The North Little Rock Site: Interpretive Contexts
Chickasaw

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Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr., Director
Amanda L. Paige, Research Assistant
Fuller Bumpers, Philip Jonsson Fellow

Note:  The Site Reports of the ANPA are intended for use by the general public.   Permission to reprint them in their entirety is required by the authors. 

          Although the Chickasaws did not sign a final removal treaty until 1837, they had long anticipated the inevitable.  In November of 1830 a delegation of Chickasaw leaders passed through the North Little Rock site on their way to survey the land west of Arkansas for a potential relocation site.  The Arkansas and Canadian rivers bound the land they were interested in.  Ratification of the Treaty of Franklin (1830) depended on the results of the trip.  A few months after their trip one of the tribal leaders, Levi Colbert, wrote a letter to President Andrew Jackson, saying the Chickasaws had found the land unsuitable.⁶⁷ 

            Although the Treaty of Franklin was void, excitement over the possibility of emigrating Indians passing through central Arkansas grew.  A few months after the 1830 delegation passed through Little Rock, the Arkansas Gazette reported on the probable route of the tribes through central Arkansas to their new homes.  The strategic positions of the North Little Rock and Little Rock sites were evident.⁶⁸  By the time of Chickasaw removal, the possible routes had been well-established by the Choctaws and Creeks, and those earlier removals had proved that Indian removal was a boon for the local economy.

            In 1833 another delegation of Chickasaws came through the area on their way to Indian Territory to look for land under provisions of the Treaty of Pontotoc (1832).  Other exploring parties went west in 1835 and 1836.  It took until January of 1837 for a treaty to be approved.  The exploring party of 1836 reached an agreement with the Choctaws at Doaksville, Indian Territory, whereby the Chickasaws could purchase a part of the western portion of the Choctaw domain as a permanent home.  At the time, the Chickasaws numbered about 4,914 and 1,156 slaves.⁶⁹  Once this treaty was signed, arrangements were made for Chickasaw removal to begin in the summer 1837 under the supervision of A. A. M. Upshaw.  Following the usual method for removal, each party would be assigned a conductor who led the party, a physician who not only took care of the Indians but determined how far they could travel each day, and a disbursing officer who supervised the distribution of rations between depots.  Upshaw arranged for subsistence stations at Memphis, the North Little Rock site, and Fort Coffee, with 100,000 rations deposited at the North Little Rock site.⁷⁰ 

1837 Removal   

The first group of Chickasaws to go west to their new territory was led by conductor John M. Millard.  Working with him would be disbursing agent Capt. Joseph A. Phillips.  This party of 450 Chickasaws marched with their personal belongings, slaves, and livestock to Memphis, where they crossed the Mississippi on July 4, 1837.⁷¹  They found getting through the Mississippi Swamp with their wagons a difficult task because of heavy rains.  According to Millard, they “traveled boggy roads and through mud and water, frequently up to the axletrees of the wagons.  The distance we come to day is about eight miles and by every person acquainted with the roads considered a good drive.”⁷²  As the party continued through Arkansas, they were joined by other parties that had left Memphis after them.  By July 16 they numbered nearly 500.   On July 20, the party reached Mrs. Black’s, a well-known resting place in the Grand Prairie, and reached the North Little Rock site on July 25, by then numbering 516.  In this train were 13 wagons and 551 horses.  An estimated 30 Chickasaws who had not enrolled with the party were still behind and were expected to catch up.⁷³ 

            On July 26, the group remained in camp, preparing for the final leg of their journey.  The plan was to hire steamboat transportation for the women, children, sick, and old, while the others were to go up the Military Road to Fort Coffee.  Late that day, however, problems developed.  Millard wrote, “At a late hour to day Lt. Morris came to our camp and informed that Rations had not been thrown on the road, on account of the impossibility of procuring wagons.  This being unexpected caused some little delay, also some difficulty having arisen with the Indians as to the road they would go.  They were told by E. Mubby a chief of the nation that they should go the Red River route and some of them are determined to do so, though contrary to the positive direction of myself and all concerned in the emigration.  8 Ock P.M.  The Indians after being twice in council concluded to disobey the wishes of the conductor and go as they had been directed by their chief.  After much persuasion however they, by way of compromise, agreed that their women, children and infirm should go on board the steamer Indian and proceed to the Choctaw Nation by water, and that the young men with the chief Sealy should go by land with the horses.”⁷⁴

