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Show OKLAHOMA. 199 fought well. In this manner they have also adopted the remnants of the Uchees, Natehees, and Hitchitees; and these, with the Alabamas, still have separate towns and distinct languages in the Creek Nation. They continued eastward, and after a long and bloody war with the Cherokees, in which neither nation could conquer the other, made a peace which has never been broken, and turned southward. In the war of 1812. a portion of the tribe who joined the British were driven into exile, taking the name of Seminoles ( Say- me- no- lays), meaning " outcasts." These, joined with fugitive slaves from Geor-gia and the Carolinas, became a separate nation, and long maintained a desperate war with the whites amid the swamps and glades of Florida. Both nations, after years of trouble and broken treaties, with many transactions which reflect no credit upon the United States officials, were finally sent to this country during the administrations of John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, and Martin Van Buren. The government of the Creek Nation is republican in form ; the en-tire " constitution" and laws are printed in a small pamphlet of less than twenty pages. The law- making power is vested in a House of Kings and a House of Warriors; the members of each are elected for four years, by general vote of all the male Creeks over eighteen years of age. Each of the forty towns sends one member to the House of Kings; to the House of Warriors one, and an additional member for each two hundred citizens. The Kings elect their own President, the Warriors their own Speaker- in- Council ; each house elects its own interpreter, and all speeches made in English are forth-with rendered aloud into Creek, and vice versa. The records are kept in English. The Executive of the Nation is styled the Principal Chief, his Vice the Second Chief; they also are elected for four years each, and thus the entire Government is liable to a complete change at each election. The Judiciary begins with the High Court, which consists of five persons, chosen by the Council for four years. They have original jurisdiction in all cases involving over one hundred dollars, and ap-pellate jurisdiction from lower courts in criminal matters. The Na-tion is divided into six districts, in each of which a judge is elected by the qualified voters; he has jurisdiction of all cases involving sums under one hundred dollars, and local' criminal jurisdiction. Of course, with such a brief and simple criminal code, there is much left to the discretion of the judge, and, as far as a white man can see, he seems to have almost absolute power. The death penalty is often in-flicted. Each district elects a " light horse company," consisting of |
