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THE DISCOVERY
OF OKLAHOMA
chapter
The Europeans
Encounter Oklahoma
Key Themes
Multicultural Heritage
American Indian and European
cultures clash in Oklahoma.
Conflict and Cooperation
Spain and France, using American
Indian allies, attempt to dominate
Oklahoma.
Objectives
•Compare the reasons for
Spanish and French exploration
of Oklahoma
•Contrast the relationships of
the French and the Spanish
with the Indians
•Identify the reasons why the
Wichitas moved to the Red
River area
Key Terms
•runestone
•Seven Cities of Cíbola
•New Spain
•pueblos
•Quivira
•Louisiana
•coureurs de bois
•middens
•Deer Creek village
•ethnohistorian
•Twin Villages
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Overview
Explorers and traders try to extend Spanish and French
control over Oklahoma from the 1500s through the
1700s. Europeans make allies of some tribes, enemies
of others, and permanently alter Oklahoma’s natural
environment and Native peoples.
T
o say that Columbus discovered America in 1492 is
hardly accurate. Indian peoples had discovered it long
before and had lived there in sophisticated societies for
centuries. Also, Vikings from Norway knew of North America
as early as the eleventh century. Local historians say that some
of those Norsemen traveled to Oklahoma and left their puzzling
markings, called runes, on a runestone near Heavener in Le Flore
County.
Still, it is true that after the voyages of Christopher Columbus,
sponsored by Spain at the end of the fifteenth century, Europe’s
Old World focused its attention on the New World. The region
that is now Oklahoma never played a central role in any European
power’s imperial plans. But for those Indian villages that traded
with the Spanish and French for horses, guns, and other manufactured goods, the European presence brought dramatic, longlasting change, not always for the better.
Key People and Events
1541 Coronado crosses western Oklahoma
1719
La Harpe explores eastern Oklahoma and claims it
for France
1740s
Wichitas occupy Deer Creek village
1750s
Wichitas occupy the Twin Villages
1763
Oklahoma becomes part of the Spanish Empire
1800
Oklahoma is returned to France
1803
United States buys Louisiana and Oklahoma
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Spain in Oklahoma
For Spain, the American continent was both an opportunity and an obstacle. It was also a barrier to reaching
China, the source of spices that Columbus had sought.
But it promised treasures of gold to those who looked long
enough. Adventuresome Spaniards rushed to the New
World. They explored every mile of coastline between
Florida and Yucatán. In 1521, a Spanish army led by
Hernán Cortés invaded Mexico and conquered the Aztec
Empire.
Mexico yielded dazzling treasures for the Spaniards.
So too did the Inca kingdom of Peru. Those riches rein-
Viewing History in Centuries
Dates are to history what dribbling is to basketball—you have to
have them. Dates are the mileposts of story. Without them, it is
easy to confuse a sequence of events that explains cause and
effect. When that happens, the story does not make sense, and
truth, the goal of history, is distorted.
You don’t have to memorize dates, the way you would memorize irregular verbs, but history students must understand when
one event comes before another. Sometimes it is easier to understand a sequence of events if you place them in broad categories.
For example, Oklahoma’s path from Native American community
to statehood is best understood in terms of centuries, rather than
years or decades. See the table below.
15th century
Wichitas dominate Oklahoma
Voyages of Columbus (1492)
16th century
Spanish explorations in Oklahoma
17th century
No Europeans in Oklahoma
18th century
Osages dominate Oklahoma
French authority (1719–1763)
Spanish authority (1763–1800)
American Revolution, 1776–1783
19th century
Oklahoma becomes part of the United
States after the Louisiana Purchase (1803)
Indian settlement zone is established
in Oklahoma (1825)
Oklahoma is organized as a territory (1890)
20th century
Oklahoma joins the Union (1907)
62 the story of oklahoma
forced rumors about the Seven Cities of Cíbola, where
houses had walls of solid gold and doors of turquoise.
Spain sent many expeditions to Mexico’s northern frontier in search of this fabled kingdom. The expedition led
by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado was of special importance to Oklahoma.
