Background to the Cherokee Expulsion of the "Freedmen" 2007

By Tom Big Warrior

Prior to the Civil War, there were deep divisions in Indian Country. Within the Cherokees, there was a polarization between the slave-owning "Knights" and the anti-slavery "Pins" ( who wore crossed straight pins on their lapels as an identifying symbol). In Kansas Indian Territory, the anti-slavery Lenapes (Delawares) allowed John Brown and his guerrilla fighters to use their reserve as a base area. The Cherokee Strip (between the Cherokee and Lenape reserves) was an outlaw zone where the pro-slavery Missouri "Border Ruffians" operated.

When the five "Civilized Nations" joined the Confederacy, the anti-slavery factions made a "Long March" to the Lenape Reserve in Kansas. This included mostly full-bloods and those with Afrikan blood heritage (including run-a-way slaves). They did this in the dead of winter and were pursued by Confederate cavalry from Texas and pro-slavery "Knights." Fighting nearly daily rear-guard actions, the fugitive anti-slavery Indians arrived in Kansas in sorry shape having dumped most of their possessions in flight. Many died as the U.S. government was slow to respond with necessary supplies and provisions.

None the less, the men joined with the Lenape and other Kansas-based Indians in forming the Kansas Indian Brigades and the Black Brigade, which together with white state militia invaded the Oklahoma Indian Territory and drove out the Confederate forces. As they advanced, their ranks swelled with freed slaves and Indians who switched sides or came out of hiding. They captured Chief John Ross of the Cherokees and sent him off to Washington as a POW. There he buddied up with Lincoln and Eli Parker of the Indian Bureau.

After the war was over, he was restored to power and the Lenapes were forced to give up their Kansas reserve, and were incorporated under the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. Those who had resisted the Confederacy were put under the same group of mostly white former slave owners whose descenders still dominate Cherokee politics. They still have domination over the Lenape (Delawares) and the dispossessed Freedmen.

It is a racial issue, but it is also a class issue, and most fundamentally it is about money and power. There are few full-bloods today. Most look either "white" or "black." In the pre-WWI period, poor Black, Indian and white sharecroppers, workers and small farmers became very radicalized. In 1916, the Socialist Party carried three counties and Oklahoma had the largest per capita number of Socialist votes of any state. Thousands joined the multi-racial and socialist-orientated Working Class Union (WCU), the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and Farmers and Laborers Protective Association (FLPA).

When the U.S. entered the war and instituted a draft, the WCU called for an armed uprising that was dubbed the "Green Corn Rebellion." Thousands of armed sharecroppers gathered on Roasting Ears Hill outside Sasakwa, OK. They were joined by striking miners from Wilburton, OK. Their plan was to gather their forces and march across the South, (picking up like-minded share-croppers and workers as they went), and descend upon Washington to demand Pres. Wilson's resignation.

Before they got moving, however, they were confronted by a large posse of right-wing, pro-government forces. They dispersed without a fight but the posse went on a witch-hunt, ransacking homes and whipping people with ropes. Some 450 were arrested and many were imprisoned. A statewide reign of terror ensued, and the Socialist Party packed up and left. Thousands fled to the hills or neighboring states.

White racism and reactionary politics is not confined to the "white Indians" of the Cherokee Nation but is deeply rooted in the culture and history of class oppression and class struggle of Oklahoma. It is as deeply rooted as in the "Deep South." All progressive forces should unite to support the struggle of the "Black Indians" and see it is part of our common struggle for liberation.

Tom Big Warrior
Historykeeper and Chief
Traditionalist United Eastern Lenape Nation