Chitto Harjo (also known as Crazy Snake, Wilson Jones, Bill Jones, Bill Snake, and Bill Harjo; c. 1846 – April 5, 1911) was a leader and orator among the traditionalists in the Muscogee Creek Nation in Indian Territory at the turn of the 20th century. He resisted changes which the US government and local leaders wanted to impose to achieve statehood for what became Oklahoma. These included extinguishing tribal governments and civic institutions and breaking up communal lands into allotments to individual households, with United States sales of the "surplus" to European-American and other settlers. He was the leader of the Crazy Snake Rebellion"Indians in Revolt; Six Whites Killed", New York Times, March 29, 1909, p1 on March 25, 1909 in Oklahoma. At the time this was called the last "Indian uprising".
Early life Born in the Muscogee Creek Nation in Indian Territory after the tribe was removed from Alabama in the 1830s, Wilson Jones was a Muscogee Creek Indian. He was better known by his Creek name of Chitto Harjo, meaning "Crazy Snake." Chitto means "snake" and Harjo means "to be brave without regard for one's personal well being or 'crazy brave'." He was a traditionalist, belonging to the minority of the tribe who remained loyal to the Union during the American Civil War.McIntosh, Kenneth W. "Harjo, Chitto (1846–ca. 1911)." Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. (retrieved 5 Sept 2011)
Later in the century, traditionalists worked to reinstate the tribal government of 1867 and to enforce treaty rights with the United States. They opposed the extinguishing of government and allotment of lands to households under the Dawes Commission.JOHN BARTLETT MESERVE, "THE PLEA OF CRAZY SNAKE (Chitto Harjo)" , Chronicles of Oklahoma, Volume 11, No. 3, September 1933, accessed 30 Apr 2010
Career While a young man, Chitto Harjo was allied with the federalists or Loyalists led by Opothleyahola, who moved the group to Kansas in 1861 with the start of the American Civil War. They remained loyal to the Union when most Creek allied with the Confederacy. He and many of these Creek men were recruited to the Union Army and served with federal forces in the Civil War. In testimony in 1906, he said that he had believed this service, in a war between the white men and one which did not concern the Indians, would help ensure the maintenance of government promises to his people. The Civil War divided the tribe, as many Creek were allied with the Confederacy. Michael Dean, "Roy Hoffman and Chitto Harjo" , Oklahoma Journeys, Week of March 6, 2010, Oklahoma Historical Society, accessed 30 Apr 2010
In the late 19th century, the Muscogee Creek and other American Indian tribes in Indian Territory were pressured to change by the US government, in part to make way for a demand for statehood by European-American settlers in parts of the territory. There was national legislation to extinguish tribal government and to establish individual household allotments of land in place of tribal communal holdings. Congress created the Dawes Commission in 1896 to carry out the allotment of lands for the Five Civilized Tribes. The Dawes Rolls were the registries of tribal members who were eligible to receive allotments. These became a record of tribal members.
Chitto Harjo was a leader in the Four Mothers Society, an intertribal religious movement. This group sought to revive the traditional practices and solidarity between related tribes that had been relocated to Oklahoma from the southeastern United States. In 1900 a meeting at Harjo's ceremonial grounds of Old Hickory declared the chief Pleasant Porter deposed for having violated the 1867 Creek Constitution while cooperating with the allotment process. They selected Chitto Harjo as the new principal chief of the Creek. They founded a police force, known as Lighthorse, and attempted to dissuade the Creek from accepting allotment of lands.Tom Holm. The Great Confusion in Indian Affairs: Native Americans & Whites in the Progressive Era, Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005, pp. 27-29
From 1900 to 1909, Chitto Harjo led Creek resistance to the assimilation changes. The Green Peach War took place in 1901, and Isparhecher retired. He had been a judge in the Okmulgee District and leader of Loyalists. Harjo led those Creek who opposed cultural assimilation and allotment. As the US was trying to extinguish tribal government, Crazy Snake and his followers set up a separate government for a time at the old Hickory Stomp Grounds southeast of Okmulgee.
