Crazy Snake Rebellion
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (February 2022) |
Crazy Snake Rebellion | |||||||
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Part of the American Indian Wars | |||||||
Crazy Snake rebels in 1909 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Creek Nation |
Creek rebels | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Charles N. Haskell | Chitto Harjo | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
2 killed |
1 killed 1 wounded 42 captured |
The Crazy Snake Rebellion, also known as the Smoked Meat Rebellion or Crazy Snake's War,
Rebellion
Crazy Snake was the very loose
In 1900 there was a meeting where Chitto Harjo was declared the principal chief of the Creek by a meeting at his ceremonial grounds near Henryetta, whose people view Pleasant Porter's methods of introducing the allotment system to be in violation of the 1867 Creek Constitution. The meeting that elected Harjo also elected a second chief, a bicameral legislature and established a court. Since the Creek Nation did not exist in the view of the American government the legality of Harjo's election was not relevant at the time in United States law. The followers of Harjo organized a group called the Lighthorse to serve as a police force to enforce their view of the law. It was alleged that this group whipped some men for accepting allotment, but this is disputed by other writers.[3]
The anti-allotment activities of the Lighthorse caused the
In March 1909 during the annual meeting of the Creek traditionalists, there was an allegation that one of them or their African American allies had stolen some meat from a local white farmer. A sheriff's deputy was sent to arrest someone, but the African Americans drove him away both because as auxiliaries to the Creek nation they did not recognize the local county to have authority there and because they had good reason to believe neither an African American nor a Muscogee Creek had chance of a fair trial, but instead had a high likelihood of being lynched. The sheriff's deputy organized a posse to enforce the arrest for the stolen smoked meat. In the following battle, one African-American man was killed and forty-two other African Americans were arrested.
A second confrontation happened on March 27 when a posse from
References
- ^ "Crazy Snake's War" (PDF). The New York Times. 1909-03-30.
- ISSN 0009-6024. Archived from the originalon 2011-11-28.
- ^ compare Holm. The Great Confusion p. 27 and Warde. George Washington Grayson p. 194
- ^ "Oklahoma Journeys". Archived from the original on 4 November 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
- ^ "Harjo, Chitto aka Crazy Snake aka Wilson Jones". Retrieved 13 March 2015.
Further reading
- Tom Holm. The Great Confusion in Indian Affairs: Native Americans and Whites in the Progressive Era. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005.
- Mary Jane Warde. George Washington Grayson and the Creek Nation, 1843-1920. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999.
- Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr. and Lonnie E. Underhill. "The "Crazy Snake Uprising" of 1909: A Red, Black, or White Affair?" in Arizona and the West Vol. 20, no. 4, winter 1978.