Article details the author's journey to Okmulgee, the capitol of the Creek Nation, to see the Creek Indian Council in session

Robertson, Alice M.

Gateway to Oklahoma History

THE CREEK INDIAN COUNCIL IN SESSIONBy ALICE M. ROBERTSON.Although the Capitol of the Creek Nation was established atOkmulgee in the year 1868, I had never been there when theCouncil was in session in the log Council House. In 1878 I wasin Indian Territory on leave of absence from the Indian Depart-ment in Washington, where at that time I was employed as aclerk, and was visiting my parents at Tullahassee Mission when Ihad an opportunity to see the council in session.Early one beautiful October morning my father and I leftTullahassee with the hack and a pair of Indian ponies,-in thevernacular of that time a hack was a strong, light spring wagonwithout cover. We crossed the Arkansas River at Henry Texas'ferry, superseded in recent years by what is known as SpauldingBridge. The drive was one of great charm. We did not mindthe open vehicle and our ponies made six miles an hour.The tall prairie grass waved its russet sprays above golden rodand white and purple asters. At noon we stopped for dinner andto feed our ponies on Cane Creek, where Isaac Smith an enter-prising Creek Freedman had built a cluster of log cabins whichwere the rooms of his hotel. He catered only to white and Indiantravelers and patrons usually had a whole cabin to themselves.The cabins were fairly clean though sometimes the small pests,colloquially known as "chinches", were annoying. Father and Ispread blankets on the grass out under the trees, and while ournoon day meal was prepared we indulged in a siesta in the warmOctober sunshine. Isaac's was notable for fried chicken withcream gravy, butter milk biscuits, fresh butter, preserves and ofcourse plenty of coffee. After the ponies had finished their eightears of corn apiece and all the hay they could eat, a negro boyharnessed them up again, we paid two bits each for our dinnerand two bits each for the ponies' dinner and went happily on ourway, leaving Cane Creek bottom and driving west across the bigprairie.The first evidence that we were coining to Okmulgee as thesun began to drop toward the horizon, was the sight of Severs'pasture. This pasture was three miles square, with a split railChronicles of Oklahomafence, nine rails high. In trading with the Indians Fred B. Seversbought small bunches of their surplus stock for which they tookexchange in "store goods." These cattle then had the Severs'brand placed upon them and were turned into the pasture untila sufficiently large herd was ready for market. We forded Ok-mulgee Creek and went up the road past camps and camp housesto, Smiths' Hotel. This was another colored Smith, who was not aCreek freedman but a States' negro with a Creek freedman wife.Smiths' Hotel was a rather large frame building a block fromthe Council house. A front room upstairs was assigned to me.It looked out on an upper porch and its windows were curtainless.Its furnishings comprised a low springless bedstead with a fea-ther bed and pillows, one sheet, and a clean patchwork quilt; nomirror, no chair nor wash basin. Guests of the hotel were ex-pected to perform their ablutions on the front porch, below, wherethere was a long shelf with buckets of water, gourd dippers, tinwash basins with one roller towel. I had prepared for such anemergency with a plentiful supply of soap and towels, so neitherfather nor I had to patronize the roller towel and I borrowed abasin so I got along very well. Out in front of the hotel, swingingfrom its iron frame on a high post was an iron plantation bell.A vigorous pulling of the attached rope was the signal to the townthat it was meal time.Meals at Smiths' Hotel were two, bits but there were board-ing places at which meals could be had for fifteen and twentycents and not bad meals either. Each breakfast and supper atSmiths' was a replica of the others, everything that could be friedwas fried, bacon, eggs, ham, potatoes, corn, etc. At dinner mostfoods were boiled but there was often barbecued pork or beef, andchicken appeared with dumplings and gravy. For anyone whoasked there were Indian dishes, sofkey, tuklike, tooksey, ahpuskeyetc. There was always coffee to drink and water if you asked forit, but it was customary to patronize the dippers in the waterbuckets on the front porch after each meal.At early candlelight the Council House bell rang and in thedimly lighted hall I went with my father up the steps of the newCouncil House, recently completed, and used for the first time atthis meeting of the Council. Hymns in their own language were896The Creek Indian Council in Sessionbeing sung as a congregation gathered in the Hall of the lowerhouse of the Warriors, The "Tustenukkulkee'". Men, women andchildren drifted in during the singing, then a man began to prayand everybody knelt down. The service was entirely in Creek,and the Preacher was the President of the House of Kings, The"Mekkulkee'", always addressed as Liketuh Ohliketuh'". The Rev-erend James McHenry, a notably outstanding character, was theson of a Scotch father and Indian mother. During the bloodyCreek war which led to the conquering of. the Creek people andtheir exile to Indian Territory, McHenry was a fearless fighter.He foiled all attempts to entrap him and even a standing rewardof $1500.00 for him, dead or alive, failed to bring results. Finallytaken however he was carried with his exiled brethren to IndianTerritory where he began a new life. He was converted and wentinto the Methodist Church and was duly licensed and ordainedas a minister. He had received a rudimentary education in Eng-lish. No longer an outlaw, he was a leader of his people, a zeal-ous Christian soldier. The service he conducted was not long,for the village kept early hours.At six the next morning when Smiths' bell told that break-fast was ready, I got up and joined my father downstairs in timefor bacon and eggs, hot biscuit, fried chicken and all the rest.Then we walked around awhile exchanging greetings with our In-dian friends. At a quarter of nine the Council House bell rang.We had gone a little earlier to pay our respects to the PrincipalChief, the "Mekko Hlakko'", in the executive office. Ward Coach-man was a nian of much ability who was born in the "Old Nation'"in Alabama and educated there before following his people West.He was a member of the Alabama Creeks and spoke English, Creekand Alabaman with equal fiuence and our interview was a pleas-ant one. From the executive office we went across the hall to theoffice of the committee on schools where father placed on file hisreports of Tullahassee Mission and left his books for financialaudit and approval that the treasurer might issue a warrant forfunds. The Contract under which Tullahassee was operated pro-vided a division of expense between the Mission Board and theCreek Nation.Then we went upstairs to the House oJf Kings. The "LightHorse" who acted as doorkeeper admitted us and gave us seats897Chronicles of Oklahomato the left of the dais, on which was the desk of Mekko, McHenry.We watched the routine business of the morning hour. ThenMekko McHenry with great dignity and eloquence of voice andgesture made a personal address which brought a smile of gratifica-tion to father's face and embarrassed blushes to mine. With themusical style of Creek oratory he was describing to the Mekkulkeethe good works of the Robertsoxn family and their accomplish-ments for the welfare of the Creek people. The young womanpresent with her father, he said, was a great friend to the Mus-kogee people in Washington where she worked for Wachins Mekko,the Government, and had done many things helping them. Es-pecially he enlarged upon the recent contest among themselves inthe election for chief where the papers seemed to have been laidaside and forgotten.All the public life was at a standstill. Their treasury wasempty, their Courts and schools were without funds; even thecommunity blacksmiths had no funds till there should be legalrecognition of their government and officials through whom thefunds should be paid. Though as they saw she was just a girl,she had interceded, and had been allowed, upon examination oftheir papers, to write a report which had been adopted, the right-ful government had been recognized, and peace came to their peo-ple. Then his gavel called all to their feet and as father anddaughter stood he led the stately stepping band of Indian Kingsthrough their ceremony of presentation and hand shaking, allreturning to their places and remaining standing until the fallof the gavel permitted them to be seated. This was an honor neverbestowed upon a woman before.898

Chronicles of Oklahoma

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Chronicles of Oklahoma

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