Chitto Harjo and others were arrested and convicted in US court and imprisoned briefly. They were released on parole. During the next five years, the majority of the tribe accepted the changes and were allotted individual plots of land, in preparation for the territory to be admitted to statehood as Oklahoma. Chitto Harjo and other Snakes refused to choose their allotments.
In 1906 members of a Special Senate Investigating Committee visited the Indian Territory to learn more about the issues and why some of the Muscogee Creek people were resisting changes. Harjo, as a recognized leader of the traditionalists, testified at length to the senators. His speech to the US Congress in 1906 is considered an eloquent statement regarding US treatment of Indian peoples. It is often quoted for the phrase, "as long as the grass grows", used in regard to the promised perpetuity of Indian treaties and agreements with the US government.
In 1909, after Oklahoma had achieved statehood and passed Jim Crow laws like those of neighboring states of Arkansas and Texas, a group of African Americans came to Harjo's grounds seeking refuge. They had faced discrimination and been driven out of other parts of Oklahoma. During the time of the March meeting of the Four Mothers Society, local European-Americans said that a piece of smoked meat had been stolen from them. Fearing an alliance between the Creek and the African Americans, they called together a white posse to break up the black encampment. A melee ensued in which one black man was killed, a white man wounded, and 42 blacks were arrested and jailed.
Whites began to get arms, wanting to break up the Creek-black encampment and to arrest Chitto Harjo, known as a conservative leader. When a group went to his house, a gun battle broke out. Two white deputies were quickly killed and others were wounded; Harjo and his followers escaped to the old Choctaw Nation. They were helped by fellow members of the Four Mothers Society. This became known as the "Crazy Snake Rebellion".
The Oklahoma governor, "Charles N. Haskell, ordered a militia to pursue the Creek conservatives and restore order in McIntosh and Okmulgee counties." The commanding officer found that whites were causing most of the problem and forced the disbanding of posses in the area. Harjo took refuge with Daniel Bob, a Choctaw conservative leader, in McCurtain County, Oklahoma. He died in 1911, without being seen again by white enforcers.
Address to US Senate committee Chitto Harjo, under the name Eufala Harjo, testified before the Select Committee of the Senate. Harjo, along with several representatives of Cherokee, Creek, and other tribes strongly opposed breaking up tribal land into individual allotments. Harjo told a Senate investigating committee that "I will never stop asking for this treaty, the old treaty that our fathers made with the Government which gave us this land forever ... as long as the grass grows, water runs, and the sun rises."Statement of Eufaula Harjo to Select Committee to Investigate Matters Connected with Affairs in the Indian Territory, SR 5013, 59th Cong., 2d sess., p. 89.
Harjo gave this further testimony:
"I will begin with a recital of the relations of the Creeks with the Government of the United States from 1861 and I will explain it so you will understand it. I look to that time—to the treaties of the Creek Nation with the United States—and I abide by the provisions of the treaty made by the Creek Nation with the Government in 1861. I would like to enquire what had become of the relations between the Indians and the white people from 1492 down to 1861?
"My ancestors and my people were the inhabitants of this great country from 1492. I mean by that from the time the white man first came to this country until now. It was my home and the home of my people from time immemorial and is today, I think, the home of my people. Away back in that time—in 1492—there was man by the name of Columbus came from across the great ocean [Atlantic] and he discovered this country for the white man—this country which was at that time the home of my people. What did he find when he first arrived here? Did he find a white man standing on this continent then or did he find a black man standing here? Did he find either a black man or a white man standing on this continent? I stood here first and Columbus first discovered me.
"I want to know what did he say to the red man at that time? He was on one of the great four roads that led to light. At that time Columbus received the information that was given to him by my people. My ancestor informed him that he was ready to accept this light he proposed to give him and walk these four roads of light and have his children under his direction. He told him it was all right. He told him, 'The land is all yours; the law is all yours'. He said it is all right. He told him, 'I will always take care of you. If your people meet with any troubles, I will take these troubles away. I will stand before you and behind you and on each side of you and your people, and if any people come into your country I will take them away and you shall live in peace under me. My arms,' he said, 'are very long'. He told him to come within his protecting arms and he said, 'If anything comes against you for your ruin I will stand by you and preserve you and defend you and protect you.'