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 8
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"From the mouth of this river, through the prairie to the main branch of the Arkansas, is three days journey, perhaps sixty or seventy miles in a straight line; from this to the Panis or Towiache towns, by land, is about thirty miles, and by water, double the distance; the river is near a mile wide. The country on each side, for many hundreds of miles, is all prairie, except a skirt of wood . along the river bank and on the small streams; what trees there are, are small; grass is green summer and winter. In between thirty-three and thirty-four degrees of north latitude, the soil is very rich, producing luxuriantly everything that is planted in it.
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The river from this upwards, for one hundred and fifty miles, continues at least a mile wide, and may be ascended in pirogues.
"Mr. Grappe, to whom I am indebted for the foregoing accu- rate description of Red River, informed me that his personal knowledge of it did not extend but little above the Panis (Wichita) towns; but that Mr. Brevel, of the Isle Brevel, who was born in the Caddo old towns, where he was, had been further up it and that whatever account he gave me might be relied on. I therefore sought an opportunity, a few days later, to obtain from Mr. Brevel the following narrative, which I wrote down from his own mouth as he related it:
" 'About forty years ago, I sat off on foot, from the Panis nation (who then lived about fifty leagues above where they now are) in company with a party of young Indian men, with whom I had been partly raised, on a hunting voyage and to procure horses. We kept up on the south side of Red River, as near it as we could conveniently cross the small streams that fell in, sometimes at some' distance, and at others very near it, in sight of it. We found the country all prairie, except small copses of wood, cedar, cotton and musketo, among which a stick six inches in diameter could not be found; the surface becoming more and more light, sandy and hilly, with ledges or cliffs of a greyish sandy rock, but everywhere covered with herbage. We found many small streams falling into the river, but none of any considerable size or that discharged much water in dry seasons, but many deep gulleys formed by the rain water. After traveling for several days over a country of this description, the country became more broken, the hills rising into mountains, amongst which we saw a great deal of rock salt and an ore, the Indians said was my (meaning the white people's) treas- ure; which I afterward learnt was silver; and that amongst these mountains of mines we often heard a noise like the explosion of cannon, or distant thunder, which, the Indians said, was the spirit of the white people, working in their treasure; which I afterwards was informed, was the blowing of the mines, as it is called, which is common in all parts of Spanish America where mines exist. The main branch of the river becoming smaller, till it divided into large innumerable streams, that issued out of the valleys among these mountains; the soil very light and sandy, of a reddish grey color.' "'
Brevel continued the account of his journey to Santa Fe and return and enumerated the various kinds of wild animals which he had seen along the way as follows:
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"From Blue River upwards, on both sides of Red River, there were innumerable quantities of wild horses, buffalo, bears, wolves, elk, deer, foxes, sangliers or wild hogs, antelope, white hares, rab- bits, etc., and, on the mountains, the spotted tiger, panther and wild cat."
Brevel's story of Spanish mines in the mountains near Red River (presumably those of the Wichita range) to which currency was thus given through the medium of Doctor Sibley's letter, was in a large measure responsible for the extensive prospecting for previous metals in the Wichita Mountains immediately after the opening of that country to white settlement nearly a century later.
LOUISIANA CEDED TO SPAIN
Although the French and Indian war (1755-63) only touched the Mississippi Valley in the region at the head of the Ohio, its ultimate effect was far reaching.2 In the first place, France not only surrendered Canada to Great Britain but also gave up her claim to all the lands lying east of the Mississippi. Then, fearful lest the victor might also plan to take her trans-Mississippi possessions from her, France voluntarily ceded the Louisiana Province to Spain in 1762. During all of the forty years which followed, Louisiana was a colonial dependency of the Spanish crown though in sentiment it continued to be French in all save official allegiance. Spanish governors ruled in vice-regal state at New Orleans and detach- ments of Spanish troops were stationed at all garrisoned posts but otherwise there was little evidence of a change of masters. Indeed, French institutions and the French language persisted throughout the settlements in the Louisiana country during the Spanish colonial regime, just as they have in French Canada throughout a century and a half of British occupation and administration.