All was made ready for departure on July 27.  Millard wrote, “We now believed that all difficulty was settled to their satisfaction but we were deceived.  The baggage was scarcely on board the boat when Sealy the chief came and informed me that about 300 of his men, would go with him by way of Fort Towson and would go no other way.  They could not be persuaded from this intention by all the arguments and instructions of the conductors and such citizens of Little Rock as were acquainted with the Indian character and the country through which they were compelled to pass.  They were told the comparative distance of the routes and the impossibility of procuring food on any but the Fort Coffee road, as the rations purchased for them were deposited at that place, but they could not be shaken from their determination.  At 3 ock: this day, Capt. Morris, Dis Officer, Doct Keenan direct. Phys., and myself left in the Steamer Indian with all the baggage and one hundred  & fifty Indians for Fort Coffee.  W. R. Guy, asst. conductor left at the same time with a party of thirty Indians, about one hundred Horses and two wagons for the same place by land.  The party headed by their chief Sealy were determined to go to Red River and stop when and where they pleased.”  After Millard left his group at Fort Coffee, he turned back to Little Rock and on August 10 set out to overtake the group on the road to Fort Towson.⁷⁵ 

            At this time, the ferry at the North Little Rock site was owned by William Woodruff.  The flood of 1833 had destroyed Rorer’s buoy boat ferry, but in 1834 he had replaced it with a horse-drawn ferry, which he sold, along with his extensive land holdings on the north side of the river, in 1835.  Woodruff charged  12 ½  cents for each Chickasaw and each horse, and 75 cents to $1.25 per wagon, depending on the size.⁷⁶         

During the summer and fall of 1837, about 4,000 Chickasaws enrolled for removal.  Agent Upshaw made a contract with Kentuckian Simeon Buckner to transport them by boat from Memphis to Fort Coffee, using six steamboats pulling flatboats and keelboats to carry their property.  Chickasaws would drive their livestock overland.  In four groups they marched to Memphis and began establishing their camps on November 9.  However, about a thousand Chickasaws decided to avoid the boats and go overland when they learned that the Thomas Yeatman, which had been used in Creek removal, had blown a boiler and killed a number of crewmen.  Thus four boats left Memphis on November 25.  Meanwhile, the overland party with their wagons and horses crossed the river and started west.  The  steamboats carrying the Chickasaws went unnoticed past the North Little Rock site and reached Fort Coffee in eight to ten days.  Those who went overland were on the road for weeks.⁷⁷

            Bowes Reed McIlvaine, a Louisville merchant, crossed the Mississippi with the land party.  Imbued with the romanticism of his day, he described them as they marched to the river.  He wrote, “I do not think that I have ever been a witness of so remarkable a scene as was formed by this immense column of moving Indians, several thousand, with the train of Govt wagons, the multitude of horses; it is said three to each Indian & beside at least six dogs & cats to an Indian.  They were all most comfortably clad—the men in complete Indian dress with showy shawls tied in turban fashion round their heads—dashing about on their horses, like Arabs, many of them presenting the finest countenances & figures that I ever saw.  The women also very decently clothed like white women, in calico gowns—but much tidier & better put on than common white-people--& how beautifully they managed their horses, how proud & calm & erect, they sat in full gallop.  The young women have remarkably mild & soft countenances & are singularly decorous in their dress & deportment.  There were some white women, wives of Indians & they were decidedly the least neat of the party.”⁷⁸

