By T.S. Akers
Pleasant Porter, Principal Chief of the Muscogee Nation.
(Courtesy of the Oklahoma Historical Society)
Throughout the nineteenth century, Indigenous Peoples within
United States faced an onslaught of attacks against their sovereignty and
existence. With one broken promise after another, Indian Nations watched their
homelands dwindle and many ultimately faced removal to what would become
Oklahoma. The Five Tribes, originally from the southeastern portion of the
United States, were a set of Indian Nations who were some of the first to be
removed to what became the Indian Territory. These tribes included the Cherokee,
the Chickasaw, the Choctaw, the Muscogee, and the Seminole. The Five Tribes
each had internal divisions amongst those who had adopted European or white
culture and those who wished to remain traditional. There existed in the Five
Tribes some headmen who understood the compromises that would be necessary for
continued sovereignty in dealing with the federal government. One such headman
in the Muscogee Nation was Pleasant Porter, who in time would rise to the
office of Principal Chief.
Pleasant Porter was, as would have been described at the
time, of mixed-blood descent. Porter’s paternal grandfather was Captain John
Porter who served with Andrew Jackson during the Red Stick War of 1813-1814. This
was a Muscogee Civil War which the United States was drawn into. Captain Porter
managed to intervene as federal troops waged a merciless campaign against the
Muscogees following an incident known as the Fort Mimms Massacre. In helping to
bring an end to the hostilities, Captain Porter was extended an invitation by
the Muscogee people to live within their nation, which he accepted, and
thenceforth resided with the division of the Muscogees known as the Lower
Creeks.[1]
This was a geographic designation, with the Upper Creeks residing in the
northern part of the nation. (Creek is the British name for the Muscogee
Nation.) Whilst the Upper Creeks were traditionalist, the Lower Creeks had
adopted white customs following European contact.
Captain Porter’s son Benjamin was born around 1818 in the
Muscogee Nation. The Porter family came west with the first group of Muscogees,
known as the McIntosh party, in February of 1828. It was then that the family
established a farm near Clarksville in present day Wagoner County and Benjamin
Porter resided there until his death shortly before the American Civil War. A
young Benjamin Porter married Phoebe Tustunnuggee the daughter of Tahlopee
Tustunnuggee, who was a Muscogee tribal town chief.[2]
Phoebe was of the Bird Clan and of mixed-blood descent as her mother Lydia Perryman
was white.[3]
Pleasant Porter was born to Benjamin and Phoebe, at the family farm, on the
26th of September, 1840. In his youth, Pleasant Porter was given the Muscogee
name of Talof Harjo, which means Crazy Bear.[4]
The Tullahassee Presbyterian Mission School was established
in partnership with the Creek National Council in 1850. A three-story
institution, the Tullahassee school could support eighty students. Whilst most
mission or boarding schools today are associated with Indian assimilation, the
Muscogees viewed education as one strategy by which they could reinforce their
identity post-removal.[5]
Pleasant Porter attended the Tullahassee school for five years. From there he
briefly clerked in a store and then went to New Mexico as a cattle drover in 1860.[6]
Pleasant Porter during the American Civil War.
(Courtesy of the Oklahoma Historical Society)
On the 10th of July, 1861, the Muscogee Nation signed a
treaty of Friendship and Alliance with the Confederacy; which was favored and
opposed along the old divisional lines, with the traditionalist Upper Creeks
standing in opposition. Article thirty-six of the treaty called for the
Muscogees to raise one mounted regiment of ten companies.[7]
Ultimately, two regiments were raised, the 1st and 2nd Creek Mounted Rifles.
Pleasant Porter returned to the Muscogee Nation and enlisted as a private in
the 1st Creek Mounted Rifles on the 19th of August, 1861.[8]
He rose to the rank of regimental quartermaster sergeant in the 1st Creek.[9]
In 1863 Porter transferred to the 2nd Creek, presumably to fill vacancies, as a
second lieutenant in Company A.[10]
Riding with the Muscogee regiments, Porter would have seen action at Round
Mountain, Old Fort Wayne, and Honey Springs, among numerous other smaller
engagements. He was ultimately wounded three times during the war.[11]
The Muscogee regiments were part of Stand Watie’s command when he surrendered
on the 23rd of June, 1865, at Doaksville in the Choctaw Nation.[12]
At the war’s end, Pleasant Porter returned to the family
farm near Clarksville. He found it to be in much the same condition as the rest
of the Muscogee Nation. The buildings were burned, the fields overgrown, and
the livestock gone; however, Porter began the task of rebuilding.[13]
Whilst reestablishing life, Porter was also called into service for his tribe.
