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 2
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The Quaker agents had an important work to do in helping to tame the proud and haughty spirits of some of the wildest Indians with whom white men had ever come into contact. At least two books, filled with the observations and experiences and observations or reminiscences of that period have helped to throw considerable
INDIANS DRAWING RATIONS AT FORT SILL
light upon the incidents in the local history of the time. One of these, entitled "Our Red Brothers," was written by Lawrie Tatum, agent for the Comanches, Kiowas and Plains Apaches. It was pub- lished in 1899. The other, entitled "A Quaker Among the Indians," was written by Thomas C. Battey, an employe of the Fort Sill Agency.6 It was first published in 1875. Both books are of thrill- ing interest.
6 Thomas Chester Battey was born of Quaker parents at Starks- boro, Vermont, February 19, 1828. Most of his youth was spent in New York, though he attended an academy at Chester, Pennsyl- vania for one year. During his early manhood he taught school in New York and in Canada. In 1853, he migrated to Iowa, where he engaged in farming during the summer and teaching school during the winter. In the autumn of 1871, leaving his farm to the manage- ment of his wife and sons, he came to the Indian Territory and en- gaged in teaching in the agency school, near Anadarko, his pupils being mostly of the Caddo, Delaware and Wichita tribes. Near the
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MILITARY AGENTS
Four officers of the regular army were assigned to duty as In- dian agents among the civilized tribes, namely, Brevet Maj. John N. Craig, for the Cherokees; Capt. G. T. Olmstead, for the Choc- taws; Capt. F. A. Field, for the Creeks, and Capt. T. A. Baldwin, for the Seminoles. The same officers were respectively in charge of these agencies in 1870, but the passage of the act of July 15, 1870, necessitated a change and civilian agents were appointed in their stead.
After 1869 the southern superintendency was discontinued, the tribal agents of the five civilized tribes reporting directly to the commissioner of Indian Affairs at Washington.
NEW PARTISAN ALIGNMENTS AMONG THE CHEROKEES
Since the removal of the main body of the Cherokees to the West, there had been always two, and part of the time three, political par- ties in the Cherokee Nation, namely, the Ross, or Anti-Treaty Party ; the Ridge, or Treaty Party, and the Western Cherokees, or Old Set- tler Party. The lines of difference between the Ross and Ridge par-
close of the eight-month term, he became impressed with the belief that it was his duty to go out among the untamed Kiowas and attempt to conduct a school in the Village of Kicking Bird's Band, upon invitation of the latter. Agent Tatum favored the plan, which received the tardy approval of the commissioner of Indian Affairs. In December, 1872, equipped with a long tent, a wagon and team, he set forth to the Kiowa camps to open a school for children whose parents would not trust them at the agency school. The school moved as the Kiowas shifted their encampment from place to place. The Quaker teacher had many thrilling experiences during the ensu- ing eighteen months. As an educational experiment it was not a pronounced success but the presence of the kind-hearted and peace- ably disposed teacher had a most beneficial effect upon the restless and turbulent spirits of the Kiowa Tribe who were greatly influ- enced by his teaching and example. With his health badly broken, he left the service just as the general outbreak of 1874 began. His personal influence probably had much to do with the refusal of the major portion of the Kiowas to take part in that war. The daily journal which he kept while living with the Kiowas furnished the basis of his book, "A Quaker Among the Indians." He returned to the Fort Sill Agency as a clerk in 1876 and remained about two years. The closing years of his life were spent in Columbiana County, Ohio, where he died, August 28, 1897.
