Creek Nation Removal, Andrew Sullivan-Octogenarian

 “If I ain’t, you won’t find another one here.”

Andrew Sullivan-Octogenarian

 

   In a 1900 affidavit in support of the application for citizenship of his daughter Sarah, and himself, Andrew Sullivan was responding to questions about his identity as a citizen in the Creek Muskogee Nation. Andrew was approximately eighty-two years of age and apparently still feisty.

 

   Andrew established his residence and political affiliation as he put it, “I belong to Arkansas.” Then when asked if he considered himself a citizen of the Creek Nation, Andrew left no doubt about it with his reply, “If I ain’t, you won’t find another one here.” 

 

   We, who are familiar with the Dawes Commission interviews have an understanding that when trying to establish whether a person is eligible to receive a land allotment and citizenship in a Nation, Muscogee or one of the other four tribes, the interviewer like a well-trained lawyer will ask the same question several different times, and several different ways. It appears, on this day, Andrew was not having any of it. 

 

   In my efforts to locate and document the “enslaved” people that “came west with the “Indians” Andrew Sullivan provided the information that stamps his boarding pass on the trail of many tears, when he in my opinion, tersely informs the interviewer, “That’ what I am trying to tell you. I have been living here over forty years or more. Ever since I came to this country. I come here when I was twenty-year-old.” 

 

   Perhaps, the interviewer attempting to trip Andrew up, followed Andrew's answer with, “Then you wasn’t born in the Creek Nation?” He may not have been able to read, but Andrew demonstrated he was not an ignorant man when he simply stated, “Yes, in Alabama, in the Creek nation with the Injuns (sic); I come here with them.”

 

   There was one more aspect of this interview that stood out. Andrew indicated he came to Indian Territory “with a lot of Injuns (sic) and colored people.” Andrew worked as a teamster which allowed him to travel extensively, “way up the other side of Eufaula about fifteen miles on the Canadian.” As the interview continued, Andrew indicated his work took him in and out of Indian Territory before the war, from Ft. Smith in Arkansas to Ft. Gibson in Indian Territory. 

 

   Not to leave an opportunity to trip Andrew up about his eligibility for citizenship and a land allotment, the interviewer asked Andrew, “How long have you lived in Ft. Smith?” Andrew’s answer was very interesting. “I didn’t live there at all. I staid (sic) there until I got my pension, working, and then come back.” Andrew’s response begs the question, did he receive a pension from the United States government for his work as a teamster? Did Andrew Sullivan enlist in the United States military to gain his “freedom?” Some research into the United States Colored Troops may be warranted.

 

   The story of Andrew Sullivan is another example why it is so important to tell the stories of those who came west with the Indians during the “removals.” The “inclusion” of enslaved people on the “Trail of Tears” needs to be researched and included in the history in each of the five slave holding tribes. When the tribes commemorate the event, each year, and pay respect to their ancestors, they continue to omit people like Andrew Sullivan, who said it best when asked if he considered himself a Creek citizen, “If I ain’t, you won’t find another one here."

The story of Andrew Sullivan is an excerpt from a book I'm working on to identify and write stories about the enslaved people that "Came West With the Indians." 

The phrase came west with the Indians is an expression that is used by many of the surviving slaves, some who reached the age of one-hundred or more, and lived to tell their story. Their story that continues to be "missing" from the stories and commemorations that each of the Five Slave Holding Tribes, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek/Muskogee and Seminole Nations engage in, every year.

There are over four-hundred survivors that "participated" in the various removals; it's time, their names are included in this story. We know what the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek/Muskogee and Seminoles experienced, those who came west with them, shared that experience.