Exam 1

Question 1

Case involving jurisdiction over tribal affairs involving Corn Tassel, a tribal member who had killed another Indian and had been arrested, tried, convicted and subsequently executed by the state
The tribal Nation complained that the state had executed Corn Tassel in defiance of the Supreme Court, that had ordered the state to show cause by the sentence against Tassel should not be reviewed &that statw had passed laws providing for the disposal of this tribes lands by lottery and had taken steps to gain possession of gold and silver mines on their Territory.

Answer 1

Cherokee Nation v. Georgia:

Question 2

By this case the Cherokee were declaring themselves a foreign nation eligible to bring suit in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Marshal Court denied that the Cherokee Nation was an independent nation and instead declared that its relation to the U.S government was similar to that of ward to its guardian…basically the Cherokee were domestic, dependent nation and could not bring such a suit to the Supreme Court.

Answer 2

Cherokee Nation v. Georgia:

Question 3

Treaty which dissolved the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations.

Answer 3

Choctaw-Chickasaw Treaty of 1855:

Question 4

The U.S. was also a party to this treaty, primarily because she wanted a place to put other tribes being pushed by settlers to the south in TX and to the north in Kansas and Nebraska. The treaty thus provided for the 3-way division of the old Choctaw nation. The Choctaw retained the eastern third of the nation, the Chickasaw (along with $150k payment) received the middle third and the U.S. leased the western third as an area on which tribes from Tx, KS, NE could be colonized.

Answer 4

Choctaw-Chickasaw Treaty of 1855:

Question 5

An area 5-30 miles wide running from the SW to the NE across the center of the state of poor, thin red soil and base limestone which supports forests of post oak, blackjack oak, pin oak, hackberry, elm and cottonwood trees. These trees grow close together that they, combined with a tangled undergrowth of bush honeysuckle, briars, wild grapevines, blackberries, and buck brush form a natural, almost impenetrable barrier between the plans to the west and the prairies and forests to the east.

Answer 5

Cross Timbers:

Question 6

Location near Strecker in Caddo Country in SW OK where a skeleton of a mammoth was found with 3 large, man-made “Clovis” spear points embedded in its bones. The radio-carbon dating of the bones establishing that the kill occurred around 11,000 years ago, the earliest hard evidence of man in OK region.

Answer 6

Domebo Mammoth Kill Site:

Question 7

Newspaper, founded by Samuel Worcester in 1828, which was the first newspaper printed in both Cherokee and English.

Answer 7

Cherokee Pheonix

Question 8

Founder of the first permanent white settlement in OK in 1796 at Salina and known as the “father of OK.”

Answer 8

Chouteau, Jean Pierre (1758-1849):

Question 9

He and his brother Auguste made their fortunes trading with the Osage along the Missouri River. The Spanish, however took the monopoly of the Missouri Valley trade from them and granted it to Manuel Lisa instead. The brother relocated their operation to the Arkansas River Valley. Historians once believed that in 1802 he induced a large part of the Osage tribe to move from the Missouri River Valley south to the Arkansas/Verdigris Rivers (near Claremore.) We now know some 3000 Arkansas Osage led by Big Track were already in the region and were not induced to move the brothers. Following the LA purchase, President Jefferson appointed him agent of the Osage.

Answer 9

Chouteau, Jean Pierre (1758-1849):

Question 10

Agricultural people living in eastern OK and throughout the Mississippi River Valley who built large earthen mounds as high 50 ft. which they used as platforms for homes, burial vaults and for religious and political purposes.

Answer 10

Caddoan Mound Builders

Question 11

These mound builders home frames of small tree trunks which they lashed together and plastered with clay, water and smaller sticks and roofed with woven fiber mats. Evidence of these peoples in OK exists at Spiro Mounds along Fourche Maline Creek Williams Mound as well as other areas in the state.

Answer 11

Caddoan Mound Builders

Question 12

U.S. military post established in 1824 on the Arkansas River between the mouths of the Verdigris and Grand Rivers in the Three Forks Area, primarily to monitor the Osage and to protect settlers in the Three Forks region.

Answer 12

Fort Gibson

Question 13

U.S. army post established by Stephen Long in 1817 at Belle Pointe on the Arkansas at the juncture of the Arkansas and Poteau Rivers, 100 yards west of Arkansas Territory near the present-day OK-AR border.

Answer 13

Fort Smith

Question 14

Served as military center, as the headquarters of the Southern Super-intendency of Indian Affairs, and after the Civil War as the site of the U.S. District Court which administered Indian Territory.

