THE DISCOVERY
OF OKLAHOMA
chapter
Indian Removals
Key Themes
Conflict and Cooperation
U.S. government agents use
military force to remove the
Southeastern Indians to Oklahoma
and to make Oklahoma Indians
accept the newcomers.
Democracy and Civil Rights
The United States and the
Southeastern Indians sign treaties
about the terms of the removal.
Objectives
•Discuss the problems that
Oklahoma’s original peoples
faced when emigrants arrived or
were moved into Indian Territory
•Describe the internal conflicts
within the Five Tribes
•Trace the voluntary and forced
removals of the Five Tribes and
the routes they took
Vocabulary
•assimilated
•allotments
•removal
•annuity
•emigrant
•dragoons
•improvements
•subsistence
•lighthorse
108
8
Overview
Even though the Southeastern Indians generally
accept the “civilization” program, both state and
national governments insist that they move to
Oklahoma, by force if necessary. Indians already
living in Oklahoma object to the intrusion, but officials
ignore their complaints, setting the stage for conflict.
P
resident Thomas Jefferson, as we
have seen, believed that American
Indians should be “civilized” and
then assimilated (absorbed) into white
society. Yet he also knew that some Indian
people would not or could not change their
traditional lifestyles. In those cases—far
more than he had expected—Jefferson believed that the group should
move to a distant, protected region until they were ready to adopt
new customs and habits. The place the president had in mind for this
removal (resettlement) was Louisiana. In fact, that was one reason why
he wanted the United States to buy it in 1803.
While he was president, Jefferson encouraged traditional Indians
to move to Louisiana. At his urging, several hundred Delawares and
Shawnees moved from Ohio to northeastern Arkansas and from there
to Oklahoma. They established villages along the Canadian River near
Allen in present-day Pontotoc County. As many as 1,000 Choctaws
crossed the Mississippi River to settle in the Red River valley and to
hunt as far west as Oklahoma. Chief Tahlonteskee and 300 Cherokees
relocated in Arkansas, joining kinsmen who had been living there
for more than a decade. By 1817, an estimated 6,000 Cherokees
lived west of the Mississippi River, or approximately one-third of the
entire tribe.
Key People and Events
1817
Red War for the West is fought
1820s
Southeastern Tribes remove voluntarily
1830
Congress passes Indian Removal Act
1830s
Forced removal of Southeastern Tribes is carried out
1834
Stokes Commission negotiates boundary lines and goodwill
109
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The Red War for the West
In urging eastern tribes to move west, President Jefferson
did not fully appreciate that other Indian peoples had
prior claim to Louisiana. Among those, of course, were
the Wichitas, the Apaches, the Comanches, and the
Kiowas (recent arrivals) in the western part of Oklahoma,
and the Osages in the eastern part of the state. These tribes
viewed the emigrant Indians as intruders at best and as
deadly enemies at worst. Competition for control of the
same space quickly became a full-scale war. (Emigrants
move out of their home region or country.)
The Osages felt the brunt of the Indian invasion more
than any other western tribe did. The several thousand
emigrant Indians claimed to be farmers, but they hunted
for bear, deer, and other game in the Ozark Plateau of
northwestern Arkansas. When Osage hunting parties
encountered these intruders, they attacked, robbed, and
killed them. The Western Cherokees responded with their
own attacks, but they also asked the federal government
to protect their settlements.
For U.S. officials, the conflict was a matter of serious concern. It threatened to ruin all efforts to get eastern Indians to move west. By treaties in 1808 and 1816
(Lovely’s Purchase), the United States was able to calm the
Osages, who gave up large tracts of land for the exclusive
use of the emigrants. In return, the Osages received gifts,
cash, and cancellations of debts—all of which was meant
to compensate for the deaths of warriors in their clashes
with the emigrants.
Satisfying the Western Cherokees proved more difficult. They insisted that no treaty or payment would make
up for the deaths of their kinsmen. Blood revenge was
required. In October 1817, about 500 Cherokees, joined
Indian Removal to Oklahoma, 1803–1837: A Chronology
DATEEVENT
1803
1808
1816
1818
1820
1825
1826
1828
1830
1832
1833
1835
1837
U.S. government buys Louisiana as a potential home for eastern Indians.
Osages cede most of Arkansas and Missouri to the United States.
Lovely’s Purchase, from the Osages, provides hunting grounds for the Cherokees.
Osages formally cede Lovely’s Purchase to the United States.
Quapaws cede all of southern Oklahoma below the Arkansas and Canadian rivers to the
United States.
Treaty of Doak’s Stand: the Choctaws cede part of Mississippi to the United States and get part of
southwestern Arkansas and all of southern Oklahoma below the Arkansas and Canadian Rivers.
Osages cede claims to all of Oklahoma above the Arkansas and Canadian Rivers.
Choctaws cede back the southwestern quarter of modern Arkansas.
Treaty of Washington: Creeks cede Georgia lands in exchange for territory in central Oklahoma.
Western Cherokees cede their Arkansas domain for land in northeastern Oklahoma, including the
Outlet to the Plains.
Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek: Choctaws cede all of their remaining Mississippi lands and
remove to Oklahoma.
Treaty of Pontotoc: Chickasaws cede all of their remaining Mississippi lands and remove
to Oklahoma.
Treaty of Washington, D.C.: Creeks cede all of their remaining Alabama lands and remove
to Oklahoma.
Treaty of Payne’s Landing: Seminoles cede Florida lands for home in Indian Territory.
Treaty of Fort Gibson: Seminoles agree to make their home with the Creeks.
Treaty of New Echota: Cherokees cede their eastern homeland and remove to the West.
Treaty of Camp Holmes: Wichitas, Comanches, and Apaches agree to peace with the emigrant tribes.
