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 37
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44
"We now most respectfully ask you if you can show us one single instance in which more suffering has been endured or greater sacrifices been made for the cause of the Union; and we most re- spectfully ask and beg not to be classed with the guilty.
"In May, 1862, we put into the service of the United States one regiment, which included two companies of Seminoles, known as the First Regiment, Indian Home Guards, and from this time the privations and sufferings of a soldier's life commenced. Instead of guarding our homes, we were sent into Missouri, and there com- menced fighting the enemies of our country and those of the United States. We took part in most of the battles in Arkansas, and in all of those fought in the Indian Territory, participating in twenty-one different engagements.
359
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
"Furthermore, the remains of our people are as mile-stones to mark our way through the country which we have traveled. We were honorably mustered out of the service of the United States on the 31st of May, 1865."
The council proved to be a tedious affair. The commissioners on the part of the Government were anxious to have new treaties signed by the various delegations. Finding that several of the delegations were without authority to consider and act upon some of the stipula- tions, a brief protocol, providing for immediate peace and leaving all questions at issue subject to negotiation and final adjustment at some subsequent period, was substituted. This, the "loyal" Creeks and Cherokees offered to sign, if permitted to add a qualifying state- ment to which the Government commissioners would not consent at first, but the objection was later withdrawn.
After the council had been in session for a week, John Ross lav- ing joined the Cherokee delegation in the meantime, the Govern- nient commissioners issued a statement in which it was made known that they would refuse to recognize him as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. This was not done, however, until the Union Cherokee delegates had signed the protocol or preliminary treaty, so it was evident that back of this action was some ulterior motive. The "loyal" or Union Cherokee delegates filed a protest against this action of the Government commission, averring that John Ross had never to their knowledge been an emissary of the states in rebellion; that he had not used any influence to turn the Cherokee people from their allegiance or friendship toward the United States; and that, during the three years just past he had represented the Cherokee Nation at Washington, where he had been recognized by the Gov- ernment. This protest was of no avail, however.
The Cherokees, Creeks and Seminoles who had sided with the South sent in delegations from Armstrong Academy (Chatalı Tamaha) where they were still encamped, as also did the Choctaws and Chickasaws, who had sided with the South almost unanimously. These delegations did not arrive at Fort Smith until the council had been in session for some days. Joint committees representing both factions of some of the sundered nations met and tried to thresh out their personal and political differences. Outwardly there was ap- parent serenity but inwardly the fires of passion, which had so long been fanned by wrong and strife, were still smouldering and there were moments of tenseness. Many if not most of the brilliant In- dian leaders of the day were there-Elias C. Boudinot and William Penn Adair, of the Southern Cherokees; John Ross and his nephew,
360
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
William P. Ross, of the Northern Cherokees; Daniel N. McIntosh and Oktahars Harjo, representing the opposing factions of the Creeks; John Chupco and John Jumper, leaders of the two Semi- nole delegations ; Winchester Colbert and Colbert Carter, leaders of the Chickasaw delegation, and Peter P. Pitchlynn and R. M. Jones, Choctaws.
The Southern Cherokees presented a signed statement in which they announced that they would accept the first, second, fourth, fifth and seventh stipulations of the proposed treaty without qualifi- cation. They were willing to accept the abolition of slavery as a fact accomplished and to give it full significance by appropriate acts of the tribal legislative council but they objected most emphati- cally to the proposed extension of tribal rights and citizenship to the negro freedmen of the Cherokee Nation. They also questioned the practicability of the proposed territorial government. In con- clusion they expressed not merely a doubt as to the possibility of re- uniting the Cherokee Nation as one people but also renewed the sug- gestion which had been made twenty years before, namely that the tribe and the reservation should both be divided as the most effective means of putting an end to the bitter feud which had been increas- ing in its intensity for more than a quarter of a century. The state- ment was a dignified one throughout and it closed in the following words :
"In conclusion, we assure the United States Government that we will manifest no factious disposition in the negotiations in which. we may be expected to take part. The great and powerful Govern- ment you represent will not be offended when we say that, though we may have lost our rights by the course we adopted in all honor and sincerity in the late war, we have not lost our manhood."
