How Mamma Came to Indian Territory

 

Cora, Tom and Ada Rosser

I just have just a few pieces of information about how Mamma’s[i] family came from Arkansas to Indian Territory.

When the Rossers started west from Georgia after the Civil War, they had intended to join Grandpa’s brother Ed in Texas, but circumstances changed. Their oldest daughter Cora married a man in Marvell, Arkansas, near Palmer Station, where they were living, and Grandpa was elected magistrate, so they stayed for a while, 7 years, but something else happened that caused them to change their plans.

Mamma’s mother, Emily Bass Rosser, was expecting a large inheritance from her father in Alabama, but when word of Emily’s father’s death finally came, the inheritance turned out to be only a few gold coins, the equivalent of about $50, so they realized they were on their own.

I have no proof of it, and no one is left for me to ask, but I think Grandpa might have been influenced by my mother’s other grandfather, Sam Paul, a Chickasaw Indian. Sam Paul, was a “Progressive” among the Chickasaws, favoring the influx of white settlers, and according to some notes made by my uncle Haskell, he made trips to Arkansas and also to Texas to invite settlers to come to Indian Territory. Of course this scared the be-Jesus out of the more traditional full-bloods, or “Pull Backs.” They were used to living in a communal style, sharing land and other resources among themselves, and just wanted to be left alone.

Sam Paul, probably influenced more by his more ambitious father, Smith Paul, a Scotsman, thought the Indians could make money by renting their land to settlers, and could also benefit from the businesses and “civilization” the white men brought. He was also a politician, popular among the intermarried white citizens, and leader of the Chickasaw “Progressive” party.

Anyway, I wonder if Grandpa Rosser was persuaded to come to Indian Territory by one of Sam Paul’s talks. If the farm land in the Washita River valley was as good as Sam Paul claimed, maybe Grandpa could to provide for his four remaining daughters until they were married and independent. Ada, their youngest was only 9 (est.) Mamma was 11.

Mamma told about coming to Indian Territory with her family in an interview in 1937: [ii]

I came to the Indian Territory with my father and mother. We were moving from Mississippi to the Indian Territory in wagons, working horses and oxen in 1889. I was eleven years old. I remember people telling my father that he would have to be on the lookout for horse thieves. We had some trouble while crossing Arkansas, but after we crossed into the Indian Territory we never were bothered by anyone. My father would buy feed from the Indians and they were the most accommodating people I ever met. We came through Muskogee but there wasn't much of a town there then. At that time there were but few roads and at times it looked as if it would be impossible to go any farther. After several months of traveling over rough country we located at Pauls Valley. My Father traded the ox team, a tent and a few horses to Mr John Burks for a lease that had a two room log house on it. This lease had never been worked but there was a plowed furrow around it. My father and brother began putting this prairie land in cultivation. There was open range at that time, and you could have all the hogs and cattle you wanted to own, but you had to have your brand and mark on them. 

There was an Indian law at that time between the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians that if anyone's cattle grazed over on the other's territory the person owning the cattle would be tried by the Indian laws and given the death sentence. They would carry out this sentence too but when anyone was given the death penalty for some crime under the Indian law he would be given an honor parole for a certain time in order to visit his family and straighten up his affairs. Then on the day set for him to die, this person would be at the place set and right on time. 

It cost five dollars a year permit for a family to live in the Indian Territory and two dollars and fifty cents for a single man. There would be collectors come around and collect this fee and if the collectors did not turn in all that he had collected then he would be tried under the Indian law and given so many lashes across the back. They had a whipping post at the place where the court was held. 

The Choctaws held court at Eagle Town and the Chickasaws held court at Tishomingo. 

I have heard my husband say he went to school at Cherokee town[iii] and at that time there was a church there. It was called a community church. My husband was Bill Paul, Sr., a grandson of Smith Paul, the man for whom Pauls Valley was named. 

Amos Waite built the first schoolhouse in Pauls Valley and it was a subscription school.[iv] A Mr Mackey taught this school. My father lived southwest of Pauls Valley about six miles, and my sister and I had to come to Pauls Valley to school. There were several children who lived in this community who had to come to Pauls Valley to school, so my father and several other men bought a frame building at Pauls Valley and moved it to this community. They made a school building out of it and this school was called Red Branch school. Today it is called Klondike. 

---

[i] I’ll refer to my ancestors the way my mother did, since she’s my main source of information.

[ii] Indian Pioneer papers: Indian Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma. 9/14/37. Mrs Victoria Paul, Pauls Valley Okla, Date of birth 1878. Mississippi, Father JT Rosser, born in Va, Mother Emily Bass, born in Alabama, Interview 8492 by Maurice R Anderson. OKGenWeb @ rootsweb.com

[iii] It’s interesting how Cherokee Town got its name. After Texas won its independence from Mexico, they attackedand destroyed a large settlement of Cherokees. Sam Houston, incidentally, who had been adopted by the Cherokees, tried unsuccessfully to intervene. The Cherokee families, driven from their homes, made the long journey to join their kin in the northern part of Indian Territory. On their way, they camped for a while just north of the future site of Pauls Valley. Later a small town sprung up there and it was called Cherokee Town, in their honor.

