Creek National Capitol, also known as Creek Council House, is a building in downtown

Okmulgee, Oklahoma Okmulgee is a city in the Tulsa metropolitan area and the county seat of Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, Okmulgee County in Oklahoma, United States. The name is from the Muskogee language, Muskogee word ''okimulgi,'' which means "boiling waters".Bambu ...

, United States. It was the capitol of the

Muscogee (Creek) Nation The Muscogee Nation, or Muscogee (Creek) Nation, is a federally recognized Native American tribe based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The nation descends from the historic Muscogee Confederacy, a large group of indigenous peoples of the South ...

from 1878 until 1907. They had established their capital at Okmulgee in 1867, after the American Civil War. After Oklahoma was admitted as a state in 1907, the Creek lost control of this building and communal territory to the United States government, by a 1908 act. It continued to lease the building to recently organized Okmulgee County, Oklahoma for its use. In 1919 the U.S. Department of the Interior, which had trust responsibility for Creek lands, sold the building and site to the city of Okmulgee.Clifton Adcock
"Creeks ask to buy Council House: The U.S. sold it out from under them to the city of Okmulgee in 1919. It's now a museum."
''

Tulsa World The ''Tulsa World'' is an American daily newspaper. It serves the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is the primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma. The printed edition is the second-most circulated newspaper in the sta ...

'', March 18, 2010. In 1961 the building was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

, and in 1966 it was one of the first listings on

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. and In November 2010 the city sold the building back to the tribe for $3.2 million. The building houses the Creek Council House Museum, featuring artifacts and exhibits about the history of the

Muscogee 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 Woodlands Here they waged war again ...

tribe and the arts and crafts of other Native American tribes. In 1992, it was included again on the National Register as a

contributing building In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distr ...

in the listing of the Okmulgee Downtown Historic District. With

History

In 1837 the majority of the

tribe members were forced to remove from their territory in the Southeast to west of the Mississippi River by the U.S. government, during what is known as the

Trail of Tears The Trail of Tears was the forced displacement of about 60,000 people of the " Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850, and the additional thousands of Native Americans and their black slaves within that were ethnically cleansed by the U ...

. Survivors of the trek reached

Indian Territory Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United States, ...

and held a meeting at the historic Council Oak Tree, in an area that developed as present-day

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

. During the American Civil War, tribal unity was tested as members divided over alliance with the Confederacy. Leaders had hoped to maintain neutrality, but many members fought with the Confederacy. After the war, the US required a new peace treaty to be negotiated and also required the tribe to emancipate any enslaved African Americans they held. They became known as Creek Freedmen. In 1867 the

was established in the Indian Territory, with its governmental headquarters in the city of Okmulgee. The next year a double-log, two-story council house was constructed to conduct tribal business. On October 17, 1877, an act was passed by the council and approved by Chief Ward Coachman appropriating $10,000 for the construction of a new capitol building of stone or brick upon the site of the log council house. On January 10, 1878, the old Council House was sold for $60, with the tribe reconvening at the new Council House on September 23. The new Council House contained separate chambers for the executive and judicial branches of the government, with the legislative branch divided into the House of Kings and House of Warriors. In 1906 the U.S. Congress passed the Five Civilized Tribes Act, ending national self-governance for the Muscogee Creek Nation and the other four tribes: Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Seminole. In 1907 the Indian Territory was integrated into the state of

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

. That same year, the federal government leased the Muscogee Nation's Council House to the newly organized Okmulgee County for $2,000 a year to serve as the Okmulgee County Courthouse. This arrangement continued until 1917. In 1908 the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...

authorized the Secretary of the Interior to "take possession of all lands belonging to the Five Civilized Tribes, now or heretofore used for government, school, or other tribal purposes...". In 1919 the City of Okmulgee purchased the Creek Council House and its grounds for $100,000, under the supervision of the

Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal lands and natural resources. It also administers programs relatin ...

. The sale proceeds were deposited in the U.S. Treasury in the name of the tribe. In the 1920s the City of Okmulgee heard proposals for the Council House either to be torn down or adapted as a private hotel. This redevelopment was ended after popular entertainer

Will Rogers William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator. He was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma ...

(

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 ...

) visited the city and called for the Council House to be preserved, appealing to supporters of this view. On April 24, 1923, activists founded the Creek Indian Memorial Association (CIMA) to protect the historical monuments of the Muscogee tribe. In 1934 the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act was passed to help the tribes regain their sovereign status. (This was during the administration of President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

, when federal legislation had authorized tribes to restore self-government.) From the 1930s into 1960s, the City of Okmulgee used the Creek Council House variously as a sheriff's office, a

Boy Scout A Scout, Boy Scout, Girl Scout or, in some countries, a Pathfinder is a participant in the Scout Movement, usually aged 10–18 years, who engage in learning scoutcraft and outdoor and other special interest activities. Some Scout organizatio ...

meeting room, and a

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

. In 1961 the Council House and the grounds around it were listed on the National Register of Historic Places; it was designated as a

, of great significance. In 1970 Congress passed legislation authorizing the Five Tribes to democratically elect their chiefs. In 1971 the Muscogee (Creek) Nation elected Claude Cox as chief. In 1979 the Muscogee (Creek) Nation adopted a new constitution to replace the one from 1867, and established a representative self-government. The tribal government was restructured to have executive, legislative, and judicial branches. They also created departments for education and health were created. As they reorganized, they identified land for sites for construction of tribal governmental buildings. In 1989 the CIMA raised $1 million to restore the Creek Council House for use as a museum. They gained non-profit, 501-C-3 tax exempt status for their organization and such use. In 1992 the restoration of the Council House was completed, and the building was opened as a history museum of the Muscogee Nation. In 1993 the Creek Council House Museum received the National Preservation Honor Award from the

National Trust for Historic Preservation The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 ...

for this restoration. In 1997 the City of Okmulgee agreed to pay the CIMA $149,650 annually to operate the museum. In 2005 the CIMA changed its name to ''The Creek Council House Museum Association.'' In August 2010, after several months of negotiations, the City of Okmulgee agreed to sell the Council House back to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation for $3.2 million. Two months later, a ceremony was held to commemorate the Muscogee Nation's regaining ownership of their former capitol.

References

External links

Creek Nation Council HouseCreek Council House
at City of Okmulgee website (accessed March 16, 2010). {{NRHP in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma Government buildings completed in 1878 National Historic Landmarks in Oklahoma Legislative buildings Buildings and structures in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma Muscogee (Creek) Nation Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Oklahoma Defunct museums in Oklahoma National Register of Historic Places in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma