Notable People in Ottawa Tribal History
Aunt Jane King Phelps
(Chequah Watbee)
(1766-1886)
Aunt Jane King Phelps (Chequah Watbee), was reportedly born on January 6, 1766.
A renowned medicine woman and midwife who passed down traditional stories of the Ottawa, Jane King was the sister of Lewis King (Chief Joseph Badger King’s father), mother-in-law to Chief James Wind, and great-grandmother to Chief Guy Jennison. Jane’s husband, Wabee or Kinewaba, was a grand-nephew of Chief Pontiac and the eighth Ottawa signatory to the Treaty at the Foot of the Rapids of 1817.
The picture on the right is said to have been taken in 1882, when she was 116 years old. Here is a photo of her said to have been taken a few years before that, on the back of which lists her as 110 years old. According to multiple accounts written toward the end of her life, Jane King had attained the age of 120 years old at the time of her death in 1886. She is buried in the Ottawa Indian Cemetery.
During her later years, Jane King’s birthday was celebrated widely by the local community, and at her 115th birthday, she is said to have demonstrated to the attendees how the Ottawas danced over a century before. You can read an interesting local article written about her here.
John Wilson
(Pah-Tee)
(1813-1870)
In 1862, a treaty planned to distribute and open to purchase by white settlers the Ottawa lands in Kansas after five years. When he became chief in 1865, John Wilson concluded that many Ottawas were likely to end up landless and penniless due to the treaty. To prevent this, Wilson negotiated with the Shawnees for the purchase of 14,863 acres of their reservation in Indian Territory for the Ottawas.
An 1867 treaty between multiple tribes and the federal government confirmed this purchase; however, Chief Wilson would never get to live in the new Ottawa homeland he established. Wilson died unexpectedly on April 9, 1870 while en route from Franklin County, Kansas to Indian Territory. His family carried his body to the new reservation, and he was the first to be interred in what thereafter became the Ottawa Indian Cemetery. Here is an image of his tombstone, and you can read his obituary from an Ottawa, Kansas newspaper here. In this image, Wilson appears to carry a beaded bandolier bag featuring a floral design, something he might well have owned.
Francis (Frank) King
(1827-1880)
Francis King was a Chippewa Indian who joined the Ottawas at their early settlement in Indian Territory in 1868, and he was formally adopted by the tribe. Francis served on the tribal council and also worked as superintendent of the Ottawa Mission School. A carpenter and inventor, Francis submitted a patent for a steam plow in 1880, likely making him one of the first Indians to ever receive a patent. He passed away August 27, 1880.
Francis’ son, Mitchell King, married Lizzie Lavore Wolfe, and they became the grandparents of Chief Clarence King.
Francis’ daughter, Matilda King, married Joseph Wind, who was the brother of Catherine Wind Jennison and the son of Chief James Wind and Sally Wabee Phelps Wind. Sally was the daughter of medicine woman Jane King.
Thus, through marriage or blood, Francis King and his children link the Wind/Jennison family, King family, and other King family all together—probably many others too!
John Earley
(Wash-kos)
(18?-1907)
Born in Ohio, John W. Earley removed with the Ottawas to Kansas when he was around five years old. On September 5, 1863, Earley enlisted as a sergeant in the Union 16th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, and he participated in Union operations against the Missouri Expedition of Confederate Major General Sterling Price in 1864.
Earley was elected chief in 1881, and in 1890, he became judge of the court of Indian affairs for the Quapaw Indian Agency; he stayed active in tribal affairs until his death in 1907.
The image to the right shows Earley in his uniform. Here is an image of a muster roll of the Sixteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry (arrow pointing to Earley).
William Hurr
(Naw-swa-ke-shick)
(1830?-1907)
William Hurr (Naw-swa-ke-shick) had a remarkable life and career.
Born in the tribal homeland along the Maumee River in Ohio, Hurr made the removal journey to Kansas as a small child. As an adult, he served the Ottawa Tribe as a tribal councilman, a signatory for the Ottawa Treaty of 1862, one of the original trustees of Ottawa University, and as interpreter for the negotiations for the treaty of 1867.
Hurr was baptized at the Ottawa Indian Mission in Kansas by missionary Jotham Meeker in 1845, and following removal to Indian Territory, Hurr became an ordained Baptist minister. He preached at the Ottawa Indian Baptist Church adjacent to the cemetery and later became a missionary at the Sac & Fox Agency. He died in May 1907.
Apparently, photographers found Hurr particularly photogenic as more pictures of him seem to survive than for any other Ottawa of the late nineteenth century. You can see some of these photos here, here, here, and here.
Issac McCoy
(1840-?)
Isaac McCoy was born around 1840 on the Ottawa reservation in Kansas and was of Ottawa and Lenape (Munsee) parentage. As noted by him in a transcribed letter, he took his name from the famous white missionary of the same name. After a Confederate raid passed near the Ottawa reservation in 1863, he joined the Union army as a member of the 16th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry.
Following removal to Indian Territory in the late 1860s, McCoy joined the large number of other Ottawas who periodically took up residence at the Sac and Fox reservation. There, McCoy worked as a Baptist missionary. In that capacity, he helped convert Chief Keokuk of the Sac and Fox Tribe. On November 1st, 1874, McCoy married Mary Thorpe of the Sac and Fox Tribe, and together they had four children.
Despite living away from the Ottawa reservation for long stretches, McCoy kept up regular correspondence regarding events and journeyed back home to participate in tribal decisions and periodically preach at the Ottawa Indian Baptist Church on the Ottawa reserve.
If you were to search online for him, you would be most likely to find this photo of McCoy, seated and holding a tomahawk beside his wife and son. That photo might not be all that it appears at first glance, and as noted in this letter, he used it as part of his missionizing efforts.