[iv] The Waites are our cousins and a quite remarkable family. My mother’s paternal g-grandmother, Ela-teecha, a full blood Chickasaw Indian, was born back in the Chickasaw homeland, near what is now Tupelo, Mississippi. Her first husband was a Scottish missionary, Jason McClure, with whom she had two children, Tecumseh and Catherine. McClure died in Indian Territory after the trail of tears, and Ela-teecha remarried, the second time to my mother’s g-grandfather, Smith Paul. Anyway, Tecumseh was quite prominent, serving for a time as Chickasaw Governor. Unlike his half brother Sam Paul, he was in the Pull Back political party and opposed white settlement. He also favored setting aside tribal land as a wildlife preserve. Catherine, Ela-teecha’s other child by McClure, married a white man, Tom Waite, who like many others, had come to Indian Territory seeking land. They had eight children together, two boys and six girls, and all were college educated. I think that is remarkable, not just that they were able to do it, but that they valued education that much. Tom Waite died in 1874 and Catherine actually moved to Ohio so that her daughters would have access to an education. Amos, as noted above, started the first school in Pauls Valley, and his brother Fred was Speaker of the Chickasaw House of Representatives, and Attorney General for the tribe. 

Hello Again

Hello, again.

I’ve only posted one blog in the last two years, so no one may notice me starting up again, but I'm going to try anyway.

I’ve finished the book, Wenonah’s Story, that I co-authored with my mother, J. Wenonah Paul Gunning, and it will be released by the Chickasaw Press the first week in October. I hope you will all read it. It’s a lot more polished than my blog, so hopefully it will be worth your while.

My mother was a remarkable woman, born in 1913 into the prominent Paul family just as it was falling on hard times. A sensitive child, Wenonah faced hardship, tragedy, conflict between her parents, and prejudice because of her Indian blood, with determination and humor. The book describes her childhood as an adventurous tomboy, her experiences at Bloomfield, a Chickasaw school for girls, getting a college degree during a time when women were expected to get married out of high school, and creating an exciting life for herself as a working woman, while giving support and encouragement to her mother and to her brothers and sisters.  

Wenonah’s Story is not just the story of my mother’s life, but also a history of the Paul family, from Wenonah’s great grandfather, Smith Paul, who ran away from his home in North Carolina to join the Chickasaw Indians, to her grandfather, Sam Paul, a Chickasaw policeman and senator, to her father William, a delegate to the Sequoya Convention, a successful rancher, and real estate broker, to her brother Homer, who served in the Oklahoma state legislature for 17 years. The book describes the stormy transition of the Indian and Oklahoma Territories into the State of Oklahoma; the prosperity of the 1920’s, and the hardships of living through the Great Depression. It also gives a pretty good picture of what it was like to grow up in a small rural Oklahoma town during the 1920’s.

I haven’t quite decided how to continue this blog, but I guess I’ll just keep telling stories about our family, putting them into the context of the times. If you read the book, the blog will give you more details about the background of the story, and the lives of the characters, and I’ll continue telling more about my dad, who’s just entering the story as the book ends. 

Thanks for reading. It's nice to be back. 

Disease among the Indians

 

            

      Small child with small-pox, Bangladesh, 1973.

 

I remember when I was in medical school, running across a thesis that someone had written on the health problems suffered by the Five Civilized Tribes during the "Trail of Tears," their forced removal from their homelands to Indian Territory, in what is now the State of Oklahoma. Along the 4 to 800 mile journey 1 out of 5 lost their lives. Many of the deaths were due to exposure - the winter of 1832 was especially hard. Alexis De Tocqueville, visiting from France, described blocks of ice floating down the Mississippi River. It was said that after the Indians arrived they had lost almost all of their elders and small children.  

It's really hard to imagine the hardships endured by the Indians in those days. Not only were they brutally mistreated due to the prejudice and greed of the white man, their immune systems couldn't cope with the diseases that Europeans considered minor such as chicken pox and measles, so whole tribes had been wiped out by disease even before the Trail of Tears. 

The Indians way of life before the Removal had protected them somewhat from disease. They lived in small family groups, which limited transmission of disease. They got their water from streams or wells which for the most part were not contaminated. They hunted to provide fresh meat, and by the time of the Removal had learned to cure meat by salting or smoking it.  

During the Removal Indians were forced to travel crowded together in large groups. They suffered from poor sanitation, leading to typhoid, dysentery and cholera, and unscrupulous contractors ordered food in advance and allowed it to sit out and spoil. The Indians had to choose between eating spoiled food or nothing. Many of the Chickasaw refused to follow the planned route. They made their way through the swamps, killing game along the way. This frustrated their army escorts but it probably saved lives.  