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ties was almost identical with those of cleavage between the Union and Confederate Cherokees during the Civil war. At the time of the internal troubles in the Cherokee Nation, prior to the treaty of 1846, Chief Ross always maintained a dignified attitude, claiming that his party constituted the vast majority of the Cherokee people, and that the party which was opposing him and his policy was weak and irresponsible and not at all representative. During the course of the Civil war, the Cherokee legislative council, which was domi- nated by the Ross Party, had passed an act confiscating the prop- erty of those Cherokees which were allied with the Confederate States. When the war was ended, the Southern Cherokees made overtures for a reconciliation but were refused recognition The Government commissioners almost despaired of being able to secure any treaty or agreement whereby a semblance of order and peace might be restored in the Cherokee Nation. On the other hand, the very harshness of the conditions stipulated by the Government com- missioners, whereby it was virtually proposed to penalize the inno- cent with the guilty and the "loyal" with the "disloyal," had the effect of liberalizing some of the leaders of the full-blood element which had always supported Ross. These were the same men who were largely subject to the influences of the Baptist missionary, John B. Jones, who did not approve of the unforgiving attitude of the leaders of the Ross Party. The result was the formation of a new party, composed of the surviving member of the old Ridge, or Treaty, Party and a part of the former full-blood supporters of the Ross Party. The two elements united in the support of a common ticket in a national election held in 1867. One of the terms of the agreement between the two elements was that the nominee for prin- cipal chief should always come from the full-blood contingent. The candidate thus chosen for the race for principal chief in 1867 was Lewis Downing," who was an ordained minister of the Baptist
7 Lewis Downing was born in the old Cherokee Nation in the East. Hc was classed as a full-blood Cherokee, though he was directly descended from a Major Downing, a British officer, who married a Cherokee woman prior to the American Revolution. He was numbered among the early converts of the Baptist missionary efforts of Evan Jones and his son, John B. Jones, and was himself an ordained minister in the Baptist Church. He had served as a member of the upper house of the Cherokee tribal council. In 1861, he was commissioned chaplain of the Cherokee Regiment com- manded by Col. John Drew. When this regiment abandoned the Confederate cause and went over to the Union, almost in a body, in 1862, Lewis Downing went with it. He was subsequently commis- Vol. II-2
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Church and who had been lieutenant colonel of the Third Indian Home Guard Regiment. He was triumphantly elected and the party thus organized was thenceforth known as the Downing Party. It was uniformly successful in the national elections of the Chero- kees, except in one instance, a dozen years after its organization, when it was temporarily put out of power by a new-party move- ment.
Aside from the fact that the organization of the Downing Party resulted in an end to the protracted ascendancy of the Ross Party, its effect was noticeable in a cessation of the violence which had so
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CHOCTAW LEGISLATORS AT ARMSTRONG ACADEMY (ABOUT 1870)
long characterized the bitter rivalry and personal hatred between some of the members of the opposing factions. Although the treaty of 1846 was supposed to have restored tranquility to the Cherokee people, yet, as a matter of fact, political assassinations and murders were scarcely less frequent from that time on until 1861 than they had been before. Although it seemed doubtful, even to the Govern- ment peace commissioners, if it would be possible for the people of the different factions so long at bitter enmity ever to dwell in peace again, it is evident that the formation of the Downing party actually did much to lay the feud which was then a generation
sioned lieutenant colonel of the Third Indian Home Guard (Phil- lips') Regiment. He was elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1867 and re-elected in 1871. The fact that he had been the ranking Cherokee officer in the Indian Home Guard gave him added political prominence. He died November 9, 1872.
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old. To be sure, like the Highland clansman of Scotland, it takes the Cherokees several generations to forget, as it were. Indeed, the old spirit of bitterness still hardens the heart of many a Cherokee in both factions, now removed three generations from the beginning of the feud, all of the original parties to which have long since been dead. But, for all that, though there have been many scenes of violence in the Cherokee Nation since the inception of the Down- ing Party, they have in the great majority of instances been due to some cause other than the old treaty and anti-treaty feud.
As stated elsewhere, the work of Evan Jones and his son, John B. Jones, the Baptist missionary leaders was principally among the full-blood Cherokees, while the missionary efforts of the Congre- gational, Presbyterian and Methodist bodies were largely confined to the Cherokees of mixed Indian and white descent. For this reason, the Baptist Church became indeed the state church of the full-blood Cherokee people, though comparatively few of them followed the Joneses and Downing into the new party in 1867. When the main bodies of the Delaware and Shawnee tribes moved to the Cherokee Nation and became incorporated with its citizen- ship, most of them were affiliated with either one or the other of two church denominations, namely, Baptists and Methodists. Although they were utter strangers to Cherokee politics and dif- ferences of opinion relating thereto, the new comers immediately aligned themselves politically, the cleavage in each tribe coinciding with the lines of denominational difference. Thus, the Baptist Delawares and Shawnees allied themselves with the full-blood Cher- okee element in the National party, while the Methodist Delawares and Shawnees became equally ardent supporters of the Downing party. In 1879, when dissatisfied elements in both parties withdrew and fused in the formation of the Union party, nearly 2,000 full- blood Cherokees withdrew from the Baptist Church and united with the Methodist Church. Two years later, having swung back to their old political moorings in the National party, they returned in a body to the Baptist faith and fold.
