Seminole Indian Territory for Producer Part IV

Seminole Indian Territory for Seminole Producer IV

Negotiations then began with the Seminole and Creek Nations. The Seminoles approved a resolution which was ratified in July 1898. In 1902, meetings were held among the Indian people to determine their position on the formation of an independent Indian State. In 1903 the leaders of the Five Civilized Tribes
met and adopted resolutions concerning the creation of a separate Indian state, with its own Constitution and Congressional delegates. In 1905 an official call was made to establish a separate Indian State with the result that committees were formed and the task of drafting a constitution started. On September 8, 1905, after months of work, the constitution was adopted.

It advocated separation of the Oklahoma Territory and the Indian Territory and
the formation of a separate Indian State. The new Indian state was to be called Sequoyah and was divided into 48 counties. Fort Gibson was the choice for the first capital. The Sequoyah Constitution was submitted to the people of the Indian Territory for a vote in October 1905, and passed by an overwhelming majority of both whites and Indians. Following ratification, a committee was sent to Washington to present the proposed Constitution for the State of Sequoyah, to Congress. Theodore Roosevelt and the Republican-led Congress opposed
the idea of forming separate states: stating "that Indian Territory and Oklahoma be admitted as one State."

In November 1907, Oklahoma became a State and land which was designated for the Seminole people became Seminole County.
Timeline:

1819: Florida was ceded to the U.S. by the Spanish
1820: Land of present day Oklahoma was divided as follows:
North: Cherokee
Center: Creek
South: Choctaw
1823: First treaty was signed between Seminole Nation and U.S. which moved the Seminole into Florida's swamp lands.
1832: Treaty of Payne's Landing was signed and the tribe agreed to be moved to the Indian Territory.
1833: Treaty of Fort Gibson was signed between the Creek and Seminole, giving the Seminole a place to live within land allotted to the Creek Nation.
1835-1842: The Seminole Nation became divided between those who accepted the move to Indian Territory and those who did not.
1854: The Creek began to favor the separation the Seminole were asking.
1856: Seminole were given their own land, instead of residing on Creek land.
1859: The Seminole moved to their new territory and established its capital near Wanette, in Pottawatomie County.
1879: Whites outnumbered Indians 2:1 in the Indian Territory, the majority of which were outlaws.
1889: The Indian Appropriation Act resulted in reconstruction of the boundaries of Seminole  lands.
April 22, 1889: The first land run in Oklahoma
1892: The Dawes Commission was established and authorized to negotiate with The Five Civilized Tribes in an effort to establish true land ownership.
1893: Dawes Commission was organized with three propositions, which angered the Tribes.
1) Allotment of lands
2) Abandonment of Tribal Organizations
3) Organization of Territorial government
1894: Passage of The Curtis Act legalized the presence of whites in the Indian Territory by making it possible for them to purchase land in established towns.
March 1, 1895: Congress passed an act dividing the Indian Territory into three judicial districts.
May 1895: The Commission again proposed the tribes relinquish their lands. The Tribes refused this proposal. The Commission then proposed that Congress extend the Territorial government over the Five Tribes.
1896: The Commission was directed to complete a survey of the Indian Lands and to make a "roll" to determine who was entitled to land allotment.
July 1, 1898: Congress ratified an agreement with the Seminole Nation regarding land allotments and jurisdiction of the U.S. government over land disputes.
1905: Congress declined to accept the proposal of the Five Civilized Tribes for their own State, named Sequoyah.
The first Seminole mission school founded in the Indian Territory (present Oklahoma) was Oak Ridge, a manual labor school established in 1848. The Oak Ridge site was about three miles southeast of present Holdenville in the former Creek Nation, where the Seminole dwelled until 1856. The Presbyterian Mission Board built and ran the school. Rev. John Lilley and his wife, Mary Anne, were in charge. The Lilleys were assisted by John Bemo, a Seminole. In 1853 they had twenty-six students, nineteen of whom were Seminole. Creek and Cherokee students paid room and board, while Seminole attended for free. The Lilley's children were also enrolled. Oak Ridge closed in 1855 when the Lilleys returned to the East. They returned and reopened Oak Ridge in 1856 and were assisted by Rev. James Ross Ramsey, who later organized the Wewoka Mission, a boarding school for Seminole girls, just north of Wewoka. Oak Ridge was abandoned and destroyed during the Civil War. Pictured in my website are the ruins of the Mission, Anna Iona "Onie" Bemo and John Douglas Bemo.