One of the few preventable diseases of the time was smallpox, a disease with a mortality rate of 30 to 50%. Vaccination of the Native American population did not start until the 1830's and it was not widespread. In 1834 there was a smallpox outbreak among the Creeks and the U.S. Army physician, Dr. W. L. Wharton, vaccinated over 7000 Indians, ameliorating the epidemic. Small pox broke out among a group of migrating Chickasaw in 1837, and it spread to the Choctaw killing over 500. The smallpox epidemic of 1837 also spread to the plains tribes, and many suffered and died. The Mandan tribe, for instance, was reduced from 1500 to 15. A witness described the devastation:  

Language, however forcible, can convey but a faint idea of the scene of desolation which the country now presents. In whatever direction you turn, nothing but sad wrecks of mortality meet the eye; lodges standing on every hill, but not a streak of smoke rising from them. Not a sound can be heard to break the awful stillness, save the ominous croak of ravens, and the mournful howl of wolves, fattening on the human carcasses that lie strewn around … Many of the handsome Arickarees, who had recovered, seeing the disfiguration of their features, committed suicide; some by throwing themselves from rocks, others by stabbing and shooting. The prairie has become a graveyard; its wild flowers bloom over the sepulchres of Indians. The atmosphere for miles is poisoned by the stench of hundreds of carcasses unburied.  

According to the memoirs of my great great Aunt, Mississippia Paul Hull, her brother Sam contracted small pox while scouting for the Army:

One of the things I remember which made such an impression on my mind was the dreadful epidemic of small pox. There were two kinds, the Black small-pox, which was usually fatal, and the red small-pox which was a milder form. My brother Sam was on a scouting expedition among the wild tribes and took the small-pox. My father heard of him being sick, and when he located him he was almost dead, but he nursed him until he got well, and brought him home.  

That was the way that small-pox was brought to our family, and we all had it. But we knew how to doctor ourselves and all of the family lived. The plains Indians had caught it by this time too and died in great numbers, sometimes an entire family died, because there was not one left to wait on the other. They did not understand how to take care of themselves and would go out and take cold. They were buried up and down the river and where the town of Pauls Valley now stands.   

This epidemic would have taken place during the 1870's when the Army was forcing the nomadic tribes onto reservations. There was a large group of Caddo Indians that lived near my great great grandfather Smith Paul's farm, and many of them died in the epidemic. My mother said that her mother used to point out a spot on Jackson Hill, overlooking Pauls Valley, where a group of Caddo's were buried.  

Small-pox was declared eradicated in 1979 by the world health organization. 

 

Footnotes:

Indian Removal, by Grant Foreman, Chap 8, P 110. Describes epidemic among Creeks

The Chickasaws, by Arrell Gibson: Chap 8, P 191. Small-pox among the Chickasaw and Choctaw

Pioneer Days in the Early Southwest, by Grant Foreman. Indian Warfare Between Texas and Mexico, P 235. Epidemic among Plains tribes, including Wichita and Caddo as well.

 

Sam Paul and the Chickasaw Light Horse Police

Back in Indian Territory before 1898 when the Indian governments were abolished, the Chickasaws had their own police force, known as the "Light Horse Police." The Chickasaw Nation, reborn in 1983, now has a modern police force called by the same name, so the Chickasaw Light Horse Police still ride, though now in cars instead of horses.  

The Chickasaws' first police force was organized in 1829, in the Chickasaw homeland in what is now the state of Mississippi. The Chickasaw laws were few, but the punishments were swift. Theft was punished by 39 lashes and the offender had to restore the property. Whiskey was banned. There was no need for jails. An offender was honor bound to submit to his punishment. Murder was punished outside the law by revenge killing, and a member of the victim's family would mete out the punishment. If a killer fled, a member of his family would be executed in his stead, and afterward he would be shunned by the tribe, a fate considered worse than death.

The Chickasaws, by Arrell Gibson, P 153, describes the first laws of the Chickasaw 

After 1837, when the Chickasaw were forced to migrate to Indian Territory, they were for several years considered citizens of the Choctaw Nation.The two tribes shared a similar language, and they had many customs in common, but the Chickasaw were not happy living under Choctaw rule. In 1857, just before the Civil War, the Chickasaw broke away and formed their own nation under their own laws. It was around that time when the Light Horse Police Force was created.   

After the Civil War, there was a flood of settlers into Indian Territory, and because there were few federal marshals to police the vast area, many outlaws sought refuge there. The job of the Light Horse Policeman was difficult and dangerous. Their charge was to:  

…with or without warrant, arrest all outlaws, thieves, and murderers in your section, and if they resist, you will shoot them on the spot. And you will aide and assist all U.S. Marshals in the enforcement of the laws and make yourself a terror to evildoers. If afraid, turn in your resignation and I'll appoint better men in your place.  

The Outlaw Statesman, Mike Tower, P 82 

It was during this time that my great grandfather, Sam Paul, became a Light Horse Policeman. Sam Paul was perfectly suited for this job. According to all accounts, he was fearless and ruthless. My great grandmother estimated once that he had killed 15 men.  

The Chickasaw themselves were little threat to the community. Even during the late 1800's the Chickasaw Nation had no jails, and the guilty still reported to the appointed place of punishment, whether it be for lashes or for execution. It was the white men who posed a threat to law and order.  

