Ever since the United States government was formed its Congress would address what frequently was called “the Indian Problem.” The issues revolved around expansion of this new nation, acquiring lands that various tribes claimed, and ways and means of assimilating them into white society. There are countless Indian chiefs who attempted to resolve this dilemma and still maintain the identity of their tribe. This is the story of one.
It was 1866 and Oochalata, a full blood Cherokee who lived at the headwaters of Brushy Creek southeast of today’s Jay, had just been selected as district judge. Born in Georgia to Long Charles, a full blood Cherokee and a white woman whose name is lost in history, Oochalata had survived the Trail of Tears. As a young man, he had been heavily influenced by the teachings of the Reverend Evan Jones who founded the Baptist Mission near Westville. Oochalata was also a charter member of the Keetoowah Society that Jones organized in 1859. The Keetoowah consisted mostly of full bloods opposed to slavery and who supported Cherokee traditions. During the early stages of the Civil War, Oochalata and most of the full blood Cherokees switched from the Confederacy to supporting the Union. He joined the Third Indian Home Guards under the command of Colonel Lewis Downing, who later became Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Shortly after the war and with Downing’s support, Oochalata was elected as judge. Three years later he became a member of the Cherokee Senate and, it was then that he decided to change his name to Charles Thompson. Adopting a portion of his Indian name “chala” as Charles, he chose the surname of Thompson to honor his Senate predecessor Dr. Jeter Lynch Thompson. He would serve four terms as senator, 1869, 1871, 1873, and later in 1877. Despite all of the negative circumstances during the earlier years of his life, Charles Thompson had risen above them, become well grounded in the Nations politics and in 1875 he was elected Principal Chief. It was during this time that he witnessed the beginning of the final stages of what would become “the perfect storm” leading to both the dissolution of his nation and assimilation.
Following the war, reconstruction in the South preoccupied Washington and the devastation that had occurred in Indian Territory was practically ignored. John Ross, Lewis Downing and William Ross, Thompsons predecessors after the war, had addressed circumstances to the best of their ability and reconstruction within the Nation had slowly progressed. However by 1875, Washington had once again turned its attention to the “Indian problem” and the potential of Indian Territory. Members of Congress, previous authors of an untold number of broken treaties who also chose to ignore Indian allegiances with the Union during the war, approved two railroads constructed in 1871 involving millions of acres of Cherokee land. Although western farm land had been available through the Homestead Act, after the War much of that land had been settled and, emboldened by the actions of Congress thousands of squatters began moving in to Indian Territory.
Communicating with Congress, Thompson first addressed the railroad investors, “whose goal was to seize millions of acres of land promised by Congress…and robbing us.” Regarding the issue of squatters he noted, “There are now thousands of intruders squatted upon our lands” and he requested having them removed, only to be rebutted or ignored. In another futile attempt, Thompson prepared 138 pages of citations from all of the treaties with the government declaring that the Nation had the right to determine who was a Cherokee citizen. And as the tide for the perfect storm continued to rise, there also was a constant battle to thwart organizing a territorial form of government in Indian Territory. Still further complicating Thompson’s efforts to maintain sovereignty was the fact that prominent members of the Cherokee Nation, men like E.C. Boudinet, the founder of Vinita, supported integration into the white society.
Despite support from the Keetoowahs, Charles Thompson was not re-elected for a second term in 1879. He had not been successful in stemming the tide of assimilation, nor would his seven successors as Principal Chief. The final blow to Cherokee independence before the waves of that perfect storm came tumbling down was Congressional approval of the Dawes Act dividing land into parcels that here-to-for belonged to the Nation.
Neither Charles Thompson nor his predecessors or successors could stem the white tide Native Americans were soon swept up in the perfect storm of integration and into the prevailing society. The perfect storm was over, however meaningful assimilation would take awhile longer.