Creek Indian Nation - OK- History of the Creeks

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                    Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma
                                      
       A little history about the Creeks . . .
          + The Creek Indians, of Muskhogean linguistic stock, had
            adopted fragment groups into the tribe since early times. The
            Creek Nation in Oklahoma contained Indians from the Koasati,
            Hitchiti, Natchez, Apalachicola, Alabama, Tuskegee and Yuchi
            (Euchee) tribes. All of these, with the exception of the
            Yuchis, belonged to the Muskhogean language group.
          + The Creeks had begun arriving in Indian Territory since the
            early 1830s, mostly from Alabama.
          + The 1867 Creek constitution divided the Creek Nation into six
            districts -- Okmulgee, Coweta, Muskogee, Deep Fork, Eufaula
            and Wewoka. Its National Council elected a judge for each
            district, the principal chief appointed six district
            attorneys with the approval of the council, and the voters of
            each district elected a captain and four privates to serve as
            a light-horse police force. Trial by jury was provided for
            civil and criminal cases. All suits at law in which the
            amount in dispute was more than $100 were tried by the
            Supreme Court, composed of five justices named by the
            National Council for terms of four years.

          + The earliest Creek settlements in what is now Oklahoma had
            been determined by the Texas Road and fertile land that
            attracted wild game and farmers to the Three Forks area (near
            what is now Muskogee) and the forks of the Canadian River
            (near what is now Eufaula). At the forks of the Canadian
            River, Asbury Mission had been established in 1847 and
            several towns grew up and flourished in that vicinity. North
            Fork Town grew and was important until the Missouri, Kansas
            and Texas Railroad was built through the area in 1871. After
            a station was built at Eufaula, the older towns moved to the
            railroad. The towns of North Fork Town and Micco Post Office
            vanished, while Eufaula grew. The St. Louis and San Francisco
            Railroad (a successor of the Atlantic and Pacific) extended
            its line to Tulsa in 1882 and to Sapulpa in 1886. The
            Arkansas Valley Railroad crossed the Missouri, Kansas and
            Texas at Wagoner.
          + From the close of the Civil War in 1865 to the admission of
            Oklahoma to the Union as a state in 1907, the history of the
            eastern half of the present-state of Oklahoma is quite
            different from that of the western half. When the Indians of
            the Five Civilized Tribes -- Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw,
            Creek and Seminole -- ceded their western lands as a home for
            friendly tribes of the Plains, they really divided Oklahoma
            into two nearly equal parts.
          + After 1890, the western portion became known as Oklahoma
            Territory and the eastern part was called Indian Territory.
            These Twin Territories, as they came to be known, were nearly
            the same size, but were quite unlike geographically and
            politically. The Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes did not
            pay taxes in the ordinary sense of the word. Money to support
            the government and tribal schools came from annuities, from
            the license fees, coal royalties from the Outlet lands in the
            case of the Cherokees, and from some other sources.
          + The number of whites in Indian Territory steadily increased.
            In 1880 it was estimated that there were 6,000 whites in the
            area of the Five Civilized Tribes, not including railway
            workers and certain other laborers, whom the tribal officers
            had allowed to remain. The U.S. government tried to remove
            those who had no permits, but they usually came back again.
            By 1884, the number of whites in this area was estimated at
            25,000. In 1890, between 120,000 and 140,000. As new
            railroads were built into the Indian Territory, more whites
            arrived. By 1895, the whites were estimated at 300,000 and by
            the census of 1900 there was a population of whites of nearly
            400,000 and only 70,000 Indians.