The Light Horse Police were placed in a difficult situation. They had no jurisdiction over U.S. citizens, so they were expected to sit by passively and wait for a federal marshal to deal with white criminals. Also there was the practical problem of bringing a criminal to trial. The nearest federal court was in Fort Smith, Arkansas, which was 200 miles from the Chickasaw Nation. So if a Chickasaw policeman apprehended a criminal, he was expected to hold him in custody while a U.S. marshal was summoned. Then he had to convince witnesses to travel all the way to Fort Smith to testify.  

My great grandfather and other Chickasaw policemen decided that this was too much to ask, so they often dispensed justice to whites as they saw fit without bothering to contact a federal marshal.  

In 1882, my great grandfather was arrested and sent to Fort Smith to be tried for manslaughter. He had killed a white prisoner, well actually two, and the federal marshal James Mershon decided to make an example of him. Sam then faced an ordeal that would have broken a lesser man. First he was marched to Ft Smith with the other prisoners, who included Sam=s half brother Tecumseh, his nephew Fred Waite, and other members of the posse that had arrested Harkins, one of the men he was accused of killing. On the 200 mile trek, the prisoners were shackled to a log which they were compelled to carry between them as they walked. In Ft. Smith they were put in the filthy jail which housed as many as 6 men per cell. It was June so they also suffered from the sweltering heat.  

Within a couple of weeks the charges against Fred, Tecumseh, and most of the other members of the posse were dropped, and they were allowed to return home, but Sam wasn=t tried until December. Time passed slowly in these hideous conditions. Many men in the Ft Smith jail became ill or malnourished, and several died before they could be brought to trial. My great grandmother, Sarah, took my grandfather Billy and his brother Buck, 6 and 8 years old at the time, to visit their father in jail. She had to lift them up so that they could kiss their father through the bars.  

In January of 1883 Sam Paul was brought before the notorious Judge Isaac Parker, known as "the hanging judge" because he had sent 88 men to the gallows. Sam=s trial resulted in a hung jury, so he remained in jail. His second trial wasn't held until April of 1883, so he languished in the Fort Smith jail for a total of ten months! When his case came to trial, Sam was convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to ten years at hard labor in the federal penitentiary at Detroit, Michigan

 

The story doesn't end there, however. After Sam Paul's conviction, the Chickasaw legislature sent a petition, signed by the legislators and other prominent citizens of the Chickasaw Nation, to the President of the United States, Chester Arthur, requesting a pardon, and in March, 1884, the pardon was granted. 

It read:  

Whereas the Chickasaw Council, and a large number of officers and citizens of Indian Territory have petitioned for the defendant's pardon, representing that he committed the offense while endeavoring, as an officer of the United States and of the Territory, to enforce the law, and was excusable. 

And whereas, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs are of the opinion that the conviction in this case tends to impair the efficiency of the Indian Police, and that a pardon would be in the interest of law and order, and earnestly recommend it; … 

Now, therefore, be it known, that I, Chester A. Arthur, President of the United States of America, in consideration of the premises, divers and other good and sufficient reasons me thereunto moving, do hereby grant to the said Sam Paul a full and unconditional pardon.  

National Archives 

Sam Paul's pardon set an historic precedent giving the Chickasaw Light Horse Police the authority to maintain law and order in their territory.  

As for Sam Paul, he went on to be elected senator representing Pickens County in the Chickasaw legislature; he practiced law in the Chickasaw courts, and he owned two newspapers, the Chickasaw Enterprise and the Chickasaw Chieftain. Sam testified in Washington, D.C. before the Joint Committee on Indian Affairs of the U.S. Congress, and he later ran for governor of the Chickasaw Nation. Sam Paul was one of the most progressive and farsighted men in the Chickasaw Nation.

 

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

  

Three Killings in the Family

                                                       Joe Paul

Sam Paul and his oldest son Joe had never been close. Joe spent much of his childhood with his Uncle Tecumseh, and his Aunt Mary. Joe was close to his two younger brothers, Bill and Buck though, and my grandfather Bill said that if it weren't for Joe they would have starved while their father was in prison.  

I had only heard part of this story myself until recent years, because it was considered a scandal in the family. It wasn't spoken about. But now, the people involved and those that knew them are long gone, so it probably doesn't matter so much anymore. 

I've added to what my mother told me about these events by reading accounts written by Mike Tower, in his book, Outlaw Statesman, about Sam's nephew Fred Waite; by Moman Pruiett in his memoirs, Moman Pruiett, Criminal Lawyer; and by Bill and Cindy Paul in Shadow of an Indian Star, which is written as fiction but from what I can gather is taken mostly from historical research.   

When Sam Paul got out of prison in 1884 he sent his son Joe to college and then went about the business of rebuilding his life. By the time Joe returned, Sam had remarried and had regained his prominence in the community. When Joe began drinking and getting into trouble, he had several run ins with his father, even to the point of gun fire. Finally Joe left Pauls Valley and joined his grandfather Smith Paul in California. The reason is unclear, but there was a rumor that Joe had an affair with his father's wife, Jennie, and that Sam had threatened to kill him.  

Anyway, Joe stayed in California long enough to get married and have a child. I actually met one of his great grandchildren last year at a Chickasaw gathering. I'm not sure of the details, but from what my distant cousin told me, Joe was only married a short time before he deserted his California wife. Smith Paul also decided to leave his California family about that time, about 1890, and so they returned to Indian Territory together.  

