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The Cherokee Oil and Gas Co., 1889-1902: Indian Sovereignty and Economic Change*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

H. Craig Miner
H. Craig Miner
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History, Wichita State University
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Abstract

Professor Miner recounts the complex story of the loss of Cherokee control of mineral development on tribal lands in what later became Oklahoma. These events constitute a chapter in the long history of the loss of Indian sovereignty in the wake of the expansion of the white man's civilization across the continent.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , Spring 1972 , pp. 45 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1972

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References

1 Nash, Gerald, “Oil in the West: Reflections on the Historiography of an Unexplored Field,” Pacific Historical Review, XXIX (May, 1970), 193, 198.Google Scholar

2 Letter, Boverton Redwood to Directors, Cherokee Exploration Syndicate Ltd., April 13, 1898, in Agreements with the Cherokee and Muscogee or Creek Indians, Sen. Misc. Doc. 213, 56th Cong. 2d Sess., Serial 4043 (Washington, 1901), pp. 41–43.Google Scholar Hereafter cited as Sen. Misc. Doc. 213 (Serial 4043).

3 Letter, Van Chambers to “Father” Henry Chambers, March 9, 1887, Cherokee Minerals File (Tahlequah Acquisition), Indian Archives Division, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City. Hereafter cited as Minerals (T).

4 For Cherokee production figures from the beginning of activity see U.S. Geological Survey, Annual Report 1894 (Washington, 1895), 380Google Scholar, or subsequent volumes of the same publication.

5 Starkey, Marion, The Cherokee Nation (New York, 1946), 119 ff.Google Scholar; Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 5 Peters 1. Chief Justice Marshall, while denying that the court had jurisdiction to protect the Indians against the gold miners, noted that “If courts were permitted to indulge their sympathies, a case better calculated to excite them can scarcely be imagined.”

6 For a treatment of the railroad question see Miner, Craig, “The Struggle for an East-West Railway into the Indian Territory, 1870-1882,” Chronicles of Oklahoma, XLVII (Spring, 1969), 560–581.Google Scholar All quotations are from this source.

7 Letter, Hamilton to John Jay, May 7, 1800, quoted in Noble Cunningham, The Jeffersonian Republicans: The Formation of Party Organization, 1789-1801 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1957), 185.Google Scholar

8 Report, Leo Bennett to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, September 10, 1890, in Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs 1890 (Washington, 1891), 96–98.Google Scholar

9 Examples are Jenness, Theodora R., “The Indian Territory,” Atlantic Monthly, XLIII (April, 1879), 444–452Google Scholar, and Dawes, Anna Laures, “An Unknown Nation,” Harpers New Monthly Magazine, LVI (March, 1888), 598–605.Google Scholar

10 Goetzmann, William H. in his Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and the Scientist in the Winning of the American West (New York, 1966), ix–xvGoogle Scholar, has hypothesized that western explorers were “programmed” by the cultural predispositions of the eastern seaboard so that their perceptions of the possibilities and uses of the region were filtered through a cultural screen. See also Berkhofter, Robert, “Time, Space, Culture and the New Frontier,” Agricultural History, XXXVIII (January, 1964).Google Scholar

11 Sen. Misc. Doc. 213 (Serial 4043), p. 43. Rumors of an “English syndicate” were in evidence later, but were indefinite. In 1899 it was said that an English syndicate had an option on 100,000 acres in Cherokee petroleum fields and that its head was Major Frahm, an ex-officer of the British army. It was claimed that the aggregate wealth behind this enterprise was $250,000,000. Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City), March 16, 1899.Google Scholar In 1900 the Interior Department received the report of the failure of a Choctaw Exploration Syndicate Ltd. with the explanation: “They seem to be one of many who put too much confidence in the festive promoter.” Letter, W. A. Jones to Secretary of the Interior, January 30, 1900, Indian Territory Division, Box 324, Record Group 48, National Archives, Washington. Hereafter cited as I.T.D., N.A.

