Alice Brown Davis - Tribal Governance

Tribal Governance

The Curtis Act dismantled tribal governmental and civic institutions. The Dawes Act broke up tribal landholdings, distributing allotments to individual households of registered tribal members. Land in excess of that was declared "surplus" by the federal government and sold to non-Indians. The 1906 Five Civilized Tribes Act finalized US federal government's dismemberment of tribal governments to make way for Oklahoma statehood in 1907.

During this tumultuous time, Brown Davis acted as an interpreter in court cases, as she was bilingual in English and Mikasuki. In 1903, she traveled to Mexico with a Seminole delegation to pursue possible land grant claims there. She returned in 1905 and 1910, but the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution destroyed Seminole hopes of settlement in Mexico.

In 1922, at the age of 70, Davis was appointed Principal Chief of the Seminole Nation by President Warren G. Harding. She was the first female chief of the Seminole tribe, and initially her appointment was controversial, despite her maternal clan's prominence. Eventually she won the support of her people and served until her death.

A key issue of her term was tribal land affairs. Based on a new survey of Seminole land in 1910, the US federal government reassigned some lands to the Muscogee Creek Nation, including the grounds of the Emakaha School and several Seminole churches. Brown Davis refused to sign the deeds over to the Creek and said, "If this be the cause of my resignation I will feel that I have done that which is right and just to myself and my people." Because of the long period of indecision about the land, the Emakaha School had to be emptied. It burned down and was not rebuilt.