"Warrior who preserves"
Moshulatubbee (1770-1838)
Moshulatubbee, a great medal chief and the son of Homastubbe, succeeded his father as chief of the Northern District of the Choctaw Nation in 1809. Next to Pushmataha, he was the most influential Choctaw leader through the removal era. He signed the treaties of Fort Confederation (1816), Doak's Stand (1820), Washington (1825), and Dancing Rabbit Creek (1830).
While Moshulatubbee won renown as a warrior for his exploits against the Osage, he gained more influence through his service in the Creek War of 1813-14 and at the battle of New Orleans with Andrew Jackson. He was a noted orator with a powerful build and possessed great personal magnetism that attracted supporters and detractors. While he prospered as a farmer and slave owner, raising cattle, hogs and horses, he also influenced the Choctaw shift toward a market economy.
Although Moshulatubbee supported the educational efforts of the missionaries, he opposed their religious activities and helped establish the Choctaw Academy in traditionalists who opposed Greenwood LeFlore's efforts to control the Choctaw Nation with his more progressive, cosmopolitan, and predominantly mixed-blood faction. Moshulatubbee was replaced by David Folsom as district chief in 1826, but he regained the office in 1830 during the removal crises.
Despite their political differences, the three district chiefs, Moshulatubbee, Greenwood LeFlore, and Nitakechi, signed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek on the 27th of September 1830. He emigrated west in 1832, continued his resistance to missionaries, signed the Fort Holmes treaty in 1835, and served as district chief until 1836. Moshulatubbee died of smallpox (the white man's disease), on August 30, 1838, near the Choctaw Agency on the Arkansas River.
For many years no one knew just where the Great Chief was buried. Based on information given by a former Choctaw slave, it was assumed that Mosholatubbee was buried at Latham. Later the Latham grave proved to be that of Chief Kincaid.
About 1956, Elbert Costner noticed the grave in Hall Cemetery and did considerable reading and research which led to the generally accepted fact that the grave in Hall Cemetery is actually that of Chief Mosholatubbee. Mosholatubbee's home in Mississippi was on a lovely prairie near the Natchez Trace and when he came to this area, he picked his new home on a prairie, very much like his old home in Mississippi. This home was located on an old Military road. The only Military Road in the Mosholatubbee district during the Chief’s life time was the Fort Smith-Fort Towson Road built or started in 1826, by the U. S. Army. The Military Road from Skullyville to Brazil Station and Southwest across the Choctaw Nation was constructed to move the Chickasaws to their new lands from Fort Coffee to the Western lands they had purchased from the Choctaws. This road was built after the Chief Mosholatubbee built his home at Kulli Chaha.
When first coming to the Choctaw Nation's new land, Mosholatubbee and Nitakechi decided the division for the three chief's districts without taking Greenwood LeFlore, the other main Choctaw chief, into account. Mosholatubbee told Nitakechi that he could have the district near Antlers and that LeFlore could have the district near Towson on the Red River, with Mosholatubbee taking the district north of the Kiamichi Mountains and South of the Arkansas River.
Mosholatubbee said LeFlore need not be consulted because he was not a full blood Choctaw anyway. The first building put up m the Mosholatubbee District for a school by the government as provided by a treaty was built at Kulli Chaha, East of Poteau, near the home of Mosholatubbee. The chief received $6,000 annually from the government and spent it all educating young men from his district at the Choctaw Academy in Kentucky during a six year period. He gave very little of the funds to the other chiefs. Mosholatubbee handled the money with President Andrew Jackson's blessing and Jackson ordered the Choctaws to elect Mosholatubbee as chief for two terms after reaching their new home.
Mosholatubbee served only two years of the last term when he died from Smallpox on August 3 1838.
The Smallpox was contracted from Chickasaws when he met their boat at Fort Coffee just previous to his death. Military letters show that he died at his home about eight miles from Skulleyville and was buried near his home. There were no surveys made locating the townships and sections until 1897 under the Dawes commission, so it must have been difficult for an Army Officer to guess that it was about 12 miles to Mosholatubbee's home; however, it would have been over 25 miles on a straight line to Latham and there was no road at the time.
In Mississippi, many of the Indians nicknamed Mosholatubbee, “Hushatubbee”, and records of the Tucker family, and seven other people that attended school in the original school building, show that the Chief was known by his nickname; They all agree that a great Choctaw Chief Hushatubbee was buried in what is now known as the Hall Cemetery and can remember their parents telling them about the Great Chief. In 1832-34, a number of Indians became sick at Kulli Chaha. Armstrong, the Agent, told Chief Mosholatubbee that it might be caused by the stagnant creek water they were drinking, so the chief ordered wells dug. About two dozen wells were dug in the village near his home. Mr. Coatner found signs of these wells and some of them are still very plain and can still be located. Historians are firmly of the opinion that this is the grave of Chief Mosholatubbee. The Oklahoma Historical Society upheld this belief by establishing a monument at the grave on June 27, 1965.
The inscription on the rose granite monument is as follows:
CHIEF MOSHOLATUBBEE
AMOSHOLI-T-VBI
"WARRIOR WHO PERSEVERES"
Born 1770
Chief Mosholatubbee of the N. E. District, Choctaw Nation in Mississippi, received his name as a young warrior. He was dignified in bearing, of fine physique, steady and thoughtful in disposition. As Chief, he was noted for his orders to ban the liquor traffic and drinking in his country. He strongly favored education, and a mission school was located at his prairie village near the Natchez Trace in 1824. Mosholatubbee was one of the three leading Choctaw chiefs who signed the early treaties with the United States, including that at Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830, providing for the removal of the Choctaws from Mississippi. He had high hopes in the removal coming west with his people to their new country in 1832. He made his home in the prairie not far from the Fort Towson Road, north of Sugar Loaf Mountain, near which there was a Baptist mission school in 1836. He died at his home, August 3, 1838, during an epidemic, and was buried nearby, his grave covered with unmarked stones. The region from the Arkansas River to the Winding Stair Mountains was called "Mosholatubbee District" in Choctaw law books, 1834 to 1907, in memory of this great Chief, a founder of the Choctaw Nation West.
Luriel H. Wright, Oklahoma Historical Society, 1965.
Chief Mosholatubbee was one of the three Choctaw chiefs that signed the treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek which was the treaty which provided for the removal of the Choctaws from Mississippi. The treaty was signed in 1830 but was not ratified until February 24, 1831. The treaty allowed three years for the removal. Chief Mosholatubbee is the only one of the three signing chiefs that is buried in Oklahoma. In early life, he was a great warrior, but in later life he was more of a politician and was one of most brilliant orators of the Choctaw nation.
GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 35.09500, Longitude: -94.49940
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