12 Tradition favors Byrd, but Hellar later claimed credit, saying he had brought Byrd in because only Cherokee citizens could get leases from the tribal council. Letter, Martin Hellar to Secretary of the Interior, May 23, 1904, Box 328, I.T.D., N.A.

13 Letter, Martin Hellar to Theodore Roosevelt, February 25, 1905, Box 328A, I.T.D., N.A.

14 Article XVIII, Chaper XII, Constitution and Laws of the Cherokee Nation (St. Louis, 1875), 226–28.Google Scholar

15 Letter, William S. Everett to Dennis Bushyhead, December 28, 1882, Minerals (T).

16 Revenue Report, 1883, in Cherokee Nation Officers Reports 1880-1885, Cherokee Volume 402, p. 78, Indian Archives Division, Oklahoma Historical Society. Hereafter cited as IAD.

17 Act of December 15, 1883, copy in Minerals (T). The royalties from oil were to be deposited in the school fund, a provision indicating that a somewhat higher return was expected than had been coming from coal. Journal of Council Branch, National Council, 1883, Cherokee Vol. 282, p. 96, IAD.

18 Act of December 13, 1884, Cherokee Vol. 284, pp. 13-15, IAD.

19 Letter, A. V. Weise to D. W. Bushyhead, February 12, 1880, Minerals (T).

20 Letter J. D. C. Atkins to Secretary of Interior, July 2, 1885, ibid.

21 Glasscock, C. B., Then Came Oil: The Story of the Last Frontier (Indianapolis, Ind., 1938), 114.Google Scholar

22 Law of December 6, 1890, Cherokee Vol. 295, pp. 133-37, IAD.

23 For a fairly complete list of mineral leases (the Cherokees admitted that they did not record them all properly) see Cherokee National Register of Mineral Licenses Issued … 1884-1894, Cherokee Vol. 336, IAD.

24 Tulsa Daily World, September 4, 1932, Sec. 4, p. 5. This news story written on the death of Ed Byrd must be used with caution because there are several inaccuracies and some statements which cannot be substantiated with documents. Nevertheless, it is a useful overview.

25 Adair, John, Protest Against Joint Resolution 114 and House Joint Resolution 193, July 25, 1890Google Scholar; Letter, John Adair to “Harris,” August 6, 1890, Minerals (T).

26 Tulsa Daily World, September 4, 1932, Sec. 4, p. 5.

27 Letter, Edward Byrd to Treasurer, January 9, 1892, Minerals (T).

28 Rister, Carl, Oil! Titan of the Southwest (Norman, Okla., 1949), 20.Google Scholar Rister has an alternative story of the Byrd discovery based on Byrd's account in an Oklahoma Geological Survey Bulletin. Byrd claimed he had an oil lease as early as 1886 and brought in Hellar and the other Wichitans later. The author has been able to locate no such lease in the Cherokee records.

29 Letter, W. B. Linn to E. A. Hitchcock, October 12, 1901, Box 328, I.T.D., N.A.; Testimony of W. B. Linn, Sen. Misc. Doc. 213 (Serial 4043), p. 11.

30 Letter, Martin Hellar to Theodore Roosevelt, February 25, 1905, Box 328A, I.T.D., N.A.

31 Letter, Martin Hellar to Sec. of Interior, May 23, 1904, Box 388, I.T.D., N.A.

32 U.S., Statutes at Large, XXX, 495.Google Scholar

33 Testimony of W. B. Linn, Sec. Misc. Doc. 213 (Serial 4043), p. 12.

34 Congressional Record, XXXI, pt. 6, 5553.

35 Agreement with the Five Civilized Tribes, Sen. Misc. Doc. 88, 55th Cong. 3d Sess., Serial 3731 (Washington, 1899), p. 15.Google Scholar

36 Proceedings, Joint Sessions of United States and Cherokee Commissions, December 28, 1898, p. 12, Dawes Commission Cherokee File, December 1898, IAD.

