I have endeavored in my efforts...for my people to remember
that any religion must be an unselfish one. That even thought condemned,
falsely accused and misunderstood by both officials and my own people I
must press on and do the work of my convictions
This religion as revealed to me is larger than any man. It is beyond
man's understanding. It shall prevail after I am gone. It is growth like
the child growth eternal. This religion does not teach me to concern myself
of the life that shall be after this, but it does teach me to be concerned
with what my everyday life should be.
The fires kept burning are merely emblematic of the greater Fire, the
greater Light, the Great Spirit. I realize now as never before it is not
only for the Cherokees but for all mankind... [1]
Redbird Smith Chief of the Nighthawk Keetoowah 1917
Introduction
When they gathered in the chapel of Peavine Baptist Church on that evening
in 1858, little did this small group of fullblood Cherokee know that they
would be setting into motion the origins of a political and religious movement
that would dominate Cherokee history even to the modern day. They gathered
to attempt to regain control of a Nation which they felt that had been
lost to a group of people whose culture and society were at odds with the
way in which they had been brought up. They gathered to return the Nation
to the "old way" that she might not lose her soul and become captive to
an alien nation and an alien culture -- a nation where the particularities
of one's birth became a determining factor in one's life. They believed
that by returning to her traditions, the Cherokee Nation might be able
to endure in the spite of tremendous adversity.
What they started in that small meeting at that small church in the
Goingsnake District of the Cherokee Nation became one of the most enduring
phenomena in Cherokee history. Even to this day in the dark nights of the
Oklahoma foothills, the Nighthawk Keetoowahs hold their secret meetings
to which none but the fullblood are welcome. They prepare the sacred fire
as they have been taught by their parents; they dance about the fire as
did their ancestors even into the seventh generation; they tell the tales
of the ancestors and pass down the tradition of the wampum in ways which
none but the Cherokee can understand. The "Kituwah spirit" still reigns
supreme among the beloved community who value the "old ways."
In Western Arkansas, another branch of the original Keetoowah Society
lives as a people of the Cherokee heritage. The United Keetoowah Band of
the Cherokee Indians, a federally recognized tribe by the United States
Bureau of Indian Affairs, reminds people that even though there is a Cherokee
Nation East and a Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, there is yet a third "Keetoowah"
people. Tracing their ancestry back to the "Old Settlers" who had come
west as early as the conclusion of the Seven Years War, this branch of
the Keetoowah lives as a people in both worlds, the modern and the ancient.
[2]
With an enrollment of nearly 8000 members, the tribal literature of the
United Keetoowah Band (UKB) contends it has the largest actual number of
fullblood Cherokees of any federally recognized Cherokee body in the United
States. [3]
The Keetoowah Society has endured into the modern era by clinging to
that which is the essential element in Cherokee Society -- the "Kituwah
spirit" and its ties to religious and cultural traditionalism. When confronted
with the challenges of modernity and the ever present threat of total cultural
and social assimilation, the Cherokee time and again return to the political
nationalism, the religious communitarianism, the egalitarian humanism,
and the radical social consciousness which exists in the personification
of the "Kituwah spirit." Central to the Keetoowah ideal was a belief in
the universalism of the human spirit as exemplified in the thought of Redbird
Smith, leader of the Nighthawk Keetoowahs, "this religion that is revealed
to me is larger than any man... this religion does not teach me to concern
myself of the life that shall be after this, but it does teach me to be
concerned with what my everyday life should be. The fires kept burning
are merely emblematic of the greater Fire, the greater Light, the Great
Spirit. I realize now as never before it is not only for the Cherokees
but for all mankind..." [4]
"Union is strength; dissension is weakness, misery ruin" [5]
At this time it might seem that our society was scattered on
account of other or different lodges, societies, and companies being organized
amongst our people. The purpose of some is greed, some to oppress your
fellow man of his character, some to assist the railroad companies, some
to deprive each individual of his property, some to destroy the Cherokee
National Government... From the way it looks now we are liable to lose
our government; for that reason we resolve by the Keetoowah meeting that
we should reorganize our old Keetoowah Society as friends, loyal to each,
to abide by our old laws.
