The Opening of Oklahoma
Activities
Justifying an Argument: Allotment Refusal
Many American Indians refused to cooperate with the allotment process. At several points, people who refused their allotment were asked why. These individuals had to explain and justify why they rejected this offer of land. Read the newspaper article about the views of Artus Hotiya and the Senate testimony of Redbird Smith and think about the questions below.
Why does Mr. Hotiya refuse allotment?
Why does Mr. Smith refuse?
Do they share any reasons for their choice? How do they differ?
Article about Artus Hotiya from The Cushing Democrat, June 7, 1906
Retain Primeval Ideas
Indians Are Not Free with Information to Agents of the Government
Alexander Posey, the Creek clerk in the Dawes commission, who works for the government among the full-bloods, runs across some interesting characters among the Indians, some of whom live far from towns, speak their own language, seldom get out of their own neighborhood and still have faith in the treaties of the government with the Indians.
One of these is Artus Hotiya, who cannot speak English. The other day Mr. Posey went to Hotiyah’s place to get information concerning a child of Hotiya who had died. In reply to questions Hotiya answered:
“You crossed the Wewoka creek this morning? It is spring and the water runs; you see the green grass on the prairies; the grass still grows. Our people have agreed that so long as water runs and grass grows, we shall not have our lands divided no our governments supplanted. I am not yet ready to give information.”
This speech was made in Creek and represents the dignity and faith of the old class of Indians who still resent the government allotment of lands. When it was explained to him that all the information wanted was such as would make possible an allotment for his child, he replied:
“God has given her an allotment in the graveyard. She is dead. The allotment there is all that she is entitled to. A grave is all the allotment that I am entitled to and all that God intended that I should have. It is enough. The Great Father placed the Pacific on one side and the Atlantic on the other, and the land between he gave to the Indian.
The white man came and he set corner stones and told the INidan that he must live between these. The Indian cannot live so. He is being stifled by the white man, who has disarmed him of his bow and arrow and driven from the forests the game. The end of the Indian is near, but I am not yet ready to contribute to hastening it.”
Red Bird Smith
The testimony of Redbird Smith from the Report of the Select committee to investigate matters connected with affairs in the Indian Territory with Hearings, November 11, 1906–January 9, 1907:
Q. Yes, we know it, Mr. Smith, that is all right. We appreciate the difficulty you are under, Mr. Smith, but go ahead and do the best you can.
A. The people that live at their homes in the different districts of the Cherokee people of the full bloods have sent me here today to talk with you, and to come before your respected committee, that I now have the opportunity to express my remarks to you. The condition of the four nations together, and we the full-blood Indians, there is still a great many of us that still contends for our original rights. We want our old original rights which our grandfathers made; a treaty and agreement with one another in the presence of our God, and declared that we would love it and respect it as we love our God, and we have done so up to the present time. We made that treaty and agreement with the great father that we love at Washington, and he guaranteed with us when that treaty was made that it would remain as long as the grass grows, trees grow, water runs, and the sun rises and shines. mean that the United States Government was to be the guardian of the Indians. I live under these respective treaties that have been made between the Government of the United States and the Indians, and I am resting now under these treaties, but I am suffering from the infraction of them. I have suffered in the past and I am still suffering up to this date. According to the treaty I made with my father I am trying to live in peace and happiness and friendship, and raise my children up in good, and I am respecting these treaties and have respected them up to this time.
At the present time the Indian's land is divided up in severalty and that was done without my agreement or consent, for I never agreed or consented for anyone to make any such a treaty and the full-blood Indians never consented to it. I never consented to any agreement to divide up my land, and I don't want it divided up. I want the old treaty. When the Dawes Commission was here for the purpose of making the enrollment for final settlement by the allotment of the land, I stood up for my rights. I stood for the treaties and agreements that were made by my fathers with the Government of the United States; and I was at home enjoying myself in peace when I was arrested and taken to prison. I and several other Indians and I were arrested and taken together to the Muskogee jail for standing up for our rights—my own old treaty with the United States Government—as I have always stood for it without violating any part of it, nor have I violated any law.
The Chairman. Tell him that Congress in order to protect him in his farm and the possession of it forever has provided a way for him to make a permanent home as the result of his work; that we all hope he will agree to the after treaties that were made and thus preserve what he now has.
A. I can’t stand and breathe and live if I take this allotment. Under the allotment rules I would see all around me—I see now all around me and all the Indians—people who are ready to grab from under us my living and my home. If I would accept such a plan I would be going in starvation. To take and put the Indians on the land in severalty would be just the same as burying them, for they could not live. I will present this [presenting to Committee Exhibit 5]. Now, will you accept that, father?
Conducting Research: Tribal Perspectives Today
Although the Dawes Act and allotment are considered to be policies that negatively impacted the tribes, these nations managed to survive into the current century. Many of these nations operate websites that present these historical events from their perspective. Visit the list of tribal nations in Oklahoma and use the links to learn how different tribes present their ancestors’ experiences during the allotment period.
