David McKellop Hodge
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David McKellop Hodge (1841–1920,
Creek A creek in North America and elsewhere, such as Australia, is a stream that is usually smaller than a river. In the British Isles it is a small tidal inlet. Creek may also refer to: * Creek people, a former name of Muscogee, Native Americans * C ...
) was an attorney and interpreter for the Creek Nation, and was politically active. He became an orator and a leader on the Creek Nation Council at Muskogee, the capital. Born in Choska,
Creek Nation The Muscogee Nation, or Muscogee (Creek) Nation, is a List of federally recognized tribes, federally recognized Native American tribe based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The nation descends from the historic Muscogee Confederacy, a large grou ...
,
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, ...
(near present-day
Coweta Coweta is a city in Wagoner County, Oklahoma, United States, a suburb of Tulsa. As of 2010, its population was 9,943. Part of the Creek Nation in Indian Territory before Oklahoma became a U.S. state, the town was first settled in 1840.
in present-day
Wagoner County, Oklahoma Wagoner County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 80,981. Its county seat is Wagoner. Wagoner County is included in the Tulsa metropolitan area. History According to archaeological ...
). Son of a white man and a
Creek A creek in North America and elsewhere, such as Australia, is a stream that is usually smaller than a river. In the British Isles it is a small tidal inlet. Creek may also refer to: * Creek people, a former name of Muscogee, Native Americans * C ...
woman, he was raised in the matrilineal Creek culture, learning both Creek and English languages. He became involved with Creek Nation politics, and was licensed to practice law in the Creek Nation; he was recorded as "David M. Hodge" on legal documentation.''The Yuchi: Children of the Sun'', by Carolyn Thomas Foreman, http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v037/v037p480.pdf He was buried at Oaklawn Cemetery in
Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...
.


Ancestry

David M. Hodge was the son of Nathanel Hodge, European-American, and Nancy McKellop (
Creek A creek in North America and elsewhere, such as Australia, is a stream that is usually smaller than a river. In the British Isles it is a small tidal inlet. Creek may also refer to: * Creek people, a former name of Muscogee, Native Americans * C ...
), who had mixed ancestry. Her parents were David McKellop, an 1810 immigrant from Scotland, and his wife Susan (Perryman) McKellop. She was the daughter of
Chief Perryman Benjamin Perryman (Steek-cha-ko-me-co) was a tribal town chief of some prominence among the Muscogee people in Alabama and was a pronounced adherent of the William McIntosh faction in Creek tribal affairs. He is noted as a signer of the Treaty of ...
and his wife.''Chronicles of Oklahoma,'' Vol. 15, No. 2, page 168, June, 1937, The Perrymans, http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v015/v015p166.html Because the Creek had a matrilineal kinship system, Hodge was considered to belong to his mother's people, and through her family, he belonged to the Aktayace clan.''L.C. Perryman's Diary,'' p. 42, http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cmamcrk4/crkst20.html According to the 1882 Creek Census, he belonged to Big Spring Tribal Town (he was listed as D.M. Hodge).1882 Creek Nation Census, Big Spring Town, page 2, http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~texlance/1882census/bigspring.htm Hodge married Susan Yargee, daughter of John Yargee; one of the founders of Red Fork, OK.


Career

Many Creek allied with the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Its leaders had promised the Creek and other nations in Indian Territory a state under Native American control if they won the war. Hodge is listed as a member of Company Company H, lst Creek Cavalry Regiment, Indian Territory, C.S.A., fighting under the "Cherokee Braves" flag. Having been educated before the war in Presbyterian mission schools in the Creek Nation, he was appointed to write the Creek Constitution of 1868. He often served as clerk of the Creek National Council, and was appointed to several delegations that the Creek Nation sent to Washington, D.C. to negotiate with the federal government, including peace terms for the a new treaty after the war. He later negotiated terms of the original allowances of the
Curtis Act of 1898 The Curtis Act of 1898 was an amendment to the United States Dawes Act; it resulted in the break-up of tribal governments and communal lands in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indian Territory: the Choctaw, Chickasa ...
.Grayson, E. G. ''A Creek Warrior for the Confederacy: The Autobiography of Chief G. W. Grayson''. Ed. W. David Baird. p. 159. 1991.
University of Oklahoma Press. , 9780806123226
In 1897, Creek Principal Chief Isparhecker appointed Hodge to serve on a committee to negotiate with the
Dawes Commission The American Dawes Commission, named for its first chairman Henry L. Dawes, was authorized under a rider to an Indian Office appropriation bill, March 3, 1893. Its purpose was to convince the Five Civilized Tribes to agree to cede tribal title ...
for Creek rights in allocation of communal lands. He also represented the Creek Nation in
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, before Congressional committees and the Courts. In 1905, he was appointed a delegate to represent the Creek Tribal Town Broken Arrow at the Sequoyah Convention in Muskogee. This was an effort by several Indian nations in the territory to establish a state under Native American control, as pressure was increasing to admit the territories as a state after extinguishing Indian land rights. Hodge was a member of the convention's Committee of Three, which assisted the chairman in appointing subcommittees. The other members of the committee included
Charles N. Haskell Charles Nathaniel Haskell (March 13, 1860 – July 5, 1933) was an American lawyer, oilman, and politician who was the first governor of Oklahoma. As a delegate to Oklahoma's constitutional convention in 1906, he played a crucial role in draftin ...
and
Robert L. Owen Robert Latham Owen Jr. (February 2, 1856 – July 19, 1947) was one of the first two U.S. senators from Oklahoma. He served in the Senate between 1907 and 1925. Born into affluent circumstances in antebellum Lynchburg, Virginia, the son of a r ...
. Hodge is also credited with translating parts of the Bible into the Creek language. He collaborated with Presbyterian missionary Robert McGill Loughridge to complete and publish the '' English and Muskogee Dictionary,'' in 1890. It was the first created for that language and the only one for nearly a century. He helped establish the Loughridge Memorial
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
Church, now known as White Church, on the Creek Nation. He also aided development of a private school, supported by subscription by students' families, that was based in the church building from 1870-1900. Hodge died in 1920. He is buried in Oaklawn Cemetery at Tulsa, Oklahoma.


References


{{DEFAULTSORT:Hodge, David McKellop 1841 births 1920 deaths People from Coweta, Oklahoma Native American linguists Muscogee (Creek) Nation people American people of Scottish descent 20th-century Native American people