Cherokee Nation

[W. Gray]

Excerpt of a letter to the editor from a Mr. A. Cox, Lightning Creek, Cherokee Nation, April 10, 1877, published in the Elk County Ledger, Howard City, Kansas, April 21, 1877.  There is a Lightning Creek in present day Oklahoma City.

"Many of the Indians are taking hold of their plows determined not to be outdone by their white neighbors. The Cherokees are not much accustomed to work; most of them owned slaves before the war and depended on them for their work. Many of the ex-slaves still live among them. Nearly all of the older Indians served in either the rebel or Union army—mostly in the rebel army. A large majority of the Delawares were loyal to the U.S. Government.


"The Cherokees have in their reservation about four million acres of land; each man is entitled to all they can enclose or improve. I know of no place where land is so plenty and so cheap. The privilege of taking land is extended only to the Cherokees and their adopted brothers. No white man can buy an acre of this land for any consideration or enter into business whatever, without first obtaining a permit from the General Council, signed by the principal Chief. A white man by marrying an Indian woman gains the right of taking land; he can sell the improvement but not the land. He has all the rights of an Indian citizen, except voting. Such a man is known as a "nickel plated Cherokee." There is considerable intermarriage between the Indians and whites, and the latter seem likely to take the nation the same as the Normans took England; the Cherokees more than any other tribe has intermarried with the whites, and are more civilized and Christianized.


"No matter how much land a man occupys, or what is the value of his improvements, he has not one cent of taxes to pay! Their government and schools are kept up by the interest drawn from the U.S. Government on their loan."

[flintauqua]

I believe the Lightning Creek, Cherokee Nation would be the submerged ghost town of Alluwe, Oklahoma.  The site is now under the waters of Lake Oologah.  Six miles south of US 60 on OK 28 is the very small town of New Alluwe.  About a mile north of this hamlet is a marker commemerating the original settlement at the juncture of Lightning and Panther Creeks, about 2.5 miles west of the marker.

The only reason I know this so well is that about two weeks ago on a trip to Kansas I happened to stop and read that marker while trying to get a feel for where the Cherokee Trail (aka Evans Trail, Fayetteville Emigrant Road, etc.) went from present-day Salina, Oklahoma to Coody's Bluff on the Verdigris.

Charles