Aunt Sippia, Part One

Mississipia Paul Hull

          I have a document written by my great aunt Sippia when she was about eighty years old. I have already quoted from it, but it's better to read it as she wrote it. I'll put in a few notes in parenthesis where I think clarification is essential:

Reminiscences of Mrs Sippia Hull 

July 2nd, 1929

          I was born February 1, 1843, about four of five miles from Fort Arbuckle. I was named for the Chickasaw Chief Juzan's wife. My family lived there until the Civil War broke out. My mother was born in Mississippi, her name was Ah-la-tack Brown, she was a full-blood Chickasaw. She was among one of the first groups to come out here (to Indian Territory) with the Chickasaws between 1834 and 1836 (In the Removal). My father was born in North Carolina, his name was Smith Paul and he was a white man.  

          My mother was a widow with three children in Mississippi when my father married her (I only know of two children: Kathrine and Tecumseh). As a great many others did they settled near Boggy Depot (One of the government supply depots for migrating Indians). Then they moved from Boggy Depot to Fort Arbuckle. Our family consisted of my two brothers, Sam and Jessie Paul, one half sister, Kathrine McClure who married Tom Waite and raised a large family, and one half brother Tecumseh McClure. 

          My father was interested in farming, it was always his desire to go into the farming business on a large scale. 

          Just before the war broke out he had made a trip to this locality (the future Pauls Valley, Oklahoma) and realized that it was a wonderful place for farming. Very soon he had a house built for us, it was of hewed logs. The house was built of single rooms but close together, and then some cabins in the back for the slaves (Some of the Chickasaws had slaves, most had none). These houses while they were crude were comfortable. This first home built in Pauls Valley, was built near to the elm trees, now at the residence of Roy Burks, a great grandson of Smith Paul's first wife, widow McClure, a Chickasaw woman (Sippia is referring here to her mother. Smith Paul married again after Ah-la-tack Brown Paul died in 1870. She was about 74 and he was 61 at the time). When the home was completed he came back to fort Arbuckle and brought his family up.  

          This valley was smooth just a little bit rolling, with grass and thousands of acres without a weed on it. One had only to plow the soil and plant corn. They had such wonderful seasons at that time, the corn just left alone would grow to maturity and yield from thirty to forty bushels to the acre, untouched by cultivation. Before the war my father had about 100 acres in cultivation and he sold corn to the United States Government at Fort Arbuckle and Fort Cobb.  

          When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the friendly Plains Indians came around the locality where my father had his farm. They were the Comanches, Caddos, Apaches, Cheyennes, Osages and I think some Delaware (She names some tribes who raided the Chickasaws. Perhaps some were friendly and some were not). One mixed band located at Cherokee Town, another on my father's farm, a band of Osage across the river, and a band of Caddo Indians under old Lady White Bead, five miles up the river (The leader of the Caddo  was a woman named Salvania. She always wore white beads and traders were told that all trades with the Caddo had to be approved by the woman wearing the white beads), and the government realized that they must do something with and for these Indians, so they appointed my father as an agent, to issue them rations. This was one reason that my father did not have to go to war.  

          During the time that my father was agent over the friendly plains Indians, there were wild Indians from Texas and what is now western Oklahoma, that came into this section of the country killing and robbing people. We were always afraid they were coming to molest us, but they never did. However, they did come near enough at one time to scalp one of the Courtney boys, whose father had a farm on "Courtney Flat." There were times when we would hear they were coming and would hide out in the corn fields and in the woods during the day and night. Although I was just a child, I remember among the officers of Fort Arbuckle was Captain Custer, who was killed in what is called the "Custer Massacre," on Little Bighorn River, in Montana. When the war broke out the Government removed the troops from Fort Arbuckle, taking away the protection of the Indians, so the Chickasaws were compelled through force of circumstances to enlist with the Confederates. (Confederate troops from Arkansas were actually marching in to occupy Indian Territory when most of the Five Civilized Tribes decided to join the Confederacy. Sippia's half brother Tecumseh and half sister Kathrine took their families to Kansas and lived with the Sauk and Fox tribe, which was neutral.) 

          I remember well when the buffalo roamed this country. The friendly Indians always kept us in buffalo meat. The deer, wild turkey, prairie chicken, and quail were in great abundance. There was never any need for us to be without fresh meat.  

          At one time there was a band of Cheyenne attempted a raid on Pauls Valley, in November 1871 (1878). Custer's troops drove them farther west and inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Cheyenne at the Washita, above Chickasha, Indian Territory, killing Black Kettle, their chief, and compelling them to return to their reservations. My brothers, Jesse and Sam Paul enlisted with Custer's troops to aid them in moving the Indians back. A great many of the friendly Indians were with them also. When they returned to Pauls Valley, they celebrated with a scalp dance which continued uninterrupted for three weeks. The news of the scalp dance reached Red River and hundreds of residents of Texas along the river came to witness the celebration. I remember so well seeing the wife of one of the friendly Indian Chiefs wearing Black Kettle's coat home, and I also saw the scalps they brought home. (It's interesting that Aunt Sippia reports that the entire community, including the friendly Indians, considered Black Kettle's band to be outlaws, and they celebrated the massacre of his band. Historians have made a different verdict. See my posts of May 29 and June 7, 2011.)

          After the war was over they got friendly and brought the prisoners in. Part were civilized and others were still on the war path. They had to fight to keep them from the white people. Those they could capture were held for ransom, if they were not killed. (It was common practice for the hostile tribes to capture and hold white people for ransom. They apparently did not take Chickasaw prisoners however. See my post of May 29, 2011.)

To be continued.



