Mankiller, page 22
On the heels of the Merriam Report, the stock-market crash of 1929 plunged the nation into economic mayhem. Several years earlier, the depression had already come to roost in rural Oklahoma, so the stock crash affected us less severely. A large number of native people suffered from disease and malnutrition and had a short life expectancy. Then in 1932, after three long years of extreme economic suffering, the presidential election of Franklin D. Roosevelt brought hope to destitute Americans and the promise of sweeping reform. Among the many transitions was an important change of command at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. On April 21, 1933, just seven weeks after Roosevelt took office, he chose John Collier for the job of commissioner of Indian affairs. Collier was a vigorous and reform-minded man.
A former social worker and a close friend of the Navajos and the Pueblo people, Collier proved to be a man of strong convictions. He had an abiding respect for all native people. Because of his associations with various tribes, Collier encouraged the native arts and was a strong proponent of preserving our religious traditions and culture.
A crusader and an outspoken idealist, Collier heard our cries of distress. He proved to be a forceful leader interested in positive change as well as the welfare of Native Americans, whose property, held in trust by the government, was quickly shrinking. It was John Collier who tried to ensure that Roosevelt’s New Deal reached the Cherokees and other native people.
Collier created the climate for cultural and civil freedom, and worked hard to attain vital educational improvements. He wished to revolutionize the BIA and rid the system of what he referred to as the “old evils.” Early on, he led the campaign for the passage of the important Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), the first major piece of legislation to counter the oppressive federal Indian policies established in the late nineteenth century. In particular, the new law was drafted to help curtail the pattern of economic destruction among Native Americans that resulted from the Dawes Act of 1887. Some critics maintain that despite good intentions, the act failed to achieve that specific goal.
Those same critics also contend that after its passage in 1934, the IRA did little to revitalize native people. However, most would agree that it did help to end the disastrous allotment system. The IRA was intended to strengthen tribal self-government through constitutions, but it also established a system whereby the secretary of the interior gained a considerable degree of control over tribal elections and governmental functions. This benchmark measure also opened new doors by establishing Native American preference in hiring within the BIA. It also authorized a student loan fund so native people could receive training at colleges and trade schools.
Sometimes known as the Wheeler-Howard Act, this legislation had ambitious goals, but was plagued with its share of problems. For example, a fund for land acquisition was never established, and by the mid-1970s, forty years after passage of the IRA, tribes had gained 595,157 acres, while government agencies had condemned 1,811,010 acres of tribal land.
The IRA gave the Bureau of Indian Affairs more, not less, authority over the affairs of native people. In all fairness, given the era in which it was passed, the IRA was a real attempt at reform. However, it would certainly have been far more effective if its original intentions had been kept and a land-acquisition program had been fully funded.
Even though the IRA helped to usher in a new era of optimism for Native Americans in our relationship with the federal government, not everyone was supportive, including a formidable number of white Oklahomans and some Cherokees. Part of the problem was that people were mixed about Commissioner John Collier. At the start of Roosevelt’s tenure, Oklahoma Democrats had hoped he would name someone from their state as commissioner of Indian affairs. But when the Democrats could not come to any consensus about a candidate, the nod went to Collier.
Members of Oklahoma’s congressional delegation generally worked together in opposition to the IRA. Our former tribal attorney, W. W. Hastings—a Cherokee who entered Congress in 1915 and, as Angie Debo pointed out, “had achieved distinction in a mixed society”—saw no need for the changes called for in the reform legislation. After studying the measure, he concluded that it would make our people feel inferior and further prevent our assimilation.
The Oklahoma press joined big business and prominent ranchers in vehemently opposing the bill, as did several Christian groups and religious zealots. Their objections resulted from Collier’s support of native religion, which the missionaries and preachers thought was pagan. Nonetheless, large numbers of Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and members of other tribes approved of the IRA, as did several thousand Cherokees.
Ultimately, implementation of the IRA was delayed by a combination of political infighting and lack of endorsement from some skeptical tribal leaders and assimilated mixed-bloods. Vicious assaults by angry white businessmen, ranchers, and farmers did not help. Even attempts to change the bill to appease all sides met with angry opposition in Oklahoma, where state lawmakers passed resolutions condemning key provisions. Extreme right-wingers and pseudopatriots sullied Collier’s reputation by calling him an atheist and a “Red”—as in communist—for many years the worst label anyone in this nation could be given. In 1935, Collier was obliged to refute those bogus charges during appearances before the House Indian Affairs Committee.
Finally, in 1936, after the addition of excessive amendments to comply with the objections of its Oklahoma enemies, a bill was passed by Congress known as the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act. This law, like the IRA, allowed tribes to adopt constitutions and secure corporate charters giving native people in the state the right to engage in business, administer tribal property, and elect officers. The Cherokee Nation did not organize under the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936 because of our historical relationship with the United States and our belief in our inherent sovereignty as a nation.
