April 24, 1944

In 1937 the Solicitor's Office ruled that the Keetoowah Society of Cherokee Indians was not a band for the purpose of organizing under the Oklahoma Indian Welfare. The opinion characterized the organization as "a secret society
representing the most conservative portion of the Cherohee Indians," and naving for its objective in the beginning, opposition to slavery, and subsequently opposition to allotment. The Solicitor's decision was based largely on information obtained
from a, report compiled by Charles Wisdom, an anthropologist attached to the :Indan-Off ice.


Mr Wisdom in examining. into Cherokee history made these conclusions:

(1) That while the name Keetoowah was derived- from an-ancient town; there is historical connect ion between the society and that original political' group:

(2) That there exists only a cultural and mystical relationship between the two. Using the foregoing-; infomation the Solicitor, in rejecting the Keetoowah. society's request for recognition as a band, held that a band is a political body having the functions and powers of government. Likewise, it mist possess a common leadership, concerted action and a well defined membership; moreover, the membership is perpetuated primarily by. birth, marriage and adoption. The opinion drew distinction between the Keetoowah Society and the Creek towns, holding that the llatter were independent units capable of political action and particularly initiation of hostile proceedings; not only were they the functioning political subdivisions of the Creek confederacy or Nation, but they were the original independent units of government of the Creek Nation. The Solicitor went on to say "neither historically or actually" was the Keetoowah group a governing unit of the Cherokee Nation but rather it was a society of citizens within the Nation common beliefs and aspirations.

This argument of the Solicitor's Office accepts as fact a fiction which, its own reasons, the United States Government has insisted on treating as fact more than a hundred years. There was not aboriginally a Cherokee Nation. There were among the Cherokee people a number of towns and there was an elaborate ir relationship between these towns, as there was also intertribal relationship between the Cherokees and the various tribes in the Tennessee Valley and alone Eastern Seaboard. The Cherokee people were located in four general areas refeto as the Lower Settlements, the Valley Settlements, the Middle Settlements the Overhill Settlements. In a recent study of the Cherokee published in Bulletin 133 of the Smithsonian institution by William, Harlen Gilbert, Jr. (1943), the following passage is found: "The central area of the Cherokees, comprising the Kituhwa (Middle) and the Valley Settlements, was the heart of the tribe.'' Later, duriing the Revolutionary course after the removal in 1838 only fragments of the people  remained. Quoting again from. Silbert: "By far the largest and most important
of the remnantal Cherckee groups after the removal were these clustering at the juncture of The Ocona and Tuckaseegee Rivers near the old settlement of Kituhwa in the heart of the old Middle' Settlements.''Moreover, the term- "Kituhwa" (Keetoowah) is used to designate one of the dialects still spoken in. the Eastern Cherokee area.

The foregoing information lends considerable color to the contention of  Mr Boudinot, namely, that the term. "Cherokee" never should have been taken as a tribal name; that in actuality "Cherokeee" ie derived from. "Tsalagi" which may or may not have been. used- by the Cherokees themselves -- Boudinot claims that it wwas place name of minor importance, not properly a tribal designation.. Mooney's article in the-American. Handbook. observes that the people also called, themselves "antikituhwagi" meaning. "People of Kituhwa,", which he describes as "one of their important ancient settlements. "Mooney also points out that the Delawares and. other tribes called- them- "Kittuwa.".

At the. very least', then, the term "Keetocwah was originally the name of a Cherokee town, perhaps- the most important of th« ancient towns; and. in its brodest implication it may be that the term. is a more appropriate cognomen for the entire people. Taking it at its least irplication, Keetcewah. is, historically at least, on. a par with. the Creek towns, in that it was. originally an. independent unit of government. Hence, the Solicitor is wrong in saying that Keetoowah was not historically a governing unit.