In September of 1865, he was asked to accompany Muscogee commissioners bound
for Fort Smith, Arkansas, as a guard. The party was to negotiate a new treaty
with the federal government. The resulting Treaties of Washington of 1866, the
reconstruction treaties, were designed to punish the Five Tribes for their alliance
with the Confederacy.[14]
The year 1867 yielded one of the most important changes for
the Muscogee Nation and it was a change that would leave lasting political
divisions. Prior to 1867, the Muscogee Nation existed as a confederation or
alliance of autonomous towns, each with tribal town chiefs. That year, a
constitutional republic with an elected executive, a bicameral legislature, and
a tiered court system was created.[15]
The elected executive was vested in the office of Principal Chief, the
bicameral legislature included a House of Kings (the upper house) and a House
of Warriors (the lower house), and the court system included a High Court with
six district courts.[16]
The first man to be elected to the office of Principal Chief
was Samuel Checote. During the Civil War, he served in the 1st Creek Mounted
Rifles, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel, which made him one of
Pleasant Porter’s former superior officers.[17]
After serving the treaty commission, Porter was tapped by Chief Checote as
superintendent of schools for the Muscogee Nation in 1867. As previously
discussed, the Muscogees understood the importance of education and Porter, as
a product of a joint mission school, restored and expanded the public school
system.[18]
It was the election of 1871 that saw the political divisions
born of the 1867 constitution boil over in the Muscogee Nation. The two groups
that rose out of the 1867 division were the Constitutionalists and the
Traditionalists, which mirrored the old divisions that dated back to the Red
Stick War of 1813-1814; those divisions being the Upper Creeks (traditionalist)
and the Lower Creeks. The Constitutionalists believed the future of tribal
sovereignty rested in the modernization of institutions to navigate the
intricacies of dealing with the federal government.[19]
It was to this faction which Pleasant Porter was an adherent. As Chief Checote
attempted to convene the national council at Okmulgee in October of 1871, a Muscogee
named Sands with around three hundred of his adherents marched on the capital.
Porter was placed in command of the Light Horse Company and successfully put
down the rebellion without bloodshed.[20]
The constitution of 1867, in article IV, established the Light Horse Company as
the militia of the Muscogee Nation, though it was grouped under the judiciary.
The Lighthorsemen, as they were commonly known, were comprised of a captain and
four privates from each of the six judicial districts.[21]
Pleasant Porter, c. 1870s.
(Courtesy of the Oklahoma Historical Society)
Following the Sands Rebellion, Pleasant Porter made his
first visit to Washington, D.C., as a representative of the Muscogee Nation in
1872; throughout his lifetime, he made over ten such diplomatic trips to the
federal capital.[22]
In 1875 Porter was elected to the House of Warriors. In time, he not only
became a member of the House of Kings but presided over that body.[23]
Porter served a total of four years in the House of Warriors and eight in the
House of Kings during his lifetime.[24]
The election of 1875, which propelled Porter to the Muscogee legislative
bodies, also placed the traditionalist Lachar Harjo in the office of Principal
Chief. Harjo was soon impeached by the National Council and removed from
office. Ward Couchman, a constitutionalist, was appointed to fulfill the
remainder of the chief’s term. Naturally angry over this, Harjo and his
followers set out to overthrow the Muscogee government. Once again commanding
the Lighthorsemen, it was Porter who quelled the uprising without bloodshed.[25]
Whilst in the service of the Muscogee Nation, Pleasant
Porter also enjoyed personal success in business. He first operated a general
store at Hillabee and then at Okmulgee, which he sold in 1869. Leaving
Okmulgee, Porter built a home at Wealaka.[26]
It was in cattle that Porter was most successful, capitalizing on the common
ownership of land in the Muscogee Nation for grazing purposes. He helped to
form the Muscogee and Seminole Livestock Association in 1884, which created
roundup districts and facilitated the transport of cattle to Eastern markets.[27]
Porter married Mary Ellen Keys on the 25th of November in 1872. She was the
daughter of Riley Keys, a Cherokee Nation Chief Justice. Mary Ellen died in
January of 1886, and Porter married Mattie Leonora Bertholf on 26th of May that
same year. The Porter family later moved to Muskogee in 1889.[28]
In Muskogee, Porter acquired a great deal of commercial property as the city
grew into a rail shipping point.[29]
Pleasant Porter in Knights Templar regalia, with portrait of Muscogee Chief Menawa, c. 1899.