Kiowas agree to peace with the emigrant tribes.
Treaty of Doaksville: Chickasaws agree to make their home with the Choctaws.
110 the story of oklahoma
uniT 2
U.S. territory in 1819. This time it was Arkansas.
Choctaws and other potential emigrants found that white
squatters, robbers, murderers, and moonshiners already
controlled much of the Red River valley. Not until 1824,
when the U.S. Army built and occupied Fort Towson in
present Choctaw County, were these outlaws forced from
the region.
Not all white infiltrators were riffraff. Some came to
offer Euro-American forms of education and religion to
chapter 8
by Choctaws and Chickasaws, marched on Clermont’s
village near present Claremore. There they found that
the Osage warriors were away on their fall hunt. The
Cherokees attacked the settlement anyway, killing 83
Osages and taking 103 women and children as captives.
Before leaving, the raiders stole what they could carry,
destroyed food supplies, and set fire to the village. The
Cherokees had taken their revenge.
Although not entirely unhappy about the massacre
at Clermont’s village, the United States
knew that Osage retaliations could
be swift and broad and would further
impede eastern Indian emigration. To prevent more bloodshed, the secretary of war
ordered the U.S. Army to move quickly
ahead with its plans to construct a fort
on the Arkansas River near the Osage
boundary. By December 1817, Major
William Bradford had begun building
Fort Smith.
The presence of Fort Smith did not
end the Osage-Cherokee conflict. Despite
another treaty in 1818 and promises
of peace, the conflict continued, with
attacks involving both sides. To watch
Clermont’s people more closely, the U.S.
Army built Fort Gibson on the Grand
River in 1824 and assigned five companies commanded by Major Matthew
Arbuckle to it. The display of force
impressed the Osages. Bowing to the
inevitable, in the next year they ceded
their claim to all land in Oklahoma and
agreed to remove their villages to Kansas.
Although Clermont’s people lingered in
the state for 14 more years, the worst of
the Red War for the West was over.
Anglo-American
Infiltration
Conflict between resident and emigrant tribes was not the only barrier to
the Indian removal program. AngloAmerican infiltration into the resettlement zone was also a major problem.
The Western Cherokees, much to their
dismay, were incorporated into another
Arranged in a rectangle, Fort Gibson was constructed of wood in 1824. It was one
of two forts the U.S. Army built in the Arkansas River Valley to protect traders and
control warring Indian tribes. In 1846, the fort was moved to higher ground. Over the
next decade its buildings, including the barracks shown here, were reconstructed
with stone blocks.
indian removals 111
chapter 8
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cials tried to implement it. Like
President Thomas Jefferson’s
successor James Monroe, most
believed that “civilizing” the
Indians could not be done in
their homelands. Yet few officials wanted to forcefully eject
the tribes from their ancestral
homes. That would be, said
Monroe, “revolting to humanity and utterly unjustifiable.”
Rather, they hoped to entice
Native Americans to move to
the West voluntarily.
But how could they persuade
the Indians to move? Monroe
and his associates began by
offering an exchange of land.
Under this plan, eastern tribes
would give up a portion of their
Established in 1824, Fort Towson was part of a network of forts protecting the United States
domain in return for a larger
from Mexican forces in Texas. It was also an important destination for Choctaws moving from
estate
in the West. By and by,
Mississippi to southeastern Oklahoma. The Sutler’s house, dating from about 1834, was a
the U.S. officials believed, the
store where both soldiers and Choctaws could buy food and dry goods, among other things.
traditional tribespeople would
naturally migrate to those lands,
which
were
beyond
the
influence
of white authority. Their
the tribes. In 1820, the United Foreign Mission Society
of New York sent Epaphras Chapman and 17 co-workers progressive kinsmen would then be free to open their
to start a Protestant mission among the Osages. Union ancestral domain to Anglo-American settlement and to
Mission, as it was known, was built near Mazie in Mayes assimilate into “civilized” society.
County. Its school was the first in Oklahoma. The society
later founded a second mission, Hopefield, a few miles Cherokees
farther north. Both were abandoned in 1837.
Removal by enticement was first tried on the Cherokees.
At the same time, the American Board of Commissioners The several thousand Cherokees who had migrated to
for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) founded Dwight Mission Arkansas at the encouragement of the United States lived
among the Western Cherokees in Arkansas. Under the on lands to which they had no legal claim. Government
direction of Cephas Washburn, it was so well received officials assigned a clear title to them in 1817, but the
that the board soon opened a second church and school, Western Cherokees never had undisturbed possession of
Mulberry Mission. When the Western Cherokees relo- the land. After their land was included in the Territory of
cated in 1828 to what is now Oklahoma, Washburn Arkansas two years later, daily disputes with land-hungry
rebuilt Dwight Mission at a site northwest of Sallisaw white settlers occurred. A new centralized government led
in Sequoyah County. Mulberry Mission was renamed by Principal Chief John Jolly, the brother of Tahlonteskee,
Fairfield Mission and rebuilt just southwest of present enabled the Western Cherokees to defend themselves
Stilwell in Adair County.
effectively in these controversies. But it was a frustrating
struggle, and not one that encouraged Eastern Cherokees
to move to the West.
Removal by Enticement
U.S. officials tried to address the problem in 1828. That
While the U.S. Army struggled in Oklahoma to eliminate year the Western Cherokees exchanged their Arkansas
barriers to the removal program, other government offi- lands for territory that now encompasses 13 counties in
112 the story of oklahoma
came, to share with them the good news of his “talking
leaves.” Other Eastern Cherokees came for visits or short
stays, but only a few were enticed to move to Oklahoma
permanently.
chapter 8
Choctaws
In the meantime, federal officials were trying to induce
the Choctaws to exchange a part of their eastern domain
for a tract in the West. In 1820 the officials finally succeeded. Tribal leaders at the Treaty of Doak’s Stand
agreed to exchange 5 million acres of their Mississippi
lands for 13 million acres in what is now the southern half
of Oklahoma and the southwestern corner of Arkansas.