Ignoring the federal government’s system of appointing what some of our people called “chiefs for a day” as token leaders, a council made up of several Cherokee organizations met in 1938 and chose its own candidate. The council elected J. Bartley Milam of Claremore, Oklahoma, as our tribe’s new principal chief. History was in the making. On April 16, 1941, President Roosevelt solidified the relationship between the two governments by appointing Milam as chief of the Cherokee Nation. For the first time ever, the elected chief of the council and the presidentially appointed chief were one and the same. And this time it was not just temporary. Chief Milam, subsequently reappointed by Roosevelt and later by President Harry Truman, would remain our leader until his death in 1949, when we returned to chiefs by presidential appointment for some time.
Although World War II brought about a severe cut in domestic spending, especially for the New Deal Indian programs, Chief Milam proved to be fully committed to the revitalization of our tribe. During the first several years of his tenure, attention was focused on the events transpiring in war-torn Europe and in the Pacific, but Milam forced the United States to continue to deal with the Cherokees on other issues of importance. This was vital, since much of the energy of reform was lost in the war effort.
In addition to the administrative side of his role as principal chief, Milam also took a strong interest in Cherokee culture, history, and education. He was instrumental in establishing Cherokee-language classes at several institutions. Milam also played a key part in the creation of the Cherokee National Historical Society. He initiated negotiations for the purchase of the site of the old Cherokee National Female Seminary to develop a national heritage center for all of our people.
Just as we did during World War I, the Cherokee Nation again responded to the call of the United States in World War II. Many Cherokees enlisted in the armed forces and fought bravely in North Africa, Sicily, and the Pacific. One of our best-known soldiers was Thomas Bearpaw, a Cherokee from Stilwell, who served with Darby’s Rangers, an elite U.S. Army commando unit. He was captured during the Battle of Anzio Beach in 1943, transported to Poland and then to northern Italy, where he was held prisoner until 1944. Bearpaw received the Bronze Star, the Oklahoma Medal of Valor, and several other decorations.
The experience of traveling across the seas to new and strange lands had a profound impact on our young Cherokees as they met people of other races and ethnic backgrounds.
On the home front, many tribal leaders from across the nation recognized that Native Americans were still in a precarious position when it came to basic human rights. In response to those concerns, many of those leaders met in Denver in 1944 to form the National Congress of American Indians. One of those in attendance to help with the founding was Chief Milam. Now considered to be the oldest and most representative national organization for native people, the NCAI was established to help Native Americans protect their land and treaty rights, and to preserve cultural values.
We, the members of the Indian tribes of the United States of America invoking the Divine guidance of Almighty God in order to secure to ourselves—the Indians of the United States and the Natives of Alaska—and our descendants the rights and benefits to which we are entitled under the laws of the United States, and the several states thereof; to enlighten the public toward the better understanding of the Indian people; to preserve rights under Indian treaties or agreements with the United States; to promote the common welfare of the American Indian and to foster the loyalty and allegiance of American Indians to the flag of the United States do establish this organization and adopt the following Constitution and By-laws.
Preamble to National Congress of
American Indians Constitution
Returning to Oklahoma after the historic founding of the NCAI, Chief Milam worked toward the establishment of an elected tribal council for the Cherokee Nation, to further legitimize our government and to make it more responsive to the needs of the Cherokee people.
With John Collier’s resignation as head of the BIA in 1945, an era drew to a close. Any advancements that had been made under the Indian Reorganization Act began to be hobbled by the changing political climate. In 1946, in an attempt to counteract the continuing loss of land, Milam began to purchase property to be held in trust for the Cherokee Nation. By year’s end, he had purchased 21,453 acres. Aware of our previous dealings with the government, Milam was correct to make such a move. Previous reform measures were being ignored. The resurgence of tribal governments that Collier had fought for would not become a reality until after the termination policy and federal relocation program of the 1950s proved to be disastrous for Native Americans.
On July 30, 1948, after receiving the approval of our “protectors” at the BIA, Milam called a national convention at Tahlequah. The meeting was controversial; there were charges that it was dominated by white attorneys. As a result of the dissatisfaction with how the convention was conducted, Milam was expelled from membership in the Keetoowah Society during a special session called on August 13, 1948.
At the July convention, a standing committee of eleven members, with the principal chief as an ex officio member, had been elected. The representatives were chosen from each of the nine districts of the old Cherokee Nation. There was also a member at large, and one representative from the Texas Cherokees. This was a major step toward the return of the tribal-council form of government for the Cherokee Nation. It was also one of Milam’s last significant acts as principal chief. On May 8, 1949, Bartley Milam died.
Later that year, President Harry Truman appointed William Wayne Keeler, an affluent mixed-blood oil executive, to succeed Milam as chief of the Cherokee Nation. Keeler would be reappointed by succeeding presidents until 1971, when at last the entire Cherokee tribe would be permitted for the first time since statehood to elect its own chief.
The grandson of George Keeler and of Nelson Carr, prominent white Indian Territory pioneers who had married one-eighth Cherokee women, Keeler grew up in the Bartlesville area in eastern Oklahoma. In those parts, it was well known that Keeler’s paternal grandfather, George Keeler, had brought in the first commercial oil well in Indian Territory, in 1897. The gusher was dubbed the Nellie Johnstone, after the wife of one of Keeler’s business partners.