37 Ibid., December 27, 1898, 7.

38 Congressional Record, XXXIV, pt. 1, 585, 703, 707.

39 Testimony of W. B. Linn, Sen. Misc. Doc. 213 (Serial 4043), 12-14.

40 Testimony of R. C. Adams, ibid., 22-23, 27.

41 Letter, R. C. Adams to E. A. Hitchcock, April 26, 1899, Box 327, I.T.D., N.A.

42 Protest of the Cherokee Nation Against Amendments to the Pending Agreement with the Cherokee Indians, Sen. Misc. Doc. 325, 56th Cong. 1st Sess., Serial 3868 (Washington, 1900), 9.Google Scholar

43 Protest of the Keetoowah Cherokees, Sen. Misc. Doc. 333, 56th Cong., 1st Sess., Serial 3868 (Washington, 1900), 6.Google Scholar

44 Congressional Record, XXXIV, pt. 3, 3932.

45 Letter, A. C. Tonner to Secretary of Interior, March 3, 1899, in Grant Foreman, compiler, “Transcripts of Documents in the Office of the Supt. for the Five Civilized Tribes” (Typescript), Cherokee, XIII, p. 135, IAD.

46 Letter, E. A. Hitchcock to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, July 11, 1901; Letter, R. C. Adams to T. M. Buffington, July 25, 1901, Minerals (T).

47 Vinita Daily Chieftain (Vinita, I. T.), September 24, 1901.Google Scholar

48 Letter, Lizzie Shaw Turnbull to Webster Davis, January 1, 1899, Box 327, I.T.D., N.A.

49 Crawford, Samuel and Thurston, John M., In Re Cherokee Oil and Gas Company (Washington, 1901), 5–8, 16.Google Scholar

50 Letter, W. B. Linn to Samuel Crawford, May 18, 1901, Box 328, I.T.D., N.A.

51 Letter, Samuel Crawford to Thomas Ryan, May 22, 1901, ibid.

52 Letter, Edward Byrd to E. A. Hitchcock, August 14, 1900, Box 325, I.T.D., N.A.

53 Letter, William Springer to T. M. Bufflngton, September 30, 1901, U.S. Government Box, Cherokee Nation Papers, Manuscripts Division, Oklahoma University, Norman, Okla.

54 Walter S. Logan, Brief on Behalf of the Delaware Indians (page proof), December 9, 1899, pp. 4, 7, Box 325, I.T.D., N.A.

55 William Springer, Brief and Argument of Cherokees in Response to Brief and Argument of Applicant, October 5, 1901, p. 6, Box 328, I.T.D., N.A.; Adams, R. C., In Answer to Brief of Cherokee Oil & Gas Company (Vinita, I.T., 1901), 7–8.Google Scholar

56 T. M. Buffington, Chief Bufflngton's Protest Against Leases (n.d., n.p.), #1738, Cherokee Minerals (Muscogee acquisition), IAD.

57 Letter, E. A. Hitchcock to Indian Inspector, July 12, 1902, Foreman transcript, XIII, 182-83.

58 Vinita Indian Chieftain, August 29, 1901; Vinita Daily Chieftain, August 23, 1901.

59 See for example the classic first chapter, “The Science of Custom,” in Benedict's, RuthPatterns of Culture (New York, 1934).Google Scholar

60 For these and other such statements see H. Craig Miner, “The Struggle for an East-West Railway,” and also my “‘A Corps of Clerks’: The Bureaucracy of Industrialization in the Indian Territory,” paper read at Western History Association Conference, October, 1971, to be published.

61 Cherokee Nation et. al.; Appts., v. Ethan A. Hitchcock, Secretary of the Interior, 187 U.S. 183 (1902).Google Scholar

62 The Indian Citizen (Atoka, I. T.), November 23, 1893.Google Scholar

63 Hofstadter, Richard, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (New York, 1963).Google Scholar

64 Dawes, “An Unknown Nation,” 605.

65 Gladden, Washington, “Christianity and Wealth,” Century, XXVIII (October, 1884), 904.Google Scholar

66 Letter, Cherokee Commission to Dawes Commission, n.d., Minerals (T).