Mount Tabor Indian Community

Mount Tabor Indian Community
Total population
600+ [1]
Regions with significant populations
 United States  Texas
Languages
English, Cherokee, Choctaw-Chickasaw Mount Tabor Dialect
Religion
Traditional Tribal Religion, Presbyterian, Methodist Christianity, Southern Baptist
Related ethnic groups
Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek
The Mount Tabor Indian Community flag

The Mount Tabor Indian Community (also Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands of the Mount Tabor Indian Community) is a state-recognized tribe made up of primarily Cherokees as well as Choctaw, Chickasaw and Muscogee-Creek Indians located in Rusk County, Texas. They are descended from Cherokee who migrated to Texas prior to the Cherokee War of 1839 under Duwa'li or The Bowl. They sought refuge in Monclova, Mexico after 1840, when the Republic of Texas was trying to expel Indians from East Texas. Led by Chicken Trotter, also known as Devereaux Jarrett Bell, the group fought a guerilla campaign against the Republic of Texas from Mexico throughout 1840 to 1842.

They saw action in Corpus Christi, San Patricio and later followed General Adrián Woll in his occupation of San Antonio De Bexar. It was there that Cherokee and allied Yowani, along with Mexican regulars, defeated the Dawson Expedition, but were defeated in turn by Texas Army forces at the Battle of Salado Creek. With the signing of the Treaty of Birds Fort, hostilities were brought to a close between the Republic of Texas and the Texas Cherokee, as well as granting formal recognition to the Cherokee in Texas. These Cherokee were soon joined by other Cherokee from Indian Territory, from the Old Settler and Ridge Party groups. Due to internal conflicts, the Old Settler and Ridge Party sought a separation from the dominant Ross Faction.

In 1844 United States President James K. Polk issued an Executive Order for these two bands to seek lands suitable to settle on in Texas.[2] Following the establishment of the community some six miles south of present-day Kilgore, Texas, the Cherokee were soon joined by Yowani Choctaw and McIntosh Party Creek Indians. Today the band is made up of those descendants that continue to reside there. The band's current headquarters is in Kilgore, Texas with significant populations near New London, Overton, Arp and Troup, Texas.

History

Descendants of the four American Indian tribes that make up the Mount Tabor Indian Community have a shared experience in the colonization of the American Southeast by Europeans. They suffered encroachment and Indian Removal through the 1830s. From different language families, the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Creek refugees came together in Texas, forming a community. It was initially dominated numerically by Cherokee Indians, however, since 1900 the majority of the band are of Choctaw ancestry.

The four tribes that combined as the Mount Tabor Indian Community since the late 19th century migrated in stages to east Texas. The first were survivors of the Cherokee War. With the violation of the Treaty of Bowles Village on February 23, 1836, between the Consultation of the Republic of Texas and the Texas Cherokees, the Texas Army ruthlessly pushed the Cherokee and allied Delaware and Shawnee Indians from the treaty lands, scattering them to multiple locations.[3] A band of Cherokee sought refuge in Monclova, Coahuila, Mexico, led by Fox Fields and Chicken Trotter, also known as Devereaux Jarrett Bell. From there, along with their Mexican liaison, Vicente Córdova, Texas Cherokees fought a guerrilla war against the Republic of Texas from 1840 until they ceased hostilities with the signing of the Treaty of Birds Fort.[4] A combined force of Texas Cherokee, Yowani and Mexican militia saw action against the Republic at San Patricio and Corpus Christi, with the final confrontations coming with General Adrián Woll's invasion of San Antonio de Bexar in September 1842. There, they were involved in the defeat of the Dawson Expedition but lost at the Battle of Salado Creek. Some eighteen Cherokee were killed along with Vicente Córdova, their Mexican military liaison. Shortly after this, with Sam Houston returning as President of the Republic of Texas, they sought peace, which was realized at Birds Fort.

During this same period, the Cherokee carried their internal rivalries to their new lands in Indian Territory. The followers of Major Ridge, who had formed the Treaty or Ridge Party that signed the Treaty of New Echota, clashed with the new arrivals who came after the Trail of Tears and forced removal by the United States. The followers of Principal Chief John Ross had initially opposed removal, and carried out their capital sentence against persons who had sacrificed their lands, as they saw it. Although the rationale of the Ridge Party was the belief that not signing the treaty would have lead to the destruction of the Cherokee Nation. Thus a clash of these two political opposing ideologies was inevitable. A third Cherokee faction were the Old Settlers, who had been in the west, first in Arkansas and then in Indian Territory, before the Treaty of New Echota. They had established a functioning government separate from their eastern kinsmen.

