THE KEETOOWAH SOCIETY, INC.
The history of the Keetoowah Society (mostly full-bloods to half-bloods) is basicly this:
Organized, 1859, by full-bloods to half-bloods, trying to find some identity. They had become
"lost" in real life, mostly because they had chosen to "withdraw" from everything, rather than
fight or defend themselves. They were mostly under the influence of "Northern Baptists".
1859 - 1887 Bud Gritts
1887 - 1905 Rabbit Bunch
1905 - 1920 Richard Wolf
1920 - 1928 Price Cochran
1928 - 1934 Levi Gritts
1934 - 1939 Gabriel Tarapin
Ended, 1939. Reorganized, under the Oklahoma Ind. Welfare Act of 1936, as the
UNITED KEETOOWAH BAND OF CHEROKEE INDIANS IN OKLAHOMA in 1939.
1939 - 1944 UKB Chief John Micher
1945 - 1949 UKB Chief Jim Pickup
1954 - 1958 UKB Chief Jeff Tindell
1959 - 1967 UKB Chief Jim Pickup
1968 - 1978 UKB Chief Jim Glory
1979 - 1982 UKB Chief Jim Gordon
1983 - 1990 UKB Chief John Hair
1990 - present UKB Chief John Ross, Jr.
The above listings are from the UKB records and are not completely accurate. They have tried to make it look as if the Keetoowah movement was a continuous one, but it was not. There were several Keetoowah organizations at times, having nothing to do with one another. And there is no mention here of perhaps the most legitimate of them all, the Nighthawk Keetoowahs, under the leadership of Redbird Smith.
About 1893 the more conservative "Ancient Keetoowah" differed with the more modern "Christian Keetoowah" who were under the leadership of various Baptist ministers. They broke away and formed their own society, which has has its ups and downs, but still exists to this day.
In 1932 about 120 full-blood Cherokee families withdrew from the Nighthawk Keetoowah, and formed the "Seven Clans Society" under the leadership of Eli Pumpkin.
In the future we will tell the sorry tale of the "Keetoowah" myth, and the unsuccessful effort of the misguided full-to-half-blood Cherokees to maintain their identity.
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