Next it remains to explore whether the original significance of Keetoowah being somehow, associated.. with the heart and. the center of the Cherckee people went with the people when they were expelled front the original homeland. The Solicitor assumes that the contrary was true; that the tern was only resurrected, in stressful days before the Civil War when the Cherokee people found themselves split on the. slavery issue., and that it was again invoked' when the fact of tribal disolution approached, As I point out above, the Solicitor characterizes it as a secret society. The question deserves mere research than it has had up to now.

Emmet Stair in the "History of the Cherokee Indians" (quoted by Wisdon), presents facts which indicate that Keetoowah. was a living thing and that it went with people. Writing about Red Bird Smith, who. was the Moving spirit in the founding of the Night Hawk Branch, of the Keetoowab organization, Starr points out that Bird was bom near Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 1850, while his parents Mere enroute Indian Territory, and that his father, Pig Red: Bird (the name Smith. was added
by white people), was an ardent adherent of the ancient rituals and; which he  taught to bis sons. Red Bird then went on to become of the. Chief expounders of the religious beliefs and moral codes of the old life. When the Keetoowah drafted their constitu tion in 1950, they did so not as a private and exclusive society, one feels, but as a group of trustees might organize an order to keep intact the property and th« spiritual estate of the people facing peril.

Previously, there had been no occasion for such formal organization because Cherokee laws, and customs had continued to function. By 1950 many non-citizens had come into the Nation, factionalism became strong, and it was necessary to adopt measures in self-protection. The Keetoowahs even adopted a flag in the heat of the Civil War, around which they rallied support for the cause of the North. In February 1863 they abolished slavery unconditionally and forever (Mooney). In all of this they acted as a nation, certainly, not as a private, voluntary association.

The record, incomplete as it is, seems clearly to indicate that the Keetoowah group, whether we call it a society, a faction, or a band, did exercise independent political action, even to the point of initiating hostile proceedings. It has been a formally organized body at least since 1950 with respresentative districts, and for many years it had a common leadership. The fact that the origional body split into factions ought not to persuade our judgment as to the true nature of Keetoowah. At present there is in evidence a real desire on the part of all factions to reunite in a common organization. Membership, according to earlier information, was voluntary and was restricted to Cherokee Indians of one-half or more degree.

This was a factor in leading the Solicitor to hold that the group could net be classed as a band. Mr. Boudinot new informs us (See his letter of April 11, 1944) that the previous information was incorrect; that as a matter of fact, membership is acquired as a right of birth. The Consitution of 1950, when it is translated, should throw some light on this point. In considering the status of the Keetoowah. association, one ought not to lose sight of the total history affecting the Cherokee Indians.

As I pointed' out earlier, the united States government insisted on treating with the Chexekee Nation when there was no such entity, any more than there was ever a Creek Nation. The pressures exerted by the United States Government resulted in producing numerous counterpressures within the Cherokee society. Those elements within the tribe who were compliant and willing to concede the demands made by the United States in time were recognized. a« comprising the corpus of the Tribe; those who resisted were treated as a malcontent minority. At a most critical juncture ...

Cherokee history, on January 31, 1899, a general election was held for the purpose of accepting the Dawes Commission terms. The Keetoowahs, that is to say, the Indian element of the Cherokee tribe, refused to participate and as a result their interests were defeated 2,015 votes. The membership of the. group was more than sufficient to carry the election if they had mustered their full strength. From this indication we gather that at that tine the Keetoowah actually represented a majority within the tribe. The Keetoowahs themselves have never accepted the view that they are not "the people" and that they do not speak for the real interests of the ancient Cherokee world.

They continue even to this day to speak and act in all patience as if the decrees of the courts and the acts of the Congress bad never been. But they are still puzzed at the failure of the United States to understand the simple thing they have always said, namely, that Keetoowah is Cherokee and should never have been considered anything' else. ' I propose that we bring this natter again to the attention of the Solicitor and try to get a revision of the 1937 opinion.

D'Arcy McNickle
Tribal Relations Officer