Volume 1, Number 8 - Summer 1963


Our Early Historic Indians
by Elmo Ingenthron

(A condensation of a chapter from Mr. Ingenthron's forthcoming history of Taney County, and used with his permission.)

Osages. During the French and Spanish rule, the White River region was known as the land of the Osages, who claimed all of the territory west of the Mississippi and between the Arkansas and Missouri rivers. Apparently when the earliest of the early settlers came to the White River region, the Osages lived mostly north and west of the present site of Springfield and made annual hunting trips into the White River valley. They were primarily hunters of big game and seldom utilized the meat of small animals. The squaws tended small patches of pumpkins, corn and beans. Wild fruits and berries were gathered for food.

In 1808 the Osages ceded the larger part of what is now the state of Missouri and the northern part of Arkansas to the United States government, retaining their territory in what is now Oklahoma.

Three abandoned Osage village sites on Swan Creek were noted by the early explorer Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, in 1819. He reported that the Osage tent looked like an inverted bird's nest with a small opening left in the top for the smoke to escape. The women and children usually accompanied the hunters, living for months at a time in the hunting camps. Another reference to a Swan Creek camp was made by S. C. Turnbo, who reported that Paton Keesee, Peter Keesee and Lige McAdoo went up White River to hunt game in the fall of 1818, and there were friendly Osage Indians camped at the mouth of Swan Creek.

Kickapoos. The Kickapoo Indians came into the northern fringe of the White River watershed and established villages sometime during the War of 1812 or soon thereafter. One such village of about 500 Kickapoos was founded on the southern portion of the present site of Springfield. They no doubt hunted and fished White River and its tributaries prior to the arrival of the Delawares. They left the Springfield area in 1829 to move farther west.

Delawares. Between 1778 and 1861, the Delawares had taken part in some 45 treaties with the government. In one treaty of 1818, the government agreed to provide them land west of the Mississippi. In 1821 and 1822, some 2,100 Delawares removed to a tract of land in southwest Missouri on the James Fork of White River which General William Clark had selected for them. A number of early white settlers became alarmed by the Delawares' claims on the land and sent Thomas Patterson to St. Louis to find out if the claims were valid. Patterson returned to inform the settlers that the Delawares were right and that the Whites would have to give up their claims. Some settlers abandoned their claims, while others chose to live with the Delawares.

Some white men had arrived with the Delawares: James Wilson, a man named Marshall, and, about the same time, Joseph Philabert and William Gilliss arrived. Philabert and Gilliss established a trading post on White River near the mouth of James River, and another near the mouth of Findley Creek. Philabert took an active part in the social and political life of Greene, Taney, and later Stone counties. He was buried at the mouth of James River, and in 1958, his body was moved to a new cemetery when Table Rock Lake was formed.

The Delawares adopted many of the white man's ways: they lived in log cabins, wore clothing like the white men, at times adding a few decorations, and their economy was a mixture of agriculture and hunting and gathering.

Because of floods, game becoming scarce, and friction between them and the neighboring Osages and Cherokees, the Delawares were appealing in the late 1820's for help. They and the government concluded another treaty in 1829, and they left the James Fork of White River in 1831 to join other Delawares in the "country in the fork of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers, extending up the Kansas River to the Kansas line, and up the Missouri River to Camp Leavenworth."

Shawnees. The Shawnee Indians inhabited much of the White River country prior to 1806 and until about 1817. Yellville, Arkansas, was for many years a Shawnee village, and the Crooked Creek region near the present site of Harrison, Arkansas, was inhabited by them.

Miamis. According to an early history of Greene County published in 1883, the Miami Indians lived for a time at the mouth of Swan Creek in the middle 1820's. An extraordinary white man, Robert Alexander, lived with them at that time. He had sought the wilderness of the White River country after he had failed, by only a few votes, being elected governor of North Carolina.

Weas. During this period, the Weas Indians were reported to have lived for a time on Beaver Creek, a short distance above the mouth of the stream.

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In the mid-1830's a number of Indians came back to the White River country from their reservations in Oklahoma. Their presence disturbed the white people who had settled in the region. Due to the wisdom of Col. Charles A. Yancy who handled the situation, the White River country escaped the serious Indian wars common to other sections of the American frontier.

Cherokees. A number of Cherokee Indians came into or through the White River country between 1785 and 1839. The first Cherokee settlement was made on White River in Arkansas in 1785. Others settled in Arkansas from time to time on lands given up by the Osages in 1808. About 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act which forced the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole Indians to give up their lands east of the Mississippi and move to lands in the Indian Territory.

Apparently some of the Cherokees moved willingly. One migration took place in 1832 when several bands of some 300 or more from Georgia leisurely passed through the White River country on their way west. One band lived for some time north of Berryville, Arkansas. In the late 1830's the state and federal governments began the forcible removal of the remaining Indians from Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. Because of the heartaches and hardships on the long forced march, the Cherokee routes have been referred to as the "Trail of Tears."

An historical marker at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, briefly but ably describes the later groups of Cherokees who left their 'Trail of Tears" and "Trail of Graves" through the White River country:

"1838-39 Here passed part of 20,000 Cherokees, driven by the U. S. Army from their Tennessee. North Carolina-Georgia mountains to Indian Territory. One third died on the way. 645 wagons hauled the infirm. 5,000 ponies ridden, thousands forced to walk."

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