CHEROKEE NATION PAPERS Inventory and Index

CHEROKEE NATION PAPERS Inventory and Index

Revised and edited by

Kristina L. Southwell

Associates of the Western History Collections Norman, Oklahoma 1996

THE COVER Teresa Rankin of the University of Oklahoma Publications Department designed the cover of this book. It incorporates three photographs from the photographic archives of the Western History Collections with a character of the Cherokee syllabary in the background. On the left is a photograph of Stand Watie, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation and brigadier general in the army of the Confederacy. The photograph was taken after the Civil War, probably in the late 1860s. It is image 1459 of the Phillips Collection. The center photograph is of the Cherokee Female Seminary, a secondary school at Park Hill, Cherokee Nation. Three students are seen in the right foreground. The Seminary served the Cherokee Nation until 1909. The photograph dates from the late 1890s and is image 6 in the Piburn Collection. On the right is a portrait of Sarah C. Watie, wife of Stand Watie. Sarah Watie was a prolific letter writer and the Cherokee Nation Papers contain many examples of her correspondence. Her portrait also dates from the late 1860s and is image 1453 in the Phillips Collection.

Available from University of Oklahoma Western History Collections 630 Parrington Oval, Room 452 Norman, Oklahoma 73019

No state-appropriated funds were used to publish this guide. It was published entirely with funds provided by the Associates of the Western History Collections and other private donors. The Associates of the Western History Collections is a support group dedicated to helping the Western History Collections maintain its national and international reputation for research excellence.

Copyright, 1996, by the Western History Collections. All rights reserved.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction Map of the Cherokee Nation Genealogical Chart Folder/Roll Checklist Inventory Index

Roll No. 1 1 1 1 1 1

Page No. i iii iv v 1 277

Record Group 1 - OFFICIAL PAPERS

Roll No.

Folder No.

Box No.

Cherokee Advocate

2

1 - 74

1 - 3

Cherokee Boundary Survey

2

75 - 81

4

Cherokee Census

2 - 3

82 - 140

5 - 6

Cherokee Outlet

3

141 - 195

7 - 8

Citizenship

3

196 - 324

9 - 11

Creek War or William Cobb Murder Case

4

325 - 370

12

Dawes Commission

4 - 5

371 - 456

13 - 16

Delegations, Agents, and Attorneys

5

457 - 591

17 - 18

Eastern (North Carolina) Cherokees

6

592 - 622

19

Education (including Orphan Asylum)

6 - 16

623 - 1244

20 - 45

Elections

17 - 18

1245 - 1426

46 - 49

Insane Asylum

18

1427 - 1524

50 - 51

Intruders

18 - 19

1525 - 1664

52 - 53

Legislative Affairs

19 - 21

1665 - 1978

54 - 60

Licenses, Permits, and Fees

21

1979 - 2225

61 - 64

U.S./Cherokee Disputes

21 - 22

2226 - 2255

65

Executive Documents

22 - 24

2256 - 2658

66 - 72

Financial Records

24 - 30

2659 - 2726

73 - 82

National Officers

30 - 31

2727 - 2887

83 - 85

National Prison and High Sheriff

31

2888 - 2967

86 - 87

Old Settlers Party, or Western Cherokees

31

2968 - 2999

88

Pardons and Commutations Per-Capita Payments Railroads Rewards and Extraditions Smallpox Suspensions John Vann Murder Case Printed Documents

31 - 35 36 36 - 37 37 37 37 - 38 38 38

3000 - 3425 3426 - 3528 3529 - 3622 3623 - 3652 3653 - 3704 3705 - 3758 3759 - 3777 3778 - 3884

89 - 100 101- 02 103-104 105 106-107 108-109 110 111-112

Record Group 2 - PERSONAL PAPERS OF THE BELL, BOUDINOT, RIDGE AND WATIE FAMILIES

Stand Watie and Sarah Watie Papers Correspondence of John Ridge and John Rollin Ridge John Ridge Estate Claims Correspondence of Ridge and Boudinot Families with James Madison Bell Correspondence of Ridge and Boudinot Families Correspondence of Elias Cornelius Boudinot Correspondence between Elias Cornelius Boudinot and James Madison Bell James Madison Bell Papers Treaty Fund Claims Civil War Records General Documents General Correspondence Cherokee Language Material Division of Manuscripts Items (DMSS) Typescripts Oversize Materials Town Lots in Indian Territory