Coronado’s Story
Coronado was governor of New Galicia, a province of
New Spain (present-day Mexico). At only 27 years of age,
he was already a wealthy man who was known as a capable administrator and military leader. He saw the royal
permission to search for the Seven Cities of Cíbola as an
honor. It also happened to be an opportunity to enrich
himself further.
In 1540, Coronado gathered his forces on the west
coast of what is now Mexico. He set out for Cíbola
with 240 mounted men, 60 foot soldiers, more than 800
Indians, a long baggage train, at least 1,000 horses, and
large herds of cattle, sheep, and hogs (none of which were
native to the American Southwest). For several months his
men traveled through Arizona and New Mexico, looking
for the fabled cities. All they found were humble villages
built of mud, not gold. The Spanish called these towns
pueblos.
During those months, Coronado and his men showed
little respect for the lives and rights of the Native people. He took chiefs as hostages, stole food from villagers, insisted that local men act as porters for his army,
and demanded that women serve as companions for his
soldiers. Increasingly frustrated by his failure to find
Cíbola, he was absolutely ruthless in battles against the
Pueblo Indians.
On the Rio Grande in New Mexico, Coronado’s luck
changed. A captive Pawnee told him that to the east was a
land of incredible wealth, known as Quivira, where even
common folk ate off silver plates and drank from golden
bowls. The Pawnee, who was called “the Turk” because
“he looked like one,” offered to guide the Spaniards to it.
There were good reasons to be suspicious, but Coronado
ignored them. In 1541, he and his men followed the Turk
eastward onto the High Plains of Texas, where they
eventually turned north and east across Oklahoma into
Kansas. There on the Arkansas River near present-day
Wichita, Coronado found Quivira.
It was far from what he had expected. No golden bells
hung in the shade trees. Indeed, there were not many trees
at all. But there were a lot of yapping dogs and domeshaped grass houses occupied by people who were covered
Two main goals motivated Spain in America: gold and
God. Coronado symbolized the first goal. Friar Juan
de Padilla, a chaplain in Coronado’s expedition, represented the other. Padilla was impressed with the Wichita
people. He returned to the Wichitas with two Mexican
Indian converts to Christianity and a Portugueseborn soldier named Andrés do Campo, to establish
a Catholic mission. After a few months, the four men
decided to move on to more promising areas farther east.
Somewhere in south-central Kansas, members of the Kaw
tribe ambushed the party. Padilla died, and Do Campo
and the two lay brothers were held captive for almost
a year. When they escaped, they traveled across central
Oklahoma into Texas, and on to the Gulf Coast of New
Spain.
It took the Do Campo party five years to reach the Gulf
Coast. What slowed it was a heavy wooden cross that
the two lay brothers took turns carrying on their backs
to mourn the death of their teacher, Padilla. This act of
m
Ci
Nor th
ar
r
Oñate
on
Ri
ve
r
Fo
k
La Harpe
Area crossed by Coronado
Ca
Ri
ve
r
i
dR
Wichita village
nadi
an River
R
of
rk
Fo
Washita River
na
d
Ca
No
r th
of
r
ka
ns
as
ve
r
Ar
River
Deer Creek
Beaver Creek
Gran
with tattoos. Quivira was not a city of great wealth. It was
merely a village of the Wichitas, Oklahoma’s First People
(lost for the moment in Kansas).
Coronado was bitterly disappointed. He demanded
an explanation from the Turk, who admitted that his
description of Quivira was just a trick to get the Spanish
out of the Rio Grande settlements. Coronado was not
amused. His soldiers were outraged, and one of them
put a rope around the Turk’s neck and choked him to
Verdigr
is
When Coronado began his march to Quivira in 1541, he hoped
to find gold for Spain and souls for God. (Center portion of mural
entitled Arrival of Coronado by Ira Diamond Gerald Cassidy,
Federal Building, Santa Fe, New Mexico)
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Do Campo’s Story
chapter 5
death. The governor then assembled the Wichita chiefs
and insisted that they swear an oath of allegiance to the
king of Spain. They did so—maybe even knowing what
they were doing. With that accomplished, Coronado and
his weary army went back to the Rio Grande pueblos,
following a route that took them through the Oklahoma
Panhandle.
ian
River
iver
ed R
N
0
80
160 kilometers
Red Riv
er
Twin villages
ve
Ri
100 miles
hi
50
K i a m ic
0
r
European explorers in Oklahoma, 1541–1741
the europeans encounter oklahoma 63
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piety has not since been matched very often in Oklahoma.