The Battle of the Washita River, a Contrast

The Battle of the Washita River

          I think it's instructive to contrast the Battle between the Chickasaw militia and the Comanche in 1866 described in my last post (May 29, 2011), with the Battle of the Washita River between the 7th Regiment of the U.S. Army, under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, and Black Kettle's band of Cheyenne families during the winter of 1868.  

          After the Civil War, Congress voted to create 4 new cavalry regiments to deal with the "Indian Problem." This made sense. The Army had previously been given mainly foot soldiers to face mounted Indian warriors, and they had failed for the most part. George Armstrong Custer volunteered to lead one of these regiments. Custer had been brevetted to the rank of general during the Civil War, but with the downsizing of the army after the war, he had reverted to the rank of captain. His new position as regimental commander gave him the rank of lieutenant colonel.

 George Armstrong Custer





          The government plan of sequestering Indians on reservations in Indian Territory wasn't working. The land had no game; it was unfit for cultivation, and there was no program to assist the Indians in changing their way of life. Several bands of Indian warriors were still actively raiding white settlements.  

          Black Kettle, a chief of the southern Cheyenne, consistently favored peace during his lifetime. He signed the Treaty of Ft. Laramie in 1851, guaranteeing hunting land in the Colorado foothills to the Cheyenne. When gold seekers displaced the Cheyenne from this land, the Cheyenne retaliated by raiding their settlements. Black Kettle, in order to achieve peace, signed the Treaty of Ft. Wise in 1861, agreeing to move his band to southeastern Colorado. The land there was not arable and there were no buffalo, the Cheyenne's main source of meat, and  some of the Cheyenne, dissatisfied with their situation, continued their attacks on whites. When the Colorado Governor, John Evans, issued a proclamation in 1864 that all Indians who did not report to a fort would be attacked, Black Kettle went to Fort Wise. Black Kettle's band was attacked anyway while their warriors were away hunting, and 163 were killed, mainly women and children. This attack was afterwards known as "The Sand Creek Massacre."

Black Kettle

          Even though his wife was seriously injured at Sand Creek, Black Kettle again negotiated with the government, this time agreeing to move his people to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma, to an area just as unsatisfactory as their prior reservation. After this move Black Kettle met again with U. S. agents at Medicine Lodge in 1867, again affirming his desire for peace.  

          In the meantime, General Phillip Sheridan, in command of the new cavalry regiments north of the Arkansas River, declared all Cheyenne and Arapahoe to be hostiles because of continued raids by elements of these tribes, and he planned a campaign against them for the winter of 1868 at their winter campgrounds. In order to protect his people Chief Black Kettle went to General Hazen at Fort Cobb. General Hazen told Black Kettle that he could not protect him, that he would have to deal with General Sheridan himself. Black Kettle met with his chiefs late into the night of November 26, 1868, after returning from his meeting with General Hazen, and his council decided to send a delegation to General Sheridan to sue for peace, but as Black Kettle's council met, Custer's troops were surrounding his village.  

          The next morning Custer attacked, slaughtering men women and children, and taking 53 women and children prisoners to discourage counterattack by the other Indians encamped nearby. 7th Cavalry Scout Ben Clark reported: The Regiment galloped through the teepees… firing indiscriminately, killing men and women alike." One cavalry unit was seen following a group of women and children shooting at them and "killing them without mercy." Lt. Geoffrey Green reported that soldiers made no effort "to prevent hitting women during the attack," and "all warriors who lay wounded in the village…were promptly shot to death." The Cheyenne horses were also shot, and the village was burned.  

          Now let's compare Custer's attack on the village of Black Kettle with the attack by the Chickasaws on the Comanche just two years before. Superficially the battles were similar. Both were surprise attacks on sleeping Indian villages, and both were overwhelming victories by the attackers.  

          On the other hand the differences are striking. First, the provocation for the two attacks were different. The Chickasaw expedition was precipitated by a specific raid by the Comanche, whereas Custer's attack was part of a campaign by the U. S. Army to instill fear in the Indians and to force them to remain on reservations which were inadequate to sustain them. Also Custer attacked Black Kettle's people merely because they were Cheyenne, even though their chief had spent his life trying to achieve peace for his people. The Chickasaw, on the other hand, attacked a specific band of Comanche who had stolen their property.   

          Next, in the battle itself, Custer's men charged into Black Kettle's village and shot men women and children indiscriminately. The Chickasaw militia, on the other hand, fired a volley to arouse the Comanche, and afterward only fired on those who charged their lines. When the Comanche raised a flag of truce, all firing stopped, and the Chickasaw received a Comanche representative to talk terms.  

          Finally Black Kettle's wounded warriors were executed; their horses were shot; their village was burned, and their women and children were taken hostage. The Chickasaw, on the other hand, declared a truce after the Comanche surrendered, allowing the Comanche to treat their wounded and bury their dead. Then the Chickasaw returned home with their cattle. They took no prisoners, and they damaged no Comanche property.  

          The U. S. Army was out to bring the Indian tribes to their knees, no matter how many they had to kill. They gave no thought to providing a means for the Indians to survive; they had no respect for the Indians' treaty rights, their traditions, their very right to existence. They attacked Black Kettle to satisfy the greed of the settlers. The Chickasaw, on the other hand, respected the Comanche as human beings. They only sought to satisfy their legitimate claims against them. 

          So who were the savages, the Chickasaws or the U. S. Army?

          I want to say that I don't believe Lt. Col. Custer or General Sheridan were the villains here. The real villains were the American people. I think that the attitudes and actions of these men were reflections of their times, and if you want to judge a people by their history, you have to answer the above question in favor of the Chickasaws.