(Courtesy of the Oklahoma Historical Society)
It was in the late 1870s that Pleasant Porter first became
associated with Freemasonry. The Grand Lodge of the Indian Territory had formed
in the fall of 1874 and now meeting at Eufaula was Muscogee Lodge No. 1,
AF&AM. It was there in August of 1877 that Porter was made an Entered
Apprentice, becoming a Master Mason in early 1878. He demitted from Muscogee
Lodge to help with the forming of Checote Lodge at Muskogee, a lodge named in
honor of Chief Samuel Checote. That lodge entered the roll of the Indian
Territory lodges as Muskogee Lodge No. 28, AF&AM on the 6th of November,
1888.[30]
Muscogee Lodge No. 1 at Eufaula changed its name to Eufaula Lodge No. 1 in 1889
to avoid any confusion.[31]
Porter joined the York Rite at Muskogee, and was a charter member of Muskogee
Chapter No. 3, Royal Arch Masons in 1890; Muskogee Council No. 2, Royal &
Select Masters in 1894; and Muskogee Commandery No. 2, Knights Templar in 1892.[32]
He was created a 32nd Degree Mason by Robert W. Hill at Muskogee on the 24th of
June, 1889. No Scottish Rite Valley yet existed in the Indian Territory at the
time, but Hill was serving as deputy for Sovereign Grand Commander Albert Pike
and had the authority to create Scottish Rite Masons.[33]
Historian Nicholas Rinehart describes Porter as a cultural broker, which he
defines as a leader who bridges the cultural chasm separating two distinct
political entities.[34]
Freemasonry had long been used by the headmen of the Five Tribes to meet this
aim and Porter understood the importance of the Masonic Lodge’s ability to
bridge that chasm.
After the two rebellions that Pleasant Porter successfully
quelled, one would have thought that the traditionalists would have given up
the idea of overthrowing the Muscogee government. This proved not to be the
case in 1880. That year, a Muscogee judge named Isparhecher openly rejected the
1867 constitution, which resulted in charges of sedition and his removal from
the bench. Gathering arms and around three hundred adherents at a camp near
Nuyaka, twelve miles west of the capital at Okmulgee, Isparhecher established a
“quasi-government.”[35]
In July of 1882, the Isparhecher faction was holding a council when two Lighthorsemen
came upon then. The group was disarmed and one member arrested for “resisting
an officer.” Leaving with their prisoner, the two Lighthorsemen were pursued by
about thirty of Isparhecher’s men and killed.[36]
Porter was called back from diplomatic business in Washington, D.C., to take
command of a seven-hundred-man force to bring an end to what is now called the
Green Peach War. In leading this force, Porter became known as General Porter.
Isparhecher was chased into the Sac & Fox Nation, where he and his
followers were ultimately disarmed by federal troops and moved to Fort Gibson;
the point from which they were released.[37]
The end of the nineteenth century saw a federal Indian
policy based on ending communal land holding and taking what the federal
government viewed as unused land from Indian Nations for white settlement. This
began with the Dawes General Allotment Act in 1887, though it exempted the
Muscogee Nation.[38]
The Land Run of 1889, held in April of that year, saw white settlers rush into
what was then known as “The Unassigned Lands” to stake homestead claims. The
Muscogees and the Seminoles had a legal claim to the area and in January of
1889, Pleasant Porter was part of the group that negotiated an agreement to
release the land in exchange for $2,250,000.[39]
The railroads, beginning with the MK&T in 1872, that ran through the Indian
Territory brought white settlement with them, as the Indian Nations were
required to grant the railroad a right of way. The census of 1890 shows that at
least 44% of the population in the Muscogee Nation were listed as “Other races”
as opposed to “Indian.”[40]
For some tribal headmen, such as Porter, what loomed on the horizon was
obvious.
Allotment came to the Muscogee Nation in 1893 with the
creation of the Dawes Commission. The commission’s directive was to negotiate
an agreement around allotment but was completely rebuffed.[41]
The commission’s measure of success was “the wiping out of quasi-independent
governments within our [the United States’] territorial limits.”[42]
To counter the transfer of land ownership to individual title, Pleasant Porter
unsuccessfully proposed that each Muscogee be limited to a pro-rated share of
land without conversion to individual title. Whilst the commission was setting
out to end tribal government, and being generally stonewalled, Porter first
stood for election as Principal Chief of the Muscogee Nation in 1895.