Not only did the French language continue to be the one com. monly spoken by the inhabitants of Louisiana, but trade and busi- ness generally was directed as before by the French under whose
2 The Osage Indians have a tradition that some of the warriors of their tribe were present and engaged in the battle on the Monongahela River, in which the British forces under General Braddock were defeated; and also, that several Kaw warriors ar- rived shortly after the end of the fight. If this tradition be founded on fact, as it probably is, it certainly serves to illustrate the won- derful degree of influence which the French of that period exer- cised over the Indians with whom they came in contact. Vol. I-3
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genius and skill it had been established and directed. Likewise, many, if not most of the subordinate civic positions were filled by French colonists, who, however unwillingly, accepted a change of allegiance with the best grace possible under the circumstances and rendered loyal service to his most Catholic majesty, the King of Spain. Always and in every true French heart, however, there abode the hope that some day it might please a kind Providence to let them see a retrocession of Louisiana to France, to the end that its people might be once more French in loving allegiance as well as French in sentiment.
CHOUTEAU'S TRADING POST
In 1795 Manuel Lisa, a Creole Spaniard, sought and secured from the Spanish governor at New Orleans the grant of an ex- clusive concession to trade with the Indians of the tribes living in the valleys of the Missouri River and all of its tributaries. This monoply, of course, included the privilege of trading with the Osage Indians, who at that time lived most of the time in the valley of the Osage River, in Missouri. For nearly if not quite thirty years, the trade of the Osages had been practically controlled by the Chouteau brothers, of St. Louis, who thus saw the threatened destruction of a large part of their business. Manifestly, they could not defy Lisa within the prescribed limit of his concession, yet they were loath to surrender the lucrative trade of the Osages. It was equally plain that there was nothing in the terms of his grant which would prohibit them from trading with the Osages at any place outside the drainage area of the Missouri River. The solution of the problem was therefore a comparatively easy one. The range of the Osages included not only the valley of the Osage River in Missouri, but also large sections of the present states of Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma, which are drained by the Arkansas River and its tributaries. Pierre Chouteau therefore accomplished by shrewdness what would not have been possible to do by force; he persuaded a large part of the Osages to move their permanent villages over to the valleys of the Neosho (or Grand) and Verdigris rivers. Having done this, the rest was easy of accomplishment. The next step was the establishment of a trading post within a con- venient distance of the Osage villages.
Chouteau's Trading Post was established shortly after the Osages had removed to the vicinity of the Arkansas, probably in 1802. The site selected for this settlement was on the east side of the Grand
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(or Neosho) River, in Mayes County. It is now included within the limits of the town of Salina. It was doubtless chosen because of its proximity to the large saline spring which offered an oppor- tunity to engage in the manufacture of salt. It continued to be occupied and operated by members of the Chouteau family until the Osages withdrew from that part of the country and their places were taken by the Cherokees. The last of its log buildings were destroyed during the Civil War.3
3 Twenty-five years ago there was an old negro still living in the vicinity of Salina who claimed to have been rearcd at Chouteau's Trading Post. He said that he remembered a great gathering at the Trading Post one time which was attended by several thousand Indians and many traders and trappers. He pointed out the depres- sions in the ground which he said were the partially filled pits over which the carcasses of ten buffalo and half a dozen beeves had been barbecued for the occasion.