But the trail that the men marked between Quivira and
the Spanish settlements was much more direct than the
one Coronado followed. After that, Mexico City officials
recommended the Do Campo route as the preferred link
to Spain’s newest northern province. Today Interstate 35
largely follows this “trail of the cross.”
Oñate’s Story
Friar Padilla was not the only one who saw the northern frontier as a fertile ground for Christian missions. So
did other chaplains on the Coronado expedition. It took
almost 60 years, but in 1598 they and later church leaders persuaded Spain to establish a mission and settlement
on the Rio Grande in what is now New Mexico. Juan
de Oñate, rich from owning Mexican silver mines, was
appointed as governor of the new colony. The settlement
he established near present-day Santa Fe took root and
survived—before the colonies of Jamestown and Quebec
were established.
The day-to-day tasks of a regional administrator soon
bored Oñate. He left them to others and turned to his real
interest—completing Coronado’s quest for Quivira. One of
Oñate’s trips in 1601 took him eastward to the headwaters
of the Canadian River and down the river to the Antelope
Hills on Oklahoma’s western border. Then he went north
and east through the villages of the Plains Apaches to the
Arkansas River in present-day Kansas. There Oñate found
what Coronado had found: the villages of several thousand
Wichitas. Because the Wichitas remembered that earlier
visit, they gave the Spaniards free access to their villages
and willingly told them about their land. But they soon tired
of all the questions. Their irritation, perceived as hostility,
caused Oñate and his men to leave Quivira and return the
way they had come.
The Spanish-Oklahoma Connection
Given their limited goals, both Coronado and Oñate
judged their expeditions as failures. They found no gold
and concluded that the extensive areas they had passed
through were useless. Nor did they make any friends for
the Spanish king. Yet both expeditions were very important to Oklahoma.
The written reports of Coronado’s and Oñate’s expeditions provide the first glimpses of what life was like in
Oklahoma five centuries ago. For the first time, Native
peoples are described as individuals, with precise personalities. This is true not only for the Wichitas but also for
64 the story of oklahoma
the Plains Apaches, whom both explorers encountered on
their way to and from Quivira. The reports also tell something about the land. The Spaniards saw “humped backed
cows” on the plains, for example, and they rode through
grass so tall that they had to be on horses to see over it.
Quivira itself was “fat and black, and . . . well watered by
rivulets and springs and rivers.”
Coronado’s council with the Wichita chiefs had political significance for Oklahoma. Because of it, Spain could
claim rule over the western side of the Mississippi River
valley. Probably that did not mean a lot to the chiefs,
although they surely sensed that something was different.
Sixty years later they received Oñate as a friend, and eventually they sent a delegation to Santa Fe to ask for Spanish
help in subduing their Apache enemies.
Among the kings of Europe, Coronado’s claim had
substantial meaning. During the sixteenth century, the
European rulers were all engaged in a worldwide contest
for empire. Because of Coronado, Spain had won the prize
of a vast domain that included Oklahoma. Revised maps
of North America now showed Quivira as the northern
province of New Spain.
Did the designation of Oklahoma as a province mean
anything to Spain, or was it just a chip in the great poker
game of empire? Coronado was interested in short-term
profits for private enterprise, so he probably thought that
the region was not important. “There is not any gold nor
any other metal—nothing but villages,” he wrote. To him,
Oklahoma’s First People were curiosities with little human
potential. With such publicity, is it any wonder that in
the next 250 years only two official Spanish expeditions
visited Oklahoma? Clearly, Spain had no real interest in
the state or its people.