Besides educational benefits and funds to support the
lighthorse (a mounted police force), the treaty provided
for a resident agent in the West and promised assistance
to Choctaws who emigrated to the new domain.
The treaty outraged the citizens of Arkansas. The part
of their state assigned to the Choctaws was already heavily settled by whites and was even organized into counties. Intense political pressure caused federal officials
to renegotiate the eastern boundary of the Choctaws’
domain in 1825, setting it at a line due south from the
Arkansas River, beginning at a point 100 paces east of
Fort Smith.
The next year, the federal government appointed an
agent for the Choctaw Nation
West. He constructed buildings
for his agency about 15 miles
southwest of Fort Smith at what
was later known as Skullyville,
in LeFlore County. He and
other officials encouraged scattered Choctaw bands living
in Louisiana and Arkansas to
reassemble in the new tribal
domain. By 1829, only about
150 Indians had accepted the
invitation.
uniT 2
northeastern Oklahoma. In addition, they received a permanent outlet, 57 miles wide, that extended to the modern
western border of Oklahoma, giving access to the buffalo herds on the Southern Plains. This new domain was
to belong to the Cherokees “forever” and was never to
be “placed . . . [under] the jurisdiction of a Territory or
State.”
The Treaty of 1828 provided other benefits. The United
States promised to remove all white persons from the new
Cherokee Nation, to compensate the Western Cherokees
for their Arkansas improvements (buildings, roads, and
other additions to land that increase its value), and to pay
for the inconvenience of moving. The government also
agreed to buy the nation a printing press with Sequoyahan
type and to grant the Western Cherokees money for 10
years to support tribal schools. Finally, the treaty provided that, for any Eastern Cherokees who wished to
migrate west, the United States would pay the cost of
removal and subsistence (basic food and clothing needs)
for one year.
Most of the 3,000 or so Western Cherokees moved to
northeastern Oklahoma within a year. They made homes
along the Illinois River and established their capital at
Tahlonteskee, just east of present Gore. Sam Houston
joined them there and for a while lived with a Cherokee
woman before he moved on to Texas. Sequoyah also
Creeks
Upon settling in Oklahoma in 1828, the Western Cherokee established their capital at
Tahlonteskee just east of Gore. The reconstructed courthouse and living quarters (pictured
here) are near the site of the original structures. A reminder of the governmental sophistication
of the Western Cherokees, the building reflects the architectural style of the 1820s and 1830s.
Removal officials had more success with the Creeks. At first, the
Creek leaders rejected all proposals that they exchange eastern for western lands. In fact,
in 1824 the National Council
of the Creek ­
c onfederation
indian removals 113
chapter 8
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adopted a law imposing the death penalty on any person
who signed away tribal lands without council approval.
But pressure to do so was intense, especially in Georgia.
In response, William McIntosh, a chief of the Lower
Creek towns, convened a tribal council at Indian Springs
in 1825. There U.S. commissioners proposed again that
the Creeks exchange their Georgia homelands for land in
Oklahoma.
The chiefs of the Upper Creek towns, led by
Opothleyaholo, rejected the proposal. But McIntosh and
other “progressive” chiefs of the Lower Towns signed
the treaty. They argued that the salvation of the tribe
depended on its moving west. The “traditionalists” were
deeply offended, and the law was clear. On April 29, 1825,
about 100 warriors surrounded McIntosh’s home and set
it on fire. When heat and flames forced the chief to the
door, they shot and killed him.
When President John Quincy Adams learned of
McIntosh’s execution, he refused to proclaim the controversial treaty. Instead, in 1826 he called a Creek delegation to Washington to renegotiate the matter. This time
the National Council authorized its delegation, led by
CHEROKEE
Opothleyaholo, to cede the Georgia lands if necessary.
Perhaps a land exchange would avert a civil war between
the supporters of McIntosh and those who had opposed
him. At least it would encourage the McIntosh group to
remove, which would leave the rest of the tribe in peace.
So the delegates agreed to exchange all Creek lands in
Georgia for land in Oklahoma between the Arkansas
and Canadian rivers. The federal government would
pay the expenses of those who moved west. They also
would receive an additional $100,000 in compensation,
and a full-service agency would assist them when they
arrived.
Because of the tension among the Creeks, removal to
the West happened quickly. Within two years, almost
2,400 emigrants, mostly from the Lower Towns, settled
near present Tullahassee in Wagoner County. The government bought A. P. Chouteau’s trading post on the
Verdigris River to house the agency. But the goods that
the treaty had promised to the Indians were not delivered
for two years, causing unnecessary hardship among the
emigrant party.