While the Old Settler and Ridge Party had a good coexistence, the arrival of the much larger Ross faction threw all of Indian Territory into chaos. With the murder of Major Ridge and others by Ross faction Cherokees, the Old Settler and Ridge Party party factions sought relief. First, they proposed a division of the Cherokee Nation, with the southern part going to the Old Settlers and Ridge Party, and the north to the Ross supporters, forming two separate Cherokee governments. That idea was rejected by the federal government, but in 1844, United States President James K. Polk, issued an Executive Order granting both Old Settler and Ridge Party factions permission to send a delegation to Texas to find land suitable for them to settle on.[5] Texas was still a separate nation and had its own ideas about desirable settlers. The arrival of the immigrant Cherokees led to a tense period.[6] It had been only five years since the Cherokee War and just a little over a year since Chicken Trotter had ended Cherokee-Texas hostilities at Birds Fort.

The Old Settler-Ridge Party delegation was led by John Harnage, James Starr, J.L. Thompson, and John Adair Bell. This is the same John "Jack" Bell who was the brother of Chicken Trotter, as well as being a signer of the Treaty of New Echota. These two groups met near present-day Waco in mid-1844.[7] At that time, Cherokee could not own land in the Republic of Texas. To solve this problem, Benjamin Franklin Thompson purchased 10,000 acres (40 km2) of land near what is now Kilgore, Texas. A white man, he was married to a Cherokee woman named Annie Martin. Her father John Martin was the First Chief Justice of the Cherokee Nation.[8] With this purchase and a similar purchase to the south of the Thompson land by Jesse Mayfield, another white man who was the husband of Sarah Starr, she being the great granddaughter of the Cherokee Beloved Woman Nancy Ward, a homeland was now finally legally in Cherokee hands.

By the summer of 1845 families began the trek to Texas and safety. Joined by Cherokee from Monclova, Mexico, the Mount Tabor Indian Community was born. The original Mount Tabor village was located some six miles south of present-day Kilgore in Rusk County, Texas. It appears to have been established on or near the former village of Chief Richard Fields and was led by his son Fox Fields at the time of the Cherokee War. Annie Martin-Thompson was the niece of Chief Fields.

Between 1845 and 1850 numerous Cherokee families settled in Mount Tabor and Bellview, the latter a town created by the Tabor people. By 1850 families of Yowani Choctaw and related Chickasaw, who had been living in southern Rusk County, came to seek refuge with the Cherokee.[9] A group of Muscogee Creek Indians of the McIntosh Party also headed south from Indian Territory after being threatened by an anti-removal Creek leader named Tuskeenhaw [10]. The McIntosh Party were a Creek pro-removal group similar to the Cherokee Ridge Party.

The Choctaw were led by Jeremiah Jones, followed by Archibald Thompson. The Muscogee were led by William and Thomas Berryhill, whose families had been tied to Broken Arrow and Horse Path towns in the former Creek Nation in the Southeast.[11]

With the annexation of Texas into the union of the United States of America, Indians were allowed to own lands in the state. John Adair Bell soon purchased land just south of the Thompson lands. He wrote in a letter to his brother-in-law Stand Watie, "I call my place Mount Taber", listing his address as Mount Taber, Texas.[12] This was the first documented reference to the community.

As the community grew, it flourished.[13] That would change as the communities members were caught up in the American Civil War.

The American Civil War

The entire band allied with the Confederate States, with most Cherokee serving with General Stand Watie, who had lived for short periods at Mount Tabor. His wife Sarah Caroline Bell-Watie lived there in 1863 with her sister Nancy Bell and her husband George Harlan Starr.[14] While most of the Cherokee males of Mount Tabor served under Watie and former Mount Tabor resident Colonel William Penn Adair with the Second Cherokee Mounted Rifles, some chose to serve with other Texas units. John Martin Thompson organized units at Bellview, which were composed of Cherokee as well as Choctaw and intermarried whites. The band suffered greatly during the war. Not only were times tough due to war-related shortages, but a number of Cherokees, mostly women and children related to members of Watie's command, fled to Rusk County seeking the relative safety of being so deep in Texas, thus straining the band's limited resources.

John Martin Thompson

Following the war and the death of John Ross in 1866, the Cherokee Nation passed a "right of return" for members who wanted to rejoin the Nation. Between 1866 and 1890, more than 80% of the Cherokee left Mount Tabor to return to the Cherokee Nation. The Choctaw and Muscogee had different reactions after the war. Most of the Berryhill and related families were scattered throughout Texas and western Louisiana, with groups in Limestone and Angelina counties in Texas and Natchitoches Parish in Louisiana. Another sizable group headed north to the Muscogee-Creek Nation, putting down roots near the current town of Eufaula, Oklahoma. The Choctaw met with considerable resistance from authorities in Indian Territory.