Unfortunately, the negotiations around land ownership cost Porter, as he lost
to Isparhecher, whom he had opposed in the Green Peach War.[43]
Frustrated with their inability to allot Five Tribes land, the Dawes Commission
sought additional authority, which came via the Curtis Act in 1898. This
allowed the commission to move forward with allotment without tribal consent.
The act also said that tribal governments were to be dissolved in 1906.[44]
Standing for election again in 1899, Pleasant Porter was
finally elevated to the office of Principal Chief of the Muscogee Nation.[45]
This of course was during a period of forced allotment which, as evidenced by
the previous election of the traditionalist Isparhecher, was not popular.
Recognizing that allotment was inevitable, in an address before the National
Council, Chief Porter said, “The vitality of our race still persists. We have
not lived for naught.”[46]
In an effort to negotiate the best terms possible for the Muscogee Nation, an
agreement was finalized in 1901, with a supplement in 1902, that established a
complex equalization formula to secure a fair distribution of allotments to all
citizens.[47]
These negotiations prompted one last traditionalist uprising, this time led by
Chitto Harjo, who was also known as Crazy Snake. Dubbed the Crazy Snake
Uprising, Harjo’s adherents established a government of their own at Hickory
Ground, near Henryetta. As the Curtis act had also dissolved the tribal courts,
Chief Porter had to appeal to the federal government to address the uprising. A
posse organized by US Marshal, and prominent Freemason, Leo Bennett was
initially unsuccessful in apprehending the rebels in late January of 1901. A
troop of the 8th US Cavalry from Fort Reno was then dispatched to the area, but
they ultimately were not needed as Deputy US Marshals arrested Harjo and others
within a day.[48]
Pleasant Porter campaign button with ribbon, c. 1903.
(Courtesy of the Muscogee Cultural Center and Archives)
Pleasant Porter’s service to the Muscogee Nation saw him
face four separate insurrections against the tribe’s constitutional form of
government. With the Curtis Act set to dissolve tribal governments in 1906,
Porter had one last foe to battle in his second term as Principal Chief, having
been re-elected in 1903.[49]
With the creation of the Oklahoma Territory, a statehood movement was born. In
the summer of 1905, a call was put forth to form a separate statehood
convention for the Indian Territory. The Sequoyah Convention, as it became
known, convened on the 21st of August for the purpose of drafting a
constitution for a new state to be formed from the Indian Territory. Porter,
with his years of service and experience in Washington, D.C., was selected as
the convention president.[50]
It was generally understood that Oklahoma Territory was to be its own state,
separate from the Indian Territory. During the Sequoyah Convention, Porter
posited, “From time immemorial the Indians as a heritage of the original
inhabitants have been promised a state, an empire of their own.”[51]
Unfortunately, the state of Sequoyah, which should have been, was never
realized; and the reasons were entirely political. Bills for Sequoyah statehood
were filed in Congress, but that legislative body refused to hear them. There
was simply no way that Republicans were going to admit a state into the union
that was heavily Democratic. That directive came from the top down, with
President Theodore Roosevelt, who had visited Muskogee in April of 1905,
stating then, “Your territory, remember in conjunction with Oklahoma, will soon
be one of the greatest states in the Union.”[52]
Whilst traveling with Judge John R. Thomas and Creek
National Attorney M.L. Mott on tribal business in 1907, Pleasant Porter and his
party stayed overnight in Vinita as it was necessary for them to change trains.
It was there on the 2nd of September that Porter suffered a stroke, fell
unconscious, and passed away the following day. It is said that his final words
were “I’m not afraid to die.” Porter was laid to rest in the family cemetery at
Wealaka.[53]
Speaking before the last session of the National Council
held in 1906, Pleasant Porter remarked “My Nation is about to disappear.”[54]
This may have seemed like a foregone conclusion, with the onslaught of attacks
against tribal sovereignty that had been put forth by the federal government.
However, time has proven Porter’s prediction to be incorrect. The Muscogee
Nation stands today, as strong as it ever has, and this is due in part to men
like General Pleasant Porter. The leadership and foresight that these cultural
brokers possessed helped to lay a strong foundation, which subsequent
generations have built on, and vigorously they have built.