Reorganization of the Keetoowah Society February 15, 1876
[6]
In her 1996 work entitled African Americans and Native Americans in
the Creek and Cherokee Nations 1830's to 1920's: Collision and Collusion,
ethnohistorian Katja May looks at the role of the Keetoowah Society in
the Cherokee Nation. In such, she makes the following assertion:
The term Keetoowah was also an umbrella term for several competing
groups known by that name. Keetoowah groups did not have African American
members, unlike "traditionalist" or "nativist" movements in the Muskogee
Nation... [7]
This position is at odds with the historical situation in the Cherokee
Nation. The accuracy of her second position is mitigated against by the
inaccuracy of her first position; Ms. May is using evidence based in an
historical analysis of the Cherokee Nation in the latter nineteenth century
to make a universal statement about the Keetoowah Society. The Keetoowah
Society was several competing groups only following the dissension in the
Nation as a result of the forced decollectivization of the Cherokee Nation
following the Civil War; that there were no African American members of
the Keetoowah Society is a position advanced yet unsupported.
At a later point, she argues that "They [the Keetoowah] engaged in guerrilla
warfare [sic] against Confederate Cherokees, but were "abolitionists" only
in the context of whether their lifestyle as traditional Cherokees was
in danger" [8] What May presents as a position
against the purportedly "abolitionist" position of the Keetoowah Society
is at the core of the critical issues raised by this dissertation. It is
precisely that "abolitionism" was at the center of the "lifestyle of the
traditional Cherokees" that compelled them to collectively organize and
battle for the freedom of African American Cherokee. In the "old way" was
an understanding of humanity that predated the racism of the enveloping
European culture; in the traditional society, there was a loyalty to a
Cherokee Nation based upon a common culture and not upon the prevailing
ideas of modernity.
It is also important to realize that the Keetoowah Society had its origins
within the Baptist Church, a church that was a mixed congregation from
its very beginnings in the Old South as well as in the Indian Territory.
To put forward the position that there were no African American Keetoowah
is to attempt to rip the society from its historic roots deep within the
Baptist Church. It is also to deny the common struggle and the horrendous
losses of African Americans and Native Americans during the struggle to
end slavery and reunite a people fought during the years 1861-1865. We
can rest assured that just as there were blacks protecting the people on
the Trail of Tears, there were African sentries posted at Caving Banks
to ask the question "Who are you?" and to respond "I am Keetoowah's Son."
The Keetoowah's commitment to African American enfranchisement was further
evidenced following the Civil War. Though the Cherokee Nation, and the
Downing Party as well, was composed of former slaveowners, the leadership
of the Keetoowah Society continued to press for the rights of their African
American constituency. One member of the Nation wrote to then President
Grant in 1872 of the Keetoowah advocacy of African American political rights
in spite of severe challenges:
Mr. Grant...most of the Cherykees is down on the darkys. The
Cherykees says they aint in favour of the black man havin any claim, that
they had rather have any body else have a rite than us poor blacks...[Lewis]
downing, is for us, Chelater [Oochalata], and mr. Six Killer, them tree
is in our favour, and what can they doo with so many [on the other side]?
... [We] all think it rite too, after we have made them rich and built
their land, doo you [?]... Now, mister grante, I wante a mesig from [you]
rite away. [9]
In spite of the provision in the Treaty of 1866 preventing citizenship
to African American "latecomers," Lewis Downing, in one of his first acts
in office, introduced a bill granting citizenship to the "latecomers."
The bill did not pass but not so much because of racism within the Nation,
but because the more people that were involved in the distribution of Cherokee
lands, the smaller would be the allotment for each individual citizen.
