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 11
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WARS WITH OTHER TRIBES
The Cherokees also had trouble with other southwestern tribes prior to their removal from Arkansas to Oklahoma. Their hunters were wont to wander far afield in their search for game, especially on their quest for buffalo. This naturally took them into the hunt- ing grounds of tribes with which they were hitherto unacquainted and who resented sueh intrusions. These Cherokee hunters were fearless and self reliant to a remarkable degree. Upon one occasion a small party of Cherokee hunters were waylaid and attacked by a greatly superior foree of Towakony warriors, somewhere in the vicinity of the Blue River, in the southern part of the Choetaw Nation. Only one of the Cherokees eseaped, all the rest being killed. This one survivor was the noted leader, Ta-ehee, better known as Captain Duteh, who succeeded in eluding his enemies and returned to his home in Arkansas.
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4 The Cherokees and Osages had another battle near the site of the Town of Coweta, in Wagoner County, in which the former gained a decisive vietory. This fight occurred after the Claremore Hill battle, probably the following year, but it has seemingly attracted less historical attention than the latter.
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The next spring a strong force of Cherokee warriors was or- ganized under the leadership of Captain Dutch for the purpose of chastising the tribe which had destroyed the Cherokee hunting party. Their line of march led them to the Towakony villages in the valley of the Brazos River in Northern Texas. The Towakony warriors made desperate resistance when attacked but they were no match for the Cherokees, who were all armed with rifles. A Towakony village was destroyed and many of its people were slain.
THE CHOCTAWS AT WAR
As already stated a small band of Choctaw Indians had located in the lower valley of the Red River, probably as early as the be- ginning of the nineteenth century. Other bands of Choctaws occa- sionally entered upon long journeys west of the Mississippi from time to time, their principal object being to hunt buffalo. As a rule, it was the most enterprising and progressive members of the tribe that undertook such long trips into unknown lands. Usually, such hunters, in addition to bows and arrows, were armed with rifles. They traveled in parties of sufficient size and strength to defend themselves when attacked. Naturally, their appearance on the buffalo range, which was regarded as the hunting grounds of the wilder tribes of the trans-Mississippi country, led to armed conflicts. Comanches, Kiowas, Osages and Wichitas watched the incursions of these strangers from east of the Mississippi River with jealous eyes and many a brush did the intruders have with them.5
Upon one occasion a band of Choctaws were returning from the buffalo country, laden with the spoils of the chase-"jerked" meat, robes and tallow-when, to their astonishment they were attacked by a band of Caddoes. Being better armed than their assailants, the Choctaws soon obtained an advantage and began to press them when they retreated to the Caddo Village which was then attacked and destroyed. The scene of this battle is still pointed out at Caddo
5 Pushmataha made mention of some of the scenes of strife, in which he had participated while on hunting excursions in the coun- try north of the Red River, in the course of his discussion of the treaty providing for a new reservation for his people. He spoke of chasing the Comanches and the Wichitas and of being chased by them in turn. His own renown as a warrior had been gained largely in battle with the Osages.
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Hill, situated about two miles from the Town of Caddo, in the northern part of Bryan County.G
6 The story of the battle at Caddo Hill has been handed down entirely by tradition among the Choctaws. The date of its occur- rence is not known but it was possibly twenty or twenty-five years prior to the migration of the main body of the Choctaws from Mis- sissippi to the Indian Territory, though not so long before that but that some of the older members of the tribe could locate the site of the battle, which virtually gave the name to the town near at hand.
CHAPTER XII
AN INDIAN TERRITORY
In 1824 President James Monroe's annual message to Congress contained a recommendation that provision be made for reserving a tract of land west of Missouri and Arkansas of such an area as to make possible the colonization therein of the various Indian tribes still living east of the Mississippi River. A vast reservation, em- bracing the lands between the Canadian and Arkansas rivers on the one side and the Red River on the other, had already been assigned to the Choctaw Indians by a treaty made in 1820. Appar- ently such a course must have been in contemplation even earlier, as indicated by the expulsion of white squatters a year before by the troops under Major Bradford's command.