TROUBLE AMONG THE CREEKS
A considerable element in the Creek Nation, composed of those members of the tribe who had remained firm in their adherence to the Federal Government at the outbreak of the Civil war, and who had followed Opothleyohola into exile in Kansas, were never satis- fied with the reconstruction measures which had been adopted by
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the Government, chiefly because they were not yet ready to forgive the people of their own tribe with whom they had been at enmity during the war. Moreover, the Creeks had adopted a tribal con- stitution in 1867. This reduced the number of tribal officers.8
Oktahars Harjo, who claimed to have been the legitimate succes- sor of Opothleyoliola, was an unsuccessful candidate for principal chief of the nation. Disappointed in his aspirations, he organized his followers for the purpose of restoring the old order of tribal insti-
CREEK CAPITOL AT OKMULGEE
tutions by force. All of the maleontents in the tribe joined the party of Oktahars Harjo, or Sands, as he was called by the white people.
The Government agent for the Creeks, F. S. Lyon, found two hostile parties encamped near the Creek council grounds, at Okmul- gee. Sands had about three hundred armed followers, while the force which had been gathered in defense of the tribal government
8 Before the adoption of the tribal constitution in 1867, the Creek Nation was divided as of old into the Upper Creeks and the Lower Creeks, each of which had its own chiefs and its own council. There were "eivil chiefs" and "war chiefs" and numerous other honorary positions, all of which had been abandoned or abolished under the constitution. When (as has sometimes been the ease in more enlightened communities) there were not honors enough to go around, it was regarded by some of the more conservative and un- tutored Muskogees as a just cause for grievance.
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consisted of about seven hundred armed men. When Agent Lyon found the seriousness of the situation, for each side was determined to stand for what it believed to be right at all hazard, he first arranged a truce between the two parties and then maneuvered to secure a council between representative men from both sides. The result was that he succeeded in getting both sides to agree upon a settlement of the dispute, as he hoped, for all time. In this he was disappointed, as the trouble soon broke out afresh. The tribal authorities were then compelled to overawe the malcontents with a superior force and the Government was obliged 9 to send a com- mission to the Creek Nation for the purpose of adjusting the matter.9
PROPOSED TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION
A bill had been introduced in the United States Senate before the end of the Civil war for the purpose of providing for the organization of a territorial form of government for the Indian Territory. When the Fort Smith peace council convened, in Sep- tember, 1865, the sixth stipulation of the schedule submitted by the Government peace commissioners was stated in the following words :
"It is the policy of the Government, unless other arrangements. be made, that all the nations and tribes in the Indian Territory be formed into one consolidated government, after the plan pro- posed by the Senate of the United States, in a bill for organizing the Indian Territory."
Again, when negotiations were resumed in Washington, six months later, a more definite and detailed proposition for the or- ganie federation of all the tribes and nations in the territory was included in the tentative drafts of the treaties which were sub- mitted to the several tribal delegations. While this proposed organization of the several tribes under an inter-tribal territorial form of government did not meet with the approbation of many, if any, of the delegates from the various tribes and nations, it was one of the conditions which were insisted upon as essential by the Government commissioners, and it was included in all of the treaties, though slightly modified in one, namely that of the Choc- taws and Chickasaws.
9 Reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1871 (pp. 573-5) and 1872 (pp. 35-6 and 329) ; also, "The Undeveloped West, or Five Years in the Territories," p. 390.