Year after year, the Keetoowah Downing, Oochalata, and Sixkiller introduced
bills granting citizenship to the "latecomers" but the opposition to these
bills was strong and the bills never passed. The fullbloods commitment
to the African American brethren was consistent and unwavering. [10]
On the eve of his reelection campaign, Lewis Downing once again submitted
a bill granting citizenship to the "latecomers" and it was again defeated;
that he even introduced a bill which so controversial spoke to his intents
should he be reelected. Upon his reelection, he resubmitted the bill granting
citizenship to the "latecomers" only to have it defeated once again in
the Senate. William Boudinot wrote of the bill's defeat in the Senate:
The bill to admit Blacks, formerly slaves of Cherokees who
failed to return to the Nation in the time required by the treaty, was
lost this week in the Senate. We admire the generous feelings which must
have actuated the Principal Chief in recommending such a measure... We
share [his] sympathy with the unfortunate colored persons whom accident
or inability prevented from realizing the greatest boon ever given to any
of the Race. But there is one consolation for us. It is the reflection
that what land these persons missed accepting still belongs to those who
owned it before, and that their shares, already too small, are not further
reduced. [11]
Federal Agent John B. Jones of the Keetoowah Society expressed the feelings
of "many of the fullbloods" when he stated:
[The Senate] did not take into account the fact that these
colored people and their ancestors have labored for Cherokees unpaid for
many years, and that the fruits of such unpaid toil have afforded the means
of defraying the expenses of educating many of the most highly cultivated
Cherokees. As far as I am concerned, the class thus educated are the loudest
and most influential in opposing the adoption as citizens of their former
slaves. [12]
In the Creek Nation, the relationship between the Africans and the Creek
Keetoowah was quite more profound and explicit than it was in the Cherokee
Nation; the Creek had always been more receptive to Africans and had much
less assimilated than others of the Five Nations. In the peace negotiations
following the Civil War, several members of the negotiating party of the
Northern Creeks were Africans including the Reverend Harry Islands. [13]
When Samuel Checote of the Southern Creek surrendered leadership of the
Creek Nation to Sands Harjo, the council met at the home of an African
American Creek named Scipio Barnett. [14] When
terms of a new treaty were negotiated in Washington in 1866, Reverend Harry
Islands was the translator between the Creek Representatives and the Federal
authorities led by Ely S. Parker. [15]
In the Creek national elections of 1870, it was the "colored towns"
of North Fork, Arkansas, and Canadian who unanimously backed the full blood
candidates for office and carried them to victory. In the elections of
1875, once again the "colored towns" were decisive in carrying Lochar Harjo
and Ward Coachman to chieftainship in the Creek Nation; the conservative/freedmen
alliance controlled the destiny of the Creek Nation time and again.
In the years following the Civil War in the Creek Nation, the Keetoowah
Society became a powerful political force and "exerted a strong hidden
influence throughout the nation," yet, interestingly enough, "its political
alignment at this point cannot be exactly determined." [16]
As the leadership of the Keetoowah Society increasingly promoted diversity
within the Creek Nation, there occurred a split within the ranks just as
in the Cherokee Nation. Samuel Checote, Methodist Freemason and former
leader of the Southern Creeks, came to be associated with the "Pins"; the
conservative leadership that had formerly been associated with the Keetoowah
Society became known as the Loyal Party.
After a contentious election in 1880 that was decided by fifteen votes
in the popular election and one vote margin in the house, Samuel Checote
returned to power in the Creek Nation. Almost immediately, there was trouble
when the empowered African American members of the Creek Nation came into
conflict with former Southern Cherokees and Texans who sought to keep them
in their place. Conflict escalated as the Africans and their supporters
among the full blood fought against allotment; eventually the people "put
on the shuck" and struggle erupted into in what came to be known as the
"Green Peach War of 1882." [17] In the early
days of the twentieth century, the Creek Keetoowah once again united under
the leadership of Chitto Harjo and engaged in what was known as the "Crazy
Snake Uprising" against the Dawes Allotment Act and its attempt at forced
destruction of the "old ways." [18]
In 1875, the Cherokee Nation elected Charles Thompson (Oochalata) over
William Potter Ross to be the Principal Chief in one of the most contentious
and violent elections in Cherokee history; the decision was carried by
less than fifteen votes. Thompson, born in North Carolina in 1821 and raised
as a full blood, was baptized and raised and became a deacon and licensed
preacher in the Baptist churches of Evan and John Jones; he was also a
member of the Keetoowah Society as early as 1859 and served in both Drew's
regiment and Lewis Downing's Third Indian Home Guard. [19]
Following the Civil War, he returned to the Nation to pursue a law practice
and to maintain a small store in the Delaware District; following his election
as Principal Chief, he was ordained to the Baptist ministry. [20]
Shortly after Thompson's election, the Keetoowah Society reorganized
in order to assist Thompson in his pledge to restore traditional Cherokee
values concerning social harmony, sharing, and cooperation. The provisions
of reorganization of the Keetoowah Society described to the splintering
of the Nation in terms reminiscent of earlier eras:
The purpose of some is greed, some to oppress your fellow man
of his character, some to assist the railroad companies, some to deprive
each individual of his property, some to destroy the Cherokee National
Government... From the way it looks now we are liable to lose our government;
for that reason we resolve by the Keetoowah meeting that we should reorganize
our old Keetoowah Society as friends, loyal to each, to abide by our old
laws. [21]
They also echoed the sentiments of Chief Thompson:
There is a class of people in the United States, embracing
a powerful minority, chiefly speculators, that have but little, if any,
respect for our national or individual rights, who lust for our lands.