The recommendation for the establishment of a territory for emigrant Indian tribes, which was made by President Monroe, was renewed by President John Quincy Adams. It was not until May, 1830, that such an act was passed and was approved by President Andrew Jackson. Under the provisions of this 'act, the President was authorized to select a part of the undivided public domain to which the title of the indigenous tribes had been extinguished, and have the same divided into a suitable number of districts or reserva- tions for assignment to such tribes as might elect to accept the same in exchange for lands owned and occupied by them in the states east of the Mississippi River. Apparently no formal action was taken by President Jackson or any of his successors to formally designate any given area as the proposed Indian Territory. How- ever, several reservations had already been established in the region immediately west of the State of Missouri and the territories of Arkansas and Iowa so it soon became popularly known as "the Indian Territory." 1
1 Rev. Isaac McCoy, the Baptist clergyman who had long been engaged in missionary work among the Indians before they moved across the Mississippi, and who was one of the first to propose the establishment of an Indian Territory, published a small pamphlet about the size of an ordinary almanac which was entitled "The An- nual Register of Indian Affairs within the Indian (or Western)
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There were several reasons why it was deemed desirable to induce the Indians of the tribes living east of the Mississippi to move to the wilderness west of Missouri and Arkansas. First and foremost may be mentioned the selfish desire of the white people who wished not only to get rid of the Indians but also to possess themselves of the lands which the Indians still owned in the states cast of the Mississippi. In addition to these reasons, there was doubtless another object aimed at on the part of some who were instrumental in the adoption of such a policy, namely, the settle- ment of these semi-civilized tribes along the western border would serve as a buffer to prevent the incursion of hostile bands from the wild tribes of the Plains into the frontier white settlements. On the other hand the white people who were sincere friends of the Indians, including most of the missionaries who were then laboring among them, were convinced that such removal was for the best because they wished to see the Indians separated from the vicious influences of dissolute and irresponsible white men who constantly hovered near them on their eastern reservations. A few of the Indians prob- ably preferred to move west from choice, as some of their people
Territory." The first number, which was printed by Jotham Meeker, at the Shawnee Baptist Mission, in Johnson County, Kan- sas (not far from Kansas City), January 1, 1835, contains the fol- lowing statement as to the location and size of the Indian Territory as it was then known: "By the Indian Territory is meant the country within the following limits, viz: Beginning on the Red River, east of the Mexican boundary and as far west of Arkansas Territory as the country is habitable; thence down the Red River eastwardly to Arkansas Territory; thence northwardly along the line of Arkansas Territory to the state line of Missouri: thence along its western line to the Missouri River ; thence up the Missouri River to the Puncah River; thence westwardly as far as the country is habitable; thence southwardly to the point of beginning." It thus appears that the Indian Territory included all of the vast region between the Red River, which forms the southern boundary of Oklahoma, and the Niobrara (or Puncah) River, which forms part of the northern boundary of Nebraska. It was therefore ap- proximately 600 miles long, from north to south, while the supposed habitable zone (i. c., that upon which there was timber sufficient for building, fuel and fencing) was approximately from 150 to 250 miles wide. Thus the eastern part of the public domain from which the states of Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska have since been formed, was commonly called the Indian Territory until the passage and approval of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, in 1854, restricted the area of the Indian Territory to practically the same limits as those which now embrace the State of Oklahoma.
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had already been doing. The great majority of them were utterly opposed to such a change, however. But the personal wishes of the Indians counted for naught when politician and financier and land- grabber were laboring to such an end as well as the philanthropist, though actuated by very different motives.
Within fifteen years after the passage and approval of the act which provided for the establishment of the Indian Territory, nearly thirty tribes of Indians were transplanted to new reserva- tions within its limits from their old homes in the states east of the Mississippi. More tribes were settled in Kansas than in Oklahoma but they were smaller tribes than those which were given reserva- tions in Oklahoma. Eventually nearly all of the tribes which were settled in Kansas and Nebraska were removed to Oklahoma but it was not donc until the white settlements became so numerous in those states as to almost surround their reservations. Practically all of these tribal removals from. Kansas and Nebraska occurred dur- ing the decade immediately following the close of the Civil war.