KENTUCKY
MISSOURI
NORTH
CAROLINA
CHEROKEE OUTLET
CREEK Creek
AND Agency
SEMINOLE
ARKANSAS
Fort Gibson
TENNESSEE
Fort Smith
Skullyville
CHOCTAW
AND CHICKASAW
Doaksville
Fort Towson
CHEROKEE
CHICKASAW
CHOCTAW
N
CREEK
SOUTH
CAROLINA
GEORGIA
ALABAMA
LOUISIANA
Trails of Tears
1. Choctaw
2. Cherokee
3. Creek
4. Chickasaw
5. Seminolee
MISSISSIPPI
FLORIDA
SEMINOLE
0
0
Removal of the Five Tribes
114 the story of oklahoma
100
100
200
200 Miles
300 Kilometers
ive
h
Nor t
dia
n Ri
ver
Washita River
fR
ko
or
R
ed
r
ive
In Dispute
with Texas
Wichita
Village
Chouteau’s
Trading Post
Camp
Mason
50
100 miles
0
80
160 kilometers
r
Fort
North Mackey’s Coffee
Fork Salt Works
Town
Camp
Holmes
Perryville
CHOCTAW AND CHICKASAW
Warren’s
Trading Post
ve
AND SEMINOLE
Fort Arbuckle
Red Riv
er
Union
Mission
Tahlequah
Fort Park Hill
Creek
Gibson
Mission
Dwight
Greenleaf’s
Mission
Store
CREEK
Ca
nadia
n River
Ca
na
F
Fort
Wayne
uniT 2
Nor th
of
Boggy Depot
Fort Washita
Kia
m
r
Fo
k
0
r
i
dR
Gran
Ar
ka
ns
as
R
Ri
ver
Under control of Mexico until 1836
Under control of Texas from 1836 to 1850 when
relinquished to the United States
N
CHEROKEE
CHEROKEE OUTLET
n
iver
ro
Verdigris R
ar
chapter 8
m
Ci
Beaver Creek
iver
iR
ich
Doaksville
Eagletown
Fort
Towson
Indian Territory, 1830–1855
Removal by Force
By 1830, the government’s program of removal by
enticement had attracted no more than 6,000 members of
the Five Tribes to Oklahoma. That response was neither
what federal officials had expected nor what white settlers in the southern states had demanded. A new president, Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, resolved to address
the problem. In 1830, he had Congress pass legislation
known as the Indian Removal Act. It provided for the relocation of eastern tribes to the West. It made no difference
to President Jackson that the Cherokees, the Choctaws,
and others of the Five Tribes were rapidly adopting the
lifestyles and institutions of the whites. Assimilation of
the Indians was no longer the goal. Taking their ancestral
land was.
Choctaw Removal
President Jackson first applied the Indian Removal Act
to the Choctaws. Under the leadership of David Folsom
and other progressives, the Choctaws had adopted EuroAmerican lifestyles, opened schools, centralized their
government, and supported Christianity. But Mississippi
authorities saw all of that as a threat to their power.
They declared that tribal government was abolished
and that the tribespeople were subject to the laws of the
David Folsom (1791–1847), a prominent Choctaw leader, championed education and Christianity. He opposed tribal removal until
pressure from federal and state governments forced him to consent at the treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830. After removal
to Oklahoma, he focused on economic development rather than
politics.
indian removals 115
chapter 8
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The Trail of Tears, as painted by Choctaw artist Doug Maytubbie, captures the sadness of people forced to leave their homeland and go
to a strange land.
state. Weary of Mississippi’s harassment, the Choctaw
leaders met with U.S. commissioners at Dancing Rabbit
Creek in 1830 to discuss removal.
The result of the negotiations was predictable. The
Choctaws agreed to cede all of their remaining ancestral lands and move to the Choctaw Nation West in
Oklahoma. They received no payment for giving up
their land, but the government promised to give them
compensation for improvements, payment for transportation costs to the West, food for a year, and support for
education. The United States also guaranteed that in the
West the Choctaws would never be included within the
limits of any state or territory and would be free to govern
themselves.
The main Choctaw removals to Oklahoma took place
during 1831, 1832, and 1833. Directed by government
agents and contractors, the Choctaws made their way
to the Mississippi River by wagon, horseback, or foot.
There they were put on steamboats and taken to points
on the Arkansas, Ouachita, and Red rivers. Then they
proceeded overland to Fort Smith or Fort Towson. Low
116 the story of oklahoma
water and cold weather plagued the first party of emigrants. Limited transportation, insufficient food, and
cholera decimated the second group. In all, the estimated
11,000 Choctaws who removed during those three years
suffered immeasurable misery, uncounted loss of lives, and
ruinous destruction of property.
Chickasaw Removal
U.S. commissioners did not reach agreement with the
Chickasaws on their removal until the Treaty of Pontotoc
in 1832. The tribe ceded its domain to the U.S. government,
which was to survey and sell the land, paying the proceeds
to the tribe. The Chickasaws would remove to the West
at their own expense, but only after they located a suitable new home. Although it took five years, they found that
home among the Choctaws. For a payment of $530,000,
the Choctaws admitted the Chickasaws to full citizenship
in their nation. They also set aside a district for the newcomers in the western portion of their domain, the title to
which would be held by both tribes.
Removal of the Chickasaws began almost i­ mmediately.
THE REST OF THE STORY
Indian Responses to Removal
A Creek Response
A Cherokee Response
When we left our homes the great General
Jesup told us that we could get to our
country as we wanted to. We wanted
to gather our crops, and we wanted
to go in peace and friendship. Did we?
No! We were drove off like wolves . . .
lost our crops . . . and our people’s feet
were bleeding with long marches. . . . We
are men . . . we have women and children, and why should we come like wild
horses? (Members of Kasihta town)
We are now about to take our final leave
and kind farewell to our native land[,] the
country the Great Spirit gave our Fathers.
. . . We are forced by the authority of the
white man to quit the scenes of our childhood, but stern necessity says we must
go. . . . We know that it is a laborious
undertaking, but with firm resolutions we
think we will be able to accomplish it, if
the white citizens will permit us. (George
Hicks to Chief John Ross)
SOURCE: Grant Foreman, Indian Removal: The
Emigration of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972), 176.
SOURCE: Gary Moulton, ed., The Papers of Chief
John Ross, vol. 1 (Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1985), 687.
A Choctaw Response
A Chickasaw Response
We have gone to the West
You will say tis for the best,
We shall never think it so
We shall never think it so.