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CHAPTER VI
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE
1
Shortly after the close of the American Revolution, immigration from the Atlantic seaboard began to flow across the Allegheny Mountains, at first into the western parts of Virginia and Pennsyl- vania, then into Kentucky and Tennessee and finally into Ohio. The most prosperous settlements were naturally to be found along the valleys of the navigable streams, including the Ohio River and its principal tributaries, the Kanawha, the Kentucky, the Tennes- see and the Cumberland. After these settlements reached such a. stage of development that their industries became productive, the people became interested in the matter of markets and also in the question of transportation.) Situated as they were, on navigable streams that led directly into the Mississippi, there were no natural obstacles in the way but it did not require a very long time to learn that that noble waterway was far from being a free outlet for the commerce of its tributary streams. The Province of Louisiana, which was then a colony of Spain, included both banks of the Mississippi River for some distance above its mouth and the Spanish authorities were inclined to impose restrictions that seriously re- tarded if they did not prevent the normal development of com- mercial intercourse with the states west of the Allegheny Moun- tains. Dissatisfaction on the part of the people of Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee had almost reached the point of open resentment when it was whispered that Napoleon Bonaparte had compelled the King of Spain to relinquish the ownership of the Province of Louisiana. Though an effort was being made to keep the matter secret, lest Great Britain, which was then at war with France, might strive to effect its capture, President Jefferson learned of the prospective change in the ownership of the mouth of the Mississippi and entered into active correspondence with Robert R. Livingston, the American minister to France, in regard to the matter.
Mr. Livingston was directed to ascertain if France would en- tertain a proposition to sell New Orleans and the mouth of the
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Mississippi to the United States.) It is not probable that it would -
have received the serious consideration of Bonaparte had it not been that he seriously doubted his ability to hold it for France. The realization of Great Britain's supremacy on the sea and the remoteness of Louisiana rendered apparent the futility of trying to protect it from invasion when there was a scarcity of men and means for such a purpose. So he instructed his ministers to open negotia- tions with the representatives of the United States with a view to selling not merely the mouth of the Mississippi and New Orleans, but the whole Province of Louisiana as well. By so doing he would be enabled to devote 'all available resources to the furtherance of his plans and policies for the extension of French dominion in Europe and also add to the funds in his treasury. In addition to these reasons, he was doubtless actuated by the thought that, by selling Louisiana to the United States of America, he was putting it where it would never be added to the dominions of the British crown. Moreover, he declared that such a course would lead to the development of the young republic on the western continent into a nation that would some day be greater and more powerful than Great Britain.
The offer to sell the whole Province of Louisiana to the United States was a great surprise to the American representatives (James Monroe having been sent to join Livingston as a special plenipo- tentiary by President Jefferson) as it was to the president when he was notified. Of the desirability of such an acquisition there could be no doubt, for it would forever settle the question of the free navigation of the Mississippi River and, what was scarcely less important even then, it offered room for the further expansion of the American commonwealth. Despite these considerations there was a question in the minds of the president and his advisers as to whether the acquisition of new territory was permissible under the terms of the Federal constitution. President Jefferson was the recognized leader of the strict constructionist party and he was in a position where every act would be carefully scrutinized by his political opponents who would not be slow to seize and magnify any- thing that savored of inconsistency. Yet here he was plainly forced to the consideration of a proposition which had not been con- templated by the men who had framed the Constitution of the United States. The constitution had been formulated and adopted by the people of thirteen states, every one of which was bounded in part by the coast line of the Atlantic. In the meanwhile, however, four new states had been added to the Union, three of which were
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in the great valley of the Mississippi and, therefore, directly inter- ested in the free navigation of that great natural artery of com- mercial intercourse.
Plainly, there was no time to be wasted in hesitating because of apparent technicalities which might operate to bar such a transac- tion. Even then a British fleet might be on the way to the mouth of the Mississippi and, with that once invested, the question at issue would be still further complicated. To his everlasting credit be it said that Thomas Jefferson did not hesitate, even though he was aware that he might be accused of violating the spirit as well as the letter of his own doctrines as regarding the Constitution, when he directed Livingston and Monroe to sign the articles for the purchase of Louisiana. Though the small spirited demagogues of the time sought to make political capital by twitting him with inconsistency, history has vindicated the wisdom of his action in apparently transcending the authority which was explicitly delegated to the executive department of the government by the Constitution. Had he decided not to act, or even had he hesitated too long, the Mis- sissippi River might still be the western boundary of the United States and the administration of Thomas Jefferson would have been regarded as one of the weakest in its history.
