Assessing Historic Sites:
Elements to Consider
Charles S. Wallis, Jr.
State Historic Preservation Office
a division of the
Oklahoma Historical Society
Acknowledgements
• Maps of Oklahoma shown in this presentation are
taken from Historical Atlas of Oklahoma, 4th ed.
2006. OU Press, C. Goins & D. Goble
• Cherokee County, Camp Gruber site images are
from LopezGarcia Group, Dallas, TX cultural
resource reports prepared for the Oklahoma
Military Department (OANG)
Assessing site eligibility: With emphasis
directed towards evaluation of Late
Historic Period Farmsteads
• Factors to consider:
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–
–
–
Age
Complexity
Integrity
Significance
Site also needs to be evaluated within
a Historic Context
• Identification
– Placement within a cultural theme
– Placement within its geographical and
chronological limits
Historic Period
• Defining historic versus prehistoric
– Dates vary depending on region
• Proto-historic (transition from pre- to postcontact period)
– Oklahoma (1541 versus 1719)
• Coronado versus La Harpe’s expeditions
• Upper end date for consideration (WWII)
– Cold War Era
French and Spanish Explorers
Assessment Based on Age
• Early Exploration Period
– Deer Creek & Bryson Paddock sites (Kay Co.)
• Early- to mid-1700s (with French trading connection)
– Spanish Fort (historic Wichita village, Jefferson Co.)
• Mid-1700s to early-1800s (site attacked by Spanish 1758)
• Removal Period 1820s-1850s
– Typically associated with one of the five Civilized
Tribes
– Location of site may depend on degree of blood
• Slave owner/plantation oriented versus non-slave owner
– Sites are generally located in eastern Oklahoma
Indian Territory, 1855-1866
Indian Territory, 1889
Northeastern Oklahoma Tribes
Historic Context: Pre-Statehood
Settlement Pattern
• Period 1889-1906
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–
–
–
Land Runs
Allotment
Lotteries
Sealed Bids
Land Grab: Anglo-American
Settlement Pattern
• Lands Opened by Runs
– Unassigned Lands - April 22, 1889
– Iowa, Sac & Fox, Pottawatomie & Shawnee September 22, 1891
– Cheyenne & Arapaho - April 19, 1892
– Cherokee Outlet - September 16, 1893
– Kickapoo - May 23, 1895
1889-1906 Land Openings
Settlement Pattern cont.
• Lands Opened by Allotment
– Tonkawa - 1891 (now Kay County)
– Pawnee - 1892 (now Pawnee County
– Ponca - 1904 (now Kay & Noble counties)
– Oto-Missouri - 1904 (now Noble County)
– Kaw-1906 (now Kay County)
– Osage - 1906 (now Osage County)
Allotments cont.
(Five Civilized Tribes)
•
•
•
•
•
Choctaws – 1897
Chickasaws – 1897
Seminoles – 1898
Creeks – 1901
Cherokees – 1902
– No surplus lands available for allotment
in eastern Indian Territory
– Land acquired through other means
Settlement Pattern cont.
• Lands Opened by Lottery
– Wichita & Caddo - July 9 to August 6, 1901
– Comanche, Kiowa and Apache - July 9 to
August 6, 1901
• Lands Opened by Sealed Bids
– Big Pasture - December 1906
Proposed State of Sequoyah, 1905
Determining site eligibility:
Considerations
• Complexity of site
– Single component versus multi-component
• Ethnicity
• Period(s) of occupation
– Pre-1890 versus post-1890*
*Post-1890s sites are more common due to
large migration into territory as result of
runs, lotteries, and purchases of allotments
Integrity and Significance:
Both factors in decision
• Integrity:
– Presence of features (foundation stones,
water well, depressions denoting
possible cellar or cistern, vegetative
plantings, etc.)
• Demonstrates farmstead layout (integrity)
Integrity and Significance cont.
Significance:
Demonstrating the property has significance
determined according to one or more of the
following:
–Criterion A
–Criterion B
–Criterion C
–Criterion D
Integrity and Significance cont.
