Grant Foreman • The Five Civilized Tribes

Philip H. Raiford became Creek agent in 1849 and after a survey of his field he concluded that the Creeks had

"entirely abandoned the chase as a means of subsistence, as the men have become accustomed to the labor of the field, and convinced of its sure profits. The women, who but a few years since were the tillers of the soil, are becoming skilled in the art of housewifery; indeed their 'home-spuns' are fully equal in point both of texture and color to those manufactured by the ladies of the States. The neatness and comfort displayed in many of their homes is an indisputable evidence of their improving condition. I find the people of this tribe much less addicted to drunkenness than I had expected, from a limited knowledge of their habits some years ago. As a community they are as sober as that of any white people of the Union. . . . among themselves there are no factionists to disturb the settled and peaceful habits of the tribe. Their law-makers are abolishing by degrees many of their old and barbarous customs, and enacting in their stead sound and salutary laws."⁠1

A disastrous drought in 1850 destroyed most of the corn crops of the immigrant Indians, the Creeks alone, by their superior industry, producing enough for their own use. However the next year the drought continued and even the Creeks were without this most essential article of food.

"Crops are literally burned," wrote the missionary H. F. Buckner at North Fork Town. "This has caused many of the superstitious Indians to resort to their old customs of conjuring for rain, and should no other benefit result, I trust they will be taught p206 to look to the mediation of a higher grade than one of their own device. They have various methods of conjuring for rain, all of which are ridiculous enough. Some lacerate frogs and toss them up in the air. Others fast, three, four, or five days during which time they dive frequently, boil different kinds of vegetables, dip the tail of a buffalo in water and sprinkle the water towards heaven &c. Some have resorted to the method of burning the prairies; and woe betide the man who has a fence contiguous to them. My wife and I have twice exhausted our strength this week by fighting fires which caught our fence from the prairies. I had twelve acres of corn in cultivation, and the drought had ruined my crop, yet I was unwilling that the fire should consume my fence. I raised a shout for help, but nearly all the Indians in town had gone to a ball-play. One came however and rendered efficient aid."⁠2

The Creeks had not advanced so far in the elements of civilization and the science of government as some of their red brethren by whom they were surrounded, said their agent.

"Their rude and irresponsible form of government by chiefs still prevails among them. The chiefs all receive salaries in proportion to their grade and rank, or, in other words, a larger share of the common fund of the tribe than the great mass of the Indians. The result of this system has been a great increase in the number of chiefs, until they now amount to about 800; and, as the moneys due from the Government to the tribe are now paid to the chiefs, and they have it in their power to fix their own salaries, a large proportion of the funds of the nation is divided out among themselves, and but little left for the great mass. Great wrong and injustice are thus done to the common Indians,"

said Raiford; but he saw no remedy for it except under a different form of government, which he believed would result in a more rapid advance in their civilization.⁠3

Boarding schools were believed to provide the only effective method of educating the Creek youth. Day schools had proved a failure, said Mr. Loughridge. As soon as the novelty of going to school was over, and the children became tired of their studies, as all children will, they deserted the schoolroom and returned to their sports. The teachers could not bring them back and the parents who exercised no discipline whatever over their children, would not, and hence they p207 absented themselves at pleasure, returning only now and then, as curiosity might prompt them. This was the testimony also of the teachers and missionaries who had been laboring among the Cherokee and Choctaw for more than thirty years. Only in the boarding schools said Mr. Loughridge, where they could teach the children the English language, by precept and example were they able to show them the absurdity of their barbarous superstitions, and impart to them much important instruction which could not be taught in the day schoolroom.⁠4

W. H. Garrett became Creek agent July 2, 1853, and he immediately recognized as the outstanding problem of his charges the form of government that subjected the great majority of the tribe to the unconstrained rule of a privileged class of so‑called chiefs, a form of government that had been handed down to them from one generation to another for ages. While he believed it was essential for them to change their government if they were to develop and progress in company with the other immigrant tribes, he did not believe they were prepared to adapt themselves to a constitutional form of government modeled on those of the states.⁠5

There were some fundamental peculiarities in the social organization of the Creek tribe that must be considered if one would understand their condition and belated progress. Prior to their removal to the West, as they were in the process of emerging from the hunter to the agricultural state, the institution of slavery, by which they were surrounded, and in which they participated gave a peculiar development to their industry. Chiefs, who were averse to work themselves, employed slaves, and thus the relation of planter and slave was established long before p208 the question of their removal occurred. The effect of this was to exalt a portion of the nation above, and to depress others below, the average standing. The disparity which took place in habits of labor and in wealth also impressed itself on education, dress, manners, and information. This development together with the admixture of white blood enabled this and a few other southern tribes to send intelligent chiefs to Washington to transact their business, who astonished officials there with their sagacity and self-confidence.⁠6 These intelligent and affluent individuals did most of the thinking for the other class that came to bear the name of "common Indians."