France in Oklahoma
The Spaniards placed Oklahoma on its maps, but the
French made a place for it in their hearts. In the early
1600s, France launched its bid for a share of the New
World, with settlements in Canada. In 1682, René-Robert
Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, canoed down the Mississippi
River, claiming it and the western lands it drained for
the king of France. Naming the prize “Louisiana,” La
Salle saw it as the center of a new commercial empire
based on trading for furs with local tribes, among them
the Quapaws of Arkansas. He planned to focus the trade
in settlements and military posts along the Mississippi
River and its tributaries. La Salle died trying to estab-
NATIONYEAR
LEADER
AREA
Spain
France
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado
Andrés do Campo
Juan de Oñate
Bernard de la Harpe
Claude-Charles du Tisné
Pierre and Paul Mallet
Fabry de la Bruyère
Northwest and Panhandle
Cross Timbers
Antelope Hills and northward
Kiamichi and Arkansas rivers
Verdigris River (Kansas)
Canadian River
Canadian River
1541
1542–1547
1601
1719
1719
1740
1741
lish one of these posts, but others succeeded, founding
Mobile, New Orleans, Arkansas Post, Natchitoches, and
other settlements.
Neither La Salle nor his successors expected the local
tribespeople to be Louisiana’s only trading partners. They
also hoped to begin commerce with the Spanish settlements on the Rio Grande. Those communities, such as
Santa Fe, presumably hungered for trade goods that
Louisiana could easily supply. To tap those markets, the
French needed only to follow the great western rivers
that emptied into the Mississippi. Significantly, the rivers
that linked the Mississippi most directly with Santa Fe
all went through Oklahoma—the Red, the Arkansas, and
the Canadian.
Much of the success or failure of Louisiana as a trading center depended upon circumstances in present-day
Oklahoma. Would the Wichitas and the Osages be open
to trading? Would the rivers be suitable channels of commerce to Santa Fe? Would the Native peoples living along
those rivers grant safe passage to traders? To find answers
to those questions, France sent four major expeditions to
the area in the early eighteenth century.
Du Tisné’s Story
Claude-Charles du Tisné, who had been in New France for
only eight years, led the first French expedition. He had
settled first at Quebec in Canada. Like so many young
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All of the Spanish explorations that affected Oklahoma took place in the sixteenth century, following the
voyages of Columbus. All French explorations took place in the eighteenth century. Although the Spanish
and French explorations occurred in two distinct blocks of time, they have a common purpose: to discover
the economic value of Oklahoma’s land and people. Below are some details about those expeditions.
chapter 5
Spanish and French Expeditions in Oklahoma
Frenchmen of his generation, he soon headed into the wilderness to make his fame and fortune in the fur trade. That
occupation led him to Louisiana, where he became well
known throughout the Mississippi River basin.
The governor of Louisiana hired Du Tisné to negotiate alliances with western tribes that would trade with
the French and would grant them safe passage to Santa
Fe. In 1719, Du Tisné traveled to the Osages in southwestern Missouri. The Osages were interested in French
trade goods but did not want their Wichita neighbors to
have them, especially guns. With difficulty, Du Tisné persuaded the Osages to let him pass on to Oklahoma’s First
People.
A four-day trip brought Du Tisné to two Wichita villages near the Verdigris River in either present-day Kansas
or Oklahoma. Having been told that he was a slave trader,
the villagers received him with suspicion. Du Tisné calmed
their fears and persuaded them to enter into an alliance
with France. The Wichitas had only six guns between the
two villages and were ready to do almost anything to get
more.
From there the Frenchman intended to go on to the
Plains Apaches, but the Wichitas would not hear of it.
Their western enemy already had Spanish horses; they did
not need French guns. When Du Tisné could not persuade
them otherwise, he returned to the Osage v­ illages and then
headed east to the Mississippi River.
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In this painting, Oklahoma artist Charles Banks Wilson shows a
typical Quapaw warrior of 1700. That was when Europeans first
visited the Quapaw villages along the Mississippi and Arkansas
rivers. Notice the body painting, the feathered pipes, and the
scalp lock (a long lock of hair left on a shaven head).