38 - 41

41 41

41 41 41

41 - 42 42 - 44 44 - 45 45 45 - 47 47 - 49 49 49 49 - 53 54 - 57 57 - 68

3885 - 4717

4718 - 4722 4723 - 4798

4799 - 4804 4805 - 4822 4823 - 4871

4872 - 5059 5060 - 6097 6098 - 6337 6338 - 6416 6417 - 6730 6731 - 7356 7357 - 7389 Items 1 - 48 7390 - 8096 8097 - 8212 8213 - 10338

115-128

129 130

131 132 133

134-136 137-150 151-154 155-156 157 - 164 165 - 173 174 N/A 175 - 179 180 - 201 202 - 232

INTRODUCTION

The Cherokee Nation Papers, held by the University of Oklahoma Libraries' Western History Collections, consist of approximately 104 linear feet of official records and publications of the former Cherokee Nation, and the personal papers of four leading Cherokee Indian families. The dates of the bulk of the materials are 1830-1907. The subject matter encompasses Cherokee removal from the southeastern United States to Indian Territory; the formation and operation of the Cherokee Nation government; the development of Cherokee Nation institutions such as the school and court systems, newspapers, health facilities, and law enforcement agencies; Cherokee relations with the United States government; and Cherokee involvement in the United States Civil War, and the subsequent effects of the Reconstruction. Also documented are Cherokee relations with citizens of the United States, such as the problem of unauthorized intruders into the Cherokee Nation; negotiations for leasing the Cherokee Outlet to cattle ranchers; rights-of-way for the construction of railroads through Indian Territory; the establishment of banks and postal service in Indian Territory; the taking of censuses; the allotment of Indian land in severalty; and the eventual acceptance of statehood for Oklahoma.

Appended to the official records in this collection is a grouping of personal papers from four prominent Cherokee families, those of James Madison Bell (1826-1915), Stand Watie (1806-1872), John Rollin Ridge (1827-1867), and Elias C. Boudinot (1834-1896). John Madison Bell was a prominent Cherokee politician, attorney, and businessman. He was associated with the Anti-Ross faction of the Cherokee Nation, served as a colonel in the Confederate States Army, and was the brother of Sarah Bell Watie. Bell was also related to the Ridge and Boudinot families and it was Bell who, through his family and political connections, is credited with accumulating the records and papers that make up the Cherokee Nation Papers. It was from a descendant of James Madison Bell that University of Oklahoma history professor Edward E. Dale purchased, in 1932, the records and papers that now constitute the Cherokee Nation Papers.

Many historians consider Stand Watie as one of the two most influential and important nineteenth-century leaders of the Cherokee Nation. John Ross, Watie's political rival, is the other. Watie led the Anti-Ross or Treaty Party after the assassination of his brother Elias Boudinot (a.k.a. Buck Watie), and John Ridge in 1839. Watie also served as a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army and as principal chief of the Southern Cherokees during the Civil War. He was the uncle of Elias C. Boudinot, and as noted above, his fourth wife, Sarah, was the sister of John Madison Bell.

The Watie correspondence files comment on personal and family matters, social activities, local news, political affairs, military matters, claims against the United States government, business affairs, the Ridge estate, and other family legal affairs. Some letters are written in the Cherokee syllabary. Besides the family members already mentioned, correspondents include General Matthew Arbuckle, Albert Pike, and Major General Samuel B. Maxey, and the principal chiefs of the Cherokee Nation, including John Ross, Dennis W. Bushyhead, Joel B. Mayes, and Thomas Mitchell Buffington.

As a result of the political conflict inherent in the Cherokee Nation of the nineteenth century, and the interrelated nature of the families involved, these official records and personal papers are extremely rich in political and socioeconomic information. They are equally significant because they are a body of documentation created by highly literate and politically astute American Indians. They provide an Indian perspective on the development, growth, and demise of an Indian government, and its ultimate incorporation by the United States.