The Baptist missionaries provide further interesting sketches of the Creeks at this period. Rev. H. F. Buckner writes from Fort Gibson May 23, 1853 that he has preached the week preceding "at Tuckabacheetown at night and had a good meeting. I was much delighted in a conversation with an old sister who was once scourged for praying to God, and who is now too infirm to attend church." In July he attended a "church-meeting at North Fork where I counted sixteen tents occupied by brethren from a distance with their families." At the Muskogee church on the Arkansas River he preached the funeral of "Sister Lizzie McIntosh." The preaching lasted three days and "an entertainment was given the whole time by Gen. Roly McIntosh, father of the deceased, and principal chief of the Creek Nation. A more sumptuous entertainment I never saw in my life. I think it must have cost the Gen. $500. There were from 800 to 1,000 people [to be fed] all the time. I could not avoid contrasting the difference in the general appearance of the congregation with what it was four years ago. Then there were not more than four sun-bonnets to be seen in a congregation of that size; now there is not a congregation in any country town in Kentucky that can excel this one in neatness of dress and good order." In the autumn he observed: "Three years ago we were not allowed to preach in Broken Arrow; now we have a flourishing church of about fifty members, and a house of worship."

In the winter they had preaching at Tuckabatchee and the crowd was too large to enter their little church; "so we prepared as many seats as we could outside. Such a congregation in the woods in the midst of winter, would have made a beautiful sketch for an amateur p209 painter — a crowd of Indians dressed in their old-fashioned native costumes — many having been attracted to meeting for the first time, in all their native wildness and simplicity; some standing, some sitting on the grass or reclining against trees, some in the tops of saplings; and one youth in front and near to me, stood leaning upon the top of his bow, with spear-headed arrows in his hands; all giving earnest heed while I preached from 1st Timothy, i, 11, 'The Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God'."⁠7

The gradual development of education in the Creek Nation in 1853 found the two manual training schools with eighty pupils, in addition to twelve neighborhood schools located by the chiefs,⁠8 and attended by about 500 pupils; their school work, however, was retarded by want of comfortable schoolhouses, a deficiency they were attempting to correct. The teacher at Cusehta, Thomas C. Carr, a Creek Indian who had been educated by the whites, wrote: "I was once like my pupils — could not speak a word in the English language; but the school and my kind teachers made a wonderful change in me and taught me to speak and write in the English language. I feel quite confident that I shall be able to make the change in them (in a few years) as was made in myself."⁠9 The cause of temperance was advancing: ". . . 'the Maine law,' which was in operation here before it was adopted by the state of Maine is more faithfully enforced than formerly."

Five Creek boys were sent away to school in 1854, one of whom went to Center College at Danville, Kentucky. Four other boys, Richard Carr, Eli Danley, Lyman Moore and David Yargee, were sent to Arkansas College at Fayetteville. The Methodists maintained one school and three missions with between seven and eight hundred members; they were served by three white men and three native men. Thomas B. Ruble, who was then superintendent of Asbury Manual Labor School, reported that his school closed earlier than usual on July 8 because the parents wanted their children to come home before p210 the weather became too warm to save them from sickness and so that they might attend the regular busks.⁠10 The excessive drought of the year before which destroyed their crops singularly enough contributed to the cause of temperance among the immigrant Indians by preventing navigation in the streams so that whisky boats were unable to ascend the rivers. A number of Creeks were now engaged in merchandising in their own country and others were carrying goods out on the prairies to traffic with the western Indians.

The oppressive government of the large number of so‑called chiefs had caused such bitterness in the tribe as to force a reduction in that number from 800 to 500 in 1855; treasurers were appointed for the nation under some new enactments that indicated a desire of the Indian to improve their body of laws; though the agent, W. H. Garrett, gave it as his opinion that the tribe had not yet sufficiently advanced in civilization to comprehend a more intricate government.⁠11

The Creeks, in common with the other immigrant tribes, experienced a crop failure in 1853 and 1854, and the next year would have suffered excessively but for the tardy payment to them of an appropriation to compensate them in a measure for their losses incident to their enforced hasty removal from their homes in the East in 1836, nineteen years before.⁠12 But they were resentful at their failure to secure from the Government any satisfaction on account of their claim for the loss of 9,000,000 acres of land taken from them by General Jackson at the Treaty of Fort Jackson, for which they never received a dollar. The Creeks were apprehensive at the impending abandonment of Fort Gibson considered by the Indian officials as the key to the whole of the Indian country west of Arkansas, and necessary for the protection p211 of the immigrant Indians against the encroachments of those of the prairies.

