Los Angeles herald., 1909-03-28
INDIANS AT WAR
KILL TWO MEN
REDSKINS RESIST EFFORT TO
ARREST CHIEF
STATE TROOPS OF OKLAHOMA
ARE CALLED OUT
Posse of Officers and Twenty Greeks
Engage in Pitched Battle,
the Indians Firing
First
tBy Associated Press. ]


telephone request OF Sheriff Odom OF
Mcintosh, Governor Haskell directed
Adjutant General Canton to assume
charge of the situation and order the
necessary militia to the scene of to-
nights battle at Hickory Ground be
tween officers and Creek Indians.
The Chandler company has been or
dered to hold itself in readiness to pro-
coed at an instant's notice.
OKLAHOMA CITY, March 27.-ln q
pitched battle at Hickory Ground at b
o'clock this evening between posse
of five officers and twenty Greek IN
dams of the Snake reservations, Ed
ward Baum of Checotah and Herman
Odom of Checotah were Killed.
Frank Jones and William Carr, other
members of the posse, escaped without
injury and fled to the settlements,
where the news of the battle was tele-
phoned to Sheriff Odom of Mcintosh
county.
Frank Swift, member of the posse
of officers sent to the home of Chitti
Harjo, chief Of the Snake clan of the
Creek Indians, to serve a warrant on
the chief, was probably fatally
wounded.
Herman Odom, son of the sheriff of
Mcintosh county, and Edward Baum,
city marshal of Checotah, were killed
outright. Swift dragged himself from
the scene OF the battle and was later
picked up by William Carr, one of the
escaping officers, and taken to Pierce.
station one mile away.
Frank Jones, another of the posse
who escaped, boarded train at Pierce
and went to Checotah early in the
evening bearing some details of the
! battle.
officers having heard that the In
dams and negroes were again peace
able after the trouble Thursday morn
ing, approached the cabin of Harjo
near Hickory Ground without fear of
trouble. AS they were in the act of
entering the chiefs yard twenty guns
were leveled upon them from Win
dows in the houses and around the
corners.
Odom and Baum fell dead, and
Swift was seriously wounded. Jones
ran a few yards and hid himself in
a clump of trees until the Indians
disappeared. Then he returned to the
bodies of his comrades. Finding them
dead, he returned to Pierce
Hundreds Arm Themselves
Within thirty minutes after the re-
port of the battle reached Checotah a
hundred men were armed. Every
available gun and practically all the
| ammunition in town were taken.
toward Hickory Ground. When the
news reached Muskogee officers i'm
mediately issued a call for men, and
a short time later a posse of fifty was
ready to march.
| From Henrietta and Weleetko men
will also go tonight to Pierce, the
place selected for mobilization. AT II
o'clock tonight Adjutant General Frank
Canton of the Oklahoma National
/ Herman
| Chandler to Immediately call four
companies of the state guard for mo-
bilization.
Companies at Oklahoma City, Chan
der, Muskogee and Durant probably
will depart for Henrietta tonight.
A dispatch from Checotah says the
Snake Indians have been purchasing
rifles and ammunition there for a
month and that they are supplied with
powder and lead enough to last for two
days.
Harjo, who has so often within the
! last two years expressed his displeas-
ure at the restraint of law and who
has often called his men into council
for threatening officers of the law. is
/ believed to have determined to make
final stand in behalf of his ideas of
liberty. His band have been outlaws
for years. 1t required the services
of United States officers and the
threat to call for the state militia to
quell his band last fall during a session
of the council at Hickory Ground.
When Sheriff Odom received from
the district clerk at Eufala today the
warrant for the arrest of Harjo the
clerk admonished him that he would
have trouble.
1.-The negroes are cowards." said
| Odom, land there is no danger"
Officers from Henrietta visited Hick-
DRY Ground today and found it prac-
| tically deserted. They returned late
this afternoon and reported that four
negroes killed in the fight Of Thursday
morning were buried today.