• Criterion A: associated with events that have made a
significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history
– settlement of a community or important battle field site
• Criterion B: associated with the lives of persons
significant in our past
– George Guess (aka Geo. Guyst, Geo. Guist, Geo. Gist)
• Criterion C: embody distinctive characteristics of a type,
period, or method of construction, or represent a significant
and distinguishable entity whose components may lack
individual distinction
– brick kiln or charcoal production/operation facility
• Criterion D: may yield information important in history
or prehistory
– archeological sites
An Example
• Historic Context: Cherokee Settlement Pattern
– Camp Gruber: Native American Cherokee versus
Cherokee Freedman
• Defined by allotment records and archeological sites
Early Cherokee Settlement
Cherokee Nation 1889
Case Studies
• Nannie Sleeper allotment, site 34MS404
• John Benge allotment, site 34MS406
• Manard Baptist Church, cemetery & school
house, site 34MS407
• Sequoyah’s Cabin
• Eliza Bressman allotment, site 34PT141
Plan Map:
Site 34MS404
Nannie Sleeper
Allotment
34MS404
Builder’s
Trench
34MS404
ceramics
34MS404
ceramics
Settlement pattern 1896 GLO survey
Circa 1910 Cherokee Nation Township Map
Nannie Sleeper Allotment*
*although chain of title shown below states site area was
designated as homestead this is incorrect
Archival/ historical review
• According to 1898 GLO map (1896 field survey),
site 34MS404 is in a wooded tract, at fork in road
north of an orchard, with a house shown west of
orchard in Section 21, not Section 16 (area of site)
• No house is shown for site area on either 1898,
1901 or 1936 maps
• House in section south of 34MS404 is situated on
Lewis Sleeper’s allotment
• Artifact sample documents primarily 1830-50s
occupation, with hint of later wares
• Possible history of single Cherokee family use,
eventually conveyed to US. Govt. in 1937
Site 34MS404 eligibility cont.
• Nanny French (nee Sleeper) also known as Cricket
married Louis G. Sleeper (a Texas born white) in 1896
• They had a daughter named Nannie, born between 1900
& 1903, who died as a child in 1906
• Nannie’s allotment is first recorded for the record in
1909, a date after parents had inherited the property
• Homestead allotment (40 acres) was selected within
sections 6 and 11, not 16 where site 34MS404 is situated
• Pre-allotment Cherokee farmstead use of area supported
by evidence, whether by this family remains uncertain
Outcome of Review: Site
determined eligible by consensus
• Even though a clear association of site 34MS404
with the Sleeper family cannot be established,
location has the potential to provide information
concerning pre-allotment Cherokee farmsteads
• Site contains in situ features, important for
defining site lay out
• Artifacts support initial Cherokee settlement of
the area
John Benge
Allotment
Site 34MS406
Site 34MS406
Glasswares
Site 34MS406
Plan Map
Site 34MS406 Chain of Title
Archival/ historical research
• John Benge born circa 1889, resided with father Martin
V. Benge who lived in Township east of J. Benge’s
allotment (US Census 1900)
• Site 34MS406 on J. Benge 50 acre homestead allotment
• J. Benge’s homestead had all restrictions removed in
1921 when property conveyed to Adna Starr Benge,
relationship unknown but possibly wife of a brother
• According to 1920 Muskogee County Court records, J.
Benge resided with wife and family at Fort Lyon, CO
• Adna Benge a Fort Gibson subscription school teacher,
rented a home in Nash Township (US Census 1920), but
possibly not area of site 34MS406
Archival cont.
• In 1923, declaration of trust mentions “Benge
Farm”, but for Section 22, not location of site
• In 1927, after failure to pay mortgage, property
with site 34MS406 auctioned by mortgage
company for $50 to M. W. Drumheller, an out of
state owner (sale price suggests no home present)
• By 1937, after teaching for 42 years and as a
resident of Fort Gibson, Adna Benge retired
• In 1934 property conveyed to Herbert Kreider,
who in 1930 was listed as a white renter residing
in Nash Township (US Census 1930)
• In 1942 property purchased by declaration of
taking by the US Govt.
Summary of review
•
•
•
•
•
No building noted for area, 1896 GLO survey
Chain of title documents multiple owners
Archival data unclear as to date of initial residency
Artifact sample supports early-20th century occupancy
Occupants likely share croppers or renters, not initial
Cherokee allottee
• 1941 aerial photo (of poor resolution) appears to still
show two to four buildings in site area
Outcome of review: Site
determined not eligible
• Association of site 34MS406 with John Benge
may only be through receipt of a homestead
allotment for the tract, not actual occupation
• Adna Benge’s occupation of site 34MS406 also
not established, possible absentee owner only
• Sharecropper occupation also a possibility
• Artifact sample supports 20th Century occupation,
likely later Anglo owner use only
Manard Baptist
Church, cemetery &
school house, site
34MS407
Site 34MS407
Plan Map
Site 34MS407 Chain of Title
Outcome of review: Site
determined eligible by consensus
• Documented early church and school use
• Cemetery reflects settlement pattern
• Uncommon site for region, has information
potential for addressing post-allotment
Cherokee Nation sites other than farmsteads
Questioning documented “History”:
Examining the record
• An example:
– Sequoyah’s cabin site, Oklahoma
Historical Society property
– Listed on the National Register of
Historic Places as a National Historic
Landmark (NHL)
Assessment
• Site is already listed on the National Register of
Historic Places, assessment already determined
• There is however the question, is this the actual
location of Sequoyah’s home?