The Dawes Commission

Some Yowani Choctaws had left Texas shortly after the bloody unwarranted attack on their village on Attoyac Bayou by white vigilantes from Nacogdoches. They settled in the southern Chickasaw Nation not far from Ardmore, Oklahoma near Houani Creek. Around 1885 William Clyde Thompson, along with John Thurston Thompson Jr., Winburn Jones and Martin Luther Thompson, led Choctaw from Rusk and neighboring Smith County, Texas to the Ardmore area in the Chickasaw Nation to seek citizenship in the Choctaw Nation through enrollment on the Dawes Rolls.[15] While all the Texas Choctaw relocating to Indian Territory were initially enrolled on the Final Roll of the Choctaw Nation, they were later stricken. Initially listed as Mississippi Choctaws they were later changed to MCR (Mississippi Choctaw Rejected) in that they and the related Jena Choctaws in Louisiana, had not been in Mississippi for multiple generations. Yet their ancestors had been parties to previous Choctaw treaties while still residing in Mississippi. The Department of the Interior acknowledged the Choctaw ancestry but the Choctaw Advisory Board only wanted to admit those relocating from Mississippi. The Jena Band of Choctaw Indians in Louisiana had the same encounter. It wasn't until 1995 that the Jena Choctaw were finally federally recognized as a distinct tribe.[16]

Martin Luther Thompson and others returned to Rusk County, living there for the remainder of their lives. Those that stayed with William Clyde Thompson and settled near the town of Marlow, fought the issue all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Their birthright now reestablished by their being entered on a reinstatement list, thus restoring their Choctaw citizenship. Some 70 Texas Choctaws from Mount Tabor were finally recognized as being Choctaw by Blood and citizens of that nation.[17] Unlike the Cherokee, most Choctaw and Chickasaw remained in the east Texas tribal community.

During this same period, Caleb Starr Bean who served as the Mount Tabor community Chief, did all he could to seek enrollment on the Dawes Roll for the remaining Mount Tabor people. He was unsuccessful in this endeavor in that enrollment was based upon physical residence in the Cherokee Nation. Living in Kilgore or Troup, Texas made the people ineligible.

Chief Caleb Starr Bean, ca. 1875, Rusk County, Texas

Enrollment on the Guion Miller Roll, which was a payment roll based upon previous treaties, was also open to all Cherokees listed on the 1835 Cherokee census. While those that were part of the original Texas Cherokees, as well as the Choctaw and Muscogee, were not eligible. Those that had removed to Texas after the Cherokees arrived in Indian Territory in 1839, were eligible. Chief Caleb Bean worked diligently to insure that all known Mount Tabor Cherokee people who were eligible, had a chance to apply for Guion Miller enrollment. He died in 1902 before the roll was closed, but his brother John Ellis Bean became the next community Chief and took over his efforts. Chief John Bean kept the tribal organization together under what was ever increasingly hard times. The land was not known for producing well. The forests had been largely harvested by lumber companies owned by the Thompson's, in particular the Thompson and Tucker Lumber Company owned by John Martin Thompson.[18]

The Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands

Shortly after the Civil War, former Mount Tabor resident William Penn Adair, reorganized the Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands. This organization, which was started in Mount Tabor in the 1850's, was established to pursue redress from the violations of the Treaty of Bowles Village in 1836. Adair's initial push was answered by the State of Texas with an offer of some fifteen million acres of Texas Panhandle land, if only the Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands would drop any further legal action regarding the treaty. Adair refused, probably due to two reasons; one, the lands occupied were now a homeland for the Texas Cherokees. So many of the communities ancestors were buried there plus the fact that the new band was prospering in East Texas. The second reason was again looking at the lands offered. Fifteen million acres of land that was the home of the Comanche and Kiowa peoples. They would have seen the immigrant Tabor people as well as other Cherokees from Indian Territory as intruders. War would have been inevitable as the displaced Plains Indians were forced further away from their freedom. Spilling Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Muscogee blood to invade another's homeland was unacceptable. This is very similar to an offer from the Mexican government before the Texas revolution, for the Texas Cherokees to move west to form a barrier to the Comanche, Lipan and other tribes. It was rejected by The Bowl and Adair followed suit.

