Muskogee's Indian international fairs: Tribal autonomy and the Indian image in the late nineteenth century

Western Historical Quarterly

Volumn 34, Issue 3, 2003, Pages 325-345

  Denson, Andrew ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 33845722250     PISSN: 00433810     EISSN: 19398603     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/25047297     Document Type: Article

References (113)

1. The account was reprinted in Indian Journal (Muskogee, Creek Nation), 13 October 1881, block quote on p. 4, other quotes 2-4, transcript in Notes on Five Nations Fairs, Grant Foreman Papers, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma, (hereafter Foreman Notes).
2. Relatively few of the fair association's official documents have survived. Those that remain are mostly brief letters spread about in the papers of the Five Tribes and in the correspondence files of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. There are, however, quite a few newspaper accounts available, in particular the collection noted above. Other resources are the Indian-Pioneer History Collection (hereafter IPHC; copy at the Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, OK [hereafter OHS]), an extensive set of oral histories taken in the 1930s by Works Progress Administration interviewers. Finally, I have used the advertisements posted by fair organizers in Indian newspapers like the Cherokee Advocate (Tahlequah, Cherokee Nation).
3. These often listed speakers and events, the judges of competitions, and prominent visitors. PLEASE NOTE: the Cherokee Advocate is located in the Newspaper division, OHS;
4. the Indian Journal, Progress (Muskogee, Creek Nation)
5. Vindicator (Atoka, Choctaw Nation)
6. and Oklahoma Star (Caddo, OK) are all found in Foreman Notes.
7. Robert W. Rydell, All the World's a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916 (Chicago, 1984), 21-7, 55-68, 111-8.
8. The term "Five Civilized Tribes" is problematic, insofar as it suggests that the Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, Seminoles, and Chickasaws experienced a uniform and thorough cultural transformation in the nineteenth century. The term ignores the great complexity of southeastern Indian cultural history. 1 prefer simply "Five Tribes," although whenever possible, I use individual tribal names.
9. I am not certain when the fair ended, but 1893 is the last year for which I have found documentation of any kind. Also, it is worth noting that the fair did not take place in 1883 and during several years in the late 1880s. Oklahoma Star, 13 November 1874;
10. John Q. Tufts to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 30 June 1884, letter no. 12440, RG 75, Bureau of Indian Affairs, letters received, National Archives, Washington, DC (hereafter NA-DC);
11. Cherokee Advocate, 16 September 1893.
12. A collection of Indian nations, the Indian Territory was a political and legal anomaly in the West. It had no tetritory-wide government, but rather various tribal political systems. Law and political practice varied widely from tribe to tribe.
13. For territotialization, see William G. McLoughlin, After the Trail of Tears: The Cherokees' Struggle for Sovereignty, 1839-1880 (Chapel Hill, 1993), 222-9;
14. Jeffrey Burton, The Indian Territory and the United Slates, 1866-1906: Courts, Government, and the Movement for Oklahoma Statehood (Norman, 1995), 15-77;
15. Francis Paul Prucha, American Indian Policy in Crisis: Christian Reformers and the Indian, 1865-1900 (Norman, 1976), 376-80;
16. Roy Gittinger, The Formation of the State of Oklahoma, 1803-1906 (1917;
17. reprint, Norman, 1939), 221-3.
18. d sess., House Committee on Indian Affairs, RG 233, HR 41A-H5.1, NA-DC;
19. d sess., S. Doc. 143 (Serial 1408);
20. d sess., S. Doc. 154 (Serial 1408). These serials are published document sets, printed in Washington, DC, and are available in most major government document libraries. I used the serials held by Indiana University, Bloomington.
21. st sess., House Committee on Indian Affairs, RG 233, HR 39A-F11.12, NA-DC;
22. Speech of W. P. Ross Before the Senate Committee on Territories, reprinted in Cherokee Advocate, 5 March 1879.
23. Protest of the Cherokee Nation, 30 January 1871, Hargrett Pamphlet Collection, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK;
24. st sess., H. Doc. 1 (Serial 1505);
25. Protest of the Delegates of the Creek, Cherokee, and Choctaw Nations, [1872], 42d Cong., 2d sess., Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, RG 46, S 42A-H10, NA-DC;
26. Cherokee Advocate, 18 June 1871, 14 March 1874, 25 March 1876, 7 November 1877, 20 April 1878.
27. Proceedings of the General Council of the Indian Territory, 1870, 1872, 1873, 1875, International Council File, Section X, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, OK;
28. d sess., S. Doc. 26 (Serial 1440).
29. d sess., S. Doc. 154 (Serial 1408);
30. Memorial of the International Council, reprinted in Cherokee Advocate, 18 June 1871;