With the purchase of Louisiana, all that part of Oklahoma east of the 100th meridian became a part of the public domain of the United States of America. In all, there were thirteen states and parts of states formed from the territory included in the Louisiana Purchase. Of these, the first to be admitted into the Union was Louisiana, which became a state in 1812, while Oklahoma, which was the last, was not admitted into full fellowship as a member of the Union until 1907, ninety-five years later.
The price paid by the United States for the Province of Louisi- ana was $15,000,000 besides the assumption of claims against France to the amount of $3,750,000 more. Thus the whole area of 1,160,577 square miles was purchased for approximately $15.50 per square mile, or a trifle over two and one-half cents per acre. At that rate the 64,212 square miles of Oklahoma which were included in the Province of Louisiana cost the government of the United States the sum of $995,714.
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SECOND PERIOD
1803-25
AMERICAN EXPLORATION AND OCCUPATION
CHAPTER VII
EARLY AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS
The duly authorized representatives of the government of the United States took formal possession of New Orleans, December 20, 1803, and of St. Louis, March 10, 1804. At that time the people of the United States had gathered very complete and accurate information concerning the geography of the regions east of the Mississippi but they had very little knowledge of the country to the west of that river, which had then become a part of their national possessions. As soon as possible after the Americans had assumed administrative control of the Louisiana country, President Jefferson began to plan for the systematic exploration of this unmapped wilderness. In fact, he had been planning for a scientific expedi- tion across the continent even before the acquisition of Louisiana, consequently he was in a measure prepared for its organization when the formalities incident to the transfer of its sovereignty had been consummated.
The expedition of Lewis and Clark set forth from St. Louis, in May, 1804 (only a little over two months after the occupation of that place by an American garrison), on the long journey up the Missouri and across the Rocky Mountains to the headwaters of the Columbia. Two years later, in 1806, two exploring expeditions were planned for the purpose of traversing other portions of the Louisiana Purchase. One of these was known as "the Exploring Expedition of the Red River" and was commanded by Capt. Richard Sparks and consisted of forty men. It started from Natchitoches, June 2, 1806, to ascend the Red River in boats, the intention being to explore the upper part of the Red River valley. Eight weeks later, when the expedition had reached a point near the mouth of Little River, a few miles below the southeastern ex- tremity of Oklahoma, it was met by a force of Spanish troops greatly superior in numbers and commanded by Capt. Francisco Viana, who stated that he was under orders to prevent the further advance of the Americans. Very reluctantly Captain Sparks
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HISTORY OF OKLAHOMA
abandoned the project and the Red River remained unexplored by the Americans for many years longer.
In July of the same year (1806) an expedition was organized at St. Louis to cross the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains, in what is now the State of Colorado. It was commanded by Capt. Zebulon_M. Pike, Second United States Infantry. Captain Pike visited the Osage Indians in Missouri and then marched north- westward to the village of the Pawnees on the Republican River, near the northern boundary of Kansas. After inducing the Pawnees to lower a Spanish flag, which had been left there by the commander of an expedition from Santa Fe only a few weeks before, and raise an American flag in its stead, Captain Pike marched southward toward the Arkansas River, which was reached at a point near Great Bend. There he detached Lieut. James B. Wilkinson, with five enlisted men, for the purpose of descending the Arkansas to its mouth. The rest of the command proceeded toward the Rocky Mountains under the command of Captain Pike, marching directly up the valley of the Arkansas. It was the plan of the commander to explore the sources of the Red River on his way back from the mountains but, having lost his bearings, he was arrested in the mountains of Northern New Mexico by the Spanish authorities and, after having been held as a prisoner for more than a year, he returned to the United States by way of Texas and Louisiana.