            Once  across the Mississippi, they presented a picturesque sight.  “I shall never forget,” he wrote, “the singular picture the whole party presented, when all were got across the Miss--& in one mass covered the whole open ground on the bank.  It was a scene to paint, not describe with words—civilized society is as uniform & tame in the dress & manner & equipage that a crowd has no life in it.  Here however no one man was like another, no horse caparisoned like another.  Their clothing was of all the bright colors of the rainbow & arranged with every possible variety of form & taste—but all flowing & fantastic & untailorlike.  I wish I could have sketched that scene, as they stood each above the other from the water’s edge to the top of the ascending ground. They seemed grouped there, to present one grand display of barbaric pomp.”⁷⁹

McIlvaine also left vignettes of the overland march. “Only the poorest of the squaws,” he wrote, “carr^d  burthens—nearly all had ponies for that purpose, which they led, riding (on good side saddles) other horses….The fondness for dogs was the most prevalent & amusing.  One old woman who had lost her pony was carrying a heavy load on her back with a belt across her forehead—to balance which, she had a basket in front suspended round her neck in which were nine fine puppies; the respectable mother of which, trotted contentedly—though doggedly behind, to see that none were dropped by the way.  Some had their cats & litters of kittens—others their favorite chickens ducks & turkeys.”⁸⁰

The land contingent reached Strong’s on the west side of the St. Francis on December 10 with 38 wagons and 1,100 horses.  The road through the Mississippi Swamp was bad, and a number of horses bogged and died in the mud.  On December 19, the Arkansas Gazette reported that the Chickasaws and their horses had “been lying for some days opposite this place.”  Two days earlier, two or three hundred had left upstream aboard the Cavalier while the others went by land up the Military Road.⁸¹

Although McIlvaine’s sketches seem had been drawn at the outset of their trek through Arkansas, his descriptions, despite his romanticism,  perhaps give a hint of what life in the camp at the North Little Rock site was like.  “It was a striking scene at night—when the multitudes of fires kindled,” he said, “showed to advantage the whole face of the country covered with the white tents & white covered wagons, with all the interstices . . .filled with a dense mass of animal life in the shape of savages, uncouth looking white hunters, the picturesque looking Indian Negroes, with dress belonging to no country but partaking of all, & these changing & mingling with the hundreds of horses hobbled & turned out to feed & the troops of dogs chasing about in search of food--& then you would hear the whoops of Indians calling their family party together to receive their rations, from another quarter a wild song from the Negroes preparing the corn, with the strange chorus that the rest would join in--& then the fires would catch tall dead trees & rushing to the tops throw a strong glare over all this moving scene, deepening the savage traits of the men, & softening the features of the women. . . .  It was my delight to wander at will, wherever anything strange led me, going into the tents—making friends with the men by shaking hands & with the women by playing with the little fat naked wild children—dividing apples among them, to their great satisfaction.  Great pains were taken by the agents to keep liquor from the men, & few were drunk—the women neither drink nor smoke—but mostly were seated on skins sewing or doing some kind of work—singularly calm & composed—and contrasted with the incessant galloping about of the men.”⁸²

1838 Removals

            In late May, 1838, the Gazette reported that “a party of near 200 of this tribe, who have been loitering along the roads on this side of the Mississippi, for some months past,” had arrived at the North Little Rock site the week before.  Their intent was to cross the  river and go to Fort Towson.  When about half had crossed, John Millard arrived on his way down river.  He persuaded most of them to recross the river  because the provision station was at the North Little Rock site.  Millard purchased wagons and about May 30 started up the Military Road with principal chief King Ishtehopa and his party.  Those who remained on the Little Rock side of the river went southwest and paid their own way.⁸³  

            Chickasaw removal was slowing down.  On July 16, Upshaw reached the North Little Rock site with 130 more, and on November 26 he arrived with about 300 with their train of wagons, cattle, and horses.  Two days later they were still crossing the ferry in preparation to going on to the Red River country.⁸⁴  

            Although the Gazette announced that this was the end of Chickasaw removal, small parties continued to make the journey west at least until 1850.⁸⁵

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