Following the war, with a Confederate Cherokee delegation in Washington, William Adair again attempted to divide the Cherokee Nation, with Confederate Cherokees to be allowed to return to the treaty lands in east Texas. Like so many efforts before, it too was unsuccessful. Yet following the death of Stand Watie in 1871, Adair reorganized the Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands. He would lead the organization assisted by Clement Neely Vann. At this point, Mount Tabor was deeply involved in the organization. Adair who needed more money than just John Martin Thompson's, reached out to the Fields family for financial support. Thus started a long era of legal battles from 1871 to 1963. The TCAB started efforts in suits against the State of Texas 1871–1875, of which the state later changed its constitution to block further attempts, to seeking the land through filing liens in Rusk and Smith counties in 1914, then going before the United States Supreme Court in 1920–21 and the Indian Claims Commission in 1949–1953. A final effort in 1963 was more of an effort for Cherokees in Oklahoma only and did not include the Mount Tabor Indian Community.[19] Following the deaths of William Adair and Clement Vann, John Martin Thompson took over the Chairmanship of the Executive Committee. He remained in that position until 1907 when he passed away at which time John Ellis Bean served as both the local community Chief and TCAB Executive Committee Chairman. In 1915, at a meeting of the General Assembly held in Tahlequah, Oklahoma with nearly 500 Texas Cherokees present, Jake Claude Muskrat was elected the next TCAB Executive Committee Chairman. He was the first TCAB Chairman that had not lived at Mount Tabor. Muskrat, a descendant of Chief Richard Fields, was himself succeeded by (W.W. ) William Wayne Keeler in 1939. U.S. President Harry Truman appointed Keeler as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1949 and he served in both capacities with the Cherokee Nation and TCAB until 1972.

After the death of Thompson, the Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands became more and more an Oklahoma organization. During the 1920 effort to go before the U.S. Supreme Court, a major schism developed between TCAB attorney George Fields and Texas leader Martin Luther Thompson. It was Fields contention that this was a Cherokee effort.[20] One issue dealt with excluding Choctaws, which went so far that Fields struck the word Choctaw out of his papers related to the case.[21] He did leave in the word Jawanie (Yowani) from the original treaty, but it was Martin Thompson's conviction that not all Mount Tabor Choctaws (including his wife) were Yowani. Fields did what he could to push out Mount Tabor descendants but stopped short due to pressures by Claude Muskrat and John Ellis Bean.

Texas Oil Boom

In Texas, the community still maintained its local leadership. Following the death of John Ellis Bean in 1927, J. Malcolm Crim took over as leader of the community with Martin Luther Thompson as his second. The great depression hit the area hard, but was short lived when on October 3, 1930 oil was discovered by Columbus M. "Dad" Joiner on Daisy Bradford #3 near Kilgore and soon thereafter Lou Della Crim #1. This was followed by many more in the areas occupied by the Tabor people. Lou Della Thompson-Crim was the daughter of John Martin Thompson and this discovery changed her life and many others forever. The 1930 Oil Boom was a two-edged sword to the Mount Tabor Community. It lifted up many of the band out of poverty, but the newfound wealth destroyed traditional indigenous culture, transforming it overnight.

Malcolm Crim, being the businessman he was, did well for the community, ensuring that many descendants from Kilgore to Troup were not taken advantage of by the abundance of less than scrupulous individuals. Kilgore over a four week period went from a sleepy town of 500, with a sizable Native population to a city of 10,000. Change was inevitable even with Malcolm Crim as the first mayor of Kilgore.

By 1933, Malcolm Crim was on to furthering his own business interests and Foster Trammell Bean became the next community Chief. Foster Bean was the grandson of Chief John Ellis Bean. He served as a local attorney, judge and in the capacity of mayor of Kilgore for twenty years. He maintained a good relationship with W.W. Keeler but served only intermittently on the TCAB Executive Committee. With the death of Martin Luther Thompson in 1946, all local leadership fell to Judge Bean.

Contemporary Community History

In 1972 as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma was reorganizing and preparing to elect its first Principal Chief since statehood, the Cherokee Nation was moving completely away from the Mount Tabor Community. Keeler had been reappointed Principal Chief by every U.S. President from Truman to Nixon, but with the changes coming he resigned as Chairman of the Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands. His resignation was given to Foster Bean, who accepted and assumed all responsibilities, bringing the TCAB back to a Texas organization only. With the approval of the 1975 Cherokee Nation constitution, the TCAB ceased to exist in Oklahoma without a vote and remained only in Texas thereafter. Although there were still Oklahoma Cherokees on the Executive Committee such as Mack Starr and George Bell, from that point forward all Executive Committee members were tied to Mount Tabor only and not the Cherokee Nation.