We-ta-ra-sha-ro, sketched by George Catlin in 1834, was probably a direct descendant of the Wichitas who greeted La Harpe
in 1719. He was, Catlin wrote, an “extraordinary man, whose
figure was light, seemed to be all bone and muscle, and exhibited
immense power, by the curve of the bones in his legs and arms.”
La Harpe’s Story
McIntosh, western Muskogee, and western Wagoner
counties to southern Tulsa County. On a bluff overlooking the Arkansas River just northwest of Bixby, in Tulsa
County, La Harpe came across nine villages of about
6,000 Wichitas. Unknown to him, at that very moment
Du Tisné was less than 100 miles north in two other
Wichita villages.
La Harpe was impressed with the country he passed
through. Mountains encircled beautiful prairies. Rivers
were filled with fish and with mussels that contained
pearls. The climate was mild, and the land was fertile and
rich in minerals. He saw coal and rocks with grains that
looked like gold. There were large buffalo herds, abundant
deer, and great numbers of wolves (which were “little and
not all bad”). La Harpe even killed a “very large bear.”
The land was also home to partridges, woodcocks, plover,
and geese.
The Wichitas greeted the Frenchmen enthusiastically.
At least 1,000 tribespeople from distant villages joined
their 6,000 kinsmen to get a look at the strangers. Chief
Touacara, leader of the main village, and other chiefs
made clear they would welcome a trading partnership
Jean-Baptiste Bénard, Sieur de La Harpe, organized a
second expedition. Having made and lost one fortune in
South America, he hoped to recoup some of his losses in
Louisiana. French officials had authorized him to explore
Louisiana, trade with the Native peoples, and establish
a commercial link with the distant settlements of New
Mexico. In early 1719, La Harpe built a small post on
the Red River near present-day Texarkana, Texas. From
there, he began to explore the region, to find trading
partners among the local tribes, and to evaluate prospects for trade with the Spaniards. In August, La Harpe
led a party northward through the heart of eastern
Oklahoma. Included in his group were his lieutenant,
Gaston du Rivage, three soldiers, two black men, and
three American Indian guides.
Historians have disputed the route of La Harpe’s
expedition through Oklahoma. A careful reading of
his journal indicates that he went north across presentday McCurtain, Choctaw, Pushmataha, Latimer, and
Pittsburg counties. He then crossed the Canadian River
near present-day Eufaula and headed north through
66 the story of oklahoma
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with the French. Such a relationship would bring them
guns for defending their villages from enemies, as well
as other manufactured goods. They were willing to give
safe passage to French convoys going up the Arkansas
and Canadian rivers to trade with Spanish settlements.
The formalities of an alliance were quickly concluded.
A wooden post, on which Du Rivage had carved a symbol of the king of France, was erected to commemorate
the event.
La Harpe had intended to leave three of his men among
the Wichitas to establish a permanent trading facility on
the Arkansas River. But when he learned that the Wichitas
left their villages for six months each winter to hunt buffalo, he changed his mind. Others would have to work
out the details of commerce between the French and the
Wichitas. La Harpe and his men returned to his fort on
the Red River, and he soon left there for New Orleans. La
Harpe remained important in Louisiana affairs for several
years, but he never returned to Oklahoma.
French-Wichita Commerce
La Harpe’s expedition confirmed Oklahoma’s economic
potential to Louisiana officials. So too did subsequent
expeditions along the Canadian River by Pierre and Paul
Mallet and by André Fabry de la Bruyère. To the French,
Oklahoma was not a trackless wasteland or part of any
Great American Desert. Within it lay a promising but
dangerous route to Santa Fe. Most important, its Native
people were potential partners in commercial ventures
that would help determine France’s success or failure in
North America.
The French soon involved the Oklahoma Indians
in these ventures. To the Wichitas and the Osages, the
French took guns, ammunition, knives, hatchets, axes,
hoes, cloth, blankets, beads, mirrors, and paint. Most
tribespeople instantly saw the value of such items. They
willingly exchanged the hides of buffalo and deer and
the skins of beaver, otter, mink, and muskrat. They
also offered—and the French gladly accepted—horses
(even stolen ones) and Indian captives who could be sold
as slaves.
