Tag Archives: Five Civilized Tribes

Easy Targets

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Indians who couldn’t speak English were easy targets for whites who wanted  their assets. A bit of mental deficiency only made it easier. Jackson Barnett was a retarded Indian in Oklahoma who received a randomly selected allotment (160 acres) around the turn of the 20th century. When oil was discovered on the land, the Indian Office appointed a guardian for him; the guardian very properly leased Barnett’s land for him and paid the oil royalties to the superintendent of the Five Civilized Tribes at Muskogee, Oklahoma.

Jackson was eventually worth over a million dollars, and in 1920, a white woman suddenly showed up on his doorstep and persuaded him to get into her car. She drove Barnett to Kansas and married him (against Kansas law), then drove to Missouri and married him again. She eventually got him to sign over half his money to a mission society, and half to her.

This woman and others concerned with Barnett’s estate met with Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Charles Burke, who gave his approval for their actions. Publicity eventually upset the wife’s plans and the courts threw out the contracts Barnett had signed. Burke was criticized for his actions, but he was exonerated of wrong-doing by the House subcommittee which investigated the case.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Charles Burke

Book about Jackson Barnett by Tanis C. Thorne

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Oil Money

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Camp Modoc, Indian Territory, between 1888 and 1890, courtesy Library of Congress

Unscrupulous profiteers were never shy about trying to benefit from something Native Americans possessed. When petroleum was discovered in Oklahoma (see last post), the lands occupied by the Five Civilized Tribes became a magnet for exploitation.

Early in the nineteenth century, the United States gave the Five Civilized Tribes  all the land in Indian Territory. Congress later decided to divide the land into small acreages, called allotments. These allotments were given to Indian families, but were controlled and (nominally) protected by the federal government on their behalf.

In 1908, federal protection was lifted, and unscrupulous whites moved in to take advantage of the riches on the Oklahoma land. Many Indians could not read or write, or really understand the unfamiliar laws and practices involved in land ownership. Congress gave control of Indian lands to the county courts in Oklahoma, and the ravaging began. Hundreds of Indian families lost their land and the wealth they might have enjoyed. Within 30 years, Oklahoma Indians retained only one fifteenth of their original allotments.

Oil Workers Playing Dominoes, St. Louis, Oklahoma (1939), courtesy Library of Congress

Oil Derrick with Waste Oil in Stream, 1939, courtesy Library of Congress

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BIA Supervision

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Cato Sells

The Bureau of Indian Affairs expanded over time, as many other government offices did. In its 1913 report to Congress, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs (Cato Sells) noted that the Indian Office had received 77,000 letters in 1902 and employed 132  people, but had received 209,000 letters and had employed 227 people by 1911. The commissioner presented his office in the most positive light as he highlighted the strides and failures of the past few years.

He specifically discussed the discovery of petroleum in Indian Territory. In a special report about petroleum in 1902, the Census Bureau had barely noted the existence of 13 wells there. The land was occupied by the Five Civilized Tribes, though the Secretary of the Interior had authority over it through the Curtis Act of 1898. By 1912, Oklahoma was second among oil-producing states, and pumped out almost one-fifth of all the petroleum produced in the U.S.

The wealth represented by Oklahoma’s oil consequently focused greedy attention on the Indians who were supposed to benefit from it. The next post will continue this topic.

Hoy Oil Field on Black Bear Creek near Enid, Oklahoma, circa 1917, courtesy Library of Congress

Oil Wells in Bartlesville, Oklahoma

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Black Indians

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Black Indians

Black Indians

Native Americans in the Five Civilized Tribes sometimes owned African slaves. The Cherokee freed their slaves in 1866 and gave them full tribal citizenship. These former slaves were called tribal Freedmen.

Many Freedmen lived as Native Americans through the ensuing years, having adopted their culture and languages.

Today, Freedmen face roadblocks in tribal enrollment, since proving their bloodline depends upon the 1906 census called the Dawes Roll, which excluded Freedmen. This proof of bloodline is very important, since it is required to qualify for a Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood. The CDIB and tribal membership entitles the holder to Native American monies and benefits.  

Black Indian Family

Black Indian Family

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Nipped in the Bud

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State of Sequoyah, 1905, courtesy McCasland Map Collection, Oklahoma State University

State of Sequoyah, 1905, courtesy McCasland Map Collection, Oklahoma State University

After unassigned lands in Indian Territory were taken to form Oklahoma Territory in 1890, it became obvious that white settlement would continue in that area. By 1902, representatives from the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole) were proposing statehood for Indian Territory, which still existed in the eastern part of present day Oklahoma. The new state would be called Sequoyah, after an esteemed Cherokee man who had developed the Cherokee alphabet.

A constitutional convention met in 1905. Delegates drew up a constitution, established boundaries, and elected delegates to petition Congress for statehood. Easterners pressured president Theodore Roosevelt not to consider this idea, and Roosevelt eventually decided that only one state could enter the union: Oklahoma. Today, Oklahoma has the second-largest native population of any state.

William Henry Davis Murray, White Delegate to Sequoyah Convention

William Henry Davis Murray, White Delegate to Sequoyah Convention

Chief Pleasant Porter, Sequoyah Convention Chair

Chief Pleasant Porter, Sequoyah Convention Chair

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Important Indian Tribes

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Five Civilized Tribes Portraits

Five Civilized Tribes Portraits

Though it was often one-sided and biased, the relationship between American Indians and white settlers was of long duration. One early milestone in that relationship was the recognition of the Five Civilized Tribes.

Five tribes lived east of the Mississippi in what became North and South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Louisiana. Eventually, white settlers thought it would be desirable to re-locate these tribes.

The U.S. government entered into a treaty called the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek on September 27, 1830, to remove the Choctaws to land west of the Mississippi. Similar treaties were made between the government and other tribes, who were to govern themselves so long as their laws didn’t conflict with those of the U.S., its treaties, and the Constitution.

The Five Civilized Tribes are: Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole Indians.