Catherine Wind Jennison
(1855-1917)
The granddaughter of medicine woman Jane King Phelps, daughter of Chief James Wind, and mother of Chief Guy Jennison, Catherine Wind Jennison stood at the intersection of multiple generations of tribal leaders.
A mother of fourteen children, all delivered without the aid of a doctor, Catherine Jennison was married twice. By her first husband, Wolford Robitallie, she had four children, and following his death, Catherine married Walter “Watt” Jennison, a white man and Union veteran by whom she had ten children, including Chief Guy Jennison. Here is a picture of Catherine with her parents.
Catherine Jennison helped secure funds for the metal arch gateway installed at the southern entrance of the cemetery in 1905. She held ice cream socials and other events to raise the money for the arch, which proudly proclaims the site as the “Ottawa Indian Cemetery.”
Joseph Holmes
(Wa-zh-no-wa-to)
(1855-1931)
Born in Kansas in 1855, Joseph Holmes “Wa-zh-no-wa-to” (Big Ears), was orphaned at a young age and his mother’s sister raised him. He made the journey to Indian Territory in 1869 alongside his aunt's family (the Gebau family), and drove one of their two wagons filled with furniture, stoves, and other provisions.
In addition to his time as Chief (c.1892-1895), he was active in tribal affairs and could speak the Ottawa language as well as English. He lived on his allotment and served on the tribal council at his death in November 1931.
Manford B. Pooler
(1862-1930)
Considered one of the founding fathers of Miami, OK, Manford Pooler helped authorize the 1891 sale of 588 acres of the Ottawa reservation that led to the establishment of the town. Manford was the son of Chief Moses Pooler and worked as a local postmaster, justice of the peace, and in the early 1900s, conducted a barber shop in Miami. Chief Manford B. Pooler passed away June 13, 1930.
Lizzie Lavore Wolfe
(1863-1931)
Lizzie Lavore Wolfe was born in Kansas in 1863, and her family was one of the last to make the journey to Indian Territory, arriving at the new Ottawa reservation on October 15, 1870.
Capable of speaking and reading the Ottawa language, Wolfe taught it to her grandson, Clarence King, and by the time he became chief in the 1960s, Clarence King was one of the last conversant speakers among the Oklahoma Ottawas.
In 1916, Lizzie Wolfe composed a lengthy letter that laid out a partial history of the Ottawa Indian Baptist Church and the Ottawa Tribe. Discovered in a trunk after her death, this hand-written letter was typed up and preserved by her son Walter King, grandson Clarence King, and tribal member Norman Holmes.
Here is another image of Lizzie Wolfe.
The 1910 image is of Walter King, his wife Louise Holmes King, and their two boys at their new home. The little boy standing is Walter H. King, and the boy in the wagon is Clarence King, who went on to serve as Ottawa Chief from 1962-1972.
Walter King Sr.
(1881-1964)
The son of Lizzie Wolfe and father of Chief Clarence King, Walter King, Sr. was described as one who “rambled around” and “traveled and tramped extensively in his search for history of his tribe,” Walter King augmented Ottawa oral traditions with his own research and traveled from California to Canada and Kansas to Michigan, visiting Oklahoma Ottawas scattered across the nation, consulting archival materials, meeting with members of other Ottawa communities, and everywhere talking with “old people…that knew our ways.” In addition to forging tribal connections, Walter established relationships with academics interested in Ottawa history. In the 1950s, Walter published some of his research in the journal “Northwest Ohio Quarterly,” including an article on the meaning of the name Pontiac drawn from his knowledge of Anishinaabemowin and a Nanabozho story told to him by his great-grandmother Eliza Wolf when he was a child. Through his writings, Walter recorded many memories, traditions, and historical episodes that would otherwise have been lost.
You can read Walter King’s article on the meaning of the name Pontiac here. His speech at the dedication of a bust to Pontiac at the American Indian Hall of Fame in Anadarko is included here.
Chief Clarence King
(1909-1972)
Clarence King (Ottawa Chief 1959-1972) was largely raised by his father’s mother, Lizzie Lavore Wolfe, and she taught him the customs and traditions of the Ottawas.
By the 1960s, King was one of the few members of the Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma still able to speak the language, and during his time as chief, he helped spearhead efforts to revitalize Ottawa culture and language.
A relative of his related a few of her childhood memories of him from the 1950s: “He had a dog named Biscuit, & he only spoke the Ottawa language to her. The first I was around Biscuit I spoke to her & she didn’t respond like dogs usually do, but she just sat & looked at me. I was told she didn’t “speak” English, but only understood Ottawa. When Clarence was there she was very responsive & animated. He‘d talk to her & she did tricks he’d taught her. It was so funny to watch them. We decided only Clarence would think to teach a dog to speak only Ottawa.”
Clarence King passed away in 1972.
Lewis Barlow
(Ani-me-kee)
(1905-1996)
Lewis Barlow (Ani-me-kee) was born on March 9, 1905.
A grandson of Joseph Badger King, Lewis Barlow was elected chief following the death of Chief Clarence King in 1972.
During his tenure as chief (c.1972-1990), a new seal and flag were developed, the tribe regained federal recognition (1978), and the Adawe Park powwow grounds opened (1986). The book “The Ottawa People,” for which tribal members contributed much of the research, was published in 1976, with each of the thousands of books published personally autographed by Barlow.
This page is incomplete.
Check back later for more interesting Ottawa history!
Rhonda Hayworth
Library/Archives, Higher Ed., Tribal Historic Preservation
Office: 918-542-5191
E-mail: rhonda.oto@gmail.com
Additional page contributions courtesy of Ottawa Tribal Member David Dry, PhD.