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. II > Part 11
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"This trouble about food has always been, and will continue to be, in constantly increasing proportions, the source of trouble with the Indians, and I would most respectfully recommend to the Sec- retary of the Interior that he forbid the Indian Agents to punish or seek to control the action of the Indians by withholding pro- visions from them. Certainly some better and less exasperating method than this can be found to compel the Indians to work in the field, send their children to school, or do other things that the Indian Bureau may consider for the benefit of the Indian."
The annual report of Agent Miles to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, which was written within two weeks after this incident, makes no mention of it whatever,6 though it could scarcely have been regarded as a matter of trivial importance.
5 Eye witnesses give the eredit for preventing the outbreak of active hostilities at the Darlington Ageney that day to Ben Clark, who was the post seout and interpreter at Fort Reno, rather than to Captain Randall, whose force was badly outnumbered. At the critical juncture, Clark was said to have stepped forward and to have done some very effective work in persuading the Indians to take a more rational course. Captain Randall's available force was said to have been too weak to overawe the mutinous Cheyennes. " Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1880, pp. 67-72.
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FACTIONAL WAR IN THE CREEK NATION
The old trouble between the two Creek factions broke out anew in the autumn of 1882. Samuel Checote, who belonged to the Lower Creek, or McIntosh party, was principal chief at the time. Spiechee, or Isparhechar, was the leader of the other faction. A company of Creek lighthorse (militia) while scouting west of Okmulgee a few miles on December 24th, found and attacked the camp of Spiechee and his followers. The lighthorse company lost seven men. A force of 600 men was then organized by the Creek national authorities and placed under the command of Pleasant Porter. When this force took the field to begin an offensive cam- paign, the Spiechee camp was found to have been deserted. Spiechee and his band had retreated toward the west, passing across the Sac and Fox Reservation and the Kickapoo country to the unassigned lands and thence to the Indian agency on the Washita at Anadarko.
The followers of Spiechee had abandoned their farms, taking their families with them. As they were poorly equipped for a winter campaign, there was considerable suffering among them. When spring came they did not return and it was finally necessary for the Government to remove them, which was done by a military escort under the command of Capt. John C. Bates.7 A Government commission was appointed to visit the Indian Territory and seek to adjust the differences between the Creek leaders and factions. Of these, but two members came, namely Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, of New Jersey, and Gen. Eliphalet Whittlesey, of Washington, D. C.
The Government commissioners met the representatives of the contending factions in council at Muskogee, August 6, 1883. There were fifteen delegates or representatives from each of the two parties. Each side submitted a written statement of its position, after which all delegates had an opportunity to freely express their personal views. A subcommittee from each delegation was then appointed to try to compose the differences. In reporting the result of this conference or council, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs made the following statement as to the temper of those in attendance : 8
" Captain Bates reached the grade of lieutenant general and chief of the general staff of the United States Army before his retirement from the active service.
8 Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1883, pp. 1-li. Vol. II- 8
.
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"A full and free discussion of all matters of disagreement be- tween them was solicited, and was participated in by the various chiefs and others specially invited. The discussion was ably and intelligently conducted by both sides, and was characterized by a spirit of kindness and conciliation which was highly commendable, and reflected great credit upon the various participants. Botlı sides appeared to be anxious to reach an amicable solution of existing difficulties, with a view to having the supremacy of civil law restored and firmly established throughout their nation; and this sentiment was promptly seconded by the commissioners."
The followers of Speichee 9 belonged to the party which had adhered to the Federal Government during the Civil war and they professed to feel aggrieved that they had been called upon to sacri- fice and surrender a large part of the original Creek country because of the fact that a part of the Creek people had espoused the cause of the Confederacy. By way of compensation for this and other grievances, they demanded that the Creek Nation should be divided into two separate tribes and that the reservation should be divided into equal parts by a line running east and west. This proposition was rejected and, after some days in negotiation, an agreement of peace was duly signed by the members of both delegations.
"The chairman of the Government commission (General Fisk) notified the leaders of both parties of the time of the proposed council and especially enjoined that they should be prompt in attendance. It so happened that the day selected for the conven- ing of the council was Monday. At the appointed hour, practically all of the leaders were present with the single exception of Colonel Checote, who was principal chief of the Creek Nation. He did not arrive until twenty-four hours after the time set for the council to
9 Isparhcchar was a full-blood Muskogee. He was born in the old Creek Country, in Alabama, about the year 1828. In 1836, his parents migrated to the Indian Territory, where both of them died soon afterward. He received but scant cducation. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted in a Creek regiment which entered the Confederate service, but later he joined the Union Army as a volunteer, and was mustered out of the service in 1865. He became a leader of what was still called the Loyal Creek party and was several times placed in nomination for the office of prin- cipal chief of the Creek Nation. He was elected to that position in 1895 and served four years. He also represented the Creek people as a delegate at Washington. His death occurred in Decem- ber, 1902.