I have no doubt that this last named class is led not only by wealthy men,
but also by men of very strong ability who, by their shrewdness, have managed
to occupy generally the chief seats of financial and political power in
the United States and have, through Congressional legislation and otherwise,
preyed upon the people. [22]
The Keetoowah Society once more became a powerful political and social
force in the Nation; not only did they provide steadfast support for Thompson,
they successfully controlled the leadership of the Cherokee Nation until
the end of the Indian Territory in the 1890's. [23]
The Keetoowah Society made the "Kituwah spirit" first and foremost in Cherokee
politics, defining Cherokee patriotism in ethnic and cultural terms rather
than economic and political ones. [24]
Consistent with this theory was Thompson's commitment to including the
"too-late" former slaves in the discussions around national identity and
political sovereignty. Oochalata once again proposed to the council in
1875 that the "too-late" African American residents of the Indian Territory
be made citizens of the Cherokee Nation; again the council refused to take
any decisive action toward that end. Increasingly, the fate of the "too-late"
African Americans became tied to that of the flood of white "intruders"
who had deluged the Nation following the opening up of the territory by
the railroads. [25]
The central issue of defining who was a Cherokee, a question regarding
political sovereignty and national identity so important that a war was
fought over it, increasingly became an issue to be decided by federal bureaucracies.
The loss of control over this issue became emblematic of the increasing
interference and domination of Cherokee National affairs by the federal
government and led to what William McLoughlin has termed "the twilight
of Cherokee sovereignty." [26] In addition,
it was the assault upon the political sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation
by the federal government over the issue of the fate of "intruders" that
led to the "estrangement between red and black peoples, who though different
lived as One." [27]
Appealing to Federal authorities, the "too-late" African American Cherokee
made their claim to Cherokee citizenship:
The Cherokee Nation is our country; there we were born and
reared; there are our homes made by the sweat of our brows; there are our
wives and children, whom we love as dearly as though we were born with
red, instead of black skin. [28]
This political struggle over the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation, one
in which race was an issue but never a factor, became symbolic for the
larger destiny of the people of the Nation. It once again characterized
how the Federal government used idealistic moralism to cover for political
disenfranchisement and the colonialism of economic speculation. Had the
Cherokee council but listened to the pleas of the Keetoowah Society, then
this loss too could have been prevented. Had we but listened to the words
of Charles Thompson of the Keetoowah Society, perhaps we might find ourselves
in a different state. We reflect on the words of one Keetoowah leader:
This religion as revealed to me is larger than any man. It
is beyond man's understanding. It shall prevail after I am gone. It is
growth like the child growth eternal. This religion does not teach me to
concern myself of the life that shall be after this, but it does teach
me to be concerned with what my everyday life should be.
The fires kept burning are merely emblematic of the greater Fire, the greater
Light, the Great Spirit. I realize now as never before it is not only for
the Cherokees but for all mankind... [29]
Finis
In the early 1880's Senator Henry Dawes of Massachusetts toured the
Cherokee Nation under the auspices of a small group of Eastern humanitarians
who met annually to discuss the "Indian question." Dawes described his
discussion with then Chief Dennis Bushyhead to the assembled multitude
at Lake Mohonk:
The head chief told us that there was not a family in that
whole nation that had not a home of its own. There was not a pauper in
that nation, and the nation did not owe a dollar. It built its own capitol,
in which we had this examination, and it built its schools and its hospitals.
Yet the defect of this system was apparent. They have got as far as they
can go, because they hold their land in common. It is Henry George's system,
and under that there is no enterprise to make your home any better than
that of your neighbors. There is no selfishness, which is at the bottom
of civilization. Till this people will consent to give up their lands,
and divide them among their citizens so that each an own the land he cultivates,
they will not make more progress. [30]
By 1896, the Dawes Commission was authorized by Congress to take a census
of the Cherokee Nation and to determine who from among them was entitled
to receive a portion in the following division and distribution of the
Cherokee lands. Two years later the Curtis Act effectively ended the traditional
government of the Cherokee Nation. In 1907, the state of Oklahoma came
into being.
