Pleasant Porter
Pleasant Porter (1840-1907), was a respected American Indian statesman and the Principal Chief of the Creek Nation from 1899 until his death. He served with the Confederacy in the 1st Creek Mounted Volunteers, as Superintendent of Schools in the Creek Nation (1870), as commander of the Creek Light Horsemen (1883), and was many times the Creek delegate to the United States Congress. He was also President of the Sequoyah Constitutional Convention in 1905 during the attempt by Native American tribes to acquire statehood for the Indian Territory. Instead, their territory was made part of the state of Oklahoma.
Early life
Pleasant Porter was the son of Benjamin Edward Porter and Phoebe Perryman, daughter of Lydia Perryman, a mixed-blood Creek daughter of Chief Perryman), and Tah-lo-pee Tust-a-nuk-kee, a town chief. He was a mix-blood Creek born into his mother's Bird Clan. The Creek had a matrilineal kinship system, in which children took status in their mother's clan.
He was born September 26, 1840 in what is now Wagoner County, Oklahoma. His Creek name was Talof Harjo, which means "Crazy Bear" in English.