When Joe returned the feud between father and son didn't start up again for a while, but when Joe continued to drink and to get into fights, his father warned him to control himself. Joe responded by going around town boasting that the next time he saw his father he was going to kill him, so they both got ready for a show down. There were at least two encounters between the two, and in one Joe was shot in the chest. It took several months for him to recover from this injury, but soon afterwards, he walked into a café where his father was eating and shot him twice in the back with a Winchester rifle.  

According to the story I was told by my mother, Tecumseh McClure, Sam's older brother,  instigated the killing. She said that she was told by her father that Tecumseh had Joe worked up into a frenzy over the threat his father posed to traditional Chickasaw customs, so the murder was actually politically motivated. Of course Joe may not have needed much encouragement.  

My mother also said that her father didn't blame his brother Joe for what he had done because of the mistreatment and neglect he had suffered because of their father. Our family and Joe's were always friends. It was actually a conflict between Joe and Tecumseh that led to the next family killing.  

After Sam Paul's murder Joe was arrested and sent to Paris, Texas, for trial, but because he and Sam were both Indians, the court decided it did not have jurisdiction, therefore Joe returned home a free man. The Chickasaw courts didn't take up the matter either, further evidence that the murder was politically motivated. Joe Paul was even appointed as a judge in the Chickasaw court.

During the next three years Joe led for him a respectable life, he got married to a full blood Chickasaw lady named Maulsey Stewart, and performed his duties as judge, but the quick temper that he had inherited from his father caught up with him. One night he got into an argument with one of his drinking buddies that ended in a gun fight. Joe was arrested and he spent the night in jail. The next day his uncle Tecumseh bailed him out and lectured him about his disgraceful behavior. Joe then slapped Tecumseh in the face and walked off. Two months later Tecumseh's son Jennison killed Joe in the same café where Joe had killed his father Sam. 

                                 Jennison, Tecumseh, and Imon McClure

The Pull-backs were still in control of the Chickasaw government - in 1884 Tecumseh McClure had even served as governor - so Jennison was acquitted of Joe Paul's murder, but he wouldn't remain free for long. Three months after the trial he was found dead on the railroad tracks, run over by a train.  

Moman Pruiett described the incident in his book, Moman Pruiett, Criminal Lawyer. He wrote that he was playing poker with Jennison McClure until late the night of Jennison's death. At one point in the evening:  

a squatty half breed sidled in. He stood beside the table for several minutes, watching the play indifferently, before he spoke.

"Bill Paul in town; I just seen him," the half breed said.

The players exchanged significant glances and continued their play. When the hand was finished Jennison McClure pushed his stack of chips toward Weaver, who was banking, and arched his eyebrows.

"You quittin'?"

"I go home now," he said.

"It's almost daylight, Mac," Pruiett suggested. "Hadn't you better play a couple more before you leave?" (Pruiett refers to himself in the third person in his book)

"I go home now," he repeated.

"Look here, now, Jennison," Weaver said. "It ain't hardly safe to be runnin' around here in the dark, without knowin' where he is. Why don't you stick around a little longer. You know damn well he ain't comin' up here."

"I go home now," McClure said, without changing tone or expression.

"Pay him off," said Pruiett. "He says he go home."

The squatty informer was already dozing in a chair. New hands were dealt and McClure walked carelessly out the side door.

"It's getting light, now, as sure as hell," Pruiett observed. "let's go an' get some breakfast after this hand. How long's Jennison been gone?"

"Listen!"

"That was a shot!" Pruiett whispered.

There was a short silence, than two more shots. The players glanced toward the little half-breed Indian, who slouched low in his chair with his dirty hands folded peacefully across his pot belly. His eyes opened wide and understandingly. With a significant shrug of his shoulders he closed them again and began to nod.

"Damn it," Pruiett gritted. "I'm out. If you two fellows want to play any more it's all right, but I'm quittin'. What the hell's that?" He jumped and started.

"You're all upset," Weaver laughed. "It's just a train whistle. It's the mornin' Santa Fe. I'm out too."

"Come on, Shorty; coffee." Pruiett called to the little Indian. He was close at the heels of the quartet as it reached the bottom of the staircase which ran up the side of the stone building. A woman hurried up Paul Avenue from the east, from the direction of the Santa Fe Depot. "Is Doc Young up here?" she inquired, breathlessly.

"No, he ain't," one of the men said. "What's wrong?"

"The mornin' train just ran over a man," she said. "You want Doc for professional service, or official service?" Pruiett asked. Young was the mayor and chief magistrate, as well as the principal M.D.

"It ain't for treatment," she answered. "He's mince meat. We just want him there for the identification, an' to watch the pickin' up." 

Pruiett describes walking over to the tracks, seeing the body, and recognizing the shirt

Jennison had been wearing. Then Jennison's father Tecumseh arrived: 

Ex-Governor Tecumseh McClure of the Chickasaw Nation, who was the father of Jennison McClure who had just been killed, appeared upon the scene, looked all around and said, "Jennison he's cut up bad. Well, he's all right. He, Fred Waite, Sam and Joe Paul, all now in Injun's Happy Hunting Ground."  

