William Penn Adair
William Penn Adair (1830–1880) was a leader of the
Background
William Penn Adair was born on April 15, 1830, in the old Cherokee Nation in
Adair attended Cherokee schools in
Adair married Sarah Ann McNair. After her death, he married again, to Susannah "Sue" McIntosh Drew.[4] He lived on land along the Grand River in what is now Adair, Oklahoma. It was named for him.[1]
Military service
During the Civil War, Adair served in the Confederate States Army,[1] first in the First Regiment of Cherokee Mounted Volunteers, under General Stand Watie.[5] The Confederacy had promised the nations in Indian territory that it would support an Indian-controlled state if it won the war. Adair rose to the rank of colonel and organized the Second Cherokee Mounted Volunteers.[6]
Tribal leadership
Adair served the
He was a vocal advocate for the rights of the Texas Cherokees. He served as Chairman of the Texas Cherokees and Affiliated (later Associate) Bands from 1871 until his death in 1880. During this period in 1873, he and Clement Neely Vann co-authored the book, History of the Claim of the Texas Cherokees, which they wrote on behalf of "the Texas Cherokees and Affiliated Bands."
The Texas Cherokee continued to seek compensation from the state of Texas for lands taken from them in 1839. Adair along with other Confederate Cherokees went to Washington in order to petition Congress to allow him to sue the state to return lands in Texas once belonging to Texas Cherokee people. Initially this was to allow Southern Cherokees to relocate back on treaty lands due to the hostilities of Cherokee factions after the war. Some of these issues went back to the Ross-Ridge party feuds stemming from the Trail of Tears that had been played out during the Civil War. The main point for the suit was that in 1839, while the
Death and legacy
While in Washington, D.C., Adair died on October 23, 1880.[3] He was initially buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., but his body was soon thereafter transferred to the Tahlequah City Cemetery in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. This move was paid for by the Cherokee Nation.
Several Cherokee boys were named after him in the late 19th century, including the celebrated Cherokee humorist
Notes
References
- ^ a b c d Littlefield and Parins, 165
- ^ Starr, 185
- ^ a b c Starr, 264
- ^ Starr, 328
- ^ a b c Betty Lou Harper Thomas, "Adair." Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture Archived 2010-07-20 at the Wayback Machine, Accessed 24 March 2010
- ^ Starr, 148
- ^ Starr, 272
- ^ Starr, 267
- ^ Starr, 296
- ^ Adair and Vann, 1
- ^ Chief Bowles and the Texas Cherokees by Mary Whatley Clarke, pages 121-125
- ^ "Cherokee Indians", Handbook of Texas Online. (retrieved 24 March 2010)
- ^ Rogers et al, 83
- ^ "Hall of Great Westerners". National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
Sources
- Adair, William Penn and C. N. Vann. History of the Claim of the Texas Cherokees. New York: Morgan, Comes, and Lawrence, 1873.
- Littlefield, Daniel F., Jr. and James W. Parins. A Biobibliography of Native American Writers, 1772-1924: A Supplement. 1985. ISBN 0-8108-1802-7.
- Rogers, Will, ISBN 978-0-8061-3315-7.
- Starr, Emmett. History of the Cherokee Indians and Their Legends and Folklore, Oklahoma City: Warden Company, 1921.
- Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
External links
- Works by or about William Penn Adair at Internet Archive
- Cherrie Adair Moore, "William Penn Adair", Chronicles of Oklahoma, Spring 1951.