Chickasaw Education After the Removal

After the Removal, the Chickasaws were despondent. Many had died and were continuing to die from exposure, malnutrition, and disease. In the new land the people lived clustered around government supply depots, instead in clan based villages as before. In the Removal treaty Chickasaw district had been included in the Choctaw Nation, a situation which the individual Chickasaw could never accept. In addition, the Choctaw had located the Chickasaw district far to the west of the Choctaw settlements, to create a buffer between them and the hostile plains tribes, who considered the eastern tribes as intruders, and repeatedly raided their settlements. The Chickasaw's only protection was Fort Towson, which was a full 70 miles east of their border. 

As a result, the Chickasaw were unable to even move into their district until 1844, when Fort Washita was built on its eastern border. Still most of the tribe waited until 1851, when Fort Arbuckle was built further to the west. It was only then that the Chickasaw began to establish their own farms and schools. In the meantime many of the Chickasaw lived in Choctaw settlements where there were some schools. Others remained in the vicinity of the old government supply depots, living off periodic annuity payments.  

     

       Map of Indian Territory: Note Ft. Towson in southeast corner, 

                 Ft. Washita just inside Chickasaw border,

            and Ft. Arbuckle in middle of Chickasaw Nation.

In spite of these handicaps, the Chickasaw did have some opportunities to educate their young people during the postremoval period. One of them was the Choctaw Academy in Blue Springs, Kentucky. The Choctaw Academy had been established in 1824 by the Baptist Church. Its superintendant was Richard Mentor Johnson, who had been vice president under James Van Buren. Johnson had first achieved notoriety as a Colonel in the war of 1812 when he allegedly shot and killed the great Shawnee Chief, Tecumseh. He used the following jingle during his campaign for vice president: "Rumsey Dumsey, Rumsey Dumsey, Col Johnson killed Tecumseh." 

In spite of Col. Johnson's notoriety as an Indian fighter, he did apparently have sympathetic feelings for the Indians and also for other victims of prejudice and oppression. Like Thomas Jefferson, he had a Negro mistress, and for many years he devoted himself to the education on Indian youths. The US government originally sent 25 students per year to the Choctaw Academy, and the number was later raised to 45. The Chickasaw removal treaty provided $3000 annually for ten years to send 10 young men to the Choctaw Academy, and several of the graduates later became leaders of the tribe. After the ten year period the Chickasaw made a contract with Plainview Academy in Connecticut to provide higher education to Chickasaw youths.

Footnote: Wikipedia under Richard Mentor Johnson, and Oklahoma, by Arrell Gibson, P 161.

The Choctaw also developed neighborhood primary schools and academies, equivalent to high schools, and some Chickasaws took advantage of these schools.

In about 1843 or 4 my great great grandmother Ela-Teecha's first husband, Jason McClure, was fatally stricken with hydrophobia, better known as rabies. My great great grandfather, Smith Paul, who had been working for McClure, then married Ela-Teecha. By the way, I don't believe this implies a scandalous affair by my great great grandmother while she was  married to McClure, as has been suggested by some. Smith Paul and Jason McClure were both Scotsmen, and they were friends. It was a difficult time. Ela Teecha was left alone by McClure's death to care for two small children. She was thirteen years older than Smith Paul, but she needed a husband, and so they were married. It was a practical and a compassionate arrangement.  

                                                            

                                Smith and Ela-Teecha (Ellen) Paul                            

Ellen's older son, Tecumseh, was fourteen at that time, and Smith sent him to Boggy Depot where the Choctaw had a school. He stayed with William Guy, one of the conductors for the Chickasaw Removal who had married a Chickasaw woman and had remained in Indian Territory. Tecumseh was later a student at Post Oak Grove, in the Chickasaw Nation. After his education Tecumseh moved back in with the family, and later married a full blood Chickasaw named Mary McKenzie. Tecumseh McClure became a respected leader among the Chickasaw. He served in the Chickasaw senate and later became governor.  

Footnote: Leaders and Leading Men of the Indian Territory: Choctaws and Chickasaws, by Harry F. O'Beirne, 1891. P 308 

Ela-Teecha's daughter Catherine stayed with the family, and in about 1848 or 1850 she married Tom Waite, a farmer from Illinois. I'm not sure how much education she had, but as you will learn later, her dedication to providing education for her children was remarkable.  

With the building of Fort Washita in 1844, Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian missionaries began to establish churches, and when Fort Arbuckle was built in 1851, the Chickasaw provided the churches with funds to create schools in the new Chickasaw communities. Four academies were established: the Colbert and Burney Institutes for boys, and the Bloomfield and Wapanucka Academies for girls, as well as six neighborhood schools with an enrollment of 180 students. The Chickasaw achieved their independence from the Choctaw in 1854, and by 1856 they had written a constitution and had established their own government. Unfortunately the Civil War erupted in 1861, and again disrupted Chickasaw society in its attempts at nation building.

