Gifted ideas
come from
By Loula Dickerson Arnold
I
5>
Z9
ORBIT MAGAZINE MAY 1, 1977
A Creek Indian’s
Capital Punishment
3.V- for
Mother's Day
and
every occasion
Call your
Orbit
Representative
232-331 b
Ext. 355
today
FREE Color Brochure! Write:
Jim Waff crfyvn&i
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA. 73109
6600 S. Shields • Highway 71
P.O. Bax 94357 • Phom 634-6373
and execution, Timmie Jack was
as free as any other American In-
dian.
He went about hunting and fish-
ing on the Deep Fork River. He
planted his fields, visited his
neighbors and lived a life as nor-
mally as possible.
Then, when the dogwood burst
forth in full bloom and the redbud
yielded to April showers, Timmie
Jack knew it was time to make
final arrangements for his long
journey to the Happy Hunting
Grounds. He ordered his coffin.
The cross-breed acknowledged
his wrong and was ready for re-
pentance. He knew he had commit-
ted the one crime the Creek code
could neither condone nor excuse
— that of killing another Indian in
cold blood while in a drunken
brawl.
He hadn’t intended to kill his
best friend, but Timmie Jack was
drunk with “firewater” being ille-
gally sold during that period. It
was New Year’s Day and all the
tribes were deep in celebration.
Usually a mild-mannered man,
but peevish while drinking, Tim-
mie Jack became enraged at
James Brown and fatally wounded
his friend.
This was the crime considered
to be the capital one of all by the
Creeks, and the criminal was to be
punished by death with a rifle.
For lesser crimes such as thiev-
ery, perjury and such, punishment
was administered by the whip, 50
lashes for the first conviction and
100 for the second. Even the most
robust fainted and fell to the
ground from the severity and pain
of this punishment.
A criminal convicted of a third
offense was termed habitual, and
was punished by what was known
as the “Winchester route.” For his
capital crime, that was to be the
fate of Timmie Jack.
Unlike criminal procedure of
the white man, behavior codes and
jurisprudence were simple and
direct for the Creek. A man was
told to show up at his own execu-
tion, and even a convicted man’s
word was as good as gold nuggets.
No paste or powder
holds dentures
comfortably
tight for weeks
like Snug Denture Cushions
Not a paste! Not a powder! Not a cream
or wax pad! But amazing soft plastic
adhesive cushions that hold loose, wob-
bly dentures comfortably tight and firm.
Snugs Brand Denture Cushions are the
long-lasting, clean way to hold loose
dentures tight. Snug lasts for weeks.. .
does away with bothersome mess of
daily “fixing.” Snug Cushions are easy
to shape and fit.. . stick to your plate
not to your gums. Easy to clean or re-
move .. . won’t wash off and can’t flake
away. Get Snug Denture Cushions to
hold your dentures tight for weeks.. .
in comfort. At all drug counters._______
/ 1
— ”
A granite marker stands in the yard of
the Old Council House in Okmulgee, on
the exact spot where Timmie Jack was
executed.
BUILD NOW
ON YOUR PROPERTY
INSTANT \f
MORTGAGE FINANCING!
it
■ V
[mt-” T i
X ’-t y’JSE-,
r«tK*T5?r« W
/ -Si
As was expected of him, Timmie
Jack showed up, arriving early
and passing the day with leisurely
and stoic dignity.
Then, just before the sun be-
came too low on the western hori-
zon to make the light too dim for
straight shooting, Timmie Jack,
with a piece of white cloth pinned
directly over his heart, calmly sat
down upon a box and leaned his
back against an elm tree on the
Council House grounds.
Facing him with the rifle was
Pleasant L. “Duke” Berryhill, a
member of the police-like Light
Horsemen who had been asked by
Jack to be his executioner.
Two other Light Horsemen, Hul-
ly Micco and Levi Mitchell, stood
nearby as witnesses.
Looking his executioner straight
in the eye, Timmie Jack asked him
to fire.
The rifle exploded and the con-
demned man was on his way to
eternity.
Only one shot was fired, but it
did not directly pierce the heart.
In 10 minutes, Timmie Jack was
pronounced dead.
His body was washed and
dressed, then delivered to Timmie
Jack's widow for tribal Indian bur-
ial, closing forever a chapter in
the long history of this tribe.
Today, this passing event is
observed by hundreds of tourists
annually, who snap pictures of the
granite marker erected in memory
of the man and a passing way of
life. ■
It was both a sad and festive
occasion, for on that May day in
1896, Timmie Jack was to die.
Four months after the murder
of his best friend in a drunken
brawl, he had arrived early for
this day of his execution. Okmul-
gee was already packed with
Creek Indians, and many had
come both to say goodby and to
witness the execution.
Unshackled by anything except
a rigid Creek code of honor, Tim-
mie Jack spent the day shaking
hands and visiting with old
friends. He talked politely with
strangers who had ridden their
ponies from throughout the Creek
Nation, and later he visited the
blacksmith and carpentry shop of
Silas Smith.
Smith had prepared Timmie
Jack’s coffin several weeks in
advance, and now the condemned
man had a hankering to try it out
for size. Smith protested, but
Timmie Jack crawled in and
stretched out.
“You did a good job," he com-
mented while crawling out. "It fits
and there is plenty of room.”
In only hours, the saga of Tim-
mie Jack would end in that same
coffin, and with it would go a way
of life and justice not seen in Okla-
homa since.
It is to Timmie Jack’s credit
that his example exalted the
Creek tribe’s code of ethics and
his own honor, for his death on the
old Council House grounds at
Okmulgee on May 1, 1896, was to
be the last public execution in In-
dian Territory under tribal law.
Henceforth, red men, like white
men and blacks, would be led from
prison cells to meet death from a
noose or the searing voltage of
electrical current.
But before the turn of the centu-
ry, there were no jails for Creeks,
and while their own brand of jus-
tice was often swift and harsh, a
man faced his trial without prior
incarceration, bound by his per-
sonal honor to show up.
Thus it was that for four
months, from Jan. 1 until May 1,
the' time of his trial, conviction