Original Keetoowah Society facts for kids

The Original Keetoowah Society is a group in Oklahoma that works to keep the old ways and teachings of the Keetoowah Nighthawk Society alive. This society is important for preserving the culture of the Cherokee people. It's seen as the main part of a Cherokee movement that wanted to keep their traditions strong. This movement was started by Redbird Smith in the mid-1800s. After the Cherokee people were forced to move to what was called Indian Territory, different groups connected to the Keetoowah Society worked hard to save their traditional culture and lessons.

The group known today as The Original Keetoowah Society likely grew from an early 1900s group called the Keetoowah Nighthawk Society. One of the first records of the Keetoowah Movement after the Cherokee were moved is from August 15, 1888.

What Does Keetoowah Mean?

The name Keetoowah has been used for different groups of Cherokee people. Some think it was a name the early Cherokee used for themselves. A researcher named James Mooney wrote in 1902 that the Cherokee called themselves "Ani'-Yun'wiya'," which means "real people." He also noted that for special events, they often called themselves "Ani'-Kitu'hwagi," or "people of Kitu'hwa." Kitu'hwa was an old settlement on the Tuckasegee River in western North Carolina. It seems to have been where the tribe first began.

A Keetoowah Society member named John Springston, who was a court clerk, said that the Keetoowah name was used even before the Cherokee were forced to move from their homes in the southeast. He mentioned that the old Keetoowah group in Georgia was already fading away by 1835.

Keetoowah Society in the Late 1800s

After the Cherokee were moved to Indian Territory, the group known as the Keetoowah band came together again. In the late 1800s, many groups formed that said they were connected to the Keetoowah band or society. This was the most traditional group among the Cherokee people.

The Cherokee faced pressure from American settlers moving onto their lands. Also, the U.S. government passed the 1887 Dawes Act. This law aimed to break up tribal lands. The Keetoowah and other Cherokee were worried by court cases like Cherokee Nation v. Southern Kansas R. R. (1890) and Cherokee Nation v. Journeycake (1894). These cases showed that the Cherokee were losing control over their own territory.

In 1899, the Society met in Tahlequah. They passed statements that criticized the Cherokee Council and the Dawes Commission. The Dawes Commission was a U.S. government group. The Keetoowah Society was against the government's plan to divide up shared tribal land. The plan was to give 160-acre plots to individual Cherokee families. To do this, the Dawes Commission wanted to register all Cherokee members, even though the Cherokee had not agreed. Other Native American tribes in Indian Territory faced the same pressure to register their people and divide their lands.

Because of disagreements, different groups challenged changes to their constitution. These changes would have helped the Dawes Commission's work. Some groups decided to register as tribal members, but only as a protest. In 1901, the Keetoowah met at Big Tucker Springs and decided to register with the Dawes Commission. This led to a final split among Keetoowah groups. Redbird Smith left the meeting with eleven of his supporters. They wanted to actively resist registering. They then formed the Nighthawk Keetoowah.

Several hundred Keetoowah people, including some who had been part of the Keetoowah Society and left with the Nighthawks in 1901, formed secret, traditional groups. Most of these groups started near towns like Gore, Vian, or Proctor. These groups had been forming within the Keetoowah Society as early as 1893. Like the Nighthawks, these groups generally refused to accept the Dawes Commission's work until 1910 or even later.

The Keetoowah wanted to keep their tribal government and traditions, no matter what happened to the Cherokee Nation. However, the Keetoowah as a whole officially agreed, under protest, to the laws that ended the Cherokee Nation's government. These laws also divided shared lands among individual families, which ended the tribe's claims to the land. They learned they could not stop the 1893 Act, the Dawes Commission's registration, U.S. citizenship, the Curtis Act (which ended tribal courts), or the agreement with the Cherokee Nation from April 1, 1900. They also could not stop the 1906 Act, which almost completely ended the Cherokee government, or the division of Cherokee lands into separate plots.

Keetoowah Society in the 1930s

By the 1930s, John Smith, one of Redbird Smith's sons and an important Nighthawk leader, had lost trust among many Keetoowahs. He had supported Chester Polk Cornelius, a man from the Oneida people who involved them in risky money plans. This caused the religious group to split into many smaller groups. As a result, the Keetoowah Society set up two different ceremonial grounds. Both were run by members of Redbird Smith's family: one at Redbird's grounds and one at Stokes Smith's grounds. Other related groups that claimed to be Keetoowah included the Goingsnake "Seven Clans" fire, the Medicine Springs Fire, and the Four Mothers Nation.

Different Keetoowah Groups Form

Other political groups also appeared among the Keetoowah. In the 1930s, most Keetoowah groups supported the idea of bringing the Keetoowah Cherokee together again. They wanted to apply for self-government as a united Band under a new law called the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act. The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians was officially recognized by the U.S. government as a tribe in 1950.

Another group, the Cherokees by Blood, represented all Cherokee descendants, not just the Keetoowah. In 1932, they failed to get involved in a court case about Cherokee land claims. The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma gained official government recognition in 1970. Today, it has by far the largest number of members.