The Seminoles were the last of the Five Civilized Tribes to establish their own police force. They had no funds for that, and during the American Civil War, the Seminole Government was dysfunctional. It was 1876 before the Governor hired A. Q. Brown, a young cattle drover from Texas, as the first Lighthorseman, following the Civil War.

Due to coming statehood, most of the Indian police powers were given to the federal government by 1898; except for the Seminoles, who had only disbanded their Lighthorse shortly after the turn of the century.
Many of the Indian tribes in present day Oklahoma have regained full police powers, including the Seminoles. The Muskogee (Creek) Nation have resurrected the Lighthorse police. The Cherokee Nation has the Cherokee Marshals Service which is the largest with 14 officers. Others with police departments include the Comanche, Ponca, Kaw, Iowa, Miami, Osage, Cheyenne/Arapaho, Kickapoo, Pawnee, Otoe-Missouri, Shawnee, Potawatomi, Sac & Fox, and Choctaw.
Among the Seminole Lighthorse, Captain Chilli Fish and Jacob Harrison were noted for their leadership abilities. Fish later became the Principal Chief of the Seminole Nation in the 1920's. Other notables were: Cumsey Bruner and Thomas Bruner.

There were quite a few black Lighthorsemen in the Creek and Seminole Nations who became renowned. In the Seminole Nation, Freedman Dennis Cyrus was the most noted black Indian police officer. Cyrus served with the Seminole Lighthorse for twenty-five years. Five of those years he held a deputy U.S. marshal commission under Marshal John Carroll at Fort Smith. Cyrus died on December 24, 1912. Other black Seminole Lighthorsemen included Cumsey Bruner, Ceaser Payne, Thomas Bruner, John Dennis and Tom Payne. Ceaser Payne was noted for killing a gang leader in the Seminole Nation named Bob Dossay.
The Chickasaw Lighthorsemen worked out of Tishomingo and the Choctaw Lighthorsemen were headquartered at Tuskahoma and Atoka. The Indian nations didn't have any jurisdictional rights over white men or black men who were not citizens of their nations. What the Indian Lighthorse did, on many occasions, was to stop non-citizens from breaking the law, detain them and turn them over to deputy U.S. marshals. The legendary Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves picked up many of his prisoners from the Seminole, Chickasaw, and Creek Lighthorse police on his trips through the nations. On some occasions the Indian Lighthorse would kill a non-citizen and would have to stand trial in federal court at Fort Smith, Arkansas. The respective Indian nation would then pay for a defense lawyer for the policeman on trial.

The Seminole Nation, being the smallest of the Five Tribes, had a different legal system in that the Chief was the judge and the council served as the court. Generally, the Seminole Lighthorse which were headquartered at Wewoka, were appointed and comprised of a captain, lieutenant and eight privates. Although the smallest in number, the Seminole Lighthorse was the most feared of all the Five Tribes because they were the most aggressive. The Seminole law stated explicitly that in order to protect officers: “If, notwithstanding the orderly deportment of the officer, the person to be arrested shall have the right to kill." This edict was followed by prompt action of the Seminole Lighthorse in pursuing felons.

The general rule of thumb in the Indian nations was for a criminal to be tied to a whipping post and lashed with a hickory switch by a Seminole Lighthorseman increments of 25, 50 and 75 if they were repeatedly arrested. After the third lashing a person could be condemned to death by a Lighthorseman firing squad. The sentence was carried out by an Indian judge and jury. Traditionally, a condemned man would be released to his family and return in a year's time for his execution. Most all Indians honored this tradition except a few who escaped their punishment as the era of the Indian nations moved closer to an end in 1907. With this in mind, the Five Tribes, except for the Cherokee, didn't see a need for a national prison. The Chickasaw did maintain a jail at Tishomingo. A portion of the Seminole Nation whipping post is in the Oklahoma State Historical Museum in Oklahoma City. John Bemo pictured here...