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convene, which greatly annoyed the members of the Government commission, who were anxious to avoid any delay. When he did arrive, Checote, who had been for many years a Methodist minister, made a most courteous and dignified apology for his tardiness. He said he could not have arrived at the council at the appointed hour except by traveling on the Sabbath, which, he said, would have been contrary to the teachings of his church and faith, and, much as he disliked to disobey the mandates of the great Government of the United States, such was his regard for the precepts and ex- ample of Christ, whose humble follower he was, that he felt con- strained to postpone his start until after the Sabbath. General Fisk at once assured Checote that he had done right in following the dictates of his conscience, and added that he would never again make a business appointment that would cause anyone to travel on the Sabbath contrary to his beliefs and wishes."
Principal Chief Checote manifested a most pacific disposition, resigning his position and calling a special election to be held in September to fill the vacancy thus created. Three tickets were placed in the field, the candidates being respectively, Checote, 10
10 Samuel Checote was born in the valley of the Chattahoochee, in Alabama, in 1819. At the age of nine he was sent to a Metho- dist mission school near Fort Mitchell, in that state. The next year (1829) he came with his parents to the new Creek Country, in the Indian Territory, where he continued to attend the mission schools until the missionaries were expelled by vote of the Creck Council, in 1835. He joined the Methodist Church after the mis- sionaries were invited to return. He became a local preacher in 1844. Then the Creek Council made a law forbidding members of the tribe to preach, under a penalty of fifty lashes on the bare back. A number were severely whipped for the violation of this law, while others had to flee from their homes to escape such pun- ishment, Checote being among the latter. Checote personally ap- pealed to Chief Roly McIntosh, who ordered the persecution to cease. Checote joined the Indian Mission Conference of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, South, in 1852, and was active in the ministry most of the time until the outbreak of the Civil war. During that conflict he served in the Confederate Army, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel of the First Creek Regiment, under Col. D. N. McIntosh. After the close of the war he resumed his work as a Methodist prcacher, serving in various fields as circuit rider and as presiding elder. He was greatly interested in the education of his people and was president of the board of trustees of Harrell Institute, a Methodist mission school which was located at Muskogee, at the time of his death. He was one of the repre- sentatives of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in the first
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Spiechee and J. M. Perryman. Spiechee had a plurality in the election and he assumed the position and authority of principal chief, but Perryman contested his right to the position, carrying his contention to the Department of the Interior, which decided in his favor, virtually deposing Spiechee.
A THREATENED OUTBREAK
In the summer of 1885 there was evidence of great dissatisfac- tion among the Southern Cheyennes at the Darlington Agency, and, for a time, it was believed that there was danger of a serious outbreak among them. There were probably several reasons for this spirit of unrest. Chief among these was the fact that they had been induced to lease most of the lands of their reservation to the cattlemen. The promise of the "grass money" was quite alluring but when they found themselves cooped up on one corner of the reservation and the rest of it in the possession of the cattle- men, who held a ten-year lease on it with the option of a renewal, they became very tired of their bargain. Fearing that an attempt
might be made to disarm them, some of the young warriors began to ride to distant points on the reservation for the purpose of con- cealing their arms and ammunition. When an inkling of this reached Southwestern Kansas, which was filled with homesteaders that year, it soon developed into a rumor of an impending Indian war. This rumor spread with astonishing speed and grew as it spread. Sensational press correspondents then put the finishing touches on an Indian scare that was the center of nation-wide interest for a few days.
The Cheyenne warriors remained silent and sullen. Their new agent, Col. D. B. Dyer, seemed to have lost all control over them. Thousands of defenseless and thoroughly frightened settlers in Southwestern Kansas implored the military authorities of the Federal Government for protection. Although the latter were skeptical of the real existence of such imminent danger, more than 3,500 soldiers were moved into the Indian Territory and to points along its northern border as fast as the railways could transport them. Gen. Nelson A. Miles, the new department commander at
ecumenical conferences of all of the various branches of the Metho- dist faith, which was held in London, England, in 1881. His name, with the spelling slightly modified, has a permanent place on the map of Oklahoma as that of the town of Checotah. His death occurred at his home at Okmulgee, September 31, 1884.