Moman Pruiett tended to dramatize things. Indian's didn't really talk like that, and they didn't refer to the after life as the "Happy Hunting Ground" either, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was true that my grandfather and his brother killed Jennison McClure. My grandmother always denied it, saying that Bill and Buck were in school at the time in Sherman, Texas, but it would have been possible for them to ride down one day, kill their cousin, and ride back the next. They were loyal to their brother Joe, and revenge was a strong tradition among the Chickasaw.

                     Body of Jennison McClure on Railroad Tracks, 1897

Sam Paul, Part Eight

Sam and Jenny Paul at Mt Vernon in Washington DC during Sam's visit to testify before Congressional Committee on Indian Affairs (Front row, fourth and fifth from right.)  

When Sam Paul was chosen as the leader of the Chickasaw Progressive Party, his life took on a new purpose. I can't say he was a changed man. He had the same fiery temper and the same ruthless determination as before, but instead of chasing criminals (and women) he decided to lead his people into the future.  

His first action was to travel to Washington, D.C. to lobby for the Progressive cause. (See post of Oct. 29, 2011, Sam Paul, Part Seven) In a speech before the Joint Congressional Committee of Indian Affairs he pointed out that the recent laws disenfranchising intermarried white citizens went against the Chickasaw constitution.  

On his return to Indian Territory Sam Paul bought a newspaper, The Chickasaw Enterprise, whose previous owner was being forced to sell because of intimidation by the Chickasaw Government. Sam installed his nephew, Fred Waite, who was currently constable of Pauls Valley, as editor, and they proceeded to publish articles supporting individual ownership of land and rights for white citizens.  

This statement of the newspaper's position was published in October of 1889: 

The Enterprise is an Indian newspaper and is owned and edited by an Indian. And, we do with the best interests of our people at heart say we shall continue to further advocate the speedy acceptation by our citizens of their land in severalty and the inauguration of a territorial form of government.(The Outlaw Statesman, by Mike Tower, P 89 ) 

Fred was no easier to intimidate than his uncle Sam. He was not only a constable, he had previously been one of Sam's deputies, and had before that ridden with Billy the Kid's "Regulators" in New Mexico. Fred had a college education and soon would be elected to the Chickasaw legislature and later be named Attorney General. The story of Fred Waite is told in the book, Outlaw Statesman, by Mike Tower.

Fred Waite, about 1880

Sam Paul took his mission seriously. He bought another newspaper in Ardmore, Oklahoma, The Chickasaw Chieftain, which he edited himself, quite an accomplishment for an Indian whose education had consisted of tutoring by itinerant teachers. Sam enlisted the help of his sons Bill and Buck in gathering news.  

Sam also opened a law practice in Pauls Valley and I suspect he had little trouble getting white clients needing someone to represent them in Chickasaw courts.  

Sam made speeches throughout the territory, advocating eventual statehood with equal rights for both Indians and whites, and when the first land was opened to white settlement in the famous land run of 1889, it was Sam Paul who fired the gun to start the race. He believed so fervently in the benefits of white settlement that he made trips to Texas and Arkansas to invite families to come to Indian Territory.  

Being a politician in the Chickasaw Nation wasn't for the faint of heart. Sam Paul was shot at once during a speech before a large crowd in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. He ducked down behind the podium momentarily, and then stood back up and finished his speech. On another occasion he rode into a meeting of Pull-backs with an armed escort, and delivered a speech to them while his men trained guns on the crowd.  

                                                          Sam Paul

I have the complete text of one of my great grandfather's speeches, which was published in the Chickasaw Chieftain. The speech was delivered in 1891 at a Fourth of July celebration in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, before a crowd of 1000 white men and Indians. Sam Paul's voice was weak due to a throat "affection" which "compelled him to pause and drink water at frequent intervals," but his delivery was "eloquent and forcible." He spoke without notes: 

Ladies and Gentlemen: I have been invited by the committee to come here today and speak on the issues which are now agitating the people of the Chickasaw Nation. I hardly know how to properly address an audience of this kind at a Fourth of July picnic. My speechmaking has been confined to political gatherings of my own countrymen during election campaigns and before the council of the nation. I must ask the indulgence of you all for I have not made sufficient preparation to do justice to the occasion. 

I shall talk to you on the subject of progression, touching upon the allotment question. 

I shall go back as far as 1830. At that time the Choctaws and Chickasaws were located east of the Mississippi River, and owing to the state of laws being extended over them, they became very much dissatisfied, because they could not understand or obey the white man's law, and as they believed, could not prosper under such circumstances. The chiefs and head men of the tribes appealed to the President of the United States to protect them against the laws of the white man; but to their great surprise and sorrow, the President said: "I cannot stop the operation of the laws of the states over your people." Then the Choctaws, becoming convinced that they would have to be governed by the state laws, expressed their desire to cede their country to the United States and secure a new home across the Mississippi. Accordingly, they purchased this land from the United States government and received therefor a patent. In 1837 the Chickasaws made an agreement with the Choctaws to locate within the Choctaw Nation and to have certain rights and privileges. After living in this manner for several years, the Chickasaws became dissatisfied with their dependent relations with the Choctaws, and in 1855 the two tribes, with the consent and under the direction of the United States government, readjusted their relationship, the Chickasaws being given their own district over which they were allowed to establish a government of their own. In addition to $530,000 already paid by the Chickasaws to the Choctaws for a one-fourth interest in their land, they paid $150,000 more for the right of independent government.  