In understanding the significance of Keeler, it is important to note that his background contrasted strongly with that of his predecessors. Born in Dalhart, Texas, while his parents were on a business trip, Keeler was reared in the “oil patch.” He graduated as valedictorian of his high school class, and studied engineering at the University of Kansas on a Harry E. Sinclair science scholarship. When Sinclair Oil became enmeshed in the infamous Teapot Dome scandal, the scholarship money was suddenly cut off, forcing Keeler to drop out of the university. In 1929, he went to work full time for Phillips Petroleum Company, one of the foremost oil companies in the country, with its corporate headquarters in Keeler’s hometown of Bartlesville.
Twenty years later, when Truman first appointed him as Cherokee chief, Keeler was a vice-president of the refining department at Phillips and one of the firm’s rising stars. He climbed rapidly through the corporate ranks at Phillips. After several key promotions, Keeler became executive vice-president in 1956, chairman of the executive committee in 1962, and president and chief executive officer in 1968. He hobnobbed with several United States presidents and foreign dignitaries, and served on many prestigious boards and councils. In the 1950s and 1960s, Keeler also chaired his share of task forces commissioned to study BIA operations, discuss native land rights, or tackle the gamut of problems experienced by contemporary Native Americans trying to survive the termination and relocation policies of the federal government.
Although his countless fans like to point out that, for the most part, he continued to pursue the same causes and concerns that had interested his predecessor, Chief Milam, Keeler also has attracted his share of detractors. Some of them prefer to ignore his achievements, and instead claim that Keeler’s considerable white heritage, as well as his strong connections to the white Establishment, were negatives as far as the Cherokee Nation was concerned. They enjoy claiming that W. W. Keeler was much more comfortable on the golf course or at a cocktail party than he was attending a traditional dance at an isolated ceremonial ground. I recall an article published in Ramparts in 1971 which spoke of Keeler as being only one-sixteenth Cherokee and more “the descendant in spirit and fact of the whites who overran Indian Territory and took away from the Indians, to whom it had been given in payment, sacred lands where their ancestors were buried.”
My own traditional relatives, however, are very respectful of Bill Keeler. And many elders in rural areas remember when Keeler came to visit their communities.
History is a great teacher. It must be questioned, it must be pierced with an analytical eye; but it can never be dismissed.
William Wayne Keeler
The protection of our land and water and other natural resources are of utmost importance to us. Our culture not only exists in time but in space as well. If we lose our land we are adrift like a leaf on a lake, which will float aimlessly and then dissolve and disappear.
Our land is more than the ground on which we stand and sleep, and in which we bury our dead. The land is our spiritual mother whom we can no easier sell than our physical mother.
We are products of the poverty, despair, and discrimination pushed on our people from the outside. We are the products of chaos. Chaos in our tribes. Chaos in our personal lives.
We are also products of a rich and ancient culture which supersedes and makes bearable any oppressions we are forced to bear. We believe that one’s basic identity should be with his tribe. We believe in tribalism, we believe that tribalism is what has caused us to endure.
National Indian Youth Conference policy statement, 1961
Throughout the twentieth century, there have always been many full-blooded Cherokees and those of half or more Cherokee blood who have pursued our more traditional ways and culture. Some of them were members of my family; others were good friends of my grandfather and father. They lived on isolated tracts of rocky land and in small communities dotting the hills of eastern Oklahoma. None of those communities was incorporated, and most did not appear on any maps. Some were not even visible to motorists who may have strayed from the beaten path and driven down the dirt roads snaking through those hidden hills.
Generally, the more traditional Cherokees maintained their individual allotments and depended on seasonal work to supplement meager incomes. They also counted on their gardens and on hunting and fishing. On special occasions, they congregated at the nearest church, school, or ceremonial ground. Most of them spoke Cherokee as their first language. Some spoke nothing but Cherokee. Besides maintaining our language, many Cherokees preserved a sense of community in more than one hundred distinct Cherokee settlements scattered throughout our Nation. People shared what little they had with one another. They found humor and joy even in seemingly small things. The Cherokee medicine and ceremonies continued despite everything that happened around us.
Tribal elders talked about those times. They spoke of when some folks in Washington made serious efforts to help us out. Yet for too long, our tribal leaders were still being appointed by the federal government.
Tribal elders told me that when they were young and trying to make a go of it, no one ever gave up the dream of a revitalized Cherokee Nation. People would walk to one another’s homes in those rural communities and sit on the porches and discuss ways to keep the Cherokee culture and Cherokee government alive. People rode horses over the hills to attend community meetings. Men and women got together just to talk about how best to retain our traditions. They spoke of the old days of our tribe, and they told stories to keep our Cherokee spirit strong.
Some of them repeated the old stories that teach us lessons. They may have told the story of the deluge, the one about the big flood and the dog that warned the man, or the story of the ghosts dancing after the waters had disappeared. It is a story that has been passed down through time.