FIRST LAND PURCHASES IN OKLAHOMA
QUAPAW
Gen. William Clark, superintendent of Indian Affairs for the region west of the Mississippi, and Auguste Chouteau, acting as commissioners for the United States, negotiated a treaty with the representatives of the Quapaw Tribe of Indians whereby that tribe formally relinquished its claim to a vast tract of land in Oklahoma, embracing all that part of the state which is bounded on the north by the Canadian and Arkansas rivers, and on the south by the Red River. This treaty was signed at St. Louis, Missouri, August 24, 1818.2
OSAGE
September 25, 1818, at St. Louis, Missouri, the chiefs and head men of the Great and Little Osage tribes signed a treaty with Gen. William Clark, superintendent of Indian affairs and commissioner
2 While the Quapaws probably did range into Eastern Okla- homa, they certainly did not have much reason to claim the land as far west as the 100th meridian. Yet the Government's title has always rested on this purchase to the exclusion of the claims of the Wichitas, Comanches and other tribes whose people had been actual occupants for many generations. The Osages also claimed lands south of the Canadian but it was not recognized officially.
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for the Government, whereby the Osages sold to it a tract of land in Oklahoma lying east and north of the Arkansas River and south of a line drawn northeastwardly from the lower falls of the Verdigris River to a point near where the Illinois (or Eng-wah-kon-dah, i. e., "Medicine Stone") River is intersected by the eastern boundary of the state.3
June 2, 1825, the representatives of the Osages tribes, in council at St. Louis, signed another treaty with Gen. William Clark as com- missioner for the Government, whereby they relinquished all of the rest of their lands in Oklahoma as well as a vast area in Kansas.
The cession of these lands by the Great and Little Osages and by the Quapaws made it possible for the Government to assign reservations of generous proportions to the immigrant tribes from the southern states. Similar treaties with the Kansas, Omaha and Pawnee tribes, whose domains were north of that of the Osages, made it possible for the location of other tribes from east of the Mis- sissippi on reservations in the region from which was afterward carved the states of Kansas and Nebraska.
THE FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES
The history of the Indian Territory is largely the history of the five civilized tribes, namely, the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks and Seminoles. The destiny of these five tribes seems to have been more or less connected from the beginning of the historic period. Geographically, they were neighbors in the states of the
3 It is stated that the preliminary negotiations conducted with the Osages on the Grand and Verdigris rivers by Maj. William Lovely, agent for the Western Cherokees, had much to do with the final conclusion of the Osage Treaty of 1818. Major Lovely had negotiated a treaty whereby the Osages were to cede all lands north of the Arkansas and east of the Verdigris to the Government, but as this treaty was unauthorized it was never ratified. Major Lovely had been an officer of the Virginia line and had participated in the capture of Burgoyne's Army. He had lived for a time in the family of President Madison's father. He was a pioneer in Tennessee, where he lived among the Cherokees. He came to the Western Cherokees at an early day as a trader and afterward served as their agent. His career is of interest in Oklahoma because he is one of the two veterans of the American Revolution who are known to have visited this state. His death must have occurred shortly before the treaty with the Western Cherokees, in 1817, as a clause in that instrument provided that his widow might continue to reside among them.
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old South and, with the exception of the Cherokees, they were ethnically related. The Cherokees were a race of mountaineers, whose home land was in the Southern Appalachian Region, em- braced in the contiguous portions of North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. Their ethnic relationship, while possibly affected to some extent by the absorption of elements from other linguistic stocks, causes them to be classified with the Iroquois. Of a most virile and self-reliant disposition they have always taken a leading place among the American Indians.
The Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks (or Muskogees) and Semi- noles were, as already intimated, originally of kindred blood and speech. These tribes, together with several closely related smaller tribes which were absorbed by them, compose what is known as the Mobilian or Muskogeean stock. It is almost certain that their an- cestors formed the last aboriginal migration from Mexico to the Gulf States, as the tradition of that movement has been preserved among them. The people of the Creek, or Muskogee Tribe had their habitat in Southern Georgia and Alabama. The Seminoles were originally Creeks, who withdrew from the main body of the tribe and settled in Florida, where they probably absorbed a few remnants of several other stocks. As a rule, the people of both of the last mentioned tribes are very conservative.
