Pushmataha
The Choctaws were proud that they had never fought against the US Government. When Tecumseh visited them in 1811 trying to drum up support for his Indian alliance, the Choctaw council told him to leave their nation under penalty of death. Choctaw warriors fought with Andrew Jackson in his war against the Creek rebellion of 1814, and they also joined him in his victory over the British at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. The Choctaws' beloved chief Pushmataha considered Andrew Jackson a friend, so when Jackson met with him at Doaks Stand in 1820 offering to exchange some of the tribe's land in Mississippi for a huge tract in the present state of Oklahoma, Pushmataha supported the agreement. The land was allegedly just for the use of those who wanted to continue to live by hunting. Those who wished could live in Mississippi under their own government. The treaty also promised to help support the Choctaw school system, and it provided an annuity for 16 years.
The treaty of Doak's Stand was a great success, except for the fact that none of the Choctaws took the U S Government up on its offer to move them west. Just like the other tribes, the Choctaws loved their native country. In order to be accepted by their white neighbors they had become farmers instead of hunters. They like the Chickasaws welcomed white men traveling through their nation, and provided them with lodging and supplies. In 1817 the Choctaws invited missionaries to establish a school system for their children, and in 1825 they established a school in Kentucky to provide higher education for young Choctaw men. The director was Richard Mentor Johnson, former Vice President of the United States. In 1826 a police force was created, and a code of laws. There was a religious revival in 1828, and hundreds of Choctaws became Christians.
None of this mattered to the white settlers though. In 1829, Mississippi passed a law bringing the Choctaws under state law, even though this violated their previous treaties with the US government. Later that year Mississippi made it a crime for Choctaw officials to perform their functions.
The Choctaws were also getting pressure from the federal government. Two delegations had come from Washington, one in 1826 and the other in 1829, to negotiate another treaty for Choctaw removal, but they had run up against a brick wall . Support for removal was building in Washington however. Andrew Jackson had been elected President in 1828, and the Indian Removal Act was working its way through congress. The bill would give the president authority to offer lands in the west in exchange for the Indians' homelands.
Greenwood Leflore
While the majority of Choctaw citizens still considered removal as unthinkable, many of their leaders, especially the mixed bloods, began to accept it as inevitable. One of those leaders, Greenwood Leflore, decided that if the Choctaws had to sign a treaty it would be better for them to write it themselves, so in March of 1830 he called a meeting of the tribal council which he stacked with his supporters, and wrote a treaty. When the leaders opposed to removal found out about this, they wrote a letter to Washington saying that Leflore didn't represent the tribe and the treaty should not be ratified.
This suited Congress just fine because they thought Leflore's treaty was too generous anyway, and they voted it down. In May the Indian Removal Act was passed, and four days later President Jackson had his Secretary of War, John H. Eaton, write a letter inviting Choctaw leaders to meet the President in Franklin, Tennessee in August to negotiate another treaty.
When August came, the Choctaws didn't show up for the meeting. They were on the brink of a civil war.
Before Pushmataha died in 1824, he warned his people never to allow anyone to participate in their government who had a drop of white blood. In 1830 he must have been rolling over in his grave. All three district chiefs were mixed bloods. In 1826 the Choctaw Council had voted to make the office of chief an elected position, but the hereditary chiefs still considered themselves responsible for the tribe and they were supported by the majority of their people, in spite of the vote. It was the two hereditary chiefs, Mushulatubbe and Nitakechi, who had written the letter to Washington protesting Leflore's treaty.
As soon as Greenwood Leflore found out about the protest he wrote a letter to Mushalatubbe demanding that he resign as chief. Mushulatubbe ignored the letter. When it came time to gather for annuity payments, Leflore came to the area with 1400 warriors, painted with war paint and armed with rifles and war clubs. He sent a message to Mushulatubbe threatening to attack and kill him if he would not resign as chief. Mushulatubbe replied that he would never acknowledge Leflore as chief, so Leflore, surrounded by his warriors, came to Mushulatubbe's camp and confronted him personally. The old chief calmly walked out of the house in which he was staying and told Leflore that he and his men were unarmed, but if Leflore wanted a fight, just name the time and place.
At that Leflore backed down. He said he had nothing against Mushulatubbe or his people and only wanted peace.
In September of 1830 the Presidential Commissioners met with the Choctaw Council at Dancing Rabbit Creek. Leflore represented his district but it was Peter Pitchlynn a college educated mixed blood Choctaw who chaired the meeting. Sec of War Eaton threatened and cajoled. He tried his usual tactic of offering bribes, and when that didn't work, he told the Choctaws that they would be destroyed by an army of Mississippi whites if they didn't move west. The parties were still at an impasse after two weeks, and many of the delegates had gone home when Pitchlynn made a suggestion that tilted the balance. He proposed that George S Gaines, a trader whom the Choctaws trusted, be placed in charge of the removal. This satisfied everyone. The resulting treaty was signed by both the mixed blood and the full blood leaders.
The treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek promised to the Choctaws autonomy and sovereignty:
…no Territory or State shall ever have a right to pass laws for the government of the Choctaw Nation of Red People and their descendants; and that no part of the land granted them shall ever be embraced in any Territory or State; but the U.S. shall forever secure said Choctaw Nation from, and against all laws except such as from time to time may be enacted in their own National Councils…
but in the log run was just another promise made to be broken by the U.S. government.
After the treaty was signed there was chaos in the Choctaw nation. The chiefs who had signed the treaty were ousted, and letters were again written to Washington saying the Council didn't represent the wishes of the tribe, but the U.S. government refused to acknowledge any other leaders, and the treaty was ratified by Congress. By the time the removal began there had been no planning, and no coordination between leaders. What followed was the greatest tragedy in the tribe's history.
Greenwood Leflore, who without the support of the tribe had rushed the Choctaws so precipitously into the Removal, ended up abandoning his people. In November, two months after the treaty was signed, George S Gaines, the trader, led a group to explore the new domain, and Leflore declined to accompany them. He was busy negotiating deals with Mississippi white settlers to buy Indian land. When his district moved west they went without a chief. Leflore settled in Mississippi where he lived comfortably off the profits he made from the Removal.
Thank you for sharing this true story.
ReplyDeleteAllan Thomas