Background
Redbird Smith was born on July 19, 1850 near the current city of Fort Smith, Arkansas. His father was Pig Redbird Smith, whose surname "Smith" was given to him by European-Americans since his worked as a blacksmith.
Redbird Smith was born on July 19, 1850 near the current city of Fort Smith, Arkansas. His father was Pig Redbird Smith, whose surname "Smith" was given to him by European-Americans since his worked as a blacksmith.
He helped found the Nighthawk Keetoowah Society, who revitalized traditional spirituality among Cherokees from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. Redbird Smith"s mother was Lizzie Hildebrand Smith. The late 19th century the Dawes Commission sought to break up collective tribal land holdings into individual allotments and open up the "surplus" tribal lands to settlement by non-natives.
Redbird Smith led a political resistance movement to the Dawes Allotment Acting and sought to return to traditional Cherokee religion and values.
In 1887 and 1889, Redbird Smith served as a tribal councilor from the Illinois District of the Cherokee Nation. Redbird Smith stated in the early 1900s:
Redbird Smith repatriated wampum belts belonging to his tribe.
In 1910 he was selected as chief of the Nighthawk Keetoowahs. Previously he had served as their chairman.
Also in 1910, Smith and fellow Nighthawks traveled to Mexico with an 1820 document supporting Cherokee lands claims but the Mexican government did not support their claims.
In 1914, he petitioned President Woodrow Wilson to create a Keetoowah reservation but this was seen as a backward step in the United States federal government"s assimilation policy. In 1921, a hundred Cherokees from 35 families moved together to the southeastern corner of Cherokee County, Oklahoma, to create a traditional community — "the brainchild of Redbird Smith."
Redbird Smith married Lucy Fields Smith, born in Braggs, Indian Territory in 1852. She was the daughter Richard Fields and Eliza Brewer Fields.
Redbird Smith is the great-grandfather of former Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation Chad Smith.
After falling ill for 48 hours, Redbird Smith died on November 8, 1918. He is buried in the Redbird Smith Cemetery in Sequoyah County, Oklahoma.
He served as chief of the Nighthawk Keetoowahs until his death and was succeeded by Levi Gritts. The Redbirth Smith ground is an active ceremonial ground in Redbird Smith, Oklahoma, Sequoyah county, near Vian, where Smith"s July 19th birthday is celebrated annually.