Chief Peter Pichlynn
SOURCE: W. David Baird, Peter Pitchlynn: Chief
of the Choctaws (Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1972), 48.
With the exception of the Creek nation
I expect there never has been such
frauds imposed on any people as the
Chickasaws, but we look with confidence
to the President of the United States to
see that every treaty stipulation is complyed with. (James Colbert)
SOURCE: Foreman, Indian Removal, 202.
Two Seminole Responses
I concluded to die, if I must, like a man.
(Abraham)
Give me a jug of whisky for I have lost
sight of the last hummock on my land. (A
chief on his way to Arkansas)
SOURCE: Virginia Bergman Peters, The Florida Wars
(Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1979), 137, 235.
indian removals 117
chapter 8
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west immediately, the government would pay
removal and subsistence expenses. If they stayed
in Alabama, they would live under state law on
specific land allotments (assignments of land up
to a square mile in size). The Creeks could sell
those tracts whenever they wished and move west
at their own expense. By staying on the allotments for five years, they would receive full title
to them. The treaty also granted the Creek tribe
$125,000 to cover national debts and an annuity (yearly payment) that totaled $210,000 over
a period of 20 years. The annuity was intended
to pay for the education of Creek youth and for
other things.
Most Creeks elected to take allotments and
stay in Alabama. That turned out to be a disastrous decision. Not understanding what it meant
to own land individually, they were soon dispossessed of it. After four years of abuse, 84-year-old
Chief Eneah Emathla led a protest rebellion that
left some white settlers dead and a lot of property
destroyed. To bring peace to Alabama, President
Jackson sent the U.S. Army.
The so-called Creek War of 1836 lasted only
Micanopy (1780s–1848) was the hereditary chief of all the Seminoles in
a
few
months. The rebels quickly surrendered
their Florida homeland. In 1826, he and other tribesmen visited Washington,
or
joined
the Seminoles in Florida. Those who
D.C., when this portrait was painted. He objected to removal of the
Seminoles to Oklahoma, leading his people into armed rebellion. He was
gave up were placed in chains and, with their
captured under a flag of truce and then deported from Florida in 1838. Ten
families, marched 90 miles to board steamboats
years later he died near Fort Gibson.
bound for Oklahoma. At dockside, one man cut
his throat in despair. The remaining Creeks, who
At least two groups crossed the Mississippi River at had not supported the rebels, were forced to remove to
Memphis. Because those groups traveled with a great Oklahoma too.
deal of livestock (including 5,000 horses in one herd), No tribe endured more than the Creeks on the trek
they went overland to the Choctaw Nation. Another west. Some went in chains, and all suffered from extreme
large party went by steamboat up the Arkansas River heat and cold, inadequate clothing, dysentery and cholto Fort Coffee. By early 1838, almost all of the 4,900 era, food shortages, and overcrowding. When one small
Chickasaws and their 1,150 slaves had relocated in boat sank, 311 Creeks died. As many as 3,000 others died
Oklahoma. They took up their new homes along the during the removal.
western border of the Choctaw Nation near present Nearly 15,000 Creeks made it to Oklahoma in
1836. They were met by about 2,500 McIntosh Creeks
Boggy Depot.
(the Lower Creeks), who had started farms along the
Creek Removal
Arkansas River northwest of Muskogee. The newcomers,
Federal officials had long harassed the Creeks to give up mostly Upper Creeks, settled along the Canadian River
their remaining lands in Alabama. Fed up and disheart- and agreed to join in the existing political and social
ened, Opothleyaholo and other Creek leaders negotiated structure.
the Treaty of Washington in 1832 with U.S. commissioners. The treaty dissolved the Creek Nation in Alabama Seminole Removal
and gave tribal members the option of either joining their The same year that the Creeks and Chickasaws signed
kinsmen in Oklahoma or staying in Alabama. If they went treaties of removal, so did the Seminoles. The Seminoles
118 the story of oklahoma
Removal as Observed by One of the Removers
U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant J. T. Sprague had
responsibility for conducting a party of 2,287 Creeks
of the Kasihta and Coweta towns to Oklahoma in
the fall of 1836. The party set out from Chambers
County, Alabama, on September 5. It arrived at Fort
Gibson on December 10. Including 45 wagons and
500 ponies, the train covered 800 miles by land and
425 by water. Along the way, 29 people died, half of
whom were small children. Sprague’s final report of
his assignment is a fascinating document. Following
are some excerpts from it.
The necessity of their leaving their country immediately was evident to every one;
although wretchedly poor they were growing
more so every day they remained. A large
number of whitemen were prowling about
robbing them of their horses and cattle and
carrying among them liquors which kept up
an alarming state of intoxication. . . .
The marches for the first four or five
days were long and tedious and attended
with many embarrassing circumstances.
Men, who had claims upon these distressed
beings, now preyed upon them without
mercy. Fraudulent demands were presented
and unless some friend was near, they
were robbed of their horses and even
clothing. . . .
[O]ur marches were long, owing to the
great scarcity of water; no one time, however, exceeding twenty miles. The Indians in
large numbers straggled behind, and many
could not get to Camp til after dark. . . .
At Memphis we remained from the 9th
of October until the 27th. The assembling
of thirteen thousand Indians at this one
point, necessarily made our movements
slow. This detention was of advantage
to the Indians as it gave them rest and
afforded the sick and feeble an opportunity
to recover. . . .
A mutual agreement was effected . . .
to take the party up the Arkansas river to
Little Rock. . . . The boats stopped at night
for them to cook and sleep, and in the morning, resumed the journey.
The sufferings of the Indians [after leaving Little Rock] were intense. With nothing
more than a cotton garment thrown over
them, their feet bare, they were compelled
to encounter cold, sleeting storms and to
travel over hard frozen ground. . . .
