by Carol Mowdy Bond
Internationally famous for his short stories and many other works, including “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820), writer, novelist, and diplomat Washington Irving (1783–1859) trekked through Indian Territory in 1832 and made a lasting impact. His name marks a hefty list of Oklahoma locations, including schools, parks, and historical markers, especially in eastern and central Oklahoma.
Irving’s life was interwoven with the infancy of the American republic. His parents named him after George Washington, and Irving was born in New York City five years prior to the 1788 ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Irving began to write in his late teens, and he became America’s first literary superstar. He spent much of his life in Europe, and he was one of the first American authors whom Europeans accepted.
Creating Indian Territory
Irving also set out into the American West, recording his observations. He was vocal about European and American mishandling of Native Americans. The goal of separating Indian tribes from white settlers was integrated into America’s British colonial period. The United States began to relocate eastern tribes by about 1800. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase became a reality, with most of the future Oklahoma as part of the purchase. Jefferson considered relocating Indian tribes into what was then called Louisiana Territory because of many issues.
So a place in the West where the federal government could colonize uprooted Indians became a reality. Under President Andrew Jackson, the Indian Removal Act of 1830 contained the first authorization for creating a western Indian country. Jackson immediately began to move tribes into the area, soon known as Indian Territory, which eventually was whittled down to the boundaries of the future Oklahoma.
Returning to America
While these Native American policies were taking shape, Irving, 49 years old, returned from a 17-year stay in Europe. Onboard ship in 1832, he met English explorer and naturalist Charles J. La Trobe (or Latrobe) and 19-year-old Swiss Count Albert-Alexandre de Pourtalès. La Trobe was the count’s tutor.
The three met Indian Commissioner Henry Ellsworth, a Connecticut judge, who was part of Jackson’s Indian-removal team. Ellsworth was embarking on an expedition into the newly created Indian Territory to bring about peace with the sometimes hostile Plains tribes, who had already been using the area. He planned to scout lands where the federal government could resettle other Indian nations. Ellsworth invited Irving, La Trobe, and Pourtalès to join his military expedition into the heart of Indian Territory, and they agreed.
A government liaison to American Indian nations, Colonel Auguste Pierre Chouteau (1786–1838), was one of the expedition’s chaperones. Chouteau lived in a plantation-style home near Salina, considered the first white settlement in the future Oklahoma. He also operated the Three Forks trading post at the confluence of the Verdigris, Grand, and Arkansas rivers.
Irving met U.S. Army Colonel Matthew Arbuckle and former Tennessee Governor Sam Houston (of later Texas fame). Houston was a trader at Three Forks. Arbuckle had established Fort Gibson in 1824 to facilitate U.S. policies to expand westward and to remove Indians from the East. Fort Gibson was the army’s westernmost outpost at the time.
Journeying into the West
Irving, Ellsworth, La Trobe, Pourtalès, and others in the expedition left Fort Gibson in October 1832. They journeyed through unknown lands west of the fort to the future sites of Tulsa, Stillwater, Ripley, Oklahoma City, Guthrie, and Norman. They traveled in the territory for 20 days into November and then returned to Fort Gibson.
La Trobe shared his findings from the expedition in his 1835 book, The Rambler in North America: 1832–1833.
Irving made copious notes about the area, including the presence of black bears and elk and the native tribes and their cultures. He transformed his journal into his 1835 book A Tour on the Prairies, leaving a very early record of the future Oklahoma.
In Chapter 25, “Ringing the Wild Horse,” Irving wrote about his experiences catching and taming wild horses in the Arcadia area:
“As we cast our eyes over this fresh and delightful valley, we beheld a troop of wild horses, quietly grazing on a green lawn, about a mile distant to our right, while to our left … were several buffaloes; some feeding, others reposing and ruminating among the high rich herbage, under the shade of a clump of cottonwood trees…. It was determined to … try our hand at the grand hunting manoeuvre, which is called ringing the wild horse. This requires a large party of horsemen, well mounted. They extend themselves in each direction, singly, at certain distances apart, and gradually form a ring of two or three miles in circumference, so as to surround the game. This has to be done with extreme care, for the wild horse is the most readily alarmed inhabitant of the prairie, and can scent a hunter at a great distance, if to windward.
“The ring being formed, two or three ride toward the horses, who start off in an opposite direction. Whenever they approach the bounds of the ring, however, a huntsman presents himself and turns them from their course … they are … kept galloping round and round this magic circle, until, being completely tired down, it is easy for the hunters to ride beside them, and throw the lariat over their heads. The prime horses of most speed, courage, and bottom, however, are apt to break through and escape, so that, in general, it is the second-rate horses that are taken.”
Irving was surprised at how quickly the captured horses became “quite docile.”
Ringing the wild horses was only one of the memorable incidents that impressed Irving during his tour on the prairies — and his book still impresses readers almost 200 years later.