The fearful toll of life visited upon the Creeks in the process of removal and adjustment to their new home is reflected in the census of 1857 showing a total of 14,888 members of the tribe. The number of Creeks enrolled for emigration under and after the Treaty of 1832 was about 22,000. These were to be added to 3,000 already living in the West, making in all some 25,000 Creeks before removal. This loss of 10,000 lives within twenty years time was caused by the casualness of emigration and the hardships and exposure incident to settlement in a new and wilderness country without the means of conserving their lives and health. Thousands of them died on the route and during the first two or three years after their arrival. "Another cause of their decrease has been the general prevalence among them of winter fever, (or, as it is called, pneumonia,) with which they are annually scourged; and this has been greatly increased by the delay in their annual payments until very late in the fall or commencement of winter when they have frequently to assemble to receive their money without any shelter or protection against the most inclement weather. This has been a frightful source of this most fatal disease, which evil should be remedied by an earlier remittance and payment of their annual dues."⁠13

Some of the more enlightened members of the Creek tribe, said their optimistic agent Garrett in 1858, looked forward to a form of government similar to that of the states, but there was no immediate prospect of such an advance in the minds of the majority of the tribe. However backward they were in the matter of laws and government they were good farmers. "A large number of them have numerous herds of cattle and ponies, the reputation for which has attracted the attention of dealers in the neighboring States, who annually visit the nation to make purchases of the Indians, paying them just and remunerative prices." There were seven schools with 172 pupils in attendance p212 in Arkansas District and seven in Canadian District with 216 pupils, 33 females and 183 males.

The subject of religion was exciting a lively interest among the Creeks in 1858, said Mr. Garrett.

"There is scarcely a settlement of the nation in which there is not a church under the visitation of white missionary preachers of the various denominations and under the direct ministry of native preachers. The Baptists appear to be the most numerous and successful, numbering among their converts some of the leading and most influential men of the nation. The Methodists have also made numerous converts, and they too regard their labors as successful and speak helpfully of the future. . . . The cause of temperance too, has its defenders. The authorities of the nation have exerted themselves to the fullest extent in suppressing the trade in whiskey. The light horse are instructed to destroy all spiritous liquors, and a law has been enacted inflicting the penalty of four dollars a gallon upon all liquors introduced by natives into the nation, which is strictly enforced, and is effectual to a great extent in suppressionº the traffic."⁠14

In Asbury Manual Labor School there were about seventy-five boys and girls from eight to sixteen years of age. The usual elemental studies were taught and vocal and instrumental music, the latter on the melodeon. Seventy acres of land were planted to corn, oats, millet, potatoes, and turnips. "Chinese sugar cane" was planted experimentally, with some success. "During the fall and winter the boys help to gather in the crop, chop wood, make fires, etc.; in the spring they assist in repairing the fences, cleaning up the grounds for cultivation, and do most of the hoeing in the fields and garden. Besides this they grind nearly all the meal we use on steel mills. . . . The girls assist in the care and cleaning up of their own rooms, also in their own washing and ironing, sew, and work in the dining room. The girls as a general thing are more industrious than the boys; but, in a moral point of view, not more reliable."

The progress and plan of Tullahassee Manual Labor School were much the same, though it had a larger attendance, including ninety-six Creeks, four Cherokee and two whites. The management seems to have been somewhat more progressive, and Mr. Loughridge, with the aid of the interpreters, prepared several books in the Creek language. p213 On the staff of teachers now at this school were Mr. and Mrs. W. S. Robertson; on January 2, 1854 there was born to them Mary Alice, who was later to become identified with the education of the Creek people, and still later to represent the state of Oklahoma in the Congress of the United States.