We arrived at Fort Gibson on the 10th
inst. By the order of Brigadier General
Arbuckle I encamped the party in the vicinity
of the Fort. . . . After the Indians had received
their blankets in compliance with the treaty, I
proceeded with the larger portion of them to
the country assigned them. Thirty five miles
beyond Fort Gibson I encamped them upon
a prairie and they soon after scattered in
every direction, seeking a desirable location
for their new homes.
Source: Grant Foreman, Indian Removal: The Emigration
of the Five Civilized Tribes (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972), 166–75.
indian removals 119
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were closely related to the Creeks and
probably once were a part of the Creek
confederation. Living in Florida, southern
Georgia, and Alabama, they were town
dwellers with chiefs and councils. Usually
adjacent to each town was a settlement
of “black Indians” whom the Seminoles
claimed as slaves but treated as equals. In
1832, thirteen years after the Seminoles
came under U.S. jurisdiction, federal officials persuaded them to sign the Treaty of
Payne’s Landing. Its terms obligated the
tribe to move to Oklahoma when a suitable home could be found, but within three
years. The federal government agreed to
compensate the tribe $15,400 for the land
they surrendered in Florida and to pay their
removal costs, a year’s subsistence, and a
$3,000 annuity for 15 years.
A delegation of Seminole chiefs and
other leaders went to Oklahoma the next
year. The McIntosh Creeks, prodded
by the Stokes Commission (see below),
invited the Seminoles to live along the
western border of their nation. Although
the delegation agreed that the land was
suitable, it apparently did not intend for
the Seminoles to move there. But federal
officials interpreted the marks of the delegation members on a vague Fort Gibson
document as a firm commitment to make Osceola (1804–38), a Creek Indian by birth, joined the Seminoles in Florida about
1819. In 1826, he accompanied a Seminole delegation to Washington, D.C.,
the move. The majority of the Seminoles when this portrait was painted. Elected war chief in 1832, Osceola resisted all
did not see it that way.
removal treaties, killing another Seminole leader who favored them. He agreed
Osceola, for example, had no intention of to peace negotiations with the United States in 1837, but he was betrayed and
leaving Florida. He and his followers killed arrested by U.S. Army general Thomas Jessup. He died a year later in prison.
one signer of the Fort Gibson agreement and
ambushed a U.S. Army patrol, killing 110
soldiers. By doing that, Osceola triggered a
Seminole war that lasted until 1842. During
Cherokee Removal
that war, he was taken prisoner—in violation of a truce The last of the Five Tribes to sign a removal treaty was
agreement—and died in chains. Wildcat and Billy Bowlegs the Cherokees. The tribe’s progressive leaders—John
continued the struggle, to no avail.
Ross, Major Ridge, and Charles Hicks—had hoped to
Between 1836 and 1842, about 3,500 Florida Seminoles, avoid removal by changing the tribe to match the image
both black and white, removed to Oklahoma. Under of white society. Instead of impressing the Georgians, the
Chief Micanopy, aided by his shrewd black interpreter, tribe’s rapid acculturation irritated them. The state legAbraham, the Seminoles settled in villages near Fort islature abolished the tribal government and declared all
Gibson. Almost a decade later, they moved to what are Cherokees subject to state law. It also required all white
now western Hughes and Okfuskee counties.
people living among the Cherokees to hold state per-
120 the story of oklahoma
chapter 8
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Major Ridge (1770–1839), also known as the Ridge, was a warrior
as a young man. He later supported Cherokee modernization
and assimilation into white culture. A planter, slave owner, ferry
operator, and storekeeper, Major Ridge signed the Treaty of New
Echota in 1835. Two years later he moved to Oklahoma, and
two years after that he was killed for signing the treaty. This 1834
portrait was made when he visited Washington, D.C., with a
Cherokee delegation.
John Ross (1790–1866) was the most prominent Cherokee
statesman in the nineteenth century. As principal chief, he strongly
opposed the removal of Cherokees from their homeland in the
southeast. When that effort failed, he accompanied his people
west on the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma.
mits. But none of this caused the Cherokees to consider
removal.
In 1831, Georgia arrested ABCFM missionaries Samuel
A. Worcester and Elizur Butler for not having permits to
teach and preach among the Cherokees. The state court
quickly convicted and imprisoned them. The missionaries appealed their case to the United States Supreme
Court. The next year, Chief Justice John Marshall issued
his famous Worcester v. Georgia decision, supporting
both the missionaries and the Cherokees. The state, said
Marshall, had no authority to apply its laws within an
Indian nation protected under the treaty clause of the U.S.
Constitution. Because the court’s decision put an Indian
tribe beyond the reach of a state law, President Jackson
refused to enforce it. The Cherokees were heartsick, but
they still refused to consider removal.
Ignoring the Supreme Court’s decision, the State of
Georgia surveyed the Cherokee domain and then gave
away the best properties by a lottery. Tribal leaders lost
their homes to lucky ticket winners. The Georgia mili-
tia also marched to the offices of the tribal newspaper,
the Cherokee Phoenix, and smashed the printing press.
With those outrages, some Cherokees began to consider
removal.
Leaders like Major Ridge, his son John, and his nephews Elias Boudinot and Stand Watie realized that the
continued harassment by Georgia and the United States
would destroy the Cherokees as a people. “We can never
forget these homes,” Major Ridge told the National
Council, “but an unbending, iron necessity tells us we
must leave them . . . and go beyond the great Father of
Waters.”
