Copyright © 2004 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved
News from Cherokee Nation
Copyright © 2004 CNO
CHECOTAH, OKLAHOMA - To the untrained eye it looks like a metal steeple protruding from the ground towards the sky, stopping just short of eight feet high, but to Rick Smith it looks like a glimpse of his past. Weighing more than 400 pounds and towering Smith’s front yard, a piece of Cherokee history that spent 10 years on the side of the road is standing once again.
Rick Smith standing beside the metal steeple that marks the Cherokee Nation and Creek Nation boundary in McIntosh County. 
The eight foot steeple is actually a boundary marker that marks the boundary line between the Cherokee Nation and the Creek Nation.
“It had sentimental value,” Smith said. “I’m Cherokee and I’m proud of it.”
Residents of McIntosh County believe the metal steeples have stood since before Oklahoma statehood. The markers were placed one mile apart and at one time marked the Cherokee Nation’s entire western boundary. Today, only a handful of the original markers are left standing.
Each marker was numbered. Numbers 14, 15 are still standing in their original locations. Now number 16 is standing tall too, just 50 feet from its original location, which was a hay field across the street from Smith’s house in Checotah. Smith says the hay field owner pulled the marker out of the ground and carelessly tossed it aside where it rested for nearly 10 years.
“It aggravated me,” Smith said. “I knew what it was and that it wasn’t right for it just to be laying there.”
“We had tribal citizens who were upset over it,” said Jamey Hothouse, realty technician for the Cherokee Nation, who helped place the marker into its new location. “It’s a big piece of history.”
Smith, desperate to see the monument stand again, offered to let the Cherokee Nation erect it on his property. Cherokee Nation staff from the realty and natural resources departments moved it to it’s new home, which is still on the Cherokee Nation and Creek Nation boundary, just about 50 feet from it’s original location.
“I wouldn’t want it any other place,” Smith said. “It meant something to me because of my heritage. I never will forget going hunting with my grandpa up in the woods and seeing one of those sticking out of the ground. They used to be everywhere around here.”
“There were a lot of them out in the fields,” added Donald Vandiver, Smith’s neighbor.
Vandiver, 77, has lived in the area all of his life on his family’s original piece of allotted land.
“They’ve been here as long as I can remember,” Vandiver said.
Two of the original boundary markers are on display at the Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee. Museum official believe their markers came from the boundary line near the Fort Gibson and Muskogee area.
| Related contact information: |
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Mike Miller, Cherokee Nation Director of Communications Phone: 918-456-0671 (ext.2210) Fax: 918-458-5580 E-mail: Communications@cherokee.org
Larry Daugherty, Advertising Manager |
Steven Swogger, Agriculture Liaison Natural Resources Department Phone: 918-456-0671 (ext.2546) FAX: 918-458-7673 E-mail: sswogger@cherokee.org
Bradley D. Peak, Cherokee Nation |