The first paragraph of an undated manuscript volume of laws of the Creek Nation provides for dividing the Creek Nation into two districts to be known as the Arkansas and the Canadian districts, each with a principal and a second chief to serve no more than four years "unless reëlected by the popular voice of the office holders that may be present." The next thing in importance seemed to be a criminal code. It provided for the punishment of murder by death after a trial and conviction by a jury of twelve disinterested men. If a Negro killed an Indian the former should suffer death, but if an Indian killed a Negro the Indian "shall pay the owner his value otherwise suffer death." If a slave killed another the killer should receive 100 lashes on the bare back and the owner of the culprit should pay the owner of the victim one-half the value of the deceased. But no one should be punished for the killing of another in a "ball play." If one were found guilty of stealing a horse, mule, jack, jinny or a cow, for the first offense he should receive fifty lashes, for the second offense 100 lashes and suffer one ear cut off, and for the third, he should suffer death.

New laws were added from time to time and at some period, the date of which is not given, it appears that some of the slaves of the Creeks were freed. The law provided that Negroes so freed over twelve years of age should pay a tax of three dollars annually to the Creek Nation, except those who were recognized as members of the Nation. The freed Negroes should pay also a tax on their live stock and their wagons. Officials were appointed to take a census of all free Negroes in the Nation and collect the tax from them. And it was made unlawful for an Indian man to take a Negro woman for a wife. A fifty dollar fine or 100 lashes was the penalty for harboring runaway slaves.

No man could collect damages done his crops by the stock of another unless his field were enclosed by a fence nine rails high, "staked and ridered." But if the stock broke through such an enclosure the injured party could collect damages to be assessed by two disinterested persons. If a person refused to pay his debts the lighthorse was authorized to make up the amount out of his property. But no debt contracted by a p214 citizen of the Creek Nation with an individual of another nation could be collected.

The making and proving of wills were provided for; and if one died without a will, provision was made for the distribution of the property of the decedent. Traders in the Nation were to be licensed. A citizen of the Nation could employ a white mechanic who might reside in the Nation only while engaged in the performance of his contract. No slaveholder should be held responsible for the debts of his slave. If two persons should swap horses and within five days one should prove that he was drunk when the trade was made it might be rescued. Provision was made for requiring citizens to work on the public works of his town, after due notice. There being as yet no courts, suits were brought before the general council, of which twenty days notice to the defendants was required. In case of default against one failing to appear he might show to one of the principal chiefs good reason for setting aside the default and a new trial should be had before the council. Incest was outlawed and punishment of fifty lashes provided for. The "ball play" was a serious business with the Creeks, so it was "enacted that if two Towns agree to play ball and it is afterwards found out that either had taken in the playmen from other Towns they shall forfeit a fine of fifty dollars."

With the passing of time they provided for a "committee" of twelve men, six from each district, separate from the Kings and Warriors, who should act as a court of first instance. Its duty was "to decide upon all difficult and complicated lawsuits and in all cases where this body shall decide according to law and the evidence there shall be no appeal from their decision." Stringent laws for the suppression of the introduction and sale of liquor were enacted. Some of the practices of the times are reflected in the law making it "Unlawful for any woman to use medicine calculated to cause infanticide " and a violation subjected the guilty woman to fifty lashes on the bare back.

Colonel

Indicates a West Point graduate, Class of 1817: a link to his biographical entry in Cullum's Register.

Hitchcock related in 1841 after the death of a man his widow could be sentenced to a period of widowhood from one year to four years, depending on the caprice of the relatives of the deceased.⁠15 A law was now passed providing that "no town or towns person or persons shall have power to keep any woman in widowhood p215 exceeding twelve months from the death of her husband" nor any man in widowhood more than two months.

Later the subject of succession received the attention of the council when it was provided that "the property shall be divided between the nearest relations of the deceased." No slave was "permitted to own or possess horses, cattle, or guns" and it was made the duty of the light-horse to dispossess slaves of such property which was to be sold and the proceeds turned into the national treasury. A treasurer was now provided for in each of the two districts to receive and receipt for all moneys due the Creek Nation. Benjamin Marshall was appointed treasurer of the Arkansas District and David Barnett of the Canadian District. No funds could be paid out except after appropriation by the general council and upon a warrant signed by the principal chief and clerk of the district in which the treasurer served.

Several sections were now devoted to the subject of stray horses taken up by the citizens who were required to deliver them to the captain of the lighthorse. It was made the duty of the finder to tell every one whom he might meet for the next two years of any stray cattle taken up by him, and if they were not claimed they were to be taken to the district council and sold, one-half the proceeds to go to the Nation, and the other to the finder.