On December 29, 1835, Major Ridge and 19 of
his supporters signed the Treaty of New Echota. The
Cherokees agreed to sell their eastern lands for $5 million. They were given joint ownership with the Western
Cherokees in the tribal estate in Oklahoma, and they had
to move there within two years. The treaty required the
federal government to pay for removal and for subsistence on arrival. It also directed the purchase of a strip of
indian removals 121
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THE REST OF THE STORY
Oklahoma’s Pocahontas
In 1818, Millie Francis was a spirited and attractive preteen. She was playing with her older sister
near her Florida home when she heard the excited
whoops of Seminole warriors. They had taken
Sergeant Duncan McKrimmon of the Georgia
Militia as captive. In the middle of the village, they
had stripped him naked, blackened his face, and
were about to kill him. Millie saw McKrimmon trying to cover himself and begging with his eyes that
someone speak for him. She rushed to her father,
who was known to his Creek and Seminole followers as Hillis Haya and to white opponents as Josiah
Francis, and pled for the sergeant’s life. Haya—a
Creek medicine man, a silversmith, a follower of
Tecumseh, a Red Stick traditionalist, and a speaker
for his people at the royal court in England—and the
sergeant’s captors granted Millie’s wish, but only if
McKrimmon would shave his head and live among
the tribespeople.
The sergeant complied, living quietly with the
Creeks. Two years later, he was traded to white merchants in Florida for a barrel of whiskey. After a few
months, he returned to the village and asked Millie
to marry him, not so much for love but for saving his
life. Millie declined. In the meantime, General Andrew
Jackson had defeated local Indians in the so-called
First Seminole War and had hanged leaders of the
Creek Red Sticks, including Millie’s father.
land in present southeastern Kansas to be known as the
Cherokee Neutral Lands.
Chief John Ross and his traditionalist followers considered the treaty a work of treason and refused to recognize
it. Even when some 2,000 members of the Ridge party
migrated peacefully to Oklahoma, Chief Ross told his supporters that they would not have to go. As the two-year
deadline got closer, the Ross party had made no preparations to remove. President Martin Van Buren ordered fed-
122 the story of oklahoma
By the time the Creeks removed to Oklahoma,
Millie’s story was well known. But being a celebrity
did not prevent her removal. Along with the rest of
her people, Millie went to Oklahoma, making her
home just north of Muskogee. In 1842, Major Ethan
Allen Hitchcock visited her. She had not lost her
beauty or spirit, but she was very poor and six of her
eight children had died. He was so touched that he
reported her circumstances to the secretary of war
in Washington, D.C., who sent the report to the U.S.
Congress. Two years later, Congress authorized an
annual pension of $96 for Millie and ordered that
a medal be struck and given to her. Sadly, no one
thought to present the pension and medal to Millie
until May 1848. By then, she was on her deathbed.
Her eldest son accepted the medal in his mother’s
behalf, proud that she was the first Oklahoman, and
one of the few women in history, to receive a medal
through a special act of Congress.
Sources: Grant Foreman, ed. and annotator, A
Traveler in Indian Territory: The Journal of Ethan Allen
Hitchcock, foreword by Michael D. Green (Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1996), 102–107;
and J. Leitch Wright, Jr., Creeks and Seminoles:
Destruction and Regeneration of the Muscogulge
People (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
1986), 201, 312.
eral troops to round up the Cherokees and forcibly move
them to Indian Territory.
Gathering the Indians into stockades at three collection points was a nasty business, for both the army and
the Cherokees. Not until then did Chief Ross and other
traditionalist leaders accept that the federal government
was deadly serious about removal. Ross quickly proposed that the Eastern Cherokees be responsible for their
relocation to Oklahoma. Even though the costs would
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For the Eastern Cherokees, the march
west was truly the Trail of Tears. Along
the way they were harassed by whites,
they suffered much from lack of food and
clothing, and they were ravaged by sickness. About 13 percent died on the journey, mostly the very old and the very
young. The greatest loss of life occurred
in the year after removal, however, as the
people struggled to adapt to a new and not
always friendly land. But their ordeal was
not unique. The Choctaws, the Creeks,
the Seminoles, and, to a lesser extent, the
Chickasaws had also followed Trails of
Tears to Oklahoma.
Pacifying Contrary
Neighbors
Making Oklahoma a resettlement zone
for eastern Indians was not a simple job
for the federal government. Boundaries
between tribes were often fuzzy, the Plains
tribes did not like having thousands of
emigrants as neighbors, and Clermont’s
Osages refused to abandon their villages
on the Verdigris. To address the problems
and the ongoing removal process, President
Jackson appointed a three-member commission in 1832 and sent it immediately to
Indian Territory.
The Stokes Commission
Chaired by Montfort Stokes of North
Carolina, the new commission to settle
removal problems arrived at Fort Gibson
early in 1833. The U.S. Army placed at
Born in Indiana, Henry Dodge (1782–1867) served with the U.S. military in the War
its disposal three companies of Mounted
of 1812 and the Black Hawk War (1832) and then in Indian Territory (1833–36), out
of Fort Gibson. The latter service helped establish peaceful relations in Oklahoma
Rangers commanded by Major Henry
between the emigrant tribes from the East and the Plains tribes of the West.
Dodge. One of the companies had just
Later he became governor and a territorial delegate of Wisconsin Territory. When
returned from a patrol of the Cimarron
Wisconsin became a state, he was elected as a U.S. senator (1845–57).
and Canadian rivers. Unknown to the
commissioners, that patrol was going to
double and the government would lose control of expen- receive worldwide attention. Three civilians who accomditures, the army agreed. Ross organized the 13,149 panied it published accounts of it: noted American writer
Cherokees into 13 travel parties of approximately 1,000 Washington Irving and two prominent Europeans,
each and sent them overland to Oklahoma. Most left in Charles Latrobe and Count Albert-Alexandre de
Pourtales. For the time being, the Stokes Commission
September 1838.
