Volume 14 , Issue 7

Keetoowah Cherokee People

Have you heard this Cherokee history of the Keetoowah Cherokee people? The Cherokee Indian tribe were powerful detached tribe of the Iroquoian family, formerly holding the whole mountain region of the south Alleghenies, in southwest Virginia, western North Carolina and South Carolina, north Georgia, east Tennessee, and northeast Alabama, and claiming even to the Ohio River and (referred to as the Eastern Cherokee). Red Bird Smith was the moving spirit of the Nighthawk branch of the Keetoowah organization of Full-blood Cherokees. Part 1 & 2 of their history is related below in these YouTube videos.

Part 1 -
Part 2 -


It was on 16 May 1903 that the Keetoowah leaders attempted to defuse the situation in what proves to be an informative letter written to Federal Judge Joseph Albert Gill, in Muskogee, Indian Territory. The letter below tells us a great deal about the nature of the society, and its eloquence, revealing the high educational level of those who wrote it. It was addressed to Judge Joseph A. Gill, dated May 16, 1903. It was not signed by any individual but probably spoke for the entire Keetoowah Society that remained after the departure of the Nighthawks.

"Dear Sir:
We have had our attention called to an article in the Muskogee Times, of recent date, wherein you are represented as having said that you have instructed a commissioner of your court to make a tour of the Cherokee Nation, and get after the Keetoowahs; that the society takes the same attitude in the Cherokee Nation with respect to the policy of the Government, as that taken by the Crazy Snake band in the Creek Nation; that it has opposed the work of the Commissioner of the Five Civilized Tribes, and given much trouble to the Government; that you propose to stop their obstructive methods, and the intimidation of would-be allottees; that a man was recently murdered by the Keetoowahs because he had selected his allotment; that the commissioner referred to had been instructed to run down the Keetoowahs who did this, and that the leaders of the Society will all be in jail before long."

"Whether the newspaper article referred to correctly represents your views or not, such injustice has been done to leaders of the Keetoowahs, and the whole Society, by this publication, in misrepresenting the purpose and objects of the Society and the attitudes of its leaders toward the work of the Commission, that we feel called upon, in justice to ourselves and the Society, and in order that you, and the general public, shall be advised of our position, to take notice of it, and to make answer to the statements it contains that could only be justified by ignorance of the objects of the Keetoowahs."

"In the first place we wish to emphatically and without qualifications to deny that the purposes of the Keetoowahs are the same in the Cherokee Nation as those of the Crazy Snake band of the Creek Nation, as we understand the purposes of that band, or that the Keetoowahs or their leaders have continuously opposed the work of the Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes, or that they have given trouble to the Government. We also deny that the Keetoowahs as an organization have advised, counseled or countenanced the murder of a man, or set of men, or violence of any kind, on account of allotment of land, or on any other account."

"if any Keetoowah was connected with the murder of the men referred to in said article, the fact that he or they, if there were more than one, is a member of the Keetoowahs does not signify an organized effort to intimidate allotters, as has been persistently and we believe maliciously reiterated in the press and by the enemies of the Indians, who appear to desire to make money out of their land."

"The Keetoowah Society was organized in 1859, and the basic principles of its Constitution are loyalty to the Government of the Unitied States, and the preservation of the property of the Cherokees, for those to whom the treaties intended it should go."

"It is composed of Cherokees by blood, who can speak or understand but little, if any, English, and they are, therefore, at a great disadvantage in getting their views or their attitudes toward the important changes in progress, respecting the holding of property by the members of the Cherokee tribe, before the public so that they can be understood."

"The fact that the Keetoowahs have always been loyal to the United States can be amply remarked by any stranger who may out of curiosity or for any other purpose visit a convention of the Society. The stranger will observe that nearly all of the older members wear in the lapel of their coat, a button of the Grand Army of the Republic. The Society furnished a great majority of the Cherokees who risked their lives and property by joining the armies of the government in the Civil War."

"There is another organization, within the Cherokee Nation, which we understand is composed of former members of the Keetoowah Society. This organization is known as the Knight Hawks (sic). It is a secret society, and we know more of its objects and purpose that the general public. We do not intend to speak for them . . . The Keetoowahs have been so vilified, and lied about, that we appreciate how hard it will be to put us right in the minds of the people. We are charged with the responsibility for a failure on the part of the fullbloods to enroll, because they do not rush to the land office and take their allotments. The fullblood Indian, as is well known by those familiar with the Indian character, is timid and suspicious, because he is not acquainted with the ways of the whites; and has so often been the victim of the cheats and frauds who take advantage of his ignorance. He is deliberate in all of this business dealings, and becomes confused when hurried, yet he is abused because he does not come to the land office and take his allotment in low grade public lands while there are many more intelligent citizens unlawfully in possession of thousands of acres of the best land, to the exclusion of the would-be allottees."

The letter ends with the suggestion that the court address these problems and then perhaps the full bloods would be more willing to cooperate.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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