The Wichitas and the Osages quickly became dependent
on the trade goods. This change had tragic consequences
for the tribes, altering their fundamental economic and
social habits. They once had hunted only for food and
clothes, and they had made war only for revenge. With
the onset of the fur trade, they hunted for hides and skins
and fought for horses and captives. They became not only
Tal-lee (Tally), drawn by George Catlin in 1834, was one of the main
chiefs of the Arkansas Osages in the early nineteenth century.
commercial hunters but commercial warriors as well.
Who were the Frenchmen who carried on the trade?
They were the famous coureurs de bois (literally, “runners of the woods”), generally nameless young men who
enjoyed the freedom and challenges of life in the woods.
They were a loose and happy group who lived with the
Indians, learned Indian ways and languages, and took
Indian women as their wives. In the mid-eighteenth century, probably 100 or so coureurs de bois were active in
Oklahoma Indian villages.
Deer Creek Village
Archaeologists are helping us learn more about the
relationship between coureurs de bois and American
Indians. They have done considerable work on the site
of a Wichita village located where Deer Creek enters
the Arkansas River just east of Newkirk in Kay County.
There they have found at least 25 circular mounds from
15 to 20 inches high. These are middens (trash heaps)
the europeans encounter oklahoma 67
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composed mainly of buffalo bones but also containing was an early stockyard and meat-processing plant, where
many hide scrapers made from chipped stone. In add- the Wichitas worked as laborers.
ition, there are ditches that appear to be man-made.
Researchers have identified at the site such French- Wichita-Osage Conflict
manufactured items as gun parts, metal tools, kettles, Operations at Deer Creek continued into the mid-1750s,
when the villagers joined with other Wichitas to move
ornaments, and glass beads.
Deer Creek village has not been systematically exca- their communities to sites along the Red River. This
vated yet. But careful study of the materials that have departure took about 20 years to complete. The move
been randomly collected and of known historical sources was largely due to the full-fledged war that had broken
enables scholars to draw some rather definitive conclu- out between the Wichitas and the Osages. The bettersions. It is clear, for example, that the Wichitas occu- armed Osages made raid after raid against Oklahoma’s
pied the site as a village from as early as 1720 (if not First People, seeking to terrorize them into leaving their
before) until the late 1750s. It is also clear that the center homeland and thus opening it up to Osage hunting parties
of the village was fortified with something that resem- and permanent villages.
bled a dry moat. The residents obviously felt the need To defend themselves, the Wichitas tried different stratto protect themselves from enemy attacks, probably by egies. They consolidated and then fortified their villages.
the Osages.
They obtained guns from the French, but they never had
No doubt, French trade goods came to the village enough, nor were they proficient in using the ones they
regularly. Since only small amounts of these goods have had. In 1747 or 1748, the Wichitas also negotiated an
been found, scholars think that Deer Creek was not a per- alliance with the Comanches, a remarkable union that
manent French trading post (called Fernandina), as some produced some important victories. But such successes
authorities had assumed. The presence of many animal were few.
bones suggests that the main activities in the village were While the Osages pushed, other factors pulled the
processing buffalo hides, rendering tallow and oil, and Wichitas to the Red River. One was the desire to be
nearer the stable supplies of French trade goods that
smoking, drying, and salting meat.
So what was Deer Creek? The evidence suggests that it came up the Red River through Natchitoches. The southwas a typical Wichita village that also became the head- ern location also put them closer to herds of Spanish
quarters of 30 to 40
French professional
hunters who supplied
Louisiana with meat.
The villagers worked
for these men as hunters themselves and as
meat processors, being
paid in European
goods. Contrary to
legend, there was no
thriving commerce at
Deer Creek in which
the Wichitas served
as craf t y brokers
between the coureurs
de bois and the Plains
tribes. The evidence
collected from the
trash mounds may not In this 1845 romantic painting titled Osage Scalp Dance, artist John Mix Stanley captures the confidence,
be romantic, but it is pride, and bravado that made the Osages feared as enemies and desirable as allies. Stanley placed the
persuasive. Deer Creek woman and child at the center of the painting for dramatic effect rather than for historical reality.