Map of Chickasaw Nation: Note Colbert Institute, Wapanucka Academy,

                Burney Institute and Bloomfield Acadamy

In 1851, when Fort Arbuckle was built, Smith Paul started farming in the area adjacent to the fort and soon he had won a contract to supply corn to the government for the soldiers there and also for the many Indian tribes which came to the fort for rations. This situation provided a unique education for Smith and Ellen's children: Sam, Jesse, and Mississippia, or 'Sippia,' who were 16, 14, and 6 when the Civil War began. According to my great uncle Buck, his father Sam was able to communicate in the languages of all the Five Civilized Tribes, as well as those of the Caddo, Comanche, Kiowa, and Wichita. He once hosted and served as interpreter at a meeting of the Intertribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes.  

 Map of Ft. Arbuckle Area (from Advancing the Frontier, by Grant Foreman)

Note six lines extending from left side of map pointing to: 1. Road to Wichita Mts, 2. Smith Paul's farm, 3. Area Reserved for Indian Purposes (campground for visiting tribes), 4. Road to Ft. Belknap, 5. Spring, 6. Ft. Arbuckle.

Uncle Buck also said that his father Sam completed the third reader in primary school and that he attended military school for two years. I have no further information about the 'military school.' It might have been provided by the officers of Ft. Arbuckle, but it was also common for Indian children to be sent east to school. Sam Paul obviously continued his education informally, because in addition to serving in the Chickasaw legislature, he also edited two newspapers and worked as an attorney in the Chickasaw court system. Sam's younger brother Jesse's education was probably similar to Sam's, but he suffered an untimely death, probably in the late 1860's, and little is known of him. Aunt Sippia left a description of her education after the Civil War which I'll include in my next post.

                                                          Sam Paul

  

Smith, Ellen and the Comanche

          The Chickasaws took heart after the building of Fort Arbuckle. For fourteen years since their removal, they had been living in the Choctaw district, unable to move onto their own land to the west. Fort Arbuckle, although built for the protection of the gold seekers, gave the Chickasaws the protection they needed to move into their own district, and it gave them the strength and the incentive to reclaim their identity as a separate tribe. They were tired of being a minority party in the Choctaw Nation as stipulated in their removal treaty. Finally, in June of 1855 the Chickasaws negotiated an agreement to form their own separate government. They wrote a constitution, elected officials, created their own school system and police force. Chickasaw and Choctaw citizens were still free to live in either district, but they were once again separate tribes.

          One of the first acts of the Chickasaw legislature was to order the plains tribes off their land. Since the federal government had leased a portion of the Chickasaw-Choctaw land for these tribes at the request of the Comanche chief Tibbalo (see post of March 25, 2011) the plains tribes now had a place designated as their home.   

          In October 1857 the Indian agent over the southwest reported that about 5000 prairie Indians lived in the Chickasaw territory. There were 900 Wichita and 300 Kichai living along Rush Creek, 50 miles west of Ft. Arbuckle. 300 Waco and Tawakoni lived on the Canadian River 50 miles northwest of Ft. Arbuckle. 365 Caddo, Anadarko and Hainai, five miles southeast of Fort Arbuckle, were destitute and waiting on government support. 2500 Delaware, Kickapoo, and Shawnee were living on the Canadian and Washita Rivers. There were also 600 Comanche at about 100 longitude. At time of the report the warriors of these tribes were hunting in the Leased District.

          The massacre of the Comanche by Texas Rangers in May of 1858 (see post of March 25, 2011) occurred just after the troops at Fort Arbuckle had been sent to Utah to put down the Mormon revolt (see post of March 19, 2011). The Comanche, aware that the fort was now deserted, began to gather around the fort, and to raid the surrounding farms for horses. It was estimated that there were several thousand Comanche camped near the Canadian River. At that time there were 18 Chickasaw and Choctaw families living near Fort Arbuckle, including my great great grandparents, Smith and Ellen Paul. One day in June of 1858, several of their horses were stolen, and several others returned home with arrows sticking in them.

          After the attack, the Chickasaw agent, Douglas Cooper, requested troops from Fort Belknap in Texas, and also sent out a call for volunteers to pursue the Comanche horse thieves. The Chickasaws were so eager to volunteer for the honor of defending their land that Cooper had to limit the volunteers to 25 from each district. On June 29, 75 Chickasaws, along with a company of troops under Lt. James Powell sent from Fort Belknap, set out from Fort Arbuckle. They searched in vain for twenty days, as far away as the Wichita Mountains in the Leased District, but found no Comanche.

