Dangers US Indian Police Faced

Before he became Oklahoma's first United States senator, Robert L. Owen served as an Indian Agent in Muskogee. During his tenure as Indian Agent, he constantly strove to improve working conditions for the Indian Police who worked for the agency.

The mid-1880's was a trying time in Indian Territory. Deputy Marshals and U. S. Army patrols provided some protection to Indian and non-Indian residents alike. In many cases, however, the Indian Police was important to successful police work in the territory.

In 1886, Owen reported having forty-three members of the Indian Police operating out of the Muskogee office. There were forty privates, two lieutenants and a captain. The police operated from their homes in order to provide service to their neighborhoods. Consequently, they knew their neighbors and the terrain nearby. This local knowledge frequently came in handy when tracking down a criminal.

However, there was an uncommon threat to service as a police officer in Indian Territory. Owen reported that some young Cherokees rode into Muskogee. Suffering from their consumption of alcohol, they began firing revolvers indiscriminately. Captain Samuel Sixkiller was shot and slightly wounded in one arm.

When the offenders were disarmed and arrested, they protested. They thought they were only shooting at the Indian Police. The intoxicated shooters were unaware that there were two Deputy Marshals nearby. At that time, there was no legal protection for the Indian Police except what local laws provided.

In another case, an Indian Police Lt. Thomas R. Knight killed Albert St. John in the process of arresting him. Members of St. John's wealthy family brought charges against Lt. Knight forcing the latter to make numerous trips to Fort Smith to defend himself.

One police officer was sentenced to hang by a tribal court for killing a desperado in self-defense. About the same time, the Federal Court in Fort Smith acquitted a Deputy Marshal, who was a US citizen, of the same charge.

Months after making his report for 1886, Agent Owen reported the killing of Captain Sixkiller the day before Christmas. Two young Cherokee half-breeds shot down the unarmed Sixkiller as he walked out of a Muskogee store. The drunks who committed the murder were never tried. One was captured and place in the custody of the Creek Lighthorse (tribal police) because the crime was committed in the Creek Nation. However, he was lightly guarded and soon escaped.

Thus were the variances of protection for lawmen. Owen advocated in his annual reports for passage federal legislation protecting the Indian Police. Then, no federal law protected Captain Sixkiller. Congress shortly afterwards passed such legislation.

For the risk they took, the Indian Police privates received eight dollars a month. Officers received a little more. Out of this salary, the police supplied their own provisions and a horse.

Lt. William Fields was promoted to captain following Sixkiller's death. A desperado murdered Lt. Fields about three months later while being arrested. His death on April 10th, 1887 led to the promotion of Lieutenant Knight, mentioned above.

Lt. Knight experienced a similar situation. While making arrest, the criminal resisted. Knight's killing of the offender was justified by Agent Owen who said he believed "it necessary to save his own life."

The passage of federal legislation to protect the US Indian Police began the process of reducing the threats these peacekeepers faced.

Girl Scout Statue Coming

Phyllis Mantik has cast a statue of a Girl Scout. She is a Canadian who has made sculpting her purpose in life. Now a resident of Stillwater, Oklahoma, she was chosen to make a bronze cast for the scouting program. That vision will be unveiled at the Three Rivers Museum on Saturday, May 31 at 4 o'clock.

Phyllis is celebrating the Scouting program by portraying a girl in her Scout uniform. This girl is an accomplished youngster as attested by the number of badges she wears on her sash. She has raised her right hand in the three-fingered salute recognizable around the world as a pledge to "do her best."

One tradition of the Girl Scouts is the selling of cookies to support the Scouting program. It is an important rite of passage for girls who meet the public while selling cookies. Thousands of local girls have become more confident in themselves while asking someone to buy a box of cookies.

The location of the statue in Muskogee is no accident. Four boxes of cookies are shown stacked by the Girl Scout who is forever frozen in bronze. Girls in the scouting program first sold cookies in Muskogee during December 1917 to raise money. The girls sold cookies in order to raise money to purchase uniforms.

The Muskogee's Mistletoe Troop was a new group in town. However, so was the Girl Scout organization. Juliette Gordon Low organized the first troop in the spring of 1912 in Georgia. It was only in 1915 that she incorporated the organization as Girl Scouts, Inc. Juliette sold her valuable necklace to support the society during these early days. This was because there was no regular income until troops all across the country began following Muskogee in selling cookies.

Members of the troop were able to sell cookies in Muskogee only until the middle of the month. A shortage of gas and the discovery that the heating plant at the Central High School was deficient forced the local school board to start the Christmas holidays on December 16th.

Since those days when Muskogee girls first peddled their cookies in the high school cafeteria, troop activities all across the United States have benefited. Because of those first sales, the "Cookie Seller" statue is coming to Muskogee.

Beginning May 21st, the Three Rivers Museum will display current and former Girl Scout uniforms. Also on exhibit will be memorabilia illustrating the scouting tradition and activities. This material may be viewed until June 7th.

Girl Scouts from all across Eastern Oklahoma plan to be at the Three Rivers Museum on the 31st to celebrate the "Road to a New Beginning." This celebration begins at 4:00 pm and will include the unveiling of the new statue.