Answer 14

Fort Smith

Question 15

U.S. military post established in 1824 on Gates Creek some seven miles from its juncture with the Red River near the mouth of the Kiamichi in SE OK. It was established to discourage settlers from squatting in the Kiamchi Valley and to protect the eastern tribes and assist in Indian removal.

Answer 15

Fort Towson

Question 16

A 120 square mile area of salt flats located in Alfalfa County used as a source of salt by early OK natives both for themselves and for trade and for the wide variety of wildlife.

Answer 16

Great Salt Plains

Question 17

When the George Sibley Party first saw this area in 1811, it ranged from a few inches to several feet deep on the plains and was reported of the highest quality.

Answer 17

Great Salt Plains

Question 18

Annual rite held by the southeastern tribes to give thanks and seek purity in an effort to avoid chaos and restore harmony to their worlds.

Answer 18

Busk Festival /Green Corn Ceremony

Question 19

Federal measures passed in May 1830 providing for removal of eastern tribes to lands west of the Mississippi River

Answer 19

Indian Removal Bill

Question 20

He was given a land grant to the Red River area N of Natchitoches, LA by John Law’s Co. of the West.
He organized an expedition to the area to explore trade possibilities with both the Natives and with the Spanish in Santa Fe.

Answer 20

de La Harpe, Bernard

Question 21

His expedition established a fort near present day Texarkana in early 1719 and from there traveled north and west into OK to Idabel, then N along Little River, overland to Gains Creak to the South Canadian. Crossing the S & N Canadians, he proceeded to the AR river, then up the river to present-day Haskell. He described the land as fertile, rich minerals, and ideally situated for trade, but decided against establishing a trading post as the Natives left in October to hunt and did not return until March.
He did visit towns of several native groups and described life there. Also held a peace council with the natives and formed alliance with them, raising the French flag over their village.

Answer 21

de La Harpe, Bernard

Question 22

The western third of the old Choctaw Nation that after 1855 was listed by the U.S. government as a potential home for tribes from TX, KS, & NE who were coming into conflict with settlers.

Answer 22

Leased District

Question 23

Leader of two major expeditions through the OK area. In 1817, he was directed to find a suitable location on the AR for a military post. From the mouth of the Kiamichi on the Red River, he traveled up the Kiamichi and Poteau Rivers to Belle Point on the AR, where he located Fort Smith. He was also the leader of an expedition with Bell in 1820.

Answer 23

Long, Stephen H

Question 24

Tracing descent through the mother’s line. The First People in OK as well as the Five Civilized Tribes practiced this

Answer 24

Matrilineal Organization

Question 25

Faction of the Lower Creeks who signed the Treaty of Indian Springs in 1825 that ceded Creek lands in the east for land in the west and other considerations. For this, faction leaders were executed.

Answer 25

McIntosh Faction

Question 26

negotiated in 1835 with the Ridge-Boudinot faction of the Cherokee Nation which provided cession of Cherokee land east of the MS and removal of the Cherokee to lands in the West.

Answer 26

New Euchota Treaty

Question 27

The majority of the Cherokee East denounced this treaty, which had already been rejected by the tribe as a whole, but the U.S. proceeded with removal - the Trail of Tears. As punishment for signing the treaty the leaders were assassinated.

Answer 27

New Euchota Treaty

Question 28

Case involving Samuel Worcester and Elizur Butler who, in violation of a Georgia act prohibiting whites to live in Indian country without state permission, had remained as missionaries in the Cherokee Nation. They were arrested, tried, and sentenced to four years at hard labor. They appealed the decision to the Supreme Court on the ground that Georgia had no right to make laws concerning the territory of an Indian Tribe. The Supreme Court decided that Cherokee lands were not a part of Georgia within the meaning of the Constitution and that the state statute was null and void. President Jackson refused to enforce this decision.

Answer 28

Worcester v. Georgia

Question 29

San Bernardo and San Teodoro, located on opposite sides of the Red River, which were principal villages of the Wichita who engaged in trade with the French and with tribes to the West. The Wichita apparently also acted as brokers between the French and the southern plains tribes.

Answer 29

Twin Villages

Question 30

The region in the vicinity of where the Arkansas, Verdigris, and Grand Rivers merge, near present-day Muskogee. This area was an early center of trade and other activities. Early missions, trading posts, salt works, shipyards, and other businesses were located in this region. Trappers and traders, both white and Native American, with their families, congregated in this vicinity. Fort Gibson was built in the this region in 1826.