          On July 25, a Sunday, just a few days after the Chickasaw volunteers had dispersed, things had almost returned to normal around the fort. Lt. Powell and his 100 men now occupied the fort. Smith and Ellen Paul and their neighbors had moved back into their houses. There had been  a camp meeting that night and Robinson Thompson, one of Smith and Ellen's neighbors, dropped by the Paul house afterwards to visit. Smith came in after Robinson arrived, and mentioned that there were a lot of horses tied under the trees near his fence.

          When Mr Thompson left, he decided to visit the Indians camped nearby. He assumed they were Wichita, some of whom he knew. When he got closer he recognized them as Comanche, so he mounted his horse to go warn the soldiers at the fort. No sooner had he got on his horse, than some Comanche stepped out of the brush and called to him in Caddo asking if he was an American. Thompson replied, "No, I am Chickasaw." One of the Comanche struck his breast and shouted that he was Comanche, and the party began shoot arrows at Thompson. Thompson's horse fell dead under him, and he took off running. Thompson managed to reach some brush nearby where he hid until morning. 

          The next morning the Comanche were gone, but there were several reports about their activities of the previous night. In addition to Mr Thompson, there were several others including Smith Paul who came in to report horses missing. Mrs. Hall, a Choctaw citizen who lived 4 miles from the post, told the story that she had heard some noise the previous evening and had hidden in her corn field. From there she had watched as 15 Comanche whooped and yelled and danced a war dance in her yard, and then stole all of her horses. For the next few nights most of the farmers in the community stayed in the fort.

          Lt. Powell sent out 25 men to follow the Comanche party on foot. The troops arrived at the Comanche's camp the next morning while their campfire was still warm, but never again got close, although they followed the trail for 50 miles.

          Soon after this incident, the principal chief of the Wichita, Lasadovah, came to Lt. Powell, complaining that the Comanche were raiding their villages on a regular basis. The Wichita had permanent settlements and farms more like the Chickasaws. Lasadovah said that he had met with the Comanche, and they had promised not to steal again, but the raids continued anyway. He said his tribe wasn't powerful enough to defend itself, and there were other tribes in the same position. Lt. Powell advised them all to camp together at Rush Springs, about 40 miles from the fort, for protection.

          Meanwhile Lt. Powell invited the Comanche chief to meet with him and leaders from the other tribes at Rush Springs. At the meeting the Comanche chief, Parracoonanup, claimed ignorance of the raids, but said that the young warriors had been enraged by the attack of the Texas Rangers of the month before. He promised that he would return as many horses as he could find, and that he would punish the warriors responsible. He also asked to be given land in the Leased District so that his tribe could settle down and farm like the Wichita.

          Several weeks later, as a large party of Comanche were driving a herd of horses toward Fort Arbuckle, they were intercepted by a Texas Indian Agent, Capt. S. P. Ross, who was 

illegally patrolling Indian Territory with a unit of troops. Ross stampeded the horses, and then sent for reinforcements from Texas. Major Earl Van Dorn, with 400 cavalry troops, then marched north, following the Comanche's trail to Rush Creek, where the Comanche were meeting peacefully in a Wichita village with Chickasaw and Choctaw representatives. Van Dorn attacked the Comanche camp the next morning while they slept, killing 60 Comanche and 4 Wichita.

          That ended the Comanche's attempt to settle down peacefully. They restarted their attacks on the Wichita, whom they blamed for tricking them into trusting the white man. The Wichita's crops were also ruined by the invading Texans, and they were forced to flee to Fort Arbuckle for safety and for food. The Comanche continued their war against the white man for another fifteen years.

The Comanche, 1858

          As I described in my post of March 15, the situation for the plains Indians changed rapidly during the 1840's and '50's. Their profitable trade in horses stolen from Texas settlements was virtually halted by the admission of Texas to the Union, and by the United States' victory over Mexico, which had been subsidizing their raids. Their hunting lands were rapidly diminishing with the immigration of the Indian settlers from the southwest. The discovery of Gold in California was attracting thousands of settlers to cross the Indians' land, and the slaughter of buffalo for fur, for meat and just for sport, was eliminating their main source of food, clothing and shelter. They had sought advice from the eastern tribes, the so called Five Civilized Tribes, who had told them to give up their nomadic life and to settle down on farms.

          There was a drought in 1854 and it was especially hard on the plains tribes. In March of 1855, 4000 were starving in camps west of the Creek settlements on the Arkansas River. The Comanche Chief Tibbalo came to the Creeks for assistance. He said that he had seen how prosperous they were on their farms, and he asked them to intercede for him with the United States' officials to obtain land for his tribe.

