The Crazy Snake Rebellion, also known as the Smoked Meat Rebellion or Crazy Snake's War, was an incident in 1909 that at times was viewed as a war between the

Creek people The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek or just Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language; English: ), are a group of related Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern WoodlandsAmerican settlers. It should not be confused with an earlier, bloodless, conflict in 1901 involving many of the same people. The conflict consisted of only two minor skirmishes, the first of which was actually a struggle between a group of marginalized

African Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...

and a posse formed to punish the alleged robbery of a piece of smoked meat.

Rebellion

Crazy Snake was the very loose English translation of Chitto Harjo's name. Chitto Harjo was a leader of the

Four Mothers Society The Four Mothers Society or Four Mothers Nation is a religious, political, and traditionalist organization of Muscogee, Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw people, as well as the Natchez people enrolled in these tribes, in Oklahoma. Four Mothers Socie ...

among the Creek and an outspoken opponent of allotment. In 1893

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

formed the Dawes Commission to seek to have the lands of the Creek,

Choctaw The Choctaw ( ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States, originally based in what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choct ...

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, United States. Their traditional territory was in northern Mississippi, northwestern and northern Alabama, western Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky. Their language is ...

and

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

allotted. In 1895 Congress authorized surveying of the land, and in 1896 they passed a law creating tribal rolls and breaking up the land. The Creek government decided to negotiate the terms the best they could, but in 1898 the Creek held an election at which allotment was voted down. In response to this, Congress passed the Curtis Act which dissolved the governments of the Creek and their neighboring tribes. In 1900 there was a meeting where Chitto Harjo was declared the principal chief of the Creek by a meeting at his ceremonial grounds near Henryetta, whose people view Pleasant Porter's methods of introducing the allotment system to be in violation of the 1867 Creek Constitution. The meeting that elected Harjo also elected a second chief, a bicameral legislature and established a court. Since the Creek Nation did not exist in the view of the American government the legality of Harjo's election was not relevant at the time in United States law. The followers of Harjo organized a group called the Lighthorse to serve as a police force to enforce their view of the law. It was alleged that this group whipped some men for accepting allotment, but this is disputed by other writers. The anti-allotment activities of the Lighthorse caused the 8th Cavalry to be called out and several of the followers of Harjo to be arrested. In 1907 Oklahoma had introduced

Jim Crow Laws The Jim Crow laws were U.S. state, state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, "Jim Crow (character), Ji ...

similar to those of neighboring

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

and

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. As a result of these measures, many African Americans faced restrictions on their residence. A group of African Americans who may have been "'' Creek freedmen''", that is descendants of slaves who had been held by the Creek, gathered at Harjo's ceremonial grounds. By July 1908 a large number of African Americans, some of whom were Creek Freedmen, had gathered at Old Hickory, the site where Harjo and his associates ran the Creek government. In March 1909 during the annual meeting of the Creek traditionalists, there was an allegation that one of them or their African American allies had stolen some meat from a local white farmer. A sheriff's deputy was sent to arrest someone, but the African Americans drove him away both because as auxiliaries to the Creek nation they did not recognize the local county to have authority there and because they had good reason to believe neither an African American nor a Muscogee Creek had chance of a fair trial, but instead had a high likelihood of being lynched. The sheriff's deputy organized a posse to enforce the arrest for the stolen smoked meat. In the following battle, one African-American man was killed and forty-two other African Americans were arrested. A second confrontation happened on March 27 when a posse from McIntosh County attempted to arrest Chitto Harjo who was holed up in his cabin near Hickory Ground with a few other men. At sundown, the posse was approaching the cabin when one of Harjo's bodyguards opened fire from a window, killing two members of the posse. The fire was returned and a lucky shot hit Harjo in one of his legs above the knee. Eventually, the Creeks fled under the cover of darkness and the death of the two Americans created a "furor" in Checotah and Henryetta. A larger posse returned to the cabin only to find a woman. The posse fired into the cabin and burned it down, and the woman fled into the woods. After the second skirmish, vigilante groups roamed the vicinity pillaging Snake farms in search of Harjo.

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Charles N. Haskell called out the state

militia A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or se ...

. The First Regiment of the Oklahoma National Guard occupied Hickory Ground with 200 men and quickly restored order. Harjo was never captured, though he likely died in April 1911, either in Choctaw territory or in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Rebellion

References

Further reading