Judge Foster Bean remained as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the TCAB until 1988. That was when J.C. Thompson was appointed to replace him.[22] While stepping down, Bean still remained a part of the Executive Committee, which at the time of this change also included Billy Bob Crim, R. Nicholas Hearne and Saunders Gregg. The two issues that Thompson first addressed is the communities standing as a recognized tribe. The other had to do with the name of the organization. The organization had ceased to use the words Mount Tabor and was only referred to as the Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands. Since the Executive Committee saw that as the dual state organization, the committee considered using the name Texas Band of Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians. That however as well as a proposed title of Texas Band of Cherokee Indians were both rejected by the General Assembly which was made up of all adult members. The latter name proposal caused a schism within the community as the Choctaw descendants felt they were slighted, even though many are both Choctaw and Cherokee. This issue persisted and was not fully dealt with until the 2015 Reunion/General Conference in Troup, Texas. The compromise in 1992 was to return to the bands original name plus retaining the TCAB title. From that point in 1992 to present the official name has been the Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands of the Mount Tabor Indian Community. With the explosion of fraudulent groups calling themselves "Cherokee Tribes", the Executive Committee in 1998 no longer referred to the community by the TCAB title, but only Mount Tabor. The Executive Committee and General Assembly does not consider itself a "Cherokee" tribe, nor Choctaw, nor Chickasaw, nor Muscogee, but rather a unique historical combination of peoples that have formed one interrelated band.

J.C. Thompson remained in the capacity of Chairman until 1998 at which time Terry Jean Easterly became the first woman to lead the community. Terry was not only the first woman to lead the band but was also the first person who was not of Cherokee ancestry to be in that position. Terry whose ancestry is Choctaw, Chickasaw and Creek is a descendant of both the Thompson-McCoy and Jones family through Arthur Thompson the brother of William C. Thompson. She served from 1998 to 2000 and was succeeded by Peggy Dean-Atwood a descendant of Archibald Thompson who also had no Cherokee ancestry. Peggy served through 2001. Upon her resignation, J.C. Thompson again took the responsibilities and remained in that capacity until August 2018 when he was succeeded by William Ellis "Billy" Bean, the great grandson of Chief John Ellis Bean.

The Mount Tabor Indian Community Today

In 1978 the band set up its first by-laws separate from the 1925 Texas Cherokee and Associate Band by-laws. That document was replaced by a new constitution in 1998. This constitution was recently replaced in 2017 with a document that the band hoped would be acceptable to the Secretary of the Interior in their Federal Acknowledgment Project. The initial federal acknowledgment project started in 1990 but was tabled in 1992, in part due to a misunderstanding of the criteria established by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. As issues were finally clarified, the band again established its current Federal project in 2015. The Mount Tabor Indian Community became one of five tribes recognized by the State of Texas in 2017.[23] Three of the other Texas tribes, the Alabama-Coushatta; The Tigua of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo and the Traditional Kickapoo are now federally recognized. The other state-recognized tribe is the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas which, like Mount Tabor, are State of Texas recognized only.

Today the band holds an annual reunion usually in either Kilgore or Troup as well as strong connections to three of their traditional cemeteries, the Asbury Indian Cemetery near Overton; the Thompson Cemetery at Laird Hill and the Mount Tabor Indian Cemetery in rural Rusk County. Additionally, the band publishes a quarterly newspaper "The Mount Tabor Phoenix" for its nearly 600 citizens.

Religion

The ancient religious beliefs of the southeastern peoples were not brought with the people to east Texas. While certain ceremonies including stomp dances are continued, religious beliefs are generally Protestant Christianity. With the arrival of Tabor people between 1845 and 1850, the belief system seemed to be divided among tribal lines. To the north (Kilgore area) the Cherokees followed the Presbyterian faith, while in the south (New London to Troup) the predominant faith among the community was Methodist. In the late 19th century and well into the twentieth, Reverend Evan Fletcher Thompson (Choctaw-Chickasaw) left the Methodist Church to take up the Nazarene faith. Many churches throughout southern Smith and northwestern Rusk counties were started by Reverend Thompson. Today's band is a diverse group religiously with some attempting to look to older faiths of the southeastern peoples, a few involved with the Native American Church, but by far the majority are still associated with mainline Protestant faiths. The Southern Baptists and Church of Christ have made considerable inroads within the community today, whereas the Presbyterian faith away from Kilgore has seen a decline of Tabor peoples involvement in the last fifty years. Still, without the Crim Mount Tabor family the First Presbyterian Church’s Opus 1173 pipe organ would not sit in its place today. The First Presbyterian Church in Kilgore is still historically the one most tied to Mount Tabor people.

Tribal government

1845–1871: The Tribal Government of the Mount Tabor Indian Community had a Community Chief, with the citizenry making up a General Assembly.