68 the story of oklahoma
Correcting History:
The Case of
Fernandina
In 1926, Joseph B. Thoburn of the
Oklahoma Historical Society learned of a
map with the name “Fernandina” printed
in the general region of the Deer Creek
archaeological site east of Newkirk. An
examination of the map revealed that it
had been published in London, England,
in the 1860s by “Lloyd’s,” presumably the
famous insurance company. Impressed
by the age of the map and its publication in Europe, Thoburn determined that
the Fernandina of the 1860s and the Deer
Creek site of the 1750s were one and Published in 1868, a copy of “Lloyd’s Topographical Railway Map of North
America, or the United States Continent” launched the myth of Fernandina.
the same.
After that, Thoburn and other historians made and London. Wedel established that “Fernandina” does
extravagant claims for Fernandina. Some said it was appear on this map as a site in northern Indian Territory,
the first white settlement in Oklahoma, known to early but not at the location of the Deer Creek village.
mapmakers in England and Scotland. Others claimed Wedel searched international archives to find other
it was a French fort where Frenchmen lived and traded maps or documents that might list Fernandina. She
with the Wichitas. Thoburn concluded that settlement found no reference to the name on any source matewas named after King Ferdinand of Spain, who reigned rial from the 1740s and 1750s, when Deer Creek was
from 1746 to 1759, and that the proper spelling for an active hunting and meat processing site. Indeed, she
the French fort should be “Ferdinandina.” (He never discovered that the place-name “Fernandina” is not used
explained why the French would name a post after a in manuscripts or printed sources until the 1850s, a full
Spanish king.) For two generations, Oklahoma histori- century after the time a fort of that name was supposed
ans and geographers accepted these ideas uncritically to have existed. She found three maps of the 1850s that
and included them in their texts and atlases.
used the designation, but all three place it differently. One
Not until the late 1970s did anyone bother to examine put Fernandina in Kansas near the Santa Fe Trail.
the documents that presumably confirmed the existence Wedel concluded that “Fernandina” as a geographical
of “Ferdinandina.” Then Mildred Mott Wedel, an ethno- place-name dates only from the 1850s and was never
historian (a person who studies the development of cul- used during the 1740s to designate the Deer Creek site.
tures), learned that the map Thoburn had used no longer Moreover, Deer Creek was not a French fort and thus
existed. All that remained was a photocopy of part of was not the first white settlement in Oklahoma. Instead
the map. Using that small clue, Wedel figured out that it was a hunting and meat-processing operation that
the original map was a copy of “Lloyd’s Topographical supplied meat for French Louisiana. To use the term
Railway Map of North America, or the United States “Fernandina” or “Ferdinandina” to identify the Wichita
Continent,” published in 1868 by J. T. Lloyd of New York village at Deer Creek is to perpetuate a historical myth.
the europeans encounter oklahoma 69
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horses, which they could trade for or steal. They were
also nearer to the Plains Apaches, old enemies with few
guns who made good captives. Also, French officials,
anxious to erect an Indian barrier to possible Spanish
expansion from Texas, may have invited the Wichitas to
move southward.
Twin Villages
The Wichitas established several villages along the Red
River. Most famous were the so-called Twin Villages
on either side of the river. One was in today’s Jefferson
County, Oklahoma; the other was in Montague County,
Texas. The village on the north bank was fortified with a
log stockade and a moat, which enclosed a horse corral.
Centered in the villages was a remarkable commerce in
which the Wichitas did act as shrewd brokers between the
Southern Plains tribes and French traders. Horses, hides,
meat, and Apache and Spanish captives were exchanged
for guns, ammunition, pots, blankets, and other manufactured items.
From the Twin Villages, the Wichitas and their
Comanche allies launched joint raids against Apache villages in Texas. The Apaches gathered near the San Saba
mission near San Antonio for protection. But in 1758,
about 2,000 Wichitas and Comanches swooped down
on the mission, drove off the defenders, looted and then
burned its buildings, and forced the Apaches to flee.
