Biography of Frank J. Boudinot

(See Watie, Grant and Ross)-Frank Josiah, son of William Penn and Caroline (Fields) Boudinot, was born August 20, 1866, in the Cherokee Nation. Educated in Bacone College or Indian University (near Muskogee), Flint High School (Michigan) and University of Michigan. He took a course in law at the University of Michigan in 1894-5-6. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias fraternity. His Cherokee name is Kaw-la-nah (Raven) and he belongs to the Cherokee Holly clan. He has been the attorney, counselor and adviser of the Kee-too-wah Society of Cherokees since 1899 and was elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation by a Joint session of the National Council on November 21, 1895. He was one of Chief Bushyhead’s Executive Secretaries in 1887, clerk of the Cherokee Supreme Court 1887-89 and was one of the attorneys for the Cherokee Nation before the Dawes Commission in 1896.

Under his advice and direction the Eastern Cherokees were organized in 1900 by the Keetoowah Society, which resulted ultimately in the collection of the five million dollar Emigrant Cherokee claim—paid in 1910. Was by act of Congress, Mar. 3, 1919, made special attorney for the Cherokee Nation to prosecute a claim against the United States for interest on the funds which arose out of the judgment in the Emigrant case, the amount claimed being about four million dollars.

He married at Fort Gibson, July 23, 1897, Annie Stapler, daughter of Judge Henry Clay and Josephine (Bigelow) Meigs and great-great grand daughter of Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs, personal friend and aide to General George Washington; she is also a greatgrand daughter of Chief John Ross. They are the parents of: Frank Josiah, Jr., born January 16, 1899 (2nd. Lieutenant Air Service Aeronautics in the World War) and Henry Meigs Boudinot, born July 27, 1907.

Gul-la-gee-nah (Buck Deer), son of Oo-wa-tie, was born in the old Cherokee Nation in Georgia in 1802. Out of gratitude for favors he adopted the name of his benefactor, Elias Boudinot.

Having received a splendid classical education he devoted his entire life and energies for the Cherokees and at his death on June 21, 1839, he was a poor man, regardless of the fact that at that time he was one of the best known, ablest and greatest citizens the Cherokee Nation had.


Surnames:
Boudinot,

Collection:
Starr, Emmett. History of the Cherokee Indians and Their Legends and Folk Lore. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: The Warden Company. 1921

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