1871–1907: The community maintained a Community Chief, but other larger activities were dealt with by a Chief and later Chairman of an Executive Committee made up by both descendants in Texas and Oklahoma. Local decisions were still dealt with locally by a General Assembly.

1907–1945: The Community Chief dealt with most issues but the General Assembly was split between Kilgore, Texas, Tahlequah, Oklahoma and later Bartlesville, Oklahoma. In the 1915 General Assembly meeting in Tahlequah, Oklahoma with nearly 500 in attendance, Jake Claude Muskrat was elected the first TCAB Chairman that did not nor had not lived at Mount Tabor. He was a direct descendant of Texas Cherokee Chief Richard Fields. The 1925 General Assembly, one of the largest on record, had an attendance of well over 500 and was held in Miami, Oklahoma. The Chairman of the Executive Committee was the Chief Operating Officer.

1945–1972: The General Assembly was split, but the Thompson Reunion Committee led by Otha Bradford (Brad) Thompson and his brother, Templeton Atltman (Temp) Thompson established and controlled the annual meetings through 2001. TCAB activities were almost exclusively handled out of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Local business issues were still dealt with through Foster Bean.

1972–1998: The government returned to a more traditional form with all activity out of Kilgore, Texas and a general Assembly meeting annually.

1998–2017: A constitution ratified in 1998 established a three-tiered government, enlarging the Executive Committee from five members, which it had been since 1871 and making it a seven-member body. The General Assembly remained the same and a new branch was added, a Tribal Court, with Judge Saunders Gregg being the initial Chief Justice.

2017–Present: With a new constitution adopted in August 2017, the Mount Tabor Indian Community reduced the Executive Committee to a five-member body, consisting of the Tribal Chairman; Deputy Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and Operations Coordinator. The Tribal Court remained a three-member body. The biggest change that the General Assembly voted on in 2016, was making it easier for speedy decisions related to the Federal Acknowledgment Project and designing a system that would be acceptable to the Secretary of the Interior with hopefully few changes. The General Assembly was phased out and a new seven-member Tribal Council would be set in place by June 1, 2018. The Tribal Council is divided into five districts consisting of; (1) Kilgore District; (2) Overton-Arp District; (3) Sand Hill District; (4) Screech Owl Bend District; and (5) New London District, There are also two At-Large Districts; (6) At-Large District One; representing members living outside of the tri-county area (Gregg, Rusk and Smith) but still in the State of Texas and finally (7) At-Large District Two, consists of all enrolled members living outside of the State of Texas.

Citizenship

Mount Tabor citizenship (membership) is limited to lineal descendants of six extended families, represented by specific progenitors whose family remained within or in contact with the Mount Tabor Indian Community from 1850 to the present. The six primary progenitors are: 1. Annie Martin-Thompson, a Cherokee Indian and her husband Benjamin Franklin Thompson; 2. John Ellis Bean and his wife Henrietta Cloud Dannenberg-Bean, both Cherokee Indians; 3. Nannie Sabina Harnage-Bacon a Cherokee Indian and her husband John Dana Bacon; 4. Margaret McCoy-Thompson, a Choctaw & Chickasaw Indian and her husband Henry Thompson through their sons: 4.a Henry Thompson Jr. and his wife Percilla Jackson-Thompson, a Choctaw Indian (only his descendants that settled in Rusk, Smith or Gregg counties) 4.b Archibald Thompson and his wives Elizabeth Jackson-Thompson, a Choctaw Indian; Nancy Islea, ancestry unknown; Anna Strong Thompson, non-Indian (only his descendants that settled in Rusk, Smith or Gregg counties) 4.c William Thompson and his wife Elizabeth Jones Mangum-Thompson, a Choctaw Indian (all of his descendants, including those that relocated to Trinity and Angelina counties as long as they can document continued contact with the community); 5. Samuel Jones aka Nashoba, a Choctaw Indian (only his descendants that settled in Rusk, Smith, Gregg counties counties); 6. Martha Elizabeth Derrisaw-Berryhill (Durouzeaux), a Muscogee-Creek Indian and her husband John Berryhill, a Catawba Indian, (only his descendants that settled in Rusk, Smith, Gregg counties counties).

Other families may qualify based upon lineal descent from an ancestor(s) who were part of the historical community but are now members of the Cherokee Nation; Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; Chickasaw Nation; Jena Band of Choctaw Indians or Muscogee-Creek Nation. These families are limited to parts of the Adair, Bell, Buffington and Starr Cherokee families.

The Mount Tabor Indian Community is a lineal descendant band that does not have a minimum tribal blood quantum for citizenship.

