"UNTIL WE FALL TO THE GROUND UNITED": CHEROKEE RESILIENCE AND INTERFACTIONAL COOPERATION IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY By TABATHA TONEY Associate of Arts in Secondary Education Rose State College Midwest City, OK 2007 Bachelor of Arts in History/Museum Studies University of Central Oklahoma Edmond, OK 2009 Master of Arts in History/Museum Studies University of Central Oklahoma Edmond, OK 2010 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2018 "UNTIL WE FALL TO THE GROUND UNITED": CHEROKEE RESILIENCE AND INTERFACTIONAL COOPERATION IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY Dissertation Approved: Dr. William S. Bryans Dissertation Adviser Dr. Laura Arata Dr. Douglas Miller Dr. Lindsay Smith ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A common expression is that it takes a village to raise a child. It also takes a village to raise a graduate student. There are many whom I need to express my utmost gratitude for fostering my success in the last decade. I first want to thank the Scholarship Committee in the OSU Department of History for their continued support that enabled me to continue my education despite financial difficulties. Throughout my time at Oklahoma State University, I have been lucky to have worked with several professors. Drs. Moses, McCoy, Cooper, and Huston provided wonderful encouragement when I was a new student. I am thankful for the time Dr. Brian Frehner served as my advisor. A special thank you to Dr. Bryans for serving as my last advisor and staying with me through the entire process. I have greatly appreciated the perspective and encouragement from Dr. Miller in the later part of the dissertation process. Also, a thank you to the rest of my committee: Drs. Arata, Miller, and Smith. In a personal sense, I have had the support of so many. I appreciate my colleagues, Dr. Mary Sanders Bracy, as well as Elizabeth Bass and Jason Harris. In addition, I cannot stress the ongoing support and aid I received from Dr. Justin Prince and his wife, Carla. Archivists serve an important role to researchers as well. A thank you to Bill Welge, formerly the head of the Archives and Research Division of the Oklahoma Historical Society for first putting me on the path of the topic that would become my dissertation. Also, I greatly appreciate those at the Western History Collections, the James Vaughan Library in Tahlequah, and the Carl Albert Research Center in Norman. I appreciate Sarah Dumas for supporting me the entire time. I received an immense amount of encouragement and support from my previous professors, including Dr. Tim H. Baughman, Dr. Loughlin, and Heidi Vaughn at the University of Central Oklahoma and Michelle Brockmeier from Rose State College. As always, I appreciate my grandparents and parents for their unwavering encouragement. I commend Kelly Douglass, who met me the week before comprehensive exams, and stayed the entire time during the rest of my journey. iii Acknowledgements reflect the views of the author and are not endorsed by committee members or Oklahoma State University. Name: TABATHA TONEY Date of Degree: May 2018 Title of Study: "'UNTIL WE FALL TO THE GROUND UNITED': CHEROKEE RESILIENCE AND INTERFACTIONAL COOPERATION IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY" Major Field: HISTORY Abstract: "'Until We Fall to the Ground United': Cherokee Resilience and Interfactional Cooperation in the Early Twentieth Century," chronicles the political history of the Cherokee tribal government from 1906 to 1950. After the 1898 Curtis Act eventually abolished the recognition of the Cherokee and other tribal governments in 1906, the Cherokees put aside the nearly one hundred years of sometimes violent factionalism to retain their autonomy. Coming together under the Keetoowah, the tribe reorganized under a new constitution and charter according to the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act passed in June 1936. Before the twentieth century, tribal factionalism enabled the US to interfere in tribal affairs beyond enforcing its Indian polices. Beginning with removal to the West, the US signed the Treaty of New Echota with the party most favorable to the officials' goals. After the Trail of Tears in the 1830s, violent retribution for removal and a dispute on the official government of the tribe led to the US intervention and Treaty of 1846. Opposing sides were chosen again in the American Civil War, causing a harsh Treaty of 1866 that damped self-determination even further. Disagreement occurred after the Dawes Act and allotment was forced on all in the tribe. However, with the Curtis Act and dissolution of tribal government in 1906, those divided were able to work together peacefully because they had few other options. The tribe found itself without a way to govern themselves and submit claims and complaints to the US. The splintered factions united in the 1920s and along with the terms of the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act served as a successful, single, federally-recognized, authoritative tribal body: Keetoowah Incorporated, followed by the United Keetoowah Band. This coalition continued, albeit with some conflict, until the 1970s and the rewriting of the Cherokee constitution that divided the Cherokees into two governments that exist today. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................1 II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE..................................................................................12 III. FROM WHENCE WE CAME: FACTIONALISM AND THE CHEROKEE NATION, 1828-1906 .............................................................................................24 IV. DISSOLUTION OF A NATION, 1900s-1920s ...................................................81 V. FINDING COMMON GROUND: GRASSROOT BEGINNINGS, 1906-1925 .106 VI. AN OPPORTUNITY: THE IRA, THE OIWA, AND THE KEETOOWAH, 1936-1950 ............................................................................................................128 VII. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................169 VIII. EPILOGUE ......................................................................................................177 REFERENCES ..........................................................................................................186 APPENDICES ...........................................................................................................202 iv CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In 1898, the United States government passed the Curtis Act, declaring that it would no longer recognize tribal governments in Indian Territory after the completion of land allotment in March 1906. As a result, in the early twentieth century, the Cherokees and other tribes lost their right to self govern. However, despite the sometimes violent intratribal factionalism that ran rampant for nearly one hundred years, the fractionated tribe eventually worked together to reorganize and retain their sovereignty through a charter under the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936.1 Without this intratribal cooperation, the Cherokee would not have regained US recognition and their sovereignty to provide for their citizens until the tribal revitalization in 1970. This work contributes to native political history, as well as general US history, by chronicling not only the outside US American Indian policies and what they meant for the Cherokee but also how the people reacted among themselves to this external pressure. "Until We Fall to the Ground United" provides the other side of the story and is similar to the works of William G. McLoughlin and Andrew Denison; American Indians, and specifically the Cherokee as this work's focus, opposed the federal government, organized, and fought amongst themselves regarding the best actions for the survival and happiness of their people. Some believed this would be achieved through assimilation into white mainstream society while others believed a return to traditional tribal ways proved a better 1 A constitution and corporate charter of the Cherokees was approved and ratified on October 3, 1950. The Congressional act that approved the Cherokees organizing under a charter occurred in 1942 and US federal recognition was extended to the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians of Oklahoma in 1949. 1 option. Regardless of these ideological differences, Cherokee leadership in the early twentieth century proved resilient and put aside those arguments to work together for the future of their people. Chapter Two provides a historiography including the shift of depicting American Indians as passive observers to active participants, as well as the vast amount of monographs that depict US Indian policies concurrent to the relevant era of this work. These remain vital to understanding the outside pressures the tribes encountered. Works by historians such as Angie Debo, William McLoughlin, and Andrew Denson chronicle the negative effects of US Indian policies while authors like Francis Paul Prucha and Frederick Hoxie study the policies themselves, as well as the negative effects of such policies on Native Americans. However, scant historiography exists for the Cherokees specifically in the time period from 1906 to the 1930s, even from the tribe itself. When the federal government no longer officially recognized the tribal government, official records of the National Council and chiefs were no longer kept. Therefore, reliable sources are extremely difficult