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Fort Leavenworth, was in immediate command of the troops thus placed in the field. Lieut. Gen. P. H. Sheridan, commanding the army, was directed by President Cleveland to go to Darlington in person and investigate the cause of the disturbanee. General Sheridan arrived at Fort Reno July 15th, and remained nearly ten days. Much time was spent in examining the chiefs and leading men of the various bands of Indians in an endeavor to aseertain the cause of their discontent. In doing this, he refused the service of the agency interpreter and even that of the post interpreter at Fort Reno (Ben Clark), whom he had commended for previous service, employing instead two half-breeds (John Otterby and Mrs. Belle Belinti) in whom he said the Indians had more confidence. He first interviewed the disaffected element, whiel, under the leadership of the Chief Stone Calf, had been opposed to leasing any lands to the cattlemen. Then he interviewed a number of the leading Indians who had signed the leases. Of the result of his conference with them, he reported : 11
"I gathered from these, and many others of their party, that, while they agreed to the leases, they had become siek of the bargain. It was apparent that the signing had been done in an individual capacity, and by the encouragement, if not the foreible persuasion of the former agent (J. D. Miles), his employes and a large num- ber of interested individuals who lived lawfully and unlawfully around the agency. These Indians now saw they had made a mis- take and, while they had thus far exhibited no other spirit than that of submission to their fate, it had become clear that the obligatory abandonment of the places many of them had settled upon, and which was evidently caused by the feneing of the leases and white occupation, had wrought a feeling of dissatisfaction that eould only be remedied, in their view, by cutting off the leases. Many of their cattle had been absorbed by the large herds, and ponies stolen."
Having finished his inquisition of the Indians, General Sheri- dan gave audienee to two of the lessees, namely, Edward Fenton, of Leavenworth, and R. D. Hunter, of St. Louis. After listening to the presentation of their side of the matter, and briefly review- ing the same, he concluded the major portion of his report as follows :
11 The full text of General Sheridan's report to President Cleveland is found in the Annual Report of the Secretary of War for 1885, pp. 65-71.
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"No matter how the vexed questions relating to the leases may be ultimately settled, there is no doubt about one thing, and that is that a reorganization of the affairs of the reservation should take place. There are within its limits too many white people who have no lawful business here. All who are not authorized owners (or employes of theirs), all who are not officially connected with the agency, and all who are not officially connected with the military post should be obliged to leave at once, and no one should be per- mitted to reside within its boundaries who does not come under these classes. The cattle companies employ in all about 160 men, taking it the year round. The agency has seventy and the military post fifty-five authorized employes. There are twenty-one squaw men. To these may be added a roving and unauthorized popula- tion of about 200. With a view of regulating this white popula- tion, and also with the desire of restoring amongst the Indians a discipline and respect for the Government officials, which seems to have been lost by loose and unskilled management, I have recom- mended to you a course embodying the idea that the reservation be temporarily placed under a military officer. I still adhere to that recommendation, and feel confident a permanent settlement can only be arrived at by that means. As remarked above, the most of the Indians have lost confidence in their agent; indeed, many of them had never any from the start. They look upon him as the indirect minister of the lessees, his policy of concentrating them near the agency in effect accomplishing the purposes the lessees have in view-that is, clearing their leaseholds of Indian occu- pants-and he will never be able to control them except under the pressure of physical force. Every Indian who refused to acknowl- edge the leases or who declines to live near the agency and pursue a species of farming under the agent's personal supervision, and every Indian who declines to immediately throw off the customs of his people and take up the white man's road is regarded with disfavor and denounced as bad, if not absolutely hostile. The Indians know all this. They have learned it from the agent's report, from the newspapers, from half-breeds, squaw men, in- terpreters, and the loose white element that has unfortunately fol- lowed the cattle men upon the reservation. They blame the agent and employes with threatening to disarm them, for giving rise to the excitement existing for some weeks past, and attribute to him many other ills, so that now there is a total lack of confidence. Therefore his power is gone, and I doubt if it can be restored except by absolute subjugation or placing here new officials in whom they
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will have faith. Firmness, justice, and above all, patience should govern in dealing with them. They cannot be expected to do in a day or in a long series of years what their eastern brethren, the Cherokees and Choctaws, have done. They are plains Indians, nomads, and meat-eaters, and have never until very recently at- tempted to till the soil, and any other than slow progress must not be expected, unless it be the desire of the Government to accomplish their civilization by forced means."
It has been stated upon credible authority that General Sheri- dan declined to give a hearing to other cattlemen.12 Moreover, it was charged that he had a brother who was employed at Fort Reno in some civilian capacity and whose influence was in active opposi- tion to the interests of the ranchmen. That there was no lack of "leading questions" in the inquiries directed to the Indians would seem probable, even from General Sheridan's report. That there may have been undue influences exerted in securing the leases would seem probable yet such a severe indictment of the former agent and all of his employees, without giving them an opportunity to be heard in their own behalf would seem to be extra-judicial, to say the least.