[1] John B. Meserve, "Pleasant Porter,"
The Chronicles of Oklahoma 9, no. 3 (1931): 320.
[3] Dianna Everett, “Porter, Pleasant
(1840-1907),” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, accessed
November 15, 2022, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=PO032.
[5] Rowan F. Steineker, “’Fully Equal to that of
any Children’: Experimental Creek Education in the Antebellum Era," History
of Education Quarterly 56, no. 2 (2016): 275-290.
[7] “Treaty with the Creek Nation. July 10th,
1861. A Treaty of Friendship and Alliance.,” The Statutes at Large of the
Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America (Richmond: R.M.
Smith, 1864), 289-310.
[9] Compiled service record, Pleasant Porter,
Reg't Quartermaster Sgt., First Creek Mounted Rifles; Carded Records Showing
Military Service of Soldiers Who Fought in Confederate Organizations, compiled
1903-1927, documenting the period 1861-1865, Record Group 109; National
Archives, Washington, D.C.
[10] Compiled service record, Pleasant Porter, 2nd
Lieut., Co. A, Second Creek Mounted Rifles; Carded Records Showing Military
Service of Soldiers Who Fought in Confederate Organizations, compiled
1903-1927, documenting the period 1861-1865, Record Group 109; National
Archives, Washington, D.C.
[11] Michael D. Green, "Porter, Pleasant (26
September 1840–03 September 1907), Creek chief," American National
Biography, last modified February 1, 2000, https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-2001506.
[12] "1st Regiment Creek Mounted Volunteers,
CSA," Battle Unit Details - National Park Service, accessed
November 15, 2022, https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=CCS0001R0T5I.
[16] "The Constitution of the Muscogee
(Creek) Nation," in The Oklahoma Red Book, ed. Seth K. Corden and
W.B. Richards (Oklahoma City: The State of Oklahoma, 1912), 1: 224-227.
[17] Ingrid P. Westmoreland, “Checote, Samuel
(1819-1884),” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, accessed
November 15, 2022, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=CH012.
[19] Mary J. Warde, George Washington Grayson and the
Creek Nation, 1843-1920 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 107.
[21] "The Constitution of the Muscogee
(Creek) Nation.”
[27] Angie Debo, The Road to Disappearance: A
History of the Creek Indians (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1941),
286.
[30] “Porter, Pleasant” (member profile, Grand
Lodge of the State of Oklahoma).
[31] Proceedings of the M.: W.: Grand Lodge
A.F. & A.M. of the Indian Territory: Fifteenth Annual Communication
(Purcell, Chickasaw Nation, 1889), 66.
[32] “Porter, Pleasant” (organizational charters, Muskogee
York Rite Bodies)
[33] “Porter, Pleasant” (member profile, The
Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite).
[34] Nicholas Rinehart, "Chief Pleasant Porter:
Preeminent Mediator of Creek and American Worlds" (bachelor's thesis,
Texas Christian University, 2020), 3.
[38] "Dawes Act (1887)," Milestone
Documents - National Archives, accessed November 15, 2022, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/dawes-act.
[40] Department of the Interior U.S. Census
Office, Extra Census Bulletin: The Five Civilized Tribes of the Indian
Territory (Washington D. C.: United States Census Printing Office, 1894),
4.
[41] Kent Carter, “Snakes and Scribes: The Dawes
Commission and the Enrollment of the Creeks,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma 75,
no 4 (1997-1998): 387-388.
[42] Foreman Transcripts: Superintendents for
the Five Civilized Tribes, ed. Grant Foreman (Muskogee, OK: 1934), 20: 21.
[44] M. Kaye Tatro, “Curtis Act (1898),” The
Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, accessed November 15, 2022, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=CU006.
[46] "Tribute to Indian Loyalty," The
Tahlequah Arrow (Tahlequah, Indian Terr.), Nov. 25, 1905.
[48] Kenneth W. McIntosh, “Crazy Snake Uprising,” The
Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, accessed November 15, 2022, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=CR004.
[50] Amos Maxwell, "The Sequoyah Convention
(Part II)," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 28, no. 3 (1950): 299-300.
[51] Maxwell, "The Sequoyah Convention (Part
II):” 314.
[52] Amos Maxwell, "The Sequoyah
Convention," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 28, no. 2 (1950): 179.