Finally, the subject of education engaged the attention of the general council and in order to extend to their people the "means of a common education there shall be established throughout the Nation Fourteen schools" divided equally between the two districts; a superintendent of schools for each district was authorized, whose duty required him to appoint a board of trustees for each school in his district. He was also directed to see to the erection of comfortable schoolhouses, visit them at least four times each year and report the progress of the school work to the general council. He was authorized to hire the necessary teachers; and determine the books to be used in the schools; but under no circumstance was a teacher to be employed who advocated abolition of slaves. It was provided that the expense of these schools should not exceed the sum of $6,000 annually.

Passing along to 1859 the council enacted that all free born persons, except those of Negro origin, "heretofore received and acknowledged by us as citizens of the Creek Nation are hereby declared bonafide members and citizens." Children of a Creek woman by a Negro man when p216 not more than half Negro were to be counted as Creek citizens. No slave without a written pass was permitted to be found over two miles from the premises of his owner, at any time, nor any distance from his home at night. No slave after 1861 was permitted to carry weapons or to engage in mercantile business with property owned by him. No Negro was permitted to preach to an Indian congregation. Negroes were allowed to have religious worship within two miles of their owner's premises when there was some free person not of Negro origin, to watch over them. On March 1, 1861, a law was enacted requiring all free Negroes in the Creek Nation during the next ten days to choose masters among the Creeks, or be put up and sold to the highest Creek bidder.⁠16

Tuckabachee Micco of Canadian district and Roley McIntosh of Arkansas District were chiefs during the period when most of these laws were enacted and recorded. In June, 1859, an election for principal and second chiefs was held, which the agent reported⁠17 "was for the first time in the history of the Creeks, conducted after a civilization and democratic fashion, and passed off quietly." Roley McIntosh, a man of great force of character, who had been chief of the Lower Creeks for many years, made way for his successor, Motey Canard, as chief of the Lower Creeks or Arkansas District, and Jacob Derrisaw was elected second chief. Tuckabachee Micco, who had rendered valuable service to the government in the removal of the Seminole Indians, was succeeded as chief of the Upper Creeks, or Canadian District, by Echo Harjo, who had been second chief, and he, in turn, was succeeded by Oaktahasars Harjo. The retiring chiefs were "remarkable men, possessed of vast influence with their people, particularly McIntosh, whose power among his people was almost absolute. He has long been the ruling man of the Creeks, and his word has been law. Tuckabachee Micco was also a man of great influence, a staunch friend of his people, a maker of treaties, and a good man. Both were captains and soldiers in the Creek wars, and did effectual service to the United States."⁠18

A census of the Creek tribe was completed in June, 1859, for the purpose of making a payment August 3 to 9 of the $200,000 fund, from which it appeared that there were 13,550 individuals in the tribe, an p217 apparent further loss in population in two years of 1,338. "All that can statistically be said of the Creek people is, that they are not increasing, in population, and that in property and improvements of schools and farms, they are only slowly advancing, but, perhaps, quite as much as could be expected of a people in their circumstances and condition."⁠19 "More Creeks were present at one time during the payment in August than ever assembled before in this country." There was, unfortunately, a great increase in the amount of whisky introduced in the country, and vice in proportion. "This lamentable change is not to be ascribed to any lack of enforcement of stringent Creek laws against the introduction of liquor, but to the fact that ever since the unwise abandonment of the military post at Fort Gibson, near this, in the Cherokee Nation, restraints have slackened in strength, laws have lost their moral force, while the bold, reckless, and criminal have daily more and more emerged into light, defying law and disregarding the rights and property of others, have exercised much influence for evil and produced melancholy results. The chiefs of this nation desire the reestablishment of a military post in this region on the south side of the Arkansas river."⁠20 "The abandonment of the military post at Fort Gibson, and the growing up of a vicious little town there, have given unusual activity to the whisky trade in that region of the Cherokee country, and in the Creek country adjoining," said Superintendent Elias Rector. "During the last Creek payment several hundred gallons were vended in small quantities, and at enormous prices, just within the Cherokee line, and disorder and violence were the natural consequences."

A military post on the south side of Arkansas River ". . . is necessary . . . to uphold the law, to restrain the vicious, and to prevent serious private and public disturbances which have already broken out between the Creeks and Cherokees. . . . and may avert the turmoil, anarchy, and crime now foreshadowed by late events. If it is considered at all important that the authority of the United States should be maintained, and peace and order enforced in the Cherokee country, a military post should at once be established at Frozen Rock. If that is not done, the agent should be withdrawn, and disorder left to take its p218 IMAGE p219 course."⁠21 "The congregating of desperate and reckless characters is an ordinary occurrence rendering traveling throughout the country somewhat dangerous."