The treaty commissions of the Chickasaw and Choctaw, nations, through their respective presidents, jointly submitted a statement, in which they emphatically disclaimed that they had been "induced by the machinations of the emissaries of the Confederate States" to sever their treaty relations with the United States, declaring that they had freely and of their own accord entered into the treaty of alliance with the Confederacy and presented a rather elaborate argument in support of their right to take such a course. This statement was concluded in the following language:
"The Confederate States Government having ceased to exist, our relations ceased with it and we recognize the Government of the United States as having maintained its supremacy, and as offering to resume, by treaty, its former relations with us. As nations, we
361
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
are ready and willing to resume such relations, and sign this treaty of peace and amity, in all sincerity, claiming no rights but those properly belonging to us. In entering into new treaty relations with the United States Government, we have but to offer our past history as a guarantee that we will be faithful to such obligations as we may assume. Ever since 1786, when the first treaty was made by our forefathers with our white brothers of the United States, down to 1861, we have never faltered in our allegiance to that Gov- ernment; although we have had sufficient cause, yet we fulfilled our every obligation to the letter, and we hope that the established relations between the sections of the United States may be lasting, and that we may never again be forced to cast our fortunes with one or the other of two contending sections."
However much progress may have been made by some of the other tribes which had been divided by the war, it was evident that there was small hope for reconciliation between the two hostile Cherokee factions. The Northern, or Loyal, Cherokee council had passed an act confiscating the property of the Southern Cherokees. Naturally, such a statute was an obstacle in the way of reconcilia- tion. The Southern Cherokees had sought a reconciliation by send- ing a delegation to Fort Gibson, before the meeting of the peace council at Fort Smith, but this advance had been spurned. Now, under the spirit of the occasion, another committee was appointed by the Southern Cherokees to meet a like committee representing the Northern, or Loyal, Cherokees. The result of the conference was announced in the following report, signed by the Southern Cherokee Committee, of which Richard Fields was chairman :
"Sir: The committee appointed on the part of the delegation from the Southern Cherokees to confer with our suffering brethren for the purpose, if possible, of devising some plan for the reconcilia- tion of our common people, and the amicable adjustment of our unhappy domestic difficulties, without the intervention of the United States Government, beg leave to report that they represented to the committee on the part of our brothers known as the Loyal Cherokees, the earnest desire of those we represent to return to their homes, there to live henceforth in peace and amity as one people; that we were willing and ready to bury all differences be- tween us in oblivion; we reminded them that if permitted to return to our country while their oppressive laws were in force, which not only had already confiscated and sold our cherished homes, but rendered any property our industry and energy might accumulate liable to confiscation, we could live with them only as harmless and
1
362
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
hopeless paupers. We therefore besought them to recommend to their council a repeal of those oppressive and, as we consider, unjust laws; this they declined doing, promising, however, to present our objections to such laws to their national council. Your committee sincerely regret that we were unable to suggest any scheme for the settlement of our domestic divisions that was acceptable to our brethren."
The peace council adjourned September 21st, having been in ses- sion twelve days. It is significant that it was announced that the adjournment of the council and the commission was subject to meet- ing again at the call of the secretary of the interior.3
TREATIES WITH THE WILD TRIBES
At the same time that the Government peace commissioners were holding a council at Fort Smith, efforts were being put forth to in- duce the Indians of the wild tribes of the Plains to attend a peace council and cease from hostilities, in which most of them had been more or less actively engaged for several years past. These included especially the Comanches and Kiowas, who usually ranged from the Arkansas River in Kansas and Colorado, southward across Okla- homa and Texas, and the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, who had gen- erally ranged between the valleys of the Arkansas and Platte rivers, in Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming. It was with diffi- culty that the Indians of these tribes were induced to attend such a council. However, at the urgent insistence of men in whom they had confidence, they finally consented to meet the Government com- missioners, Jesse Chisholm and Captain Black Beaver exercising more influence in the matter than any one else.