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Bills for the organization of the Indian Territory were intro- duced during the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth congresses but did not reach the stage of a committee report in cither instance. In the Forty-first Congress, a bill for the organization of the Indian Territory was introduced by Representative Robert T. Van Horn, of Kansas City, in the House of Representatives. In this bill it was proposed to call the new territory "Oklahoma." 10 The Van Horn bill was referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs, of which Sidney Clarke, of Kansas, was chairman. In due course of time, the measure was favorably reported to the House of Representa- tives. Representative Shelby M. Cullom (afterward senator from Illinois), who was chairman of the Committee on Territories, raised a question as to the jurisdiction of the Committee on Indian Affairs in the premises. After an extended debate, the matter was referred to a joint committee composed of the members of both committees. No further action was taken in regard to the matter, however, dur- ing the remaining sessions of the Forty-first Congress.
Although the "Oklahoma" bill did not come up for considera- tion and action in Congress, the fact that it had been reported to the House of Representatives by the Committee on Indian Affairs, created a feeling of consternation in the Indian Territory. True, it had failed of consideration for the time being, but it was prac- tically certain to be reintroduced during the next Congress and it might easily meet with a more favorable reception the next time. Plainly, it was a time for conference among the leaders of the civilized tribes, in order that ways and means for the defeat of further attempts in the same line might be devised. The result was the calling of a conference or council to convene at Okmulgee in the latter part of September, 1870. The first meeting of this inter- tribal council was held September 27th. Delegates were present from the following tribes: Cherokee, Muskogees or Creeks, Otta- was, Eastern Shawnees, Quapaws, Senecas, Wyandottes, Sacs and Foxes, Confederate Peorias, and Absentee Shawnees. Superin- tendent Enoch Hoag, of the Central Superintendency, acted as
10 The name "Oklahoma" is said to have been suggested to the House Committee on Indian Affairs by Col. Elias C. Boudinot, of the Cherokee Nation, out of deference to the clause in the Choctaw- Chickasaw Treaty of 1866 which specified that the proposed inter- tribal commonwealth should be called "the Territory of Okla- homa."
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president of the council.11 Rules for the government of the council and its order of business were adopted and standing committees were appointed to report on the following subjects: Relations with the United States, International Relations, Judiciary, Finances, Education and Agriculture, and on Enrolled Bills.12 By resolu- tion it was determined that when the council adjourned it would be to meet again on the first Monday in December. A resolution was also adopted, extending an invitation to the Comanches, Kiowas, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Caddoes, Wichitas and other tribes living in the western part of the territory to send representatives to the next meeting of the council.
The inter-tribal council reconvened at Okmulgce, on Monday, December 5th, as provided by resolution. In addition to the tribes which were represented by delegates in the previous session, the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles and Great and Little Osages also - had delegations present. Additional rules for the government of the council were adopted and the standing committees were enlarged. Three members of the Board of Indian Commissioners, . namely, Robert Campbell, John V. Farwell and John D. Lang, were present and, upon invitation, each addressed the council. Some days were spent in preliminary consultation and committee work. On December 10th, Campbell Le Flore, of the Choctaw Nation, from the Committee on Permanent Organization, submit- ted the following report :
"The special committee to whom was assigned the duty of making a report upon a resolution of the general council regarding the permanent organization, respectfully state that they have given the subjects such consideration as was in their power. They regard the organization of the Indian Territory under any form of govern- ment as of the gravest importance to all the people who inhabit it. The large and invaluable interest in lands and money which belong to the nations and tribes therein; the provisions of their several treaties with the United States; their distinct forms of
11. As there was no longer a superintendent for the old southern superintendency, the calling of Superintendent Hoag to preside over the deliberations, in apparent conformity with the inter-tribal council clause of the treaties of 1866, was a very shrewd move to forestall further action on the part of Congress for the purpose of giving vital force and effect to such treaty provisions.
12 A report of the proceedings of the sessions of the inter-tribal council held at Okmulgce, in September and December, 1870, was printed in the Report of the Board of Indian Commissioners for 1870, pp. 114-36.