In September, 1860, the superintendent reported the "Creeks peaceable and quiet. They adhere to their old system of government, by national and town chiefs, and their laws are respected and obeyed by the people. I imagine no great advance is to be looked for among them; there is an aggregate of several different tribes and portions of tribes, and most of the Yuchis and Upper Creeks speak no English, and have intermixed very little with the whites. They are an agricultural people, and live in houses, but have not the remotest idea of a constitutional government, and, I should think will not have in many years."⁠22 However, the next month some of the more enlightened men in the general council proposed a form of government to be headed by one principal chief and a second chief, and the division of the Creek country into four districts with a judge for each and five supreme judges for the Nation.

The Creek agent was so much impressed by this proposed departure, that he somewhat prematurely reported:

"Some important changes have recently been effected in the government under the old system. The nation was composed of two districts, each governed by a first and second chief, and in a great measure independent of the other. During the last session of the general council a constitution was adopted which provided for the election by the people of one principal and one second chief, and the division of the country into four districts; also for the appointment of as many judges for the same, together with five supreme judges for the entire nation, who will take cognizance of all offenses committed within their jurisdiction. This instrument makes many other minor and unimportant changes, which nevertheless, are evidences of progress. It is certainly more satisfactory than the old form of government. More amply authority is also conferred upon their police, termed 'Light Horse,' whose duty it is made to destroy all spirituous liquors brought into the nation, and levy a fine or inflict a penalty upon all persons found guilty of introducing it, or of the commission of other offenses."⁠23

p220 However nothing came of the proposed change at the time, as the Civil War soon burst upon the country and not only arrested all normal activities in Indian government, but again divided the Creek tribe into two bitterly warring factions.

The Author's Notes:

1 Raiford to Drennan, September 30, 1849, Report of commissioner of Indian affairs for 1849.

3 Raiford to Drennan, September 30, 1849, Report of commissioner of Indian affairs for 1852; ibid. for 1853.

4 Ibid. Mr. Loughridge wrote to the Creek agent August 23, 1853: "The cause of temperance too, is advancing. The 'Maine law,' which was in operation here before it was adopted by the State of Maine, is more faithfully enforced than formerly and the people from principle are becoming more temperate. At the last annual meeting of the National Temperance Society we were much rejoiced to see the principal chief take a decided stand in favor of the temperance society. The old gentleman, whose head is silvered over with seventy winters, arose and warmly addressed the audience in behalf of the cause. He told us that he had come to sign the pledge not on his own account, for he drank nothing, but for the sake of the cause of temperance. He greatly deplored the evils of intemperance as the greatest curse to his people. He then put his name to the pledge and called upon others to do likewise."

8 These schools were located in Creek District, Concharty, Chehaw, Creek Agency, Thlob-Thlocco, Choska, Old Creek Agency, Tuckabatchee, Little River, Tallasa, Hillabee, Cusehta, North Fork (Report, commissioner of Indian affairs, 1850). Thlob-Thlocco school was said to be ". . . on the extreme frontier, in the neighborhood of the range of the trail of the Comanche" (ibid.).

12 But a more striking instance of deferred restitution is seen in the payment of what was known as the Creek Orphan Fund. In the Treaty of 1832 it was provided that twenty sections of land should be sold and the proceeds set apart for 598 orphans of the tribe who had no other lands allotted to them, and no one to represent them. This money was to be paid to these orphans on their arrival in Indian Territory. It was not paid for fifty years after the obligation was assumed by the Government, and in 1883, when the payment was finally consummated, 573 of those for whose benefit the provision was made had passed out of this world, and only twenty-five survived; and the necessities which justified the undertaking had been suffered to continue without redress. The payment, therefore, went to the heirs of those who were entitled to it.

13 Report of commissioner of Indian affairs for 1857, p512. The Indians were sacrificed to the comfort and indifference of government officials. Their funds were made available at New Orleans in the warm weather when the annual visitation of yellow fever was raging, and the Indian superintendents refused to risk their lives by descending to that city before cold weather to secure the specie belonging to their wards (Drew to Manypenny, February 24, 1855, OIA, RFC, Southern Superintendency, 1855 D 804).

[ Creek ]

p205 Chapter fifteen
Laws and Customs

The Author's Notes:

[ Creek ]

p205 Chapter fifteen Laws and Customs

The Author's Notes:

p205 Chapter fifteen
Laws and Customs