The council with the wild tribes of the Southern Plains was held at the mouth of the Little Arkansas River, upon the site of the pres- ent city of Wichita, Kansas. The Government peace commissioners were Gen. John B. Sanborn, Gen. William S. Harney, Thomas Murphy (superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Central Superin- tendency), Kit Carson (the noted scout, guide and hunter), William W. Bent (the well known trader), James Steele and Col. Jesse H. Leavenworth (tribal agent for the Comanches and Kiowas). The treaty with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes was signed on the 14th
3 The official report of the proceedings of the peace council at Fort Smith were printed in the Annual Report of the Commis- sioner of Indian Affairs for 1865, pp. 312-53.
-
-
363
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
day of October, 1865. This treaty provided for the restoration of "perpetual peace" between the people of these tribes and the Gov- ernment of the United States. On its part, the Government dis- avowed the Chivington massacre, wherein a number of Cheyennes who had surrendered to the commander of the military post at Fort Lyon were ruthlessly slain by Colorado volunteers, on Sand Creek, in the eastern part of that territory, in November, 1864. The people of these two tribes relinquished their old reservation in Colorado (which they had abandoned after the massacre on Sand Creek) and accepted one lying between the Arkansas and Cimarron rivers in Southwestern Kansas and Northwestern Oklahoma.
Three days later, a supplemental treaty was signed with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, in which the representatives of the Apaches of the Plains also joined, for the purpose of federating with the two tribes first mentioned. The Apaches of the Plains had always been federated with the Kiowas. It is not known why they left the Kiowas and sought an alliance with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes at that time. Between that time and the making of the next treaty, two years later, they returned to their former associa- tion with the Kiowas, with whom they have ever since remained.
On the same day that the last mentioned treaty was signed (October 17th), the chiefs and head men of the Comanches and Kiowas also signed a treaty, providing for perpetual peace between the Government and the Indians of these tribes. The two tribes were assigned as a reservation all those portions of Western Okla- homa and the Texas Panhandle lying between the Cimarron and Red rivers, between the 98th and 103d meridians.
Most of the leading chiefs and head men of the five tribes con- cerned signed the treaties in which they were respectively involved. It was a notable council, though it attracted less attention than the one held on the Medicine Lodge two years later.
-
CHAPTER XLIII
THE CHISHOLM TRAIL AND THE OVERLAND CATTLE TRADE
In the spring of 1865, Jesse Chisholm, the veteran Cherokee trader, set out from his temporary residence near the mouth of the Little Arkansas River (the site upon which the City of Wichita, Kansas, has since been built), on a trading trip to the valleys of the Canadian and Washita rivers, in the Indian Territory.1 With sev-
1 Jesse Chisholm was born in Tennessee, about the year 1806. His father was a white man, of Scotch descent, and his mother was a Cherokee Indian woman. He probably migrated to the West before the Western Cherokees left Arkansas. Although of a quiet, unassuming disposition, he became well known throughout the southwestern frontier because of his integrity and sterling honesty and truthfulness. He seems to have been mentioned in one way or another in most of the books and published reports of explora- tions and travels in the Southwest which were issued during the last forty years of his life. He is first mentioned in an account of a war between the Cherokees and the Towakonies, about 1827. He accompanied the Leavenworth-Dodge expedition to the Red River country in 1834. He was a good business man and a successful trader, yet such was his generosity and charity that he never amassed as much wealth as a more selfish man might have done under similar circumstances. He settled at old Fort Edward (Camp Holmes), near the mouth of Little River, in what is now Hughes County, 1838. His wife was a member of the Creek tribe. Later, about 1850, he established a trading post in the southern part of the present Cleveland County and, in 1858, he established another trading establishment or ranch, at Council Grove, on the North Cana- dian, about six miles above the site of Oklahoma City. He hauled large kettles to the salt springs in what is now Blaine County, where he manufactured salt several years before the Civil war. He was a man of most humane disposition, as indicated by his action in rescuing by ransom no less than nine captive children and youths, at various times, who were held in bondage among the Comanches and Kiowas. These captives, most if not all of whom were Mexi- cans, were adopted and reared in his home and as members of his own family. At the outbreak of the Civil war he was prevailed upon to act as a guide for Albert Pike, the Confederate commis-
364
365
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
