were engaged in that battle disregarded the restraints and rules of civilized war- fare and indulged in savage excesses. He states that, of ninety Osages who were killed, a large part consisted of women and ehil- dren. The Cherokees also captured a number of prisoners who were carried off in triumph to their own villages in Arkansas. The deten- tion of some of these prisoners was the subject of complaint on the part of the Osages for some time before lasting peace was finally established between the two tribes. Tradition relates a romantic story of an incident which happened at the time of the release of these captives by the Cherokees, when they were to be sent home to their own people. A young Cherokee brave had wooed and mar- ried one of the Osage maidens during the period of her captivity. When his people were required to surrender all of their Osage pris- oners at the behest of their tribal agent, the stern chiefs of his band, unmoved by his appeals, decreed that she should be sent back to her people along with the rest of the returning captives. The anxious young Cherokee brave had no recourse save that of following her to the Osage country. There he plead his claims before the kinsmen of his wife, so lately the foes of him and his people. Happily, the Osages did not prove to be so hard-hearted and unsympathetic as his own chiefs had been, so he was permitted to return home, accom- panied by his wife who went willingly and not as a prisoner.
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their winter hunt. The Cherokee warriors took up the trail and, a few days later, discovered the Osage camp near Coweta. A battle followed, in which the Cherokees were victorious, 150 Osages being killed and seventy more falling into the hands of the enemy as prisoners. The Osages were then willing to make peace with the Cherokees. Another council was held at Fort Smith and the two tribes entered into a treaty of peace which was kept ever after, though there was never a brotherly feeling between them and there is not to this day.
During the following Oetober a council in which the leading men of both the Western Cherokees and the Osages participated was convened at St. Louis, upon the urgent insistence of Gen. William Clark, who was superintendent of Indian affairs for the country west of the Mississippi. This did not end the trouble between the two tribes, however, and Governor James Miller, of Arkansas, took the initiative in the effort to hold a second peace council in 1820. Petty depredations continued even after that and it was not until 1822 that final peace was established between the people of the Osage and Western Cherokee tribes.4
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