Answer 30

Three Forks Area

Question 31

Commission authorized by Congress in 1832 to aid in placating the western tribes and to facilitate the removal of the eastern tribes. This three-man commission, appointed by Andrew Jackson, consisted of Montfort Stokes of North Carolina (chairman), Henry R. Ellsworth of Connecticut (who traveled west with the Washington Irving Party), and Reverend John F. Schermerhorn of New York. The duties of the commission were varied, and included but were not limited to finding a home for the Seneca and a band of Shawnee in Indian Territory, settling a boundary dispute between the Creek and Cherokee, to look into the condition of the Quapaw, dealing with the Osage question, and making peace with the plains tribes.

Answer 31

Stokes Commission

Question 32

A ceremonial center of 11 mounds built by Caddoan Mound Builders in La Flore County in eastern Oklahoma. Excavations of these mounds have yielded pottery and metal artifacts, baskets, and seashell and stone ornaments which indicate these people’s trade network extended to Central Mexico, Florida, the Great Lakes, and northwestern Nebraska. This ceremonial center of priests, craftsmen, and learned men was supported by surrounding villages, indicating a complex division of labor.

Answer 32

Spiro Mounds

Question 33

(George Guess or Gist) Illiterate Cherokee who, as a result of his fascination with the “talking leaves” or letters of the American soldier in the War of 1812, decided to develop a system of writing for his own people. After years of labor and disappointing setbacks, he developed the 86 character Cherokee syllabary which became the basis of the printed Cherokee language and, after considerable effort, persuaded the Cherokee Council to accept his work (1821). As a result, literacy spread rapidly among the Cherokee.

Answer 33

Sequoyah

Question 34

Fabled cities of fabulous wealth where houses had walls of gold and doors of turquoise. Spain sent Conquistadors such as Coronado North in search of these fabled cities.

Answer 34

Seven Cities of Cíbola

Question 35

Cherokee mixed-blood (he was 1/8th Cherokee) who became leader of the Traditionalist faction of the Cherokee Nation, composed predominantly of full bloods, who resisted removal and ultimately walked the “Trail of Tears.” Elected principal chief of the Cherokee in the East in 1828, he remained principal chief after removal until his death immediately after the Civil War.

Answer 35

Ross, John

Question 36

City of great wealth rumored to exist on the central plains of North America. Coronado, led by The Turk, found, instead, a Wichita village of grass houses located near present-day Wichita, Kansas.
Name used by the Spanish for the Caddoan tribes that lived in Oklahoma at the time of the Coronado and De Soto expeditions.

Answer 36

Quivira

Question 37

Leader of the Upper Creeks who refused to sign the Treaty of Indian Springs and resisted removal. In 1826, he headed the Creek delegation which agreed to the Treaty of Washington by which the Creeks ceded their lands in Georgia in exchange for land in Indian Territory between the Arkansas and Canadian Rivers. He remained a leader of the Upper Creeks after removal and led the neutral Indians north to Kansas in 1861, fighting a series of battles in northeastern Oklahoma along the way.

Answer 37

Opothleyahola

Question 38

Twenty-three man expedition led by Zebulon Pike which left St. Louis in 1806 to explore the southwest area of the Louisiana Purchase and, especially, the headwaters of the Arkansas and Red Rivers.

Answer 38

Pike/Wilkinson Expedition

Question 39

Additional Pike/Wilkinson Expeditions Details

Answer 39

He was to escort members of the Osage and Pawnee nations back to their homes and to establish friendly relations with the “wild tribes” of the southwest. An underlying purpose of the mission was to ascertain the value of the country in the southwest area of the Louisiana Purchase prior to negotiations with Spain concerning the southwestern boundary of Louisiana. This expedition went up the Missouri and Osage Rivers, then northwest into Kansas. At the Pawnee village of White Wolf they found a Spanish flag flying. The Spanish had recently been there searching for Pike who they hoped to intercept and turn back (as they did the Sparks Expedition). While the Pawnee were opposed to any further exploration of the southwest, they reluctantly assented to Pike’s expedition after Pike purchased some horses to appease them. In addition, they agreed to take down the Spanish flag and replace it with an American one. The expedition then turned south to the Great Bend of the Arkansas, where Lt. Wilkinson became ill and it was agreed that he and five men would travel down the Arkansas to Fort Smith. Pike and the remainder of the party continued to the Rockies, where Pike climbed Pikes Peak. They expedition then turned South in search of the headwaters of the Red. They suffered greatly due to the lack of adequate clothing, food, and shelter (five men had to be left behind in he mountains due to severely frostbitten feet and exhaustion). The remainder of the party eventually built a stockade and went into camp on the Rio Grande (which they believed to be the Red River.) There they were arrested by the Spanish and taken first to Santa Fe and then to Mexico where they were imprisoned and questioned. Ultimately they were escorted across Texas to Louisiana where they were released.