I simply refer to this for the information of those who may not understand the status of the Chickasaws in this country. After all this had been done, the Chickasaws adopted a constitution after the fashion of the United States. Then the Chickasaws were independent of the Choctaws having their own government. There were very few white people among the Chickasaws at that time and such a thing as politics was almost unknown among them. They lived harmoniously, looking forward to the welfare and prosperity of the whole people and they were prospering. The few years they were here in this country they had accumulated herds of horses, cattle and hogs and were opening up small farms on the rich bottoms of the Blue, Boggy, Washita, Canadian, and Red Rivers, and other streams too numerous to mention. But alas! The great Civil War, with its disastrous influence, put a clog in the wheels of the progress of these people. The North on one hand, the South on the other - what were they to do? They were forced to take one side or the other. The result was that a part went to the North and a part to the South. Their little homes were destroyed and their herds confiscated or driven away. When the war was over in 1866, a treaty was made with the United States government, reaffirming all former treaties, with a few exceptions. 

Now we will come down to where it is most interesting. After the war there became two factions among the Chickasaw people. They did not have that friendly and brotherly feeling they had before the war. There arose strife, difficulties, discontent and in many instances there was bloodshed. They became prejudiced toward each other and toward the white settlers and that prejudice had been growing stronger and stronger ever since and has taken a firm root in the politics of the nation as well as in the social life of our people.  

Oh, what wonderful and grand things could have been accomplished in this nation if this prejudice had never existed. I am satisfied that had enterprise been encouraged, as before the war, we would today have one of the finest and richest countries in the world almost. If enterprise had been encouraged, we would not only boast of our rich lands and our free and independent government, but we could boast of our great flouring mills, cotton mills, woolen mills, iron works, machine shops, quartz mill coal mines, oil wells, railroads, colleges, magnificent churches and brick blocks and the hundred and one institutions that go to make up a perfect civilization. This country has better and a greater variety of natural resources than some of the most populous and powerful states in the union.  

About the year 1850 my father moved to Ft. Arbuckle. We were then on the extreme frontier. There were none but the Comanches and other savages west of us. It was very dangerous to live there, but my father was one of those hardy and fearless pioneers who blazed the way for civilization to follow. Many a time we would slip away from our little log cabin just before dark, seeking a hiding place for the night. Often on returning home the next morning, we would find footprints made by these wild Indians all over the yard. Often we would be forced to move within the fort for protection. In after years they became friendly and during the war the Comanches, Caddos, and Osages were located where the town of Paul's Valley now stands. We were also there; having moved from Fort Arbuckle in 1859. Many a scalp dance have I witnessed at Paul's Valley during the war. I have seen barbarity in its most degrading forms and been an eye witness of the transformation that a quarter of a century has wrought in this country. I simply refer to those days that I may contrast the present with the past.    

In spite of the stubborn fight of the Chickasaws against progress and the innovations of the white man, in spite of oppression and restrictive legislation by our government, the country is building up and is already nearly as far advanced in an agricultural sense as any farming community in the west. In spite of the bitter legislative opposition to the construction of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe railroad through this nation, it was built, and instead of ruining this country, as was confidently predicted by the full bloods, it has proved a Godsend to the cause of progress among us. It seemed to put new life in the Indian. He became more energetic and began to acquire the white man's dollar and the white man's ways. 

I cannot recall a single instance where the Chickasaw Nation has encouraged enterprise. Who built the railroad through our land and put opportunities in our hands for gaining riches and contentment? The white man. Who opened up all of these rich and beautiful farms? The white man. Who built the churches and school houses of the nation? The white man. Who built the flouring mills, the cotton gins, the various industries we see on every hand? The white man. Who are the merchants, the mechanics, the agricultural toilers, the professional men - the brawn and brains of the land? White men. Now why is that we should be so bitter toward our brethren in white? In nearly every instance where an Indian is operating with a white man he is prosperous, be he a full blood or half breed; but where you find one who will not associate or have any dealings with the whites, you will find a pauper, when he might be among the well-to-do men of his tribe if he would just lay aside that little thing prejudice. Take the white man out of this nation and we Chickasaws wouldn't exist - well, say twelve months.  

Now this is the class that are in power today, the white haters. This is the class of men who have organized themselves into a militia force and are scouring the country and endeavoring to enforce laws that are an outrage upon an industrious and peaceable people. This is the class of men who are imposing fines and inflicting punishments upon their most intelligent and enterprising citizens. This is the class of men who disenfranchise and are endeavoring to prosecute the white brother whose blood and example have elevated the Indian from the scalp dance to the ways of civilization. This is the condition of affairs in this country today.  