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government and franchises arising under them; their different languages and diversified conditions, present, severally and com- bined, interests not to be too lightly estimated, nor to be too hastily disposed of, in arranging the terms of any organization that may De designed to blend in one harmonious system the whole of them, at the same time that it preserves a just and impartial regard for their respective rights. The opposition of all Indians to any form of territorial government that has been proposed by the Congress of the United States is too notorious to require any comment; it is firmly and ineradicably imbedded in their very nature. They cling to their homes, to their laws, to their customs, to their national and territorial and personal independence, with the tenacity of life itself. In their sentiments your committee fully concur. And while the leading powers invested in this general council pervade all the treaties negotiated in 1866 by the United States with the different nations here represented, each one of them grants some important concessions, or retains some important right not found in the others.
"In some respects they merely shadow dimly the duties of this council, instead of clearly defining its powers and authority. The responsibilities of inexperienced legislation, instead of being simplified by them, is made more difficult and complex. As the best means of removing these obstacles, of observing a fair defer- ence to the sentiment of our people and, at the same time, preserv- ing our race and perpetuating unimpaired the rights of all-the weak, the strong, the less advanced, and those who have made further progress toward civilization-your committee are of the opinion that the organization of the people here represented, and such as may hereafter unite with them, should be a government of their own choice. It should be republican in forms, with its power clearly defined, and full guarantees given for all the powers, rights and privileges respectfully now reserved to them by their treaties. They, therefore, respectfully recommend that the council proceed to form a constitution for the Indian Territory, which shall conform to existing treaty stipulations, provide for executive, legis- lative and judicial departments, and vested with such powers only as have been conceded to this general council, and not inconsistent with all the rights reserved to each nation and tribe who were parties to the treaties of 1866, and also with the final provision that such constitution shall be obligatory and binding only upon such nations and tribes as hereafter may duly approve and adopt the same."
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After several days of deliberation, during which the council received a visit from Col. Ely S. Parker, commissioner of Indian affairs, a committee of twelve members was appointed by the presi- dent of the council (Superintendent Hoag) to draft a constitution. The members of this committee were William P. Ross,13 Cherokee, chairman; Campbell Le Flore, Choctaw; Colbert Carter, Chicka- saw; John F. Brown, Seminole; Francis King, Ottawa; J. F. Folsom, Choctaw; G. W. Johnson, Cherokee; C. P. H. Percy, Chick- asaw; Oktahars Harjo, Creek or Muskogee; G. W. Stidham, Creek or Muskogee; Riley Keys, Cherokee; Augustus Captain, Osage. This committee promptly began its work and in due time submitted its report in the form of a brief constitution which was to be sub- mitted to the people of each of the tribes for approval.
The proposed constitution of the Indian Territory was a model of brevity and conciseness, consisting of a preamble and forty-six sections which were grouped into six articles. There was also a declaration of rights containing thirteen sections. The government of the territory was to be divided into three branches, namely, legis- lative, executive and judicial. The legislative branch, which was to be styled the general assembly, was to consist of a senate and a house of representatives, members of both branches to be appor- tioned among the several tribes according to the population. The executive power was to be vested in the governor of the territory, whose duties were similar to those of other territories and states. He was to be clothed with power to appoint the secretary-treasurer,
13 William Potter Ross was born at the foot of Lookout Moun- tain, in Tennessee, August 28, 1820. His father was a native of Scotland and his mother was of mixed Cherokee and white descent. His early education was obtained in the Presbyterian Mission School at Will's Valley, Alabama, and at the Greenville (Tennes- see) Academy. He prepared for college at the Hamil School, Law- renceville, New Jersey. He then entered Princeton College, whence he graduated with honor in 1842. In 1843 he was elected clerk of the Cherokee Senate. In 1844 he became the first editor of the Cherokee Advocate. He subsequently served in other public posi- tions. He was a man of remarkably versatile attainments, eminent as a lawyer, interested in agriculture and horticulture and in the cause of education, a talented writer and an orator of power. He was chosen to succeed John Ross as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, after the death of the latter, in 1866, serving for a year. In 1872, he was again chosen to fill a vacancy in the same office, occasioned by the death of Principal Chief Lewis Downing. He rep- resented the Cherokee people as a delegate to Washington upon sev- eral occasions. He died at his home in Fort Gibson, July 20, 1891.
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