The Choctaws and Chickasaws are closely related by the ties of a common descent and their respective dialects of a common language are not greatly different. The Choctaws lived in the cen- tral and southern parts of Alabama and Mississippi, just west of the Muskogees. The habitat of the Chickasaws was in Northern Missis- sippi and Western Tennessee. In colonial times, these two tribes were sometimes arrayed against each other, the Chickasaws adher- ing to the British interests, while the Choctaws were allied with the French. Since their migration to the Indian Territory, they have generally acted in common in most matters, though for fifty years before the admission of Oklahoma into the Union as a state, they had maintained separate tribal governments.
The Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws and Creeks were all aligned on the side of the British during the war for independence. There were two reasons for such a choice, namely (1) their tribal agents and most of the traders were loyalists and used their influence in such a way as to hold the friendship and alliance of these tribes, and (2) the triumph of a foreign power seemed to promise less in the way of aggressive extension of white settlements. Within ten years after the close of the Revolution most of the
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people of these tribes had made their peace with the Government of the United States.+ The Creeks were very wary and distant, however, and it is probable that they were always more or less under British and Spanish influenee which still held sway in Florida.
During the War of 1812, the Cherokees, Chiekasaws and Choe- taws all supported the United States. The Creeks were divided, the larger part of the tribe having been induced to enter into an alliance with the British by the persuasive eloquenee of Teeumsell (who was himself of Muskogee descent), while the Lower Creeks, under the leadership of William MeIntosh were arrayed against their brethren of the rest of the tribe in support of the United States.
+ Although most of the Choetaws and Chiekasaws sided with the mother country during the American Revolution, it is not improb- able that some of the members of those tribes living along the course of the Mississippi River were won over to a spirit of quiescenee, if not one of actual support of the American eause, as Congress had agents operating in the valley of the Mississippi as far south as New Orleans. The faet that a number of Chiekasaws were pensioned for the part they took with Gen. Anthony Wayne in his campaign' against the Indians of the Northwest Territory a few years after the elose of the Revolution, is at least significant in this connection.
THIRD PERIOD
1825-40
MIGRATION OF THE INDIAN TRIBES
1
CHAPTER XIII TRAFFIC AND TRAVEL
THE SANTA FE TRAIL
One of the last official acts of James Monroe, as President of the United States, was that of signing his name to an act of Con- gress providing for the establishment of a road or highway for the overland trade between the Missouri River and the Mexican set- tlements in the valley of the Rio Grande in New Mexico. This overland trade between the American and Mexican frontiers was already assuming considerable importance, even at that early period, and Thomas H. Benton, who represented the newly admitted State of Missouri in the Senate, and who was ever on the alert to push any proposition which would tend to advance the interests and to promote the development of the West, secured the passage and approval of this measure.1
1 The first overland trader from the United States who pene- trated the Spanish dominions as far as Santa Fe was Baptiste La- lande, a French Creole from Kaskaskia, Illinois, who was sent out on a venture in 1804, by an American trader named Morrison. La- lande made the journey in safety, disposed of his goods but, instead of returning and making settlement with his employer, he settled in Santa Fe and lived there the rest of his days. James Pursley (or Purcell), a Kentuckian, who was engaged in trading with the In- dians of the Plains, reached Santa Fe, in 1805, and remained there for many years. In 1812, a party consisting of Robert McKnight, Thomas Beard (or Baird) and Samuel Chambers journeyed to Santa Fe from the Missouri River on a trading expedition. They were arrested and imprisoned and their goods were confiscated by the Spanish authorities. They were not released from confinement until 1821, after the Mexican war of independence had begun. It is stated that two of the members of this party descended the Cana- dian River, from New Mexico, in a canoe. The same year that saw them released also marks the date of the next expeditions overland to Santa Fe, Capt. William Becknall, leading a party from Mis- souri and Hugh Glenn, with whom was associated Fowler and Pryor on an expedition up the Arkansas. In 1822, Captain Becknall took a second party through to Santa Fe, using wagons for the first time. Col. Benjamin Cooper also led an expedition from Missouri to Santa Fe, in 1822.
