George W. Harkins’ Letter to the American People

Last month, Chief Batton’s 2023 State of the Nation Address led with a quote: “We as Choctaws rather choose to suffer and be free. My people are dear to me, with them I must go. My destiny is cast among the Choctaw people. If they suffer, so will I; if they prosper, then will I rejoice.”

Chief George Washington Harkins wrote these words as he and his people departed from Vicksburg, Mississippi, along what would be soon after known as the Trail of Tears and Death. This month, Iti Fabvssa would like to look at the life of Chief Harkins and share with you his letter titled: To the American People.

For a bit of background, Chief Harkins was the nephew of Greenwood LeFlore, Chief of the Okla Falaya Ulthi (Western District) of the Choctaw Nation. Following Choctaw tradition, Chief LeFlore was his maternal uncle, so he was raised to be his uncle’s successor.

In his youth, he attended Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. In 1830, soon after the signing of the 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, Chiefs Nitvkechi, Mosholetvbbi, and Greenwood LeFlore were deposed of office. Chief Harkins was selected Chief of the Western District at the age of 20. In October of 1830, Chief Harkins and other Choctaw leaders went on an independent expedition to find suitable locations for resettlement in Indian Territory. Finding an ideal place for his people to resettle, Chief Harkins chose an area along the Red River.

In 1831, he led a group of 600 Choctaw people by steamboat from Vicksburg down the Mississippi River to the mouth of the Ouachita River. The night before they passed by Natchez, Mississippi, Chief Harkins wrote his letter To the American People. The steamboats changed course at the mouth of the Quachita River and paddled up where Harkins and his people disembarked at what is present-day Camden, Arkansas. As their party traveled by water, a separate attachment brought their horses and cattle by land. Throughout their journey, they had to endure the deadly cold winter weather. By the time both groups rejoined, they had lost two people and over 250 Choctaw ponies. With more losses, their group eventually made it to the Choctaw Nation and drew food rations near where the town of Idabel, Oklahoma, is today.

While the Choctaw Nation Government was reorganizing, Chief Harkins left to attend school at Cumberland University, where he received his law degree. In 1834, after the passage of the 1834 Choctaw Constitution, he returned to the Choctaw Nation and became the District Judge of the Apukshunnubbee District in the District Capitol of Alikchi, just east of present-day Ringold, Oklahoma.

During his life, he also served as an attorney for the Choctaw Nation. He was elected Chief of the Apukshunnubbee District from 1850 to 1857. Chief Harkins passed away in 1861 at the age of 50 years and was buried near Fort Towson.

Like many others, Chief Harkins spent his life in the service of the Choctaw people, helping to reestablish the Choctaw Nation. Of all his accomplishments, his letter To the American People remains one of the most important historical documents of the Choctaw People.

This letter is on page 6 of the December 2, 1831 edition of The Natchez Weekly Courier and reproduced below. Our staff adds the italicized words to provide some additional context to the Chief’s words.

The Choctaw’s Lament

“In our paper today, will be found an address to the American people, by George W. Harkins, the present chief of the Choctaw Nation. Capt. Harkins, is the nephew, and successor in office of Greenwood Laflour; and is now on his way with a large body of people, to their new residence in the west. The address was hastily written with a pencil, on board of the steam boat Huron, the day before his arrival at our landing. The time was so short as to afford Capt. Harkins no opportunity to send us a revised sheet.

To the speculators and land jobbers, whose grasping avarice force this people from their homes and the graves of their forefathers, the language of this address will be unintelligible; but there are others, who, we presume, are not entirely devoid of shame, and to whom some allusion is made, who will feel the full force of its mild, but pointed rebuke.”

To The American People

It is with considerable diffidence that I attempt to address the American people, knowing and feeling sensibly my incompetency; and believing that your highly and well improved minds would not be well entertained by the address of a Choctaw.

Chief Harkins, at the age of 21 and speaking in what may not have been his first language, spoke from a place of humility and respect. Understanding the paternal attitude of the US Government towards the Choctaw Nation, Chief Harkins was elegant in combining Choctaw leadership qualities and American education to demonstrate the humanity of the Choctaw people to all the citizens of the US.

But having determined to emigrate west of the Mississippi river this fall, I have thought proper in bidding you farewell to make a few remarks expressive of my views, and the feelings that actuate me on the subject of our removal. Believing that our all is at stake and knowing that you readily sympathize with the distressed of every country, I confidently throw myself upon your indulgence and ask you to listen patiently.

Americans, having recently completed their own successful revolution, were supportive of the revolutions happening in Europe at this time. Harkins was stating that the Choctaw, like the distressed people in Europe, were also struggling with oppressive measure of a government.

I do not arrogate to myself the prerogative of deciding upon the expediency of the late treaty, yet I feel bound as a Choctaw, to give a distinct expression of my feelings on that interesting, (and to the Choctaws), all important subject. We were hedged in by two evils, and we chose that which we thought the least.

Harkins is referring to one evil being the State of Mississippi illegally extending its laws over the Choctaw Nation. The other evil is being forced to move west to Indian Territory and leaving their homeland behind.

Yet we could not recognize the right that the state of Mississippi had assumed, to legislate for us. Although the legislature of the state were qualified to make laws for their own citizens, that did not qualify them to become law makers to a people that were so dissimilar in manners and customs as the Choctaws are to the Mississippians. Admitting that they understood the people, could they remove that mountain of prejudice that has ever obstructed the streams of justice, and prevent their salutary influence from reaching my devoted countrymen. We as Choctaws rather chose to suffer and be free, than live under the degrading influence of laws, which our voice could not be heard in their formation.