eral wagons loaded with goods adapted to his purpose, he followed the faint trace of the trail which had been left by the retreating column of Federal troops under the command of Colonel Emory, when, four years before, they had withdrawn from the posts in the
JESSE CHISHOLM
Indian Territory and marched to Fort Leavenworth with Captain Black Beaver, the Delaware leader, as their guide. The road thus used was followed by other traders and travelers and soon became
sioner, on the occasion of his visit to the tribes on the Upper Washita for the purpose of making a treaty with them. Apparently it was not to his liking, however, as a few months later he was numbered among the refugees who followed Opothleyohola for the purpose of finding an asylum in Kansas. But refugee camps were distasteful to one who loved to live in the open, so he soon drifted west to the mouth of the Little Arkansas, whither the Wichita and kindred tribes had settled for the time being. A small stream which flowed by his ranch on the present site of Wichita is still
366
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
known as the Chisholm Trail, though, as already stated, it was first marked by Major Emory's command at the outbreak of the Civil war, and it evidences the sagacity and skill of the Delaware scout and guide, Captain Black Beaver, who had long been a friend and comrade of Jesse Chisholm.2
During the greater part of the Civil war, Texas had been isolated from the rest of the Confederacy. Not only were there few troops from the other states of the South serving in Texas, but a large part of the Texas troops were serving in the states east of the Mississippi River. Texas was at that time comparatively sparsely populated and pastoral conditions generally prevailed except in the eastern and southern portions. The chief industry of a large part of the then settled section of the state was that of raising cattle under range conditions. During the war, when Texas was isolated by the Federal blockade on the Gulf Coast and along the line of the Lower Mississippi, there was no market for the surplus stock from the ranches and ranges of that great state. Consequently, as the de- mand for local consumption was not nearly equal to the annual increase in the herds, the number of cattle on the ranges of Texas had been greatly multiplied in a comparatively short period of time.
The end of the war found high prices for all kinds of stock in the northern states, while the prices in Texas were but little more than nominal. Under such conditions, it was but natural that there
called Chisholm Creek. When he came south on his trading trip in the spring of 1865, he was accompanied by James R. Mead, another trader, who was one of the founders of Wichita. Although he was growing old and feeble, he continued actively engaged in the Indian trade, much of the time out on the buffalo range, until his death. It was said that he was able to speak fourteen different Indian languages, so his services were in frequent demand as an interpreter, especially by Government peace commissioners, survey- ors, explorers and military commanders. Although he always had one or more trading posts, much if not most of his trading was done in the camps of the wild Indians on the plains, his stock in trade and the products of the business being transported in wagons. He became very influential among the people of all the tribes of the Southern Plains, by whom he was recognized not only as a friend, but also as a counselor, arbiter and brother. His death, which occurred in March, 1868, was the occasion of great mourning among the Indians. He was buried near the North Canadian River, in Blaine County.
2 Personal information secured by the writer from George. Chisholm, who was associated with Jesse Chisholm throughout that period.
367
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
should have been many efforts to sell Texas cattle in the markets of the then western states. Numerous attempts were made to drive large herds overland, generally in the direction of St. Louis. Such movements passed through the Indian Territory, entering the Chickasaw country at some point on the Red River and following
Courteously Jahres
JOSEPH G. MCCOY
a generally northeasterly course, through the Choctaw, Creek and Cherokee nations. All usually went well (though the drovers gen- erally had to pay tribute for the privilege of driving across the Indian reservations) until the herds began to penetrate the region where their appearance was the cause of outbreaks of the destructive Texas fever among the native cattle. Then there were armed mobs and scenes of violence which usually caused an almost total loss to
368
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
the drovers. Texas cattle were also driven eastward, through Louisiana to the Mississippi River, where they were loaded on barges and towed up the river to Illinois, where they were driven across the country to points where they were to be fattened for market, but the same disastrous results followed, for the Texas (or splenetic) fever always became epidemic wherever native cattle came in contact with them. The question of disposing of the surplus cattle of Texas therefore became a serious one.
