George W. Harkins

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Main article: Choctaw

George W. Harkins (1810 - 1890) was a prominent chief of the Choctaw tribe during the Indian removals.[1]

Harkins served as Chief of the Apukshunnubbee District of the Choctaw Nation from 1850-1857, and was the nephew of renowned Choctaw chief Greenwood Leflore.[2] In October of 1830, George W. defeated his uncle, Greenwood LeFlore, in the election for Chief, but President Jackson refused to recognize Harkins’s authority so that removal could proceed.[3] His 1832 "Farewell Letter to the American People" denouncing the removal of the Choctaws was widely published, and is still widely regarded as one of the most important documents of Native American history.[4] Harkins was educated at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, and received a law degree from Cumberland University. In 1834, he was judge of the Red River District and in 1856 chief of Apuckshunnubbee District in the Choctaw Nation west. After the division of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, he lived in the Chickasaw Nation. A well-known speaker, he was called the “Rawhide Orator.”[2]


[edit] See Also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Oklahoma Historical Society, Archives Division, Choctaw—Principal Chief, No. 19457
  2. ^ a b Leaders and Leading Men of the Indian Territory (Chicago: American Publishers’ Association, 1891).
  3. ^ The Choctaw of Oklahoma (Durant, OK: Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, 2003).
  4. ^ "Farewell Letter to the American People," 1832. The American Indian, December 1926. Reprinted in Great Documents in American Indian History, edited by Wayne Moquin with Charles Van Doren. New York: DaCapo Press. 1995; 151.
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