31. st sess., H. Doc. 88 (Serial 1618).
32. Angie Debo, The Road to Disappearance (Norman, 1941), 177-83, 190-6, 268-81.
33. McLoughlin, After the Trail of Tears, 289-338.
34. "Life of Joshua Ross, Indian Pioneer, Given by Susie Ross Martin," interview by Ella Robinson, 11 June 1937, IPHC (hereafter "Life of Joshua Ross"), 6: 413;
35. Ella Robinson, Indian International Fair, 13 July 1937, IPHC 52:396-404;
36. Cherokee Advocate, 21 September 1879;
37. Indian Journal, 29 September 1877.
38. Oral history of William A. Cummins, interview by W. T. Holland, 20 May 1937, IPHC, 21:337.
39. d sess., H. Report 93 (Serial 1866), 12.
40. oral history of Will R. Robison, interview by O. C. Davidson, 24 February 1937, IPHC, 8: 537.
41. Debo, Road to Disappearance, 198-9, 231-2;
42. H. Craig Miner, The Corporation and the Indian: Tribal Sovereignty and Industrial Civilization, 1865-1907 (1976;
43. reprint, Norman, 1989), 1-96.
44. John A. Foreman to Secretary of the Interior, 9 November 1883, letter no. 20439, RG 75, Bureau of Indian Affairs, letters received, NA-DC;
45. "Life of Joshua Ross," 6: 409-16;
46. Debo, The Road to Disappearance, 232;
47. Grant Foreman, A History of Oklahoma (Norman, 1942), 120-1.
48. Debo, The Road to Disappearance, 231-2, 241-2, 259, 278.
49. Oklahoma Star, 13 November 1874.
50. Progress, 22 October 1875
51. Vindicator, 25 October 1876
52. Cherokee Advocate, 29 July 1880, 29 September 1881;
53. John Ingalls to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 26 August 1875, handbill, [1876], RG 75, Union agency, M234, roll 865, NA-DC;
54. oral history of Mrs. Joseph Martin, interview by Elizabeth Ross, 20 October 1937, IPHC, 60: 295-300;
55. Leslie Mina Prosterman, Ordinary Life, Festival Days: Aesthetics in the Midwestern County Fair (Washington, DC, 1995).
56. Proceedings of the General Council of the Indian Territory, 1872, 1873, Section X, International Council File, OHS (delegates are listed on page two of each document);
57. Emmet Starr, History of the Cherokee Indians and their Legends and Folklore (Oklahoma City, 1921), 273, 410-2.
58. Cherokee Advocate, 1 March 1876, 12, 19 October 1878, 21 September 1879, 1 September 1880, 25 August 1882;
59. Indian Journal, 7 October 1880, 24 October 1882, 11 September and 9 October 1884;
60. Resolution of the General Council of the Indian Territory [with list of stock subscribers], 1875
61. clipping from an unknown Kansas newspaper, 29 July 1875, RG 75, Union agency, M234, roll 865, NA-DC.
62. Commissioner of Indian Affairs to Creek delegates, 4 February 1882, Creek National Records, federal relations, roll 35, OHS;
63. Creek delegates to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 6 March 1883, letter no. 4399
64. John Q. Tufts to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 25 March 1883, letter no. 5300
65. John A. Foreman to Secretary of the Interior, 9 November 1883, letter no. 20439
66. Charles King (Foreman's lawyer) to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 9 November 1883, letter no. 20556
67. Creek delegates to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 19 February 1884, letter no. 3524
68. Robert L. Owen to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1 June 1884, letter no. 10665
69. John A. Foreman to Secretary of the Interior, 20 March 1889, letter no. 7932, all in RG 75, Bureau of Indian Affairs, letters received, NA-DC.
70. Vindicator, 18 September 1875;
71. Progress, 22 October 1875;
72. Cherokee Advocate, 12 October 1878;
73. John Ingalls to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 26 August, 14 September 1875, S. W. Marston to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 24 June 1876, Commissioner of Indian Affairs to S. W. Marston, 23 August 1876, all in RG 75, Union agency, M234, roll 865, NA-DC;
74. L. G. Miles to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 26 July 1884, letter no. 14494, E. H. Murrell to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 25 August 1891, letter no. 31434, Joshua Ross to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 23 August 1892, letter no. 31442, all in RG 75, Bureau of Indian Affairs, letters received, NA-DC.
75. Paul Kelton, "William Penn Adait: Cherokee Slaveholder and Indian Freedom Advocate," Chronicles of Oklahoma 77 (Spring 1999): 22-53.
76. "The Indian Territory in 1878," Chronicles of Oklahoma 4 (September 1926): 256-7, 259-67, 269-71.
77. This is a reprinting of William Penn Adair's address, with a note and (probably) the title provided by an anonymous editor at Chronicles of Oklahoma. The piece was originally published in Indian Journal, 9 and 16 October 1878.
78. "The Indian Territory in 1878," 272.
79. Allan G. Bogue, From Prairie to Corn Belt: Farming on the Illinois and Iowa Prairies in the Nineteenth Century (Chicago, 1963), 193-5, 204-6.
80. Francis Paul Prucha, The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians (Lincoln, 1984), 285-92;