Mount Tabor chiefs and leaders

Mount Tabor Community Chiefs.

1840–1845: Chief Devereaux Jarrett Bell aka Chicken Trotter

1840–1860: Chief John Adair "Jack" Bell

1860–1861: Chief George Harlan Starr

1861–1881: Major John Martin Thompson

1881–1902: Chief Caleb Starr Bean

1902–1927: Chief John Ellis Bean

1927–1933: John Malcolm Crim

1933–1988: Judge Foster Trammell Bean

1988–1998: Chairman J.C. Thompson

1998–2000: Chairperson Terry Jean Easterly

2000–2001: Chairperson Peggy Dean-Atwood

2001–2018: Chairman J.C. Thompson

2018–Present: Chairman Billy Bean


Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands Executive Committee Chairmans other than Mount Tabor Community Chiefs.

1871–1880: Chief William Penn Adair (Also served as Assistant Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation)

1874–1907: Chairman John Martin Thompson (Served as Community Chief and Executive Committee Chairman)

1907–1915: Chief John Ellis Bean (Served as Community Chief and Executive Committee Chairman)

1915–1939: Chairman Jake Claude Muskrat

1939–1972: Chairman William Wayne Keeler (Also served as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation)

1972–1988: Judge Foster Trammell Bean (Served as Community Chief and Executive Committee Chairman)

1988–1998: Chairman J.C. Thompson (Served as Community Chief and Executive Committee Chairman)

1998–2000: Chairperson Terry Jean Easterly (Served as Community Chief and Executive Committee Chairman)

2000–2001: Chairperson Peggy Dean-Atwood (Served as Community Chief and Executive Committee Chairman)

2001–2018: Chairman J.C. Thompson (Served as Community Chief and Executive Committee Chairman)

2018–Present: Chairman Billy Bean (Serves as Community Chief and Executive Committee Chairman)


Texas Choctaw-Chickasaw Leaders.

1847–1851: Jeremiah Jones

1851–1856: Archibald Thompson

1856–1864: Lieutenant John Thurston Thompson Sr. (Killed in the Battle of Jenkins Ferry, Saline County, Arkansas during the American Civil War)

1881–1946: Martin Luther Thompson

1890–1912: Captain William Clyde Thompson (Elected Texas Choctaw Leader for those in the Chickasaw Nation)


Muscogee-Creek Leaders.

1847–1865: William Berryhill and his brother Thomas Berryhill

Other notable Mount Tabor Indians

Treaty of San Antonio de Bexar, with the Spanish Empire, November 8, 1822 Granted lands in the province of Tejas and Coahuila in Spanish Mexico for permanent settlement of the Texas Cherokee Nation, represented by Chief Richard Fields. Although signed by the Spanish governor of Tejas, the treaty was never ratified, neither by the Vice-royalty of New Spain nor by any succeeding government through the Texas Revolution.[24]

Treaty with the Republic of Fredonia, December 21, 1826 Treaty with the short-lived Fredonia Republic. The rebellion led to the death of Chief Richard Fields.[25]

Treaty of Bowles Village with the Republic of Texas, February 23, 1836 This treaty granted nearly 1,600,000 acres (6,500 km2) of east Texas land to the Texas Cherokees and twelve associated tribes, including the Yowani (Jawanie). It was the violation of this treaty that led directly to the Cherokee War of 1839. The treaty included all of Cherokee and Smith counties, the northwestern part of Rusk, northeastern Van Zandt and southern Gregg (formed from Rusk County in 1873) counties.[26]

Treaty of Bird’s Fort with the Republic of Texas, September 29, 1843 Ending hostilities among several Texas tribes, including the Texas Cherokees as negotiated by Chicken Trotter also known as Devereaux Jarrett Bell. This treaty which was ratified by the Congress of the Republic of Texas, recognized the tribal status of the Texas Indians as distinct, including the Cherokees that would later become known as the Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands-Mount Tabor Tabor Indian Community. This treaty, honored by the State of Texas following annexation, has never been abrogated by the Congress of the United States and in theory is still valid.[4]

Treaty of Tehuacana Creek with the Republic of Texas, October 9, 1844 An additional treaty was made in which Chicken Trotter "Devereaux Jarrett Bell" and Wagon Bowles were involved, the latter being the son of Texas Cherokee Chief Bowles also known as Duwa'li or the Bowl. This treaty was approved by the Texas Senate only. Chicken Trotter and his brother John Adair Bell (the latter a signer of the Treaty of New Echota) were part of the founding families of the Mount Tabor Indian Community in Rusk County, Texas.[27]

Second Treaty of Tehuacana Creek with the Republic of Texas, August 27 to September 25, 1845 The Council of Tehuacana Creek was the last official contact between the Republic of Texas and many of its tribes. This treaty was never ratified as Texas was soon to be annexed into the United States of America. In this treaty Wagon Bowles is acknowledged as Chief of the Cherokees, whereas Chicken Trotter is titled Captain. It is unclear if any of the Old Settler or Ridge Party Cherokees participated, although based upon the dates of the council it is a good possibility.[28]

Texas State Recognition of the Mount Tabor Indian Community, May 10, 2017, 84 SCR 25, a bill for recognition by the State of Texas of the Mount Tabor Indian Community [29][30]

References

  1. ↑ Handbook of Texas Online, uploaded 7 February 2018.
  2. ↑ Foreman, Grant (1934). The Five Civilized Tribes: A History of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole. pp. 336, 337.
  3. ↑ Clarke, Mary Whatley (1971). Chief Bowles and the Texas Cherokees, Chapter IX: The Cherokee War. pp. 94–111.
  4. 1 2 Republic of Texas Treaties; Treaty of Birds Fort September 29, 1843, Texas State Historical Society, Austin, Texas
  5. ↑ Foreman, Grant (1934). The Five Civilized Tribes: Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole. pp. 336, 337.
  6. ↑ Winfrey, Day (1995). Texas Indian Papers: Volume II, 1844-1845: Texas State Historical Association, Austin, Texas. pp. 385–388.
  7. ↑ Foreman, Grant (1934). The Five Civilized Tribes: Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole. pp. 336, 337.
  8. ↑ "Land Registration Deed, Benjamin Franklin Thompson: Rusk County County Clerks Office, Court House, Henderson, Texas". 1844.
  9. ↑ Winfrey, Day (1939). Texas Indian Papers, Volume I. p. 23.
  10. ↑ "Letter of John Berryhill Microfilm Copy NAR NO 234, ROLL 236, Letters rec'd by the Office of Indian Affairs, Creek Agency 1826-1830 Frame 0072,0073,0074,0075". May 1, 1828.
  11. ↑ Dunn, Mary Franklin (1981). Rusk County, Texas 1850, United States Census. pp. 12, 23, 134.
  12. ↑ Dale, Edward (1995). Cherokee Cavaliers. pp. 80, 81.
  13. ↑ Dale, Edward (1939). Cherokee Cavaliers. p. 79.
  14. ↑ Dale, Edward (1939). Cherokee Cavaliers. pp. 124–126.
  15. ↑ United States Department of the Interior, Secretary of the Interior-Choctaw Citizenship Cases, #4 William C. Thompson et al., pp. 151–157
  16. ↑ Letter of April 4, 1905 from Thomas Ryan, First Assistant Secretary Indian Affairs to Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes, Muskogee, Indian Territory, re: William C. Thompson et al. MCR 341, MCR 7124, MCR 581 and MCR 458
  17. ↑ Oklahoma Historical Society, Records of the Department of the Interior, Laws, Decisions and Regulations Affecting the work of the Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes 1893-1906, pp. 130–138
  18. ↑ American Lumberman Biographies 1908 http://www.ttarchive.com/library/Biographies/Thompson-JM_AL.html
  19. ↑ Clarke, Mary Whatley (1971). Chief Bowls and the Texas Cherokees, Chapter XI: Cherokee Claims to Texas Land. pp. 121–125.
  20. ↑ Fields, George W. (1921). Texas Cherokees 1820-1839: A document for litigation.
  21. ↑ Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Papers of George W. Fields 1920-1921
  22. ↑ Minutes to meeting TCAB September 10, 1988, Kilgore Country Club, Kilgore, Gregg County, Texas,
  23. ↑ http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Actions.aspx?LegSess=85R&Bill=SCR25
  24. ↑ Starr, Dr. Emmett (1971). History of the Cherokee Indians. pp. 194–195.
  25. ↑ Clarke, Mary Whatley (1971). Chief Bowles and the Texas Cherokees: Chapter IV, the Fredonian Rebellion. pp. 41–43.
  26. ↑ Republic of Texas Treaties; Treaty of Bowles Village February 23, 1836, Texas State Historical Society, Austin, Texas
  27. ↑ Republic of Texas Treaties; Treaty of Tehuacana Creek October 9, 1844, Texas State Historical Society, Austin, Texas
  28. ↑ Republic of Texas Treaties; Council of Tehuacana Creek September 25,1845, Texas State Historical Society, Austin, Texas
  29. ↑ http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Actions.aspx?LegSess=85R&Bill=SCR25
  30. ↑ http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/85R/billtext/html/SC00025F.htm
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