Things have come to such a pass that I do not believe we will ever prosper until there is a change had in our government - a complete change. What I mean by a complete change is to change the tenure of our lands from a system of community to one of severalty and allow individualization to absorb the tribal relation. But as I was saying, the full bloods are so prejudiced toward the progressive half breeds and adopted whites that their eyes are blind to matters affecting their individual welfare and their national life. There is but one path out of the woods, but their foolish prejudice has made them so blind they will not see it.  

During Governor B. F. Overton's administration, he together with some of the men who are now figuring in our governmental affairs, laid a deep and well planned scheme which has worked quite successfully. They leased large tracts of valuable land to white men for a long term of years and at the next legislature passed a law making it a crime to negotiate land leases, providing however that those already made should stand. Thus they used the full bloods' prejudice to keep him in poverty, and they are still so prejudiced that they would rather go hungry than repeal that law. To show their prejudice is stronger than ever, they disenfranchised the white citizens who have built up our country, and the band of desperadoes and disreputable characters they call the militia is out today arresting citizens and worrying noncitizens for violating the Chickasaw laws, as they call it, but I call it for improving the country and trying to build up homes for themselves and their children. Why, a man cannot go into an enterprise of any kind without violating some of their obnoxious laws. The rights, privileges and immunities guaranteed to us by our treaties and constitution have been legislated away from us and we are now powerless to redress these wrongs.  

Speaking of leasing lands, I always was in favor of the lease system, with certain restrictions guarding against monopoly and alien corporations. Under the present system a white man cannot feel as though he had a permanent home here. He is a transient squatter and a violator of law as it is. Would it not be better to have the whole of the territory in an advanced state of cultivation through a safe and equitable land tenure than in a raw, wild state? It seems to me it would be much better, so when the time for allotment has come, each Choctaw and Chickasaw could select a farm ready improved. Of course there should be just provisions made to pay for the improvements and satisfactorily adjust the claims of the men who have equities in the country without an interest in the domain.  

I am heartily in favor of allotment and have been for years, although I bowed to the will of the majority in the late political campaign. My plan of allotting is to class the land as 1, valley; 2, upland; 3, swamp; 4, mountain. I suppose there is good bottom land enough to give 160 acres to each individual, the remainder to be divided according to its value - we will say $5 for valley land; $3 upland, $2 for swamp and $1 for mountain land. So you see the person locating (in) the mountain tracts would have five acres to the valley man's one, reserving all the mineral interest for the benefit of the Chickasaw government - that is for the government to have the right to assess a royalty. After securing patents for our lands, we are to be privileged to dispose of all land in excess of 160 acres, which is inalienable for twenty-one years. Town sites, school and other public lands are provided for in the treaty of '66, the allotment plan of which could be easily modified to suit the condition of affairs in this country today. I believe this is the best and most amicable way by which the land can be allotted, giving to each and every individual his or her pro rata share. The treaty provides for taxes, though I believe it would be wise for us in making these changes to provide when we are to be taxed - say twenty one years from the date of allotment. You see the treaty only provides that there shall be money enough retained that the interest will be sufficient to defray the expenses of the government until such time as the president may see proper. Now the danger is that the president may see fit to assess the people at once, after turning over all monies belonging to the Choctaws and Chickasaws. While I am in favor of individualization of the land, opening the country to capital and encouraging all kinds of enterprise I want to protect the interest of the full bloods, although they regard me as their worst enemy They became prejudiced toward me because in the council of the nation and on every suitable occasion I advocated justice and freedom. Because I labored to repeal all of those obnoxious laws and enact good and wholesome ones - laws that would perpetuate and honor our government, they even threatened to take my life and would today had they the opportunity. Why, I cannot attend to my business at Tishomingo with safety, for fear of organized plots to assassinate me.  

Oh, it makes me shudder when I think of the man they murdered at Tishomingo while I was attending court there last winter. The poor fellow had been bushwhacked within sight of the capital, under the shadow of the court, and cut to pieces without a show for his life. There the body lay concealed in the brush, dragged to the light of day and public sight by the hogs that mutilated it shockingly. The murdered man and his murderers were members of the jury. When roll was called those red-handed assassins answered to their names, but their victim answered not. There they were with blood on their shirts, blood on their hats, blood on their pants - oh, I imagine I can see them now with blood dripping from the very end of their fingers! They did not even find a bill against them. They were turned loose to prey upon some other defenseless, innocent man. There were many cases the past year as heinous as this. 

I long to see the day when a man's life and property will be fully protected in this Chickasaw Nation. This is the class of men who stand between the more enterprising, intelligent and peaceable citizens and complete civilization and prosperity.  

I hope the day is not far off when the tomahawk will be buried and we can join hands in friendship. When we can more completely open up our lands to settlement, our country to capital and business, and give our brothers in white an opportunity to secure a permanent home among us and be our neighbors, elevating us to the highest standard of civilization. Then there will be peace and prosperity throughout "the land of the free and the home of the brave," and not 'til then.  

Sam Paul's proposal was remarkably similar to final agreement made by the Chickasaws  with the Dawes Commission nine years later, the Atoka Agreement, except that Sam's plan would have given more protection to the full bloods. Statehood for Indian Territory was Sam Paul's dream, but unfortunately, he didn't live to see it.