As a result of General Sheridan's report of the existing condi- tions, the cattlemen were ordered by proclamation of President Cleveland, issued July 23d, to remove their herds from the Chey- enne and Arapho reservation within forty days. Against the enforcement of this order a most strenuous protest was made in the hope of obtaining some modification of the same, but without avail. Colonel Dyer was relieved as agent of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, being succeeded by Capt. Jesse M. Lee,13 of the Ninth United States Infantry. Captain Lee promptly inaugurated for the reformation of some of the agency policies with a view to the correction of some of the abuses. Before General Sheridan left Fort Reno, a census of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes was taken for the purpose of ascertaining just how many Indians there were on the reservation. The results were astonishing. The Cheyennes
12 The late Maj. Calvin Hood, of Emporia, Kansas, who was president of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Cattle Company, which was a heavy loser as the result of the order to vacate the reserva- tion, always maintained that his company was accorded no chance for a hearing by General Sheridan.
13 Jesse M. Lee reached the rank of major general in the army in September, 1906, and was placed on the retired list in January following, after more than forty years of active service.
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were supposed to number 3,905 and the Arapahoes, 2,366, though these figures had been based upon the enrollment of 1874. Annu- ties and subsistence had been issued on these numbers as a basis of distribution. The Indian inspector, Gen. Frank C. Armstrong, who made the new enrollment, found that there were but 2,169 Chey- ennes and 1,300 Arapahoes. Such a state of affairs naturally tended to beget suspicion of fraud, trickery and collusion among Indian service employees, Indian supply contractors and possibly some of the leading Indians also. If the Government appropriations had been sufficient for the subsistence of 6,271 Indians when there were only 3,469 Indians to be fed, it was evident that some of them were receiving supplies far in excess of their needs or else the Govern- ment was paying for supplies that were not issued, indicating that there had been incompetence or dishonesty in the administration of the affairs of the agency at Darlington. But, whether it was due to wastefulness or corruption was never determined, since no further investigation seems to have been made.
Captain Lee addressed himself vigorously to the task in hand and commanded the confidence and respect of the Indians right from the start. The cattle were removed from the reservation as rapidly as possible. Instead of trying to compel all of the Indians to settle on small farms in the immediate vicinity of the agency, he encouraged them to settle in any part of the reservation, to build houses and to fence and plow fields. The establishment of the In- dian colony, under the leadership of John H. Seger,14 near the
14 John H. Seger, a native of Ohio, who, as a mere boy, had seen hard service as a volunteer soldier in the Union Army during the Civil war, entered the Indian service as an agency employe at Darlington, in 1872. Two years later, when the last war with the Indians of Western Oklahoma broke out, the teachers employed at the agency school deserted their posts and fled, as they believed, for their lives. In the midst of such demoralization, there was no one to take care of the school children and Mr. Seger voluntarily assumed the responsibility. When the parents of the Indian school children learned of what had happened (for they were not of the hostile bands) they made some very sarcastic comments concern- ing the timidity of the superintendent of the school who had deserted his post in the hour of danger, urging that he be dis- charged and that Mr. Seger be installed as superintendent of the school. Although he had neither the education, training or expe- rience in school work, the urgent request of the Indians was granted and he was appointed as superintendent of the school which he conducted successfully for several years. In the spring of 1886 he was sent by Captain Lee to colonize a number of Indian families
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head of Cobb Creek, in the eastern part of Washita County, was one of the notable achievements of the brief administration of Captain Lee as Indian agent at Darlington. His report to the commissioner of Indian affairs 15 was in striking contrast with the sterotyped platitudes which usually characterized such reports at that period. He discussed some phases of the Indian service with a degree of frankness that was refreshing. For instance, in dis- cussing the employees of the agency, he said :
"An efficient and experienced force of employes is a sine qua non to .the successful work of an agent in the advancement of the Indians. With one or two exceptions I found such a force here industriously at work. Believing that none of the positions could be properly regarded as offices, to be filled with reference to the employe's politics, not having been sent here on account of my political preferences, and not desiring to secure places for personal friends or relatives, I decided to keep the force at hand and make the retention dependent upon individual merit rather than outside influence.
"One additional farmer was removed to make place for one appointed by the Department. The appointee in this case, though a most excellent old gentleman, is, I regret to say, by reason of old age and permanent infirmity, not suited to discharge the duties of his position. I presume the Department was not aware of this when the appointment was made, though the facts have since been made known. This farmer has done no full duty since July 8, and the agency physician reports that he never will be able for active duty. I am now compelled to employ an Indian to peform the duties.
"It may perhaps be pertinent to express my views in relation
on farms at a place distant sixty miles from the Darlington Agency. This became known as the Seger Indian colony, which eventually came to be regarded as a subagency. Farms were opened up and an industrial school was built. He remained in active control for twenty years, until the jealousy of younger and better educated men in the Indian service and the resentment of politicians and speculators in Indian lands (whose efforts to spoliate the incom- petent Indians he had often successfully thwarted) resulted in his reduction in rank to that of District Indian Farm Supervisor. He continued to work in that capacity until 1915, when he voluntarily retired after forty-three years of continuous service.
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