Most of these records and papers are not duplicated in federal archives, or elsewhere. The Cherokee Nation Papers are complemented by a body of records known as the Indian Archives at the Oklahoma Historical Society in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Northeastern State University at Tahlequah, Oklahoma, also has isolated groups of Cherokee Nation records in its archives. The University of Tulsa holds the J. B. Milam Collection, which contains some early records of the Cherokee Nation. The presence of these four additional repositories with Cherokee records provides a rich source for researchers of Cherokee history. Other groups of Cherokee records are held in state repositories in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia, as well as in the federal archives at East Point, Georgia, and Ft. Worth, Texas.

ARRANGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

In 1981, the National Historic Publications and Records Commission approved the Western History Collections' grant proposal to arrange and describe the Cherokee Nation Papers. Mr. Jack Haley, Western History Collections assistant curator and

i

assistant project director for the 1981 grant, directed the arrangement of the Cherokee Nation Papers into two record groups and forty-five subgroups. Arrangement within subgroups generally followed a chronological pattern, with description primarily at the item level. Folder number sequences began anew in each subgroup. The arrangement and description of the collection, accomplished through the 1981 grant, has been maintained for this microfilm edition with the following exceptions.

First, all folders were renumbered. The technique of beginning folder numbers in each subgroup with folder number "1" made indexing to the folder level impractical. Consequently, folders were renumbered to run consecutively throughout the collection.

Second, a group of forty-eight Cherokee-related documents held by the Western History Collections, but not originally part of the Cherokee Nation Papers, have been filmed as part of this microfilm set. They were included because of their topical importance and appropriateness to the collection. These documents are part of the Western History Collections' Division of Manuscripts Collection, the Henry Bass Manuscript Collection, and the Locked File Collection. They appear between folders 7389 and 7390 and are not part of the folder number sequence. These materials are identified as DMSS items 1-48, both in the inventory and the index.

Third, the project director and the project archivist revised selected folder descriptions. These revisions included rephrasing descriptions to more accurately reflect a folder's contents, or to correct syntax and grammar. Descriptions were also shortened when possible, with the objective of reducing the volume of the inventory. It originally numbered more than 600 pages without an index.

The final major change was the preparation and inclusion of the index. The project director and project archivist believed an index essential to facilitate access to the more than 10,000 folders distributed over 68 rolls of microfilm. The index is based upon key words in the folder descriptions, and incorporates surnames of correspondents or authors of documents represented in the collection.

The inventory may be used to find both documents in the original collection, or in the microfilmed set. Headers on the inventory indicate the number of the microfilm roll on which photographed documents appear while box numbers are included within the normal folder sequence to facilitate retrieval of original documents. A checklist following the genealogical chart lists the consecutive folder numbers appearing on each roll of film. The index is keyed to folder numbers and DMSS item numbers. Consequently, access may be facilitated by first accumulating the folder numbers relating to topics of interest from the index, then reading the corresponding folder descriptions provided in the inventory. If the documents are of potential interest, the appropriate rolls of film may be selected from the checklist of folders and rolls.

PREFERRED CITATION

One of the purposes of preparing this microfilm set is to make these records and papers more widely accessible. For researchers using the microfilm edition, the curator of the Western History Collections prefers the following citation for references:

University of Oklahoma Libraries, Western History Collections, Cherokee Nation Papers Microfilm Edition, Roll Number, Folder Number, description and date of document.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1994 made microfilming of the Cherokee Nation Papers possible. The Oklahoma Historical Society Archives Division, under the direction of William Welge, helped immeasurably by providing the microfilm camera and operator for filming the collection. The excellent quality of images obtained from a diverse range of materials must be credited to the skill and persistence of Ross Jury, Oklahoma Historical Society microfilmer, who constantly sought to capture the best image possible. The preparation of copy for the inventory and index was performed by Shirley Clark of the Western History Collections, whose word processing and editorial skills are unsurpassed. We must also recognize the work of Del L. Bauman, Michele King, Linda Miles, Daniel Reff, and Mary Goodner, who, individually and collectively, did such fine work in preparing the finding aid resulting from the 1981 National Historic Publications and Records Commission grant project. It served researchers well for over a decade.

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