Choctaw people who stayed in Mississippi would have to live under Mississippi state laws. Many of these laws actively undermined the freedoms of Choctaw people. Article 13 of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek made accommodations for Choctaws who stayed in Mississippi to become US citizens. However, the US broke this agreement by actively keeping Choctaws from registering. This meant Choctaw people who stayed, were not US citizens and were not protected by Choctaw law, the US Constitution, or Mississippi State Law. Choctaws who stayed in the homelands suffered greatly due to the lack of protection. It was not until 1924 that Native American people outside Oklahoma gained US Citizenship; however many Choctaws outside Oklahoma continued to suffer under segregation and Jim Crow laws well into the 1900s.

Much as the state of Mississippi has wronged us, I cannot find in my heart any other sentiment than an ardent wish for her prosperity and happiness.

I could cheerfully hope, that those of another age and generation may not feel the effects of those oppressive measures that have been so illiberally dealt out to us; and that peace and happiness may be their reward. Amid the gloom and horrors of the present separation, we are cheered with a hope that ere long we shall reach our destined land, and that nothing short of the basest acts of treachery will ever be able to wrest it from us, and that we may live free. Although your ancestors won freedom on the field of danger and glory, our ancestors owned it as their birthright, and we have had to purchase it from you as the vilest slaves buy their freedom.

One reason why Choctaw People are successful in the present-day is because we value focusing on the positive. Harkins, despite all that has happened to the Choctaw people, continues to focus on a positive future for the Choctaw people.

Yet it is said that our present movements are our own voluntary acts — such is not the case. We found ourselves like a benighted stranger, following false guides, until he was surrounded on every side, with fire and water. The fire was certain destruction, and a feeble hope was left him of escaping by water. A distant view of the opposite shore encourages the hope; to remain would be inevitable annihilation. Who would hesitate, or who would say that his plunging into the water was his own voluntary act? Painful in the extreme is the mandate of our expulsion. We regret that it should proceed from the mouth of our professed friend, for whom our blood was co-mingled with that of his bravest warriors, on the field of danger and death.

Harkins stated that the choice of voluntary removal of the Choctaw Nation was forced upon them. During the treaty, the United States used lies, bribes, coercion, and threatened the destruction and enslavement of the Choctaw Nation by the US Military if they did not sign the treaty.

But such is the instability of professions. The man who said that he would plant a stake and draw a line around us, that never should be passed, was the first to say he could not guard the lines, and drew up the stake and wiped out all traces of the line. I will not conceal from you my fears, that the present grounds may be removed. I have my foreboding; who of us can tell after witnessing what has already been done, what the next force may be. I ask you in the name of justice, for repose for myself and for my injured people. Let us alone — we will not harm you, we want rest. We hope, in the name of justice, that another outrage may never be committed against us, and that we may for the future be cared for as children, and not driven about as beasts, which are benefited by a change of pasture.

Harkins is using this metaphor to explain how the United States agreed to keep Americans out of the Choctaw Nation in treaties, yet actively encourage Americans to illegally emigrate into the Choctaw Nation to cause disruption to our society; he is worried that this may happen again. Regretfully, the US did indeed take our land from us again with the passage of the Five Civilized Tribes Act in 1906 and the Indian Relocation Act of 1956.

Taking an example from the American government, and knowing the happiness which its citizens enjoy under the influence of mild republican institutions, it is the intention of our countrymen to form a government assimilated to that of our white brethren in the United States, as nearly as their condition will permit. We know that in order to protect the rights and secure the liberties of the people, no government approximates so nearly to perfection as the one to which we have alluded. As east of the Mississippi we have been friends, so west we will cherish the same feelings with additional fervour; and although we may be removed to the desert, still we shall look with fond regard, upon those who have promised us their protection. Let that feeling be reciprocated.

Harkins continues with a positive outlook and the long-term goal of building a long-lasting and successful relationship with the United States, a relationship we are still building upon today.

Friends, my attachment to my native land was strong — that cord is now broken; and we must go forth as wanderers in a strange land! I must go — let me entreat you to regard us with feelings of kindness, and when the hand of oppression is stretched against us, let me hope that every part of the United States, filling the mountains and valleys, will echo and say stop, you have no power, we are the sovereign people, and our friends shall no more be disturbed. We ask you for nothing that is incompatible with your other duties.

Harkins is asking US citizens to help stand up against the atrocities being committed against the Choctaw people and to ensure treaty stipulations are followed through by the US Government.

We go forth sorrowful, knowing that wrong has been done. Will you extend to us your sympathizing regards until all traces of disagreeable oppositions are obliterated, and we again shall have confidence in the professions of our white brethren. Here is the land of our progenitors, and here are their bones; they left them as a sacred deposit, and we have been compelled to venerate its trust; it is dear to us, yet we cannot stay, my people are dear to me, with them I must go. Could I stay and forget them and leave them to struggle alone, unaided, unfriended, and forgotten by our great father? I should then be unworthy the name of a Choctaw, and be a disgrace to my blood. I must go with them; my destiny is cast among the Choctaw people. If they suffer, so will I; if they prosper, then I will rejoice. Let me again ask you to regard us with feelings of kindness.

Harkins is speaking to the disgrace of leaving behind our Choctaw ancestors who, from a traditional perspective, we have a responsibility to protect even after they have passed away.

Yours with respect,
George W. Harkins

View a story map detailing the forced removal route of Choctaw Chief George W. Harkins and 600 Choctaw people.