The next year, Colonel Diego Ortiz Parrilla set out with
an army of 500 men and two cannons to punish the socalled Nations of the North. He should have stayed in the
south. The colonel found the Twin Villages, but their fortifications were much stronger than he had expected. Eleven
cannon shots did so little damage that the villagers laughed.
Moreover, a daring Wichita chief led his comrades out of
the fort and attacked the Spanish time after time. That
night the Wichitas held a great firelight celebration inside
the fort, which scared the Spanish army. Before dawn,
Parrilla ordered a retreat.
France Loses Oklahoma
The Twin Villages battle was a Spanish effort to curtail
France’s influence in the Red River valley. But the effort
was needless. Farther east, France had been defeated by
England in what is called the French and Indian War. In
the Treaty of Paris in 1763, France withdrew from North
America and gave all of its claims west of the Mississippi
River to Spain. The treaty, which was translated for the
Wichitas and the Comanches, meant that the French flag
no longer flew in Oklahoma.
70 the story of oklahoma
The French-Oklahoma Connection
For nearly 150 years, the French controlled the destiny of
Oklahoma. Unlike the Spanish before them, the French
promoted it as a land of promise and opportunity. They
recognized its abundant natural resources, its fertile soil,
and its beauty. Above all, they treated Native people as
equals, seeing them as necessary allies in France’s plans
for Louisiana.
Over the years, thousands of Frenchmen came to
Oklahoma. Place-names in the state bear witness to them:
Poteau, Illinois, Sallisaw, Verdigris, San Bois, Fourche
Maline, Kiamichi, Chouteau, and Salina. The French legacy is also seen in the surnames of many Oklahoma Indian
families, whose members often have leadership roles in
tribal affairs.
In other states where French influence was strong, such
as Louisiana and Missouri, buildings reflect that influence. That is not true for Oklahoma, however, largely
because the French did not come to the area to settle.
They came instead to exploit the natural resources and
the people through the fur trade. Their agenda was to
take, not to give. Rather than architectural monuments,
the French left behind Native peoples who had lost many
of their traditional skills, who had slaughtered their own
food supply for profit, and who now made vicious war on
each other.
Spanish Louisiana
Between 1763 and 1800, Oklahoma was a province of
Spanish Louisiana. During that time, the English colonies
on the Atlantic coast of North America declared independence, fought a revolution, founded the United States, and
adopted a constitutional form of government. With those
big events going on outside Louisiana, it is no wonder that
Oklahoma was never a priority for Spanish officials at New
Orleans. Still, two problems for the Spanish simply would
not go away: the Wichitas and the Osages.
In time, Spain was able to humble the Twin Villages
Wichitas by limiting their access to guns and outlawing
their trade in horses and slaves. Under these policies,
Oklahoma’s First People were defenseless and living in
poverty. On the other hand, not even Spain could control
the Osages. The Osages had recently driven the Wichitas
from the Verdigris River valley in today’s Rogers County,
and a large Osage band, led by Clermont, settled there
permanently. From there, they launched raids that
extended their control over Oklahoma and took them
deep into Texas. Trading the horses and captives taken
chapter 5
uniT 2
Left: Catlin’s rendering of
Clermont’s child and wife
suggests that the family unit was important in
Osage society.
Right: Clermont II,
sketched in 1834 by
George Catlin, was the
leading Osage chief in the
Verdigris River area after
1800. President Thomas
Jefferson presented
to Clermont the peace
medal that hangs around
his neck.
in these attacks to the English made the Osages wealthy
and bold.
France Regains Oklahoma
After pressure from French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte,
Spain returned Louisiana to French control in the Treaty
of San Ildefonso, signed in 1800. Napoleon envisioned the
province as the breadbasket of a restored French empire
in North America. Problems elsewhere caused him to
abandon that plan, making Louisiana surplus property.
Always short of cash, Napoleon offered the whole province to the young United States for a mere $15 million.
The new republic bought the territory in 1803. With
that transaction, the flag of the United States rose over
Oklahoma.
Louisiana
Purchase
1803
OKLAHOMA
Western Mississippi River Drainage Basin
Adams-Onís Treaty Boundary, 1819
Louisiana Purchase and Adams-Onís Treaty
the europeans encounter oklahoma 71