Lientenant Wilkinson's party constructed two canoes, one by hollowing out a cottonwood log and the other by stretching buffalo and elk skins over a frame-work of poles. In these crude craft they essayed to navigate the uncertain waters of the Upper Arkansas in that late autumn season when, like all rivers of the plains, it was at a low stage. Embarking near the present town of Great Bend, October 28, 1806, it was found necessary to abandon the boats after one day's effort. The party then traveled afoot for some days, following the course of the river on the south side. Finally, at a point which was probably below the mouth of the Little Arkansas River, new canoes were fashioned by hollowing out cottonwood logs and from thence the journey was made by water. The nar- rative of Lieutenant Wilkinson's voyage down the Arkansas is filled with interesting details, including mention of the principal tributary streams, the mouths of which were noticed as he passed. He mentioned the falls of the Arkansas (Webbers Falls), the per- pendicular height of which was stated to be seven feet at that time. IIe passed the mouth of the Poteau River, which marks the eastern
Osage Jonas 14: Sep- 150 b
My Brother
The Beaver of this letter I send forward to advise dan of the approach of the Son of your Great Father un
My Brother .The Son of your heart. frames bears
no you a walk from your heat a sume mords be strongly imprepes On tour mis My Brother
Open Your ears to the Good Councel .
of the Great marion who will soon be with your he will put you in the two path of mis tom 85 Mener decris your
I hope the Theal Spont milo lake
You into his keeping is preserve from wrong your
Family -
To the Grand Pust quat chief of the Orages who resido and the arkiensam Aww
CAPTAIN PIKE'S LETTER
Letter written at the Osage Towns, in Missouri, September 1, 1806, by Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike, United States Army, to the Great Chief of the Osages, then living on the Arkansas River, in Oklahoma.
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boundary of Oklahoma, on the 31st of December, and ended his voyage at New Orleans some weeks later.1
OTHER EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS
The practical failure of the Sparks Red River expedition and the disaster which befell the Pike expedition put an end to the
GEORGE C. SIBLEY
further exploration of the region which included Oklahoma, for the time being, at least. The next representative of the United States government who penetrated the western wilderness far enough to come within the borders of Oklahoma was George C. Sibley, who
1 Lieut. James B. Wilkinson, Second United States Infantry, was a son of Gen. James Wilkinson, who was in command of the Western Division of the United States Army at the time this expedi-
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was Indian agent at Fort Osage, on the Mississippi River. Mr. Sibley accompanied a band of Osage Indians to, the plains of Central Kansas, where they went to hunt buffalo. Thence he journeyed south across the Arkansas to the valleys of the Salt Fork (Nescatunga) and the Cimarron, where he visited and inspected the salt plains which are now included in the government saline reser- vations in Northern Oklahoma. Mr. Sibley wrote an interesting account of the trip and his experiences and observations but, ex- cepting quotations made therefrom by other travelers of that period, it does not seem to have been published.2 His visit to Oklalioma was made in 1810.
MAJOR LONG'S EXPEDITIONS
Maj. Stephen H. Long, United States Topographical Engineers, commanded an expedition which explored the southern part of Arkansas and across the Louisiana border to the Red River, in 1817. He then ascended the Red River as far as the confluence of the Kiamitia, which last mentioned stream he ascended to its source, crossing thence to the headwaters of the Poteau. Following the Poteau to its mouth, he selected a site for a military post, which was occupied shortly afterward by troops under the command of
tion was dispatched. General Wilkinson was implicated in the plans and schemes of Aaron Burr, so the trip of his son, down the valley of the Arkansas, through Northeastern Oklahoma, at that particular time and under General Wilkinson's orders, was perhaps doubly significant. Lieutenant Wilkinson was subsequently pro- moted to the grade of captain, which rank he held at the time of his death in 1813.
2 George C. Sibley was born in Massachusetts in 1782, his father, Dr. John Sibley, having been a surgeon in the Continental Army. Most of George C. Sibley's early life was spent in North Carolina. He entered the Indian service as a clerk at Fort Osage, Missouri, in 1807, and was made agent later. His father was Indian agent in Louisiana at the same time. In 1825, Mr. Sibley was commis- sioned by President John Quincy Adams as one of the commission- ers to survey and establish a road from the Missouri to the Mexican settlements on the Upper Rio Grande and also to negotiate such trea- ties with the Indian tribes as might be necessary. After his retire- ment from public life, he settled on a farm near St. Charles, Mis- souri, where he became a founder and patron of Lindenwood Col- lege for young women, which is still in a flourishing condition.
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