Vol. I-6
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Under the terms of this act President John Quincy Adams ap- pointed three commissioners, who were not only to survey and estab- lish this road but also to negotiate treaties with the several Indian tribes through whose ranges or domains the course of the proposed road was to be laid out and marked. Benjamin II. Reeves,2 George C. Sibley and Thomas Mather were the members of the commission which induced the Osage and Kaw Indian tribes to enter into trea- ties in which they gave consent to the establishment of such a road and the passage of trade caravans through the country claimed by them as hunting grounds or ranges. They also supervised the sur- veying and marking of the line of the proposed road, which began on the Missouri River at Fort Osage, proceeding in westerly and southwesterly directions across Kansas and entering the valley of the Arkansas River below the Great Bend, followed its course to a point a few miles west of the 100th meridian. Crossing the Arkan- sas the original route led nearly due south to the valley of the Ci- marron, which was followed in a southwesterly direction across the corner of Colorado and into Oklahoma. The Santa Fe Trail crossed Cimarron County, Oklahoma, its course being in a southwesterly direction, crossing the divide between the Cimarron and the Cor- rompaugh and leaving the state near the valley of the last men- tioned stream.3 The paths and ruts of this historic highway are
2 Benjamin H. Reeves was a native of Kentucky. IIe served one term as lieutenant governor of Missouri. Thomas Mather was a citi- zen of Illinois, who was appointed as a member of the commission to fill the vacancy occasioned by Pierre Menard, who declined to serve.
3 Although, as originally laid out, the eastern terminus of the Santa Fe Trail was at Fort Osage (on the southern bank of the Missouri River, about thirty miles below the mouth of the Kansas River), it was soon changed to Westport, which is now a part of Kansas City. The western terminus was fixed at Taos. but, right from the start, all caravans and trains went on to Santa Fe. The route as originally surveyed was generally followed as far as the crossing of the Arkansas River, but from the point several different routes were followed. The most important of these was the one which followed the course of the Arkansas up to Rocky Ford, Colo- rado, and thence in a more southerly direction toward Santa Fe.
This highway became an important factor in the development of the West and the Southwest. Over it were transported manufac- tured goods and other commodities and supplies for the trading posts of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, as well as to the Spanish-Mexican settlements in the valleys of the Pecos and the Rio Grande. On the return trip, bales of wool, bars of silver bul- lion, furs, robes and hides were hauled to the Missouri River. The
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marked indelibly across the plains and valleys which it traversed. In recent years there has been a revival of popular inter- est in the story of the Santa Fe Trail and in numerous places its trace is marked by appropriate monuments or tablets. As yet there has been no movement started for the purpose of marking the traces of this old trail in Oklahoma.
THE FIRST STEAMBOAT
The first steamboat which navigated the waters of the Arkansas River above Fort Smith was the Facility, which, under the com-
large freight wagons (known as Conestoga wagons) were designed and built at Pittsburgh especially for the overland traffic. They were generally drawn by oxen or mules. The traders generally traveled in companies or caravans of considerable size for the sake of mutual protection. Military escorts were seldom furnished prior to the Mexican war, though the menace from the marauding charges of Indians of the plains tribes was ever present, nor was the value of watchfulness against the possibility of attack by renegade white men to be discounted. But, if the risks and dangers attending such ventures were great, the profits were large enough to be alluring, so the overland trade with the Mexican settlers continued to increase each year until the approach of the war with Mexico shut off all commercial intercourse between the two countries for a time.
The traces of the Santa Fe Trail in Cimarron County have scarcely been disturbed by the plow, as they have in the more humid regions to the east. Except for an occasional line fence of barbed wire there are few obstacles to prevent its being traveled as it was in olden times. Even these fences are generally provided with gates at or near the points where they intersect the old trail. Through Cimarron County its course is usually on high land, though generally in sight of the river valley. Exceptions to this are the points where the lower ground was approached because of springs or water-holes, where stock could be watered and where camps were pitched. The higher ground was followed because it offered much more freedom from possibility of surprise by hostile Indians.
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