• Was the house moved in from somewhere else in
1936?
• Should be verifiable by conducting an
archeological survey of the entire OHS tract
USGS Brushy, Okla. Quadrangle 1973
Government Land Office Survey 1896-1897
(GLO 1898) Section 15, T12N, R25E
Sequoyah cabin versus
Geo. Blair cabin
• Relationship of George Blair farmstead to
Sequoyah’s cabin
• Sequoyah’s cabin site, Oklahoma Historical
Society property as of 1936
• Protective stone covering constructed by WPA in
1936-39 for “Sequoyah home shrine”
• Blair Cabin last occupied in 1960
• Tract with George Blair’s cabin, later purchased
and added to OHS property sometime after 1987
Grant Foreman Report to OHS Board
• March 1936 OHS Board minutes:
– “During the lifetime of Mr. Thomas Blair I
(Grant Foreman) secured a picture of the
home of Sequoyah purchased by Mr. Blair’s
father from Sequoyah’s widow, together with a
statement and affidavit by Mr. Blair as to the
facts establishing this home as Sequoyah’s
home.”
Background
• Geo. Blair born December 16, 1866,
somewhere in the Flint District, Cherokee
Nation
– appears in the 1880 Cherokee census, age 13, while
living in the Sequoyah District (now Sequoyah Co.,
Okla.)
– appears in the 1900 Federal census as a farmer in
the Cherokee Nation, I.T.
– died 1910, buried in Blair Cemetery across road
from cabin site
– allotment stayed in family until property acquired
by Oklahoma Historical Society
Background cont.
Sequoyah born cir 1770 in Tennessee
– 1823 living among the Western Cherokees in
Arkansas Territory (western Arkansas)
– established salt works & blacksmith shop;
resumed trading in the Sequoyah District, cir
1828
– died somewhere in Mexican Territory in 1843
(either northern Mexico or south Texas)
Blair Cabin
Chimney details
Detail of log notching pen 1
Detail of log notching pen 2
What would distinguish one site from
another?
• Artifacts should be reflective of specific activities:
– Sequoyah noted as having a drinking problem
• Compare quantity/distribution of alcohol related artifacts
between sites
– Documented excellent silver smith and iron worker
• Should be indications of these activities at the site
– Including possible forge remains and blacksmith related
debris
– Inventor of the Cherokee alphabet
• Possibility of lead type with Cherokee letters even though
no history of printing press on site
Assessing National Register of Historic
Places eligibility cont.
• Potawatomi settlement pattern
– Eliza Bressman farmstead (34PT141)
Potawatomi Nation
Work in progress 34PT141, Feature 34
Feature 34 cistern upper limits
Feature 34 cistern lower limits
Outcome of review: Site
determined not eligible
• Occupation of site associated with a single family
(mother passed down to daughter), however, late
Potawatomi allotment use with tribal member (as
well as family) not noted significant in history
• Determined not out of the ordinary farmstead site
for the watershed, nor for the county
• Site occupied from 1896 up to 1948, artifact
sample mainly associated with mid-20th Century
occupancy, not initial 1890s use
Where do we need to go next?
• Consider under-represented contexts
– (both chronological and ethnic)
• Very little work has been conducted on
pre-reservation era Historic Period sites
in Oklahoma
– Suggestions for consideration:
» Osage settlements along Grand River &
Three Forks area
» Wichita villages, Devil’s Canyon region
Where do we need to go cont.
• Also few investigations relating to
Native American, post- reservation era
homesteads
– Suggestions for consideration:
» Seminole farmsteads (both pre and postallotment times)
» Apache prisoner of war sites at Fort Sill
• Point of fact: Almost no work has
been conducted on post-1889 age
homesteads regardless of region or
ethnicity
Additional information concerning the evaluation of
Historic Period archeological sites can be found at:
• State Historic Preservation Office’s web site, Fact
Sheet #12: “Evaluating Historic Period
Archeological Sties for the National Register under
Section 106 with Particular Reference to Sites
Dating after 1890”
Questions?
If not, thank you