          The Creeks took Chief Tibbalo to Fort Smith where he delivered his request. Jefferson Davis, the Secretary of War, recommended that the Department of the Interior set aside land as a home for the plains tribes, and so the department negotiated a treaty with the Chickasaws and Choctaws to lease part of their land for this purpose. In spite of this agreement, raids into Texas by bands of Comanches and other tribes continued, sometimes by Indians living on reservations in Indian Territory. 

          The Texans had given up negotiating with Indians, and they had given up deciding which Indians were their friends and which foes. They just wanted them out of Texas. In 1858, Texas requested the permission of Congress to pursue horse thieves into Indian Territory. Their request was denied but in May of 1858 a unit of Texas Rangers under John S. Ford crossed the Red River into the Wichita Mountains anyway. When he came across a Comanche camp whose warriors were out hunting, he attacked, killing 76 men women and children. He took several prisoners and 300 horses. Among those killed was Iron Jacket, grandfather of Quanah Parker. (See post of Feb. 20, 2011)    

          This indiscriminate attack by the Texans enraged the Comanche. They had pursued Ford's force and recognized among them a Keechi warrior whom they had seen living with the Wichita, so they assumed that the Wichita had sided with the Texans against them. As a result, the Comanche began to steal horses from the Wichita, as well as from Chickasaw and Choctaw settlers, to prepare for war against the Texans.

          In April of 1858 when the troops stationed in Indian Territory were ordered to Utah to confront the Mormons (see post of March 19, 2011) the Comanche saw their opportunity. They began planning an attack on Fort Arbuckle, in order to obtain its store of guns, ammunition and other supplies. Smith and Ellen Paul, my great great grandparents, lived right next to the fort, now defended by only five soldiers.   

To be continued.

The Mormons

                                          Joseph Smith

            An incident occurred in 1858 which could have proved disastrous to my great great grandparents, Smith and Ellen, and to their little family, and it started with the Mormons.

             The Church of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons, were founded by Joseph Smith, who had a revelation in the late 1820's, while Smith Paul was living with the Chickasaw Indians. Smith's revelation had a place for Native Americans. He said they were descendents of one of the twelve tribe of Israel, brought to North America by Jesus. Actually this theory wasn't original with Joseph Smith. In the 1700's James Adair, a trader who lived with the Chickasaws for many years wrote a book in which he went to great lengths to draw parallels between Native American and Jewish customs. Anyway, according to Smith's revelation, Jesus' chosen people had sinned and the world needed another prophet to set things straight. That's where he came in. 

            Smith's new religion advocated strong family values and a strict moral code and it attracted many followers. Its members tended to live apart from the rest of society though, and soon they became the victims of prejudice, like the Indians. Also, like the Indians they didn't back down peacefully. In Missouri the Mormons raised an army to defend themselves. In 1839, shortly after the Chickasaws were run out of Mississippi, the Mormons were run out of Missouri. They tried again to establish themselves in Illinois, where the congregation had grown to 12,000, but there they again came into conflict with the state government. Their leaders were arrested, and finally their founder, Joseph Smith, was murdered by an angry mob. That was the last straw for the Mormons. They decided to move west into Mexico, so far away that they would never again be persecuted. 

             In spite of the Native Americans' place in Mormons' version of world history, the Mormons didn't respect them any more than did other white settlers. Once they arrived in their Promised Land, the present state of Utah, Mormon missionaries went among the Ute, the most prevalent tribe in the Utah area, to educate "the despised and degraded sons of the forest," and eventually they used them to their advantage, much as the British, the Spanish, and the French had used the southwestern tribes during the 18th century.

              The Mormons weren't left in peace for long. In 1848, after the war with Mexico, their new home became a part of the United States, and in 1849 gold was discovered in California.  The Mormons were practical, however. In addition to befriending the Ute, they contributed a military unit to fight in the Mexican War, thereby collected $70,000 for the church's coffers. In 1849 they claimed a huge area, including Nevada, western Utah, southern Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and southern California, and lobbied for statehood. The United States compromised in 1850 by creating the Utah Territory, and President Fillmore appointed the Mormons' leader, Brigham Young, as its first governor.

            In 1856 the Republican platform denounced slavery, and also polygamy, now a well known practice of the Mormons. There was a public outcry against the Territory of Utah being controlled by polygamists, so the new president, James Buchanan, replaced Brigham Young as governor, and sent a force of 2500 troops to bring Utah under federal control. The Mormons armed themselves, fortified the mountain passes, and blocked caravans coming west on the Santa Fe Trail.

             In 1857 a force of 54 Mormons and 300 Ute attacked a wagon train headed to California and killed 120 of the settlers. This was called the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and it got the attention of the U. S. government. Virtually all the federal troops in Indian Territory were sent to Utah. My great great grandparents were then living next to Fort Arbuckle, the farthest west of the forts, and they  became vulnerable to attack. 

             About that time something happened to cause the Comanche to decide to take advantage of the situation.   

To be continued.