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left the rangers in their barracks and turned
their attention to the matters at hand.
Among these was the question of the overlapping borders of the domains granted by
treaties to the various tribes. For example,
the Senecas and the Shawnees, two Ohio
tribes, had been assigned lands that fell
within the Cherokee Nation. The commission renegotiated their earlier treaties and
placed them in the northeastern corner of
present-day Oklahoma. The commission
also finalized a treaty with the Quapaws of
Arkansas, granting them lands north of the
Senecas and the Shawnees. In addition, the
commission persuaded the Cherokees and
the Creeks to define their common boundary to the satisfaction of both parties.
Working with the Osages was much more
difficult. Contrary to treaty provisions,
Clermont’s people refused to join their kinsmen in Kansas. Their presence irritated the
Cherokees and the Creeks, who complained
that the Osages stole their horses and vandalized their property. But the Osages rejected
every attempt by the Stokes Commission to
get them to remove to Kansas. Indeed, in
the middle of discussions, they nonchalantly
packed their belongings and went west to
hunt buffalo.
On their hunt, they took more than
meat. Coming upon a Kiowa trail, Osage In 1834, these three Osage men scouted for the Leavenworth-Dodge expediwarriors followed it to Cutthroat Gap in tion that traversed much of southwestern Oklahoma, looking for Wichitas,
the Wichita Mountains in northwestern Comanches, and Kiowas at the request of the Stokes Commssion. Their dress,
ornaments, and weapons, as well as their physical bearing, reflected the pride,
Comanche County. There they found a vil- power, and confidence of the Osage people.
lage with only women, children, and old
men present. The warriors ransacked and
burned the village, then killed and scalped 100 Kiowas. peace treaties with the United States and the emigrant
They beheaded the dead and placed the heads in brass Indians.
kettles around the campsite. They took other Kiowas as
The Leavenworth-Dodge Expedition
­captives.
The success of their raid on the Kiowas did not make To stress the seriousness of its mission, the commisClermont’s people any more willing to leave their Verdigris sion decided to take a large military column with it
homes. But it did provide the Stokes Commission with an when it returned the two captive children. Commanded
opening to the tribes on the Southern Plains. The com- by General Henry Leavenworth, the troops were a new
mission purchased a captive Kiowa girl and a Wichita kind of mounted infantry known as dragoons. The unit
boy in order to return them to their tribes. That gesture was impressive in both appearance and leadership. Gold
of goodwill, the commission hoped, would encourage epaulets and braid, patent leather belts, and plumed hats
the Kiowas, the Wichitas, and the Comanches to sign accented the blue-and-gray uniforms. Henry Dodge,
124 the story of oklahoma
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The First U.S. Dragoon Regiment, 1834–51, stationed at Fort
Gibson, was the most powerful force that the United States had
ever sent onto the southern plains. It helped negotiate a peace
between resident and emigrant tribes in Oklahoma during the
1830s.
chapter 8
to less than 200 by then. They were overjoyed when
Dodge ceremoniously returned the two captive children
he had brought to them. After further negotiations, the
leaders of the three tribes promised to maintain the peace
and to come to Fort Gibson for formal treaty negotiations. That pledge made the mission a success, but it
had been achieved at a high price. Some 150 dragoons
had died in the Oklahoma heat, including General
Leavenworth.
The Wichitas and the Comanches, true to their ­promises,
came to Fort Gibson in the fall. Treaties with them and
other Plains tribes were signed the next year at Camp
Holmes, near present Lexington in Cleveland County.
By those agreements, the Plains tribes promised to live
in peace with their new neighbors, the Five Southeastern
Tribes, and to allow traders to cross the buffalo range on
their way to New Mexico. The Kiowas signed the same
treaty two years later.
The task of the Stokes Commission and the men of
Fort Gibson was to make Oklahoma safe for the peaceful
resettlement of Indians from east of the Mississippi River.
When Clermont’s people finally dismantled their lodges
and moved northward into Kansas in 1839, the commission’s task was complete.
Why Is This Part
of the Story Important?
One and a half centuries later, it is hard to view the
removal epoch as anything other than an example of
man’s inhumanity to man. In Oklahoma history, it is
Stephen Watts Kearny, Nathan Boone, Jefferson Davis, that, but it is also much more. Every society has at least
and David Hunter served as Leavenworth’s junior­ one creation account, a story that helps define it to itself
and to others. The removal epoch is one of Oklahoma’s
officers.
Five hundred young soldiers, the pride of the U.S. three creation accounts, along with the Land Run of 1889
Army, rode out of Fort Gibson in June 1834. The scorch- (see chapter 15) and the oil boom (see chapter 20). The
ing heat quickly took its toll. By the time the column had removal epoch marks the beginning of many of those
reached the Washita River in present Marshall County, qualities that characterize Oklahomans as a people: gennearly half of the command was ill, including General erosity, resiliency, and hope, as well as greed, fraud, and
Leavenworth. Leaving the sick behind, about 250 troop- insensitivity.
ers went on, led by Colonel Dodge. Artist George Catlin The removal epoch also speaks to how Oklahoma is
accompanied them. Catlin would provide the earliest perceived by the world at large. United States officials
visual record of Oklahoma and its people. On July 21, saw it as a place that could serve the interests of the
the expedition finally reached the large Wichita village federal government by providing a resettlement zone for
at Devils Canyon, southeast of Lake Altus in Kiowa eastern Indians. Oklahoma was considered a resource to
be used, in much the same way that England used the
County.
The Wichitas, Kiowas, and Comanches were impressed American colonies. That view of Oklahoma may still
by the dragoons, even though the command had shrunk exist.
indian removals 125