17 Facts About Samuel Checote

Samuel Checote was a political leader, military veteran, and a Methodist preacher in the Creek Nation, Indian Territory.

Samuel Checote served two terms as the first principal chief of the tribe to be elected under their new constitution created after the American Civil War.

Samuel Checote had to deal with continuing tensions among his people, as traditionalists opposed assimilation to European-American ways.

Samuel Checote served as a lieutenant colonel with a Creek mounted unit in Indian Territory.

Samuel Checote was born in 1819 to a Muscogee family in the Chattahoochee Valley, traditional Creek territory.

Samuel Checote started school at the Asbury Manual Labor School, established by Methodist missionaries near Fort Mitchell, Alabama.

Later, Samuel Checote attended an academy founded by John Harrell, a Methodist missionary.

Samuel Checote encouraged Checote's studies and persuaded him to become a minister to the Creek.

In 1852, Samuel Checote joined the Indian Mission Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

Samuel Checote enlisted in the Confederate Army on August 13,1861, as captain of Company B of the First Regiment of Creek Mounted Volunteers.

Samuel Checote served as a circuit rider, traveling distances to serve other Creek in their territory.

Samuel Checote was a presiding elder of the Indian Mission.

In 1867 Samuel Checote was elected as principal chief of the Creek Nation; he was the first to serve under the new postwar Creek constitution.

Samuel Checote was reelected to a second term in 1871.

In early 1883 Samuel Checote called on the Creek Lighthorse, the law enforcement unit, led by Pleasant Porter, to put down the rival movement.

Samuel Checote resigned as Principal Chief in mid-1883 and called for a new election.

Samuel Checote died at his home in Okmulgee on September 3,1884.