Historic Tulsa

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Mike Wimmer’s oil on canvas shows United
States Indian Commissioner William Clark
offering the quill pen to Osage Principal
Chief Cleremont at the signing of the Osage
Treaty of 1825. The treaty basically moved
the Osage into Kansas to make room for the
Cherokees and Creeks in what would
become Tulsa County and northeast
Oklahoma. This painting is on permanent
display at the State Capitol in
Oklahoma City.
COURTESY OF THE OKLAHOMA STATE SENATE HISTORICAL
PRESERVATION FUND, INC.
HISTORIC TULSA
8
separation of whites and Creeks and vehemently
opposed any influence of white culture.
The first Lower Creeks arrived in Oklahoma
in 1828. By 1830, the Creeks joined the
Seminoles, Cherokees, Choctaws, and
Chickasaws as the Five Civilized Tribes being
relocated to Indian Territory. Because of decades
of contact with Europeans and Americans, many
Creeks spoke English and their literacy rates
equaled those of white pioneers in Indian
Territory. They built farm houses and laid out
fields for their crops. In 1832, Washington
Irving visited Broken Arrow, and wrote of “well
stocked” farms and comfortable houses. Of the
Creeks, Irving wrote, “They are a well made
race, muscular and closely knit, with well
formed thighs and legs. They have a gypsy
fondness for brilliant colors and gay
decorations, and are bright and fanciful objects
when seen at a distance on the prairies.”
By 1833 more than three hundred Creeks
lived near present-day Broken Arrow. Two
years earlier, a group of Creeks known as the
Broken Arrow Creeks had traveled from
Broken Arrow, Alabama, to settle in Indian
Territory. By tradition, they carried coals from
the campfire in their town in Alabama and
rekindled it in their new home which took the
name of Broken Arrow. Most of the Creeks
began farming in the surrounding countryside.
The Upper Creeks were among the
thousands who were marched westward by
contractors employed by the federal
government. On foot and by boat, the Creeks
were herded like animals. By best estimates,
less than half of the Creeks who left Alabama
reached Indian Territory alive.
Members of the Creek community of
Lochapoka in Alabama reached the Three
Forks area in 1836 and decided to travel
farther up the Arkansas River. When they came
to a point just before the river made a great
bend to the west, they stopped. On a small hill
that rose from the river’s sandy banks, Creek
leader, Achee Yahola, and other tribal leaders
gathered under a large oak tree. They laid out a
square for their new home and solemnly
scattered coals from a fire in their former town
in Alabama that had been kept smoldering
during their journey westward. As part of their
spiritual tradition, flames from the coals
rekindled, marking the link to the past and the
beginning of a new existence on the frontier.
Lochapoka means “turtling” place in Creek,
for the sea turtles that the Indians hunted in
Alabama. Because there were no giant turtles in
the Arkansas River, the Creeks did not attempt
to name their village in Indian Territory for
their village in Alabama. However, government
engineers mapping the Creek Nation gave the
village a name, Tallassee. The Lochapokas did
not like the name and began calling their
village, Tulsee Town. “Tul” is Creek for “town,”
causing Tulsee Town to be a redundancy.