Pleasant Porter

The "Sands Rebellion" of 1871 was the culmination of grievances between two Creek factions. These had roots to divisions in the society from the Southeast, between the Lower Creek, who tended to have lived more closely near European Americans and had more interaction with them. They had more members and leaders of mixed-blood or partial European ancestry, and more of their men had received some European-American education. The Upper Creek, by contrast, had been more isolated from European-American culture, were still primarily full-blood Creek in ancestry, and kept to traditional ways. Even decades after removal to Indian Territory, divisions remained among the Creek. In 1871 the name "Sands" refers to the leader of a disgruntled group of Upper Creek led by Oktars-sars-har-jo (known in English as "Sands".)[5]

When Principal Chief Samuel Checote convened a National Creek Council in October 1871, nearly 300 Sands followers marched on the capital and dispersed the meeting. Pleasant Porter, commanding a group of Creek horsemen, together with a group of Federal agents, put down the short-lived rebellion without loss of life. Porter convinced the Sands followers to lay down their arms and go home.[5]

In the fall of 1872, the Creek Nation selected Porter as a delegate to Washington, D.C., to represent the nation's interests with Congress and the government. He performed this work so effectively that he served for much of his life on business in the national capital. He soon became well-known and respected by members of Congress and several presidents, and was befriended by President Theodore Roosevelt.[4]

In 1875, Lachar Harjo was elected Principal Chief to replace Checote. Checote supporters controlled the Creek legislature and impeached Harjo, replacing him with a Checote supporter. Porter was called on to quell the subsequent demonstration and convinced the Haijo supporters to go home.[4]

In 1882, Judge Isparhecher, from Okmulgee, was charged with sedition by the Creek National Council and removed from office. He gathered about 350 followers of Sands and Haijo, established a military camp and formed a rival government, complete with armed light horsemen.

Checote recalled Porter from Washington and put him in charge of about 700 men. He attacked the opponents camp, beginning what historian Meserve says the Creek called the "Green Peach War". Porter's troops chased their opponents into Sac and Fox territory in February 1883. Isparhecher and his remaining followers tried to gain asylum with the Kiowa, but U. S. troops captured them and sent them to Fort Gibson. According to Meserve, there were seven or eight casualties in the Green Peach War. Afterward, some Creek began calling Porter "General" as an honorific title.[4]

Isparhecher remained the de facto leader of the full-bloods (then known as the Nuyaka faction). When Checote stepped down as principal chief in 1883, an election elevated a follower of Isparhecher to the position, narrowly defeating Isparhecher himself. Checote came in a distant third. Isparhecher served briefly in December 1883. On February 24, 1884, the Indian Agent at Muskogee, under orders from the Secretary of the Interior, whose department administered Native American affairs, officially recognized Joseph Perryman as the principal chief, although he was not elected by the council.[6]

Under the terms of the Dawes Act, the Creek Nation had to agree to an allotment of former tribal lands to individual households, in an effort to force adaptation to European-American styles of farming and property ownership. Porter headed another Creek commission to negotiate the terms with Federal officials. Agreement was announced September 27, 1897, and incorporated as part of the Curtis Act, passed by Congress in June 1898. The US insisted that any land remaining after allotment would be considered "surplus" and made available for sale to non-Indians. Although the agreement was rejected by the Creek in an election on November 1, 1898, the Dawes Commission began to register tribal members for the process of allotment.[4]

Porter headed a delegation to Washington, C. C. in January 1889 to negotiate the terms for turning over some more of their land to the United States, as required by the 1866 peace treaty. At the time the treaty was signed, it was intended that these lands were to be used for the resettlement of other Native Americans and freedmen. The lands were not intended for settlement by whites. Now, the government wanted to open these so-called "unassigned lands" for white settlement. Porter and his delegation agreed to remove the restrictions on land use in exchange for $2.25 million. The agreement was signed on January 31, 1889.[4]

Pleasant Porter was elected Principal Chief on September 5, 1899. He and his delegation negotiated more concessions regarding rights of individual Creek members than had been allowed to many other tribes. But, many Creek opposed the allotment plan and break-up of communal land. In 1900, a leader of the full-blood faction, Chitto Harjo ("Crazy Snake"), declared a separate government. Porter appealed to the U. S. government for help putting down the revolt. A cavalry troop arrived and arrested the leaders in January 1901. Crazy Snake and his lieutenants pleaded guilty, were lectured by the judge, and sent home.[4]

Porter was reelected as Principal Chief in 1903. The powers of the office had been greatly reduced by the Curtis Act, so its duties were largely ceremonial or clerical. Much time was consumed signing land allotment deeds. Porter and other prominent leaders became interested in the movement to create a state out of Indian Territory, to be governed by Native Americans. The movement proposed to call it the State of Sequoyah, after the Cherokee who created an alphabet.[4]