The Long Removals of the Wyandot Indians, 1816-1894
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“LIVING BEYOND THE SKY”: THE LONG REMOVALS OF THE WYANDOT INDIANS, 1816-1894. By SHELDON YEAKLEY Bachelor of Arts in History Oklahoma Christian University Edmond, Oklahoma 2016 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2019 “LIVING BEYOND THE SKY”: THE LONG REMOVALS OF THE WYANDOT INDIANS, 1816-1894. Thesis Approved: Dr. Douglas Miller Thesis Adviser Dr. Richard J. Boles Dr. Mathew Schauer ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis began in my childhood. Summer breaks, Christmas vacations, and the Fourth of July were all spent driving northward from Texas towards the green hills of northeastern Oklahoma. Situated less than a mile from the Missouri border lay a beautiful piece of farmland my family called home. Growing up it was an immense playground filled with trees to climb, rocks to skip, and old things to excavate. My grandfather – Lee Rand Smith filled every night with stories of life on the farm during the Great Depression or his time in the Army. Occasionally he told stories about his affectionately termed “Uncle” Ike. Ike was a Wyandot man descended from Isaiah Walker the first owner of the farm. In 1935, my grandfather’s grandfather, an itinerant Methodist minister, H.J. Rand purchased a section of land from a family of Wyandot Indians who had been on this property since 1872. In that year Isaiah Walker built a house, barn, and bunkhouse on a slice of land that would in 1888 become his families’ allotted section. After the economic distress of the 1930s those Walker’s remaining on the property needed the money from the land’s sale. While the property changed owners, H.J. Rand let Ike remain on the farm, living in the bunkhouse. Therefore, the impetus and personal side of this thesis was my own interest iii Acknowledgements reflect the views of the author and are not endorsed by committee members or Oklahoma State University. in researching and explaining the origins of my family’s farm and those who built it. The story of how the Walkers and their fellow Wyandot arrived in Indian Territory fascinated me, and it is their account which I have attempted to present within these pages. This thesis would not be possible without the help of various people and organizations. My fellow graduate students at Oklahoma State University have provided consistent and fair critiques of this work in its various rough stages. My advising professors, Dr. Miller, Dr. Boles, and Dr. Schauer, each had a significant hand in shaping how this project advanced and in my development as a scholar. Much of the research presented in this thesis was gathered at archives thanks to the generous travel funds awarded to me by Oklahoma State University’s History Department. I would like to thank the Kansas City Public Library and their curating staff in the William E. Connelly Collection, the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library staff and their collection of James B. Finley Papers. I would also like to thank the Wyandotte Nation for providing access to several key maps and documents online. Finally, without support from my family, especially my wife Megan, this thesis would not have been possible and for that I am eternally grateful. iv Acknowledgements reflect the views of the author and are not endorsed by committee members or Oklahoma State University. Name: SHELDON YEAKLEY Date of Degree: MAY 2019 Title of Study: “LIVING BEYOND THE SKY”: THE LONG REMOVALS OF THE WYANDOT INDIANS, 1816-1894. Major Field: History Abstract: In 1816, the Wyandot Indians lived and claimed title to much of the contested Ohio country. By 1894, after a series of removals, they resided in northeastern Indian Territory on a reservation of twenty-thousand acres. The long and repeated process of this forced migration and dispossession reshapes the historical understanding of Indian Removal alongside several key components of Native American history from Indian slave-holding, citizenship, to identity. The Wyandot’s first removal from Ohio to Kansas Territory reflects the coercive tactics the U.S. used to force Indian land cessions. The Wyandot were not unique in the forced nature of their removal, but the presence of an influential Methodist mission both characterized the intra-tribal debate, which the Wyandot held over the prospects of removal, and shaped the opinions of prominent U.S. officials. After removing to Kansas Territory, the Wyandot entered a land bordering a slave society. Interestingly, within three years a select few prominent Wyandot began practicing and promoting slavery. In the decades leading up to the Civil War, the Wyandot like the U.S., engaged in a public and heated debate over the value and morality of slavery. Splitting their church along pro-South and pro-North lines the Wyandot became active members in the national and regional political conflict of Bleeding Kansas. Finally, in 1867 the Wyandot signed their last removal treaty which transplanted them to their current lands in Oklahoma. This treaty, and its predecessor in 1855, are intriguing and unique examples of the legalistic removal of Indian rights. Reshaping the historiographical portrayal of Native American land-holding and citizenship, some Wyandot in 1855 had been granted individual allotments and U.S. citizenship. In 1867, this was revoked, proving that for the U.S. assimilation was not the end goal, rather it was removal. Wyandot removals are a unique history which shares elements with all Indian Removals. The overarching presence of the U.S.’s intention to remove the Wyandot of their lands and rights is undeniable. What remains is an unbroken history of Wyandot active participation in their own historical circumstances and the consistent practice of Wyandot sovereignty. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................1 II. “NO POWER WILL COMPEL”: WYANDOT INDIANS IN OHIO AND REMOVAL, 1816-1844 ........................................................................................14 Fighting for Ohio, Conflicts and Treaties, 1795-1818 ...........................................19 “Subjects of Gospel Grace,” The Wyandot and Methodism, 1818-1829 ..............25 “Consent of the Indians,” The Wyandot Removal from Ohio ...............................35 III. “CONDEMNATION AND MERCY”: WYANDOT INDIANS AND SLAVERY IN KANSAS TERRITORY, 1844-1860 .....................................................................43 A New World in Kansas Territory .........................................................................46 Slavery: “May God in his infinite mercy forgive me.” ..........................................50 Schism: “Religious dissention in full fruiting” ......................................................64 Bleeding Kansas: “I long to be with them in the contests with the infernal abolitionists” ..........................................................................................................69 “A low muttering thunder” ....................................................................................76 vi Chapter Page IV. Pioneering Indians: The Wyandot’s New World in Indian Territory, Citizenship, and Allotment, 1860-1894 ............................................................................................78 “To begin anew a tribal existence”: The Treaty of 1867, Wyandot citizenship, legal precedent, and land-ownership ..............................................................................82 “Born in Old Wyandotte”: Generation of removal, pioneers to Indian Territory ..93 V. CONCLUSION: Meaning Beyond the Sky .........................................................105 REFERENCES ..........................................................................................................110 APPENDICES ...........................................................................................................118 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1 118 2 119 viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Wyandot history begins with a woman falling through a hole in the sky. She landed on the backs of two swans. 1 All the animals swimming or flying above the vast surface of water took pity on this woman who would not survive on the water. The Big Turtle called on the great divers to retrieve earth from the depths to build land for the woman. After many had failed, the least likely of all, the Toad, succeeded. Immediately Little Turtle took the earth from Toad and spread it over Big Turtle’s back and formed an island. That island is where the people lived. It is where they live today. 1 A note on terminology: Historians have referred to this nation by multiple names. There are broadly: Huron, Wendat, Wyandot, Wyandott, and Wyandotte. The Huron is an umbrella term originating with the French and it would be anachronistic to label the Wyandot as wholly Huron, despite the fact that their cemetery in Kansas City, Kansas is the Huron cemetery. Wendat were the direct ancestors to who I refer to as the Wyandot, but this would again be potentially too antiquated a term. Wyandot is the name I have chosen to use throughout this master’s thesis as it was the spelling most commonly used throughout much of the nineteenth-century and Wyandott and Wyandotte were originally variations on this spelling. However, the nation that resides in northeast Oklahoma is spelled Wyandotte, and after their move to Oklahoma this spelling remains consistent. I have kept the spelling as Wyandot for the