81. Prucha, Great Father, 687-711.
82. Cherokee Advocate, 19 September 1877.
83. Letter of W. P. Adair, Cherokee Delegate, Addressed to His People (pamphlet), 20 September 1870, folder 3792, Cherokee Nation Papers, Western History Collection, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, 8.
84. Proceedings of the General Council of the Indian Territory, September 1875, International Council File, Section X, OHS, 29-30; Delegates of the Five Civilized Tribes to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 22 January 1876, Bureau of Indian Affairs, RG 75, Centennial Exhibition, M234, roll 54, NA-DC. The Cherokees sent to the Centennial Exhibition photographs of their public buildings and copies of the Cherokee Advocate, while the Creeks sent examples of work done by the tribe's school children. Indian Journal, 24 August and 7 September 1876.
85. On a number of occasions in the 1860s and 1870s, Congress proposed transferring control of Indian affairs from the Interior Department back to the War Department, which had overseen Indian relations prior to 1849. Continued warfare in the West convinced some that the civilian agency should be replaced with firm military control of the Indian population. The governments of the Five Tribes opposed transfer. Prucha, American Indian Policy in Crisis, 72-102.
86. Cherokee Advocate, 12 and 26 October 1878, 8 October 1879, 29 January 1880;
87. Ella Robinson, Indian International Fair, 13 July 1937, IPHC, 52: 402;
88. Charles Thompson to Rutherford B. Hayes, Carl Schurz, and E. A. Hayt, 28 August 1879, E. A. Hayt to Charles Thompson, 6 September 1879, Carl Schurz to Charles Thompson, 18 September 1879, Cherokee National Records, Fairs, roll 77, OHS;
89. John A. Foreman and Joshua Ross to Secretary of Interior, 6 August 1878, John A. Foreman to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 30 June 1880, John Q. Tufts to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 21 September 1880, all in RG 75, ,Union agency, M234, rolls 869, 873, and 877, NA-DC;
90. Joshua Ross and Leo Bennett to Commissioner of Indian Af-fairs, 25 July 1888, letter no. 19020
91. Joshua Ross to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 27 July 1892, letter no. 27396, all in RG 75, Bureau of Indian Affairs, letters received, NA-DC.
92. Cherokee Advocate, 12 October 1878.
93. Cherokee Advocate, 8 October 1879.
94. Cherokee Advocate, 25 August 1882;
95. Joshua Ross to D. W. Bushyhead, 21 August 1882, Cherokee National Records, fairs, roll 77, OHS.
96. Letter of J. E. Brietz [editor of Ft. Smith, Arkansas, Herald], Cherokee Advocate, 26 October 1878;
97. The parade of nations may have continued into the 1880s. An advertisement for the 1884 fair, for example, mentions an "Indian Procession." Indian Journal, 11 September 1884, photostat in Foreman Papers. Here I rely on accounts from the earlier years of the fair.
98. Theda Perdue, ed., Nations Remembered: An Oral History of the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles in Oklahoma, 1865-1907 ( 1980;
99. reprint, Norman, 1993), 67-8.
100. "Resolution of the Board of Education," in Cherokee Advocate, 16 September 1876;
101. Resolution, 8 September 1878, Minutes of the Board of Education, Cherokee National Records, schools, roll 128, OHS;
102. Cherokee Advocate, 9 September 1879, 1 September 1880.
103. Rydell, All the World's a Fair, 21-7, 55-68, 111-8.
104. Joshua Ross, incidentally, asked to be made a commissioner to the Columbian Exposition for Indian Territory. Joshua Ross to William A. Phillips, 29 July 1892, letter no. 30121, RG 75, Bureau of Indian Affairs, letters received, NA-DC.
105. John G. Cawelti, "America on Display: The World's Fairs of 1876, 1893, 1933," in The Age of Industrialism in America: Essays in Social Structure and CulturalValues, ed. Frederic Copie Jaher (NewYork, 1968), 317-63;
106. Alan Trachtenberg, The Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age (New York, 1982), 208-34;
107. Neil Harris, "Great American Fairs and American Cities: The Role of Chicago's Columbian Exposition," in Neil Harris's Cultural Excursions: Marketing Appetites and Cultural Tastes in Modern America (Chicago, 1990), 111-31.
108. Rydell, All the World's a Fair, 24-5, 57-60, 99-100.
109. For evolutionary theory in American anthropology, see Curtis M. Hinsley, Jr., Savages and Scientists: The Smithsonian Institution and the Development of American Anthropology, 1846-1910 (Washington, DC, 1981);
110. Robert E. Bieder, Science Encounters the Indian, 1820-1880: The Early Years of American Ethnology (Norman, 1986), 194-246.
111. L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883-1933 (Albuquerque, 1996), 129-67. As the title indicates, Moses deals primarily with wild west shows, but he also examines the model Indian schools at world's fairs.
112. Cawelti, "America on Display," 317-21 ;
113. Trachtenberg, Incorporation of America, 208-20.