A young Illinoisan, Joseph G. McCoy, of Springfield, who had had experience both as a cattle feeder and as a railroad man, became interested in the solution of the problem of transporting and mar- keting the surplus cattle of Texas.3 Mr. McCoy finally proposed a plan, which, though simple, was so novel that most of the railroad managers, before whom it was laid, refused to consider it seriously. In brief, his plan was to establish a shipping point upon one of the new railroads which were then being built westward from the Mis- souri River, across the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains, to which the beef stock from Texas might be slowly driven from the overstocked ranges of Texas during the grazing season, and from whence the stock might be shipped by rail to the packing houses in Chicago. He finally succeeded in inducing one of the railroad companies to back him in the enterprise and it was arranged to establish such a shipping center at Abilene, Kansas, which was on the line of the Kansas Pacific Railway, then under construction from Kansas City to Denver. Abilene was so far west that a cattle trail from Texas did not pass by or through any considerable set- tlements, so there was no trouble with settlers on account of the Texas fever.
3 Joseph G. McCoy was born at Springfield, Illinois, December 20, 1837. Of his early life comparatively little is known. During the Civil war he was engaged in feeding cattle and, at its conclusion the scarcity and high price of beef and the seeming impossibility of safely bringing the cheap cattle of Texas to the northern markets appealed to his typically American genius for achieving that which had been reputed to be insurmountable. At first the railway com- pany paid him a small commission on each car of cattle that was shipped from Abilene but the arrangement did not last long. He continued his interest in the live stock business until old age caused his retirement. He was among the early settlers of El Reno, Okla- homa, and was nominated for delegate to Congress by the demo- cratic party in 1890. His later years were spent in Wichita and Kansas City. He published a book entitled, "Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade in the West and Southwest," in 1874. He died at Kansas City, October 19, 1915.
369
HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
Backed by a contract with the railroad company, McCoy and his associates did considerable advertising among the ranchmen of Texas, many of whom were skeptical of the feasibility of the pro- posed plan and suspicious of the man who was promoting it. How- ever, by dint of much persuasion, there were a number of ranchmen who became sufficiently interested to such an extent that 35,000 head of cattle were driven northward across the west central part of the Indian Territory and into Kansas, during the spring and summer of 1867, and were sold for shipment at Abilene.
In 1868, 75,000 head of cattle were driven north from Texas; in 1869 the number was increased to 150,000 and, in 1870, to 300,000. During the first ten years over 3,000,000 head of Texas cattle were driven northward across Oklahoma to the railroad shipping points in Kansas. As the settlements spread westward in Kansas, Abilene was abandoned as a shipping center in favor of points farther out from the settlements.
The main cattle trail crossed the Red River at Red River Station, near the present Town of Ringgold, Texas. It followed a course almost due north across the extreme western part of the Chickasaw Nation and the Unassigned Lands, keeping well to the east of the Kiowa-Comanche and Cheyenne-Arapaho reservations. A short distance south of the Cimarron River crossing (near the present Town of Dover, in Kingfisher County ) it joined the Chisholm Trail, which was followed to the crossing of the Arkansas River, at Wichita, Kansas. Through the greater part of its course across the Chickasaw country and the Unassigned Lands, the trail was eight or ten miles east of the 98th Meridian. It crossed the North Cana- dian River at the present Town of Yukon, in Canadian County.
In 1871, the westward extension of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway enabled it to tap the Texas cattle trade at Newton. Then, in succession, Wichita, Great Bend and Dodge City each had its brief era of greatness as a "cow town." The name of the Chis- holm Trail, which was originally a road traveled by traders from the Arkansas River (Wichita, Kansas), to the Washita, was extended to include the cattle trail clear down to and beyond the Red River. So, too, in the vernacular of the cowmen, it was still the "Chissum" Trail that led to each of the successive "cow towns" in Kansas. In 1880, the Santa Fe Railway Company extended a branch line to Caldwell, near where the Chisholm Trail crossed the Kansas-Okla- homa boundary line and, from that time until the railroads were built southward across Oklahoma to the Red River, that town was
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.