The Keetoowah Society was at the center of the resistance to the Dawes
Allotment Act and the Curtis Act and fought valiantly and often violently
for the preservation of traditional Cherokee society and the preservation
of the "old ways." Names such as Redbird Smith, Smith Christie, Zeke Proctor,
Isparhecher, and Chitto Harjo became legendary figures in Native American
history. Their struggle against the combined forces of the federal government,
the state of Oklahoma, and tribal officials is a remarkable story of conviction
and resistance in the face of overwhelming odds. That, however, is another
story.
Footnotes
[1] Redbird Smith quoted in Janey Hendrix, Redbird
Smith and the Nighthawk Keetoowahs (Park Hill: Cross Cultural Education
Center, 1983), 79.
[2] Allogan Slagle, "Burning Phoenix" The United
Keetoowah Band of the Cherokee Indians of Oklahoma Website, 1993. See also
Georgia Ray Leeds, The United Keetowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma
(Ph.D. Dissertation: University of Oklahoma, 1992)
[3] Stephen M. Fabian, "Three Nations - One
People," The United Keetoowah Band of the Cherokee Indians of Oklahoma
Website, 1993.
[4] Redbird Smith quoted in Janey Hendrix,
Redbird
Smith and the Nighthawk Keetoowahs (Park Hill: Cross Cultural Education
Center, 1983), 79.
[5] John Ross quoted in William Gerald McLoughlin,
After
the Trail of Tears: the Cherokees' Struggle for Sovereignty, 1839-1880
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993), 183.
[6] Howard Tyner, The Keetoowah Society
in Cherokee History (MA, University of Tulsa, 1949), Appendix A.
[7] Katja May, African Americans and Native
Americans in the Creek and Cherokee Nations 1830's to 1920's: Collision
and Collusion (New York: Garland Publishing, 1996), 79.
[8] May, 81.
[9] Lewis Rough to President Ulysses S. Grant
quoted in McLoughlin, After the Trail of Tears, 254.
[10] McLoughlin, After the Trail of Tears,
252-253.
[11] William Boudinot, quoted in McLoughlin,
After
the Trail of Tears, 283.
[12] John B. Jones to Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, February 21, 1872, National Archives Film M-234, reel 105, 0283.
[13] Angie Debo, The Road to Disappearance
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1921), 168.
[14] Debo, The Road to Disappearance,
169.
[15] Debo, The Road to Disappearance,
171-172.
[16] Debo, The Road to Disappearance, 203.
[17] Debo, The Road to Disappearance, 268-281;
Hendrix, 25-71; May, 137-144.
[18] Debo, The Road to Disappearance, 376;
Hendrix,
62-63; May, 145-169.
[19] John Bartlett Meserve, "Chief Lewis Downing
and Chief Charles Thompson" in Chronicles of Oklahoma 16 (September
1938): 322-323; McLoughlin, After the Trail of Tears, 325.
[20] Emmett Starr, History of the Cherokee
Indians (Oklahoma City: Ok: Warden Company, 1921), 263.
[21] Howard Tyner, The Keetoowah Society
in Cherokee History (MA, University of Tulsa, 1949), Appendix A.
[22] Charles Thompson in Cherokee Advocate,
May 9, 1874.
[23] Howard Tyner, The Keetoowah Society
in Cherokee History (MA, University of Tulsa, 1949), 60.
[24] McLoughlin, After the Trail of Tears,
343.
[25] McLoughlin, After the Trail of Tears,
345.
[26] McLoughlin, After the Trail of Tears,
339.
[27] bell hooks, "Revolutionary Renegades"
in Black Looks: Race and Representation (Boston, MA: South End Press,
1992), 183.
[28] hooks, 182.
[29] Redbird Smith quoted in Janey Hendrix,
Redbird
Smith and the Nighthawk Keetoowahs (Park Hill: Cross Cultural Education
Center, 1983), 79.
[30] Board of Indian Commissioners, Annual
Report 1885 (House Executive Documents, 49th Congrees, 1st Session,
Number 109), 90-91.
