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Samuel Checote
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Samuel Checote
Samuel Checote (1819–1884) (Muscogee) was a political leader, military veteran, and a Methodist preacher in the Creek Nation, Indian Territory. He served two terms as the first principal chief of the tribe to be elected under their new constitution created after the American Civil War. He had to deal with continuing tensions among his people, as traditionalists opposed assimilation to European-American ways.
Checote fought with the Confederacy during the war; most Creek supported their cause. He served as a lieutenant colonel with a Creek mounted unit in Indian Territory. After the war he resumed preaching.
Checote was born in 1819 to a Muscogee family in the Chattahoochee Valley, traditional Creek territory. It is in present-day eastern Alabama, near the Georgia state line. He started school at the Asbury Manual Labor School, established by Methodist missionaries near Fort Mitchell, Alabama. In 1829, he and his family were forced to move to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) as part of Indian Removal. They settled near where Okmulgee developed.
Later, Checote attended an academy founded by John Harrell, a Methodist missionary. He encouraged Checote's studies and persuaded him to become a minister to the Creek (Muscogee).
Following removal, the Lower Creek Council, which had earlier been dominated by those who wanted to take up some European-American ways, passed laws in 1832 and 1844 forbidding any tribal member from preaching Christianity. Checote and several other Creek preachers fled for their safety; they remained outside the Creek Nation until they were able to appeal to Chief Roley McIntosh. He overrode the council and repealed the law.
In 1852, Checote joined the Indian Mission Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The national church had split into North and South denominations because of disagreement over slavery. Some of the Creek and members of the other Civilized Tribes held enslaved African Americans; they had taken many to Indian Territory at the time of removal, and later purchased others.
Checote continued preaching until the American Civil War began. He and many other Creek supported the Confederacy, which had promised an all-Indian state if it was victorious. He enlisted in the Confederate Army on August 13, 1861, as captain of Company B of the First Regiment of Creek Mounted Volunteers. On August 19, 1861, he was commissioned as lieutenant colonel of his regiment. He and his regiment participated in several actions against Union forces, including the 1864 Battle of Cabin Creek and a skirmish at Pryor Creek.
After the end of the Civil War, Checote resumed his career as a Methodist preacher. He served as a circuit rider, traveling distances to serve other Creek in their territory. He was a presiding elder of the Indian Mission.
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Samuel Checote
Samuel Checote (1819–1884) (Muscogee) was a political leader, military veteran, and a Methodist preacher in the Creek Nation, Indian Territory. He served two terms as the first principal chief of the tribe to be elected under their new constitution created after the American Civil War. He had to deal with continuing tensions among his people, as traditionalists opposed assimilation to European-American ways.
Checote fought with the Confederacy during the war; most Creek supported their cause. He served as a lieutenant colonel with a Creek mounted unit in Indian Territory. After the war he resumed preaching.
Checote was born in 1819 to a Muscogee family in the Chattahoochee Valley, traditional Creek territory. It is in present-day eastern Alabama, near the Georgia state line. He started school at the Asbury Manual Labor School, established by Methodist missionaries near Fort Mitchell, Alabama. In 1829, he and his family were forced to move to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) as part of Indian Removal. They settled near where Okmulgee developed.
Later, Checote attended an academy founded by John Harrell, a Methodist missionary. He encouraged Checote's studies and persuaded him to become a minister to the Creek (Muscogee).
Following removal, the Lower Creek Council, which had earlier been dominated by those who wanted to take up some European-American ways, passed laws in 1832 and 1844 forbidding any tribal member from preaching Christianity. Checote and several other Creek preachers fled for their safety; they remained outside the Creek Nation until they were able to appeal to Chief Roley McIntosh. He overrode the council and repealed the law.
In 1852, Checote joined the Indian Mission Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The national church had split into North and South denominations because of disagreement over slavery. Some of the Creek and members of the other Civilized Tribes held enslaved African Americans; they had taken many to Indian Territory at the time of removal, and later purchased others.
Checote continued preaching until the American Civil War began. He and many other Creek supported the Confederacy, which had promised an all-Indian state if it was victorious. He enlisted in the Confederate Army on August 13, 1861, as captain of Company B of the First Regiment of Creek Mounted Volunteers. On August 19, 1861, he was commissioned as lieutenant colonel of his regiment. He and his regiment participated in several actions against Union forces, including the 1864 Battle of Cabin Creek and a skirmish at Pryor Creek.
After the end of the Civil War, Checote resumed his career as a Methodist preacher. He served as a circuit rider, traveling distances to serve other Creek in their territory. He was a presiding elder of the Indian Mission.