If you were ever a Girl Scout, parented a Girl Scout or purchased cookies in support of the Girl Scout activities, plan to attend the dedication of the new Girl Scout statue at 220 Elgin Avenue in Muskogee.

Museum Digitizing Interviews

Alexander Hamilton Mike, Jr. was born in the Creek community surrounding the Union Agency now atop Agency Hill west of Muskogee. His birth occurred, he said, in 1874.

When Dub West interviewed Mr. Mike in September 1973, his voice showed the weakness of advanced age. Despite his low volume, A. H. could recall events and people from the earliest days of Muskogee's history.

Since 1860, man has been interested in recording the human voice. Mr. A. H. Mike was among the first persons Dub West recorded for posterity. Dub recorded nearly two hours of Mr. Mike's recollections.

Mike's interview is among the more than 180 discussions Dub recorded. He began in 1970 and continued recording on audiotape for nearly two full decades. His interviewees were all born before 1924. Mr. Mike, for example, was nearly 100 years old when Dub interviewed him.

Dub West sought out many long-time residents to interview. While most lived in the Muskogee area, he did not limit himself to the immediate area. He also sought out knowledgeable people in McIntosh and Cherokee Counties. Though West conducted interviews year round, he visited informants more between late winter and summer.

Following Dub West's death in 2001, the family donated the collection of interviews to the newly established Three Rivers Museum. The museum duplicated many of the tapes for preservation purposes years ago.

Developments in technological areas, however, mean today's audiocassette tapes are a dying recording media. Realizing this, the staff and volunteers have begun the process of digitizing these audiocassettes for the long-term future.

The process necessitate that each tape be played on a tape player that is connected to a computer. The computer used a recording program to re-record the stories digitally.

After this comes more steps before the interviews will be of much use to historians. Transcriptions of an interview are necessary, too. Such transcriptions point to accounts of an individual, place or event that historians will want to study.

The Three Rivers Museum has an offer for you. If you have a taped recording of an area resident, you may bring the cassette tape to the Three Rivers Museum. Then the museum will create a digital file for you to take home on the flash drive. There will be no charge for this service.

All the museum asks is that you allow it to retain a copy of the recording in order to expand the museum's collection. You get the added benefit of seeing that your relative's voice lives on in an institution dedicated to preservation of area history.

1916 Muskogee Balloon Race

Muskogee hosted the first of two "International Balloon Races" in 1916. While not officially sanctioned by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, this race kept interest in ballooning alive in America during the years of the Great War.

The race was sponsored by the Oklahoma Free State Fair to promote that year's fair. In 1916, the contest drew six contestants. None was from foreign countries because of the outbreak of hostilities in Europe. The board posted a prize of $2000 for the entrant who traveled the farthest.

October 7th, the last day of the fair, saw the gas bags lift off from the fair ground racetrack. The Muskogee Gas and Electric had pumped 360,000 cubic feet of natural gas into six balloons. Three of them were 80,000 cubic feet in size.

The "Dayton" balloon launched first. A lumberman from Dayton, Ohio, piloted one of the smaller balloons. He sailed aloft without a rider. This balloon came down near Kansas City, Missouri.

The "Saint Louis No. 1" lifted off second. It suffered a rip in its bag at 14,000 feet. Fortunately, the fabric acted as a parachute. Both passengers landed safely near Macon, Missouri.

The "Wichita" departed with two dentists aboard. The balloon lifted slow enough to not even clear the north fence around the racetrack. This embarrassing beginning was quickly followed by a landing at Coweta.

The Kansas City Aero Club sponsored the "Uncle Sam." Its captain was Harry E. Honeywell of St. Louis. He won the silver trophy for the greatest distance traveled at the 1909 International Balloon Race. By the end of his ballooning career, he had made about 600 flights.

After arriving in Muskogee, Captain Honeywell recruited Jack Horne to travel in the race as his aide. Horne was the district manager for a national insurance company.

While flying near Bartlesville, they were fired upon by "Indians." One of the bullets hit the bag, causing a steady leak that finally forced the balloon down near Dubuque, Iowa.

The "White" balloon also had two passengers. Both the pilot and aide came from Saint Louis, Missouri, for the race. Their luck held throughout the race. They traveled 410 miles, landing near Chariton, Iowa.

The "St. Louis Million Population" balloon rose into the air last. Captain John Berry was the oldest at seventy-six years of age. A manufacturer, he agreed to take another Muskogean.

Miss Irene Adams was set to depart when Capt. Berry abandoned his plans to take her at the last moment. She was a single Illinoisan who worked selling curios at the Muskogee Indian Trading Company.

Berry's balloon was the last one to report in at the end of the race. This was the result of landing in a rural area of Harrison County, Missouri. It took him longer to get to a telegraph office in order to notify the race officials back in Muskogee where he came down and when he landed.

The fair board awarded the first prize money to Capt. Honeywell for his masterful piloting of a damaged balloon. In the end, however, the real winner was the town of Muskogee because of the excellent national news coverage the race received.