Timeline
1846 – Mary Francis Marshall is born to Lucinda Llewellyn Marshall Entry 310 and Wm Marshall Entry 399 in Crawford County, Indiana.
1866 – Mary Francis Marshall married James Ross Fent on Dec 25, 1866 in Wapello County, Iowa
1866 – Pratts Registry of Delaware Indians lists Rebecca Lucas Entry 638, her daughter Lucinda Llewellyn Marshall Entry 310 and Wm Marshall Entry 399. Rebecca Lucas elects to remove to the Cherokee Nation under the terms of the Treaty of July 4, 1866.
1873 – Otelia Eveline Fent, daughter of James Ross Fent and Mary Francis Fent born in Cotton Wood Falls, Chase Co, Kansas
1880 – Lucinda Marshall removed to the Cherokee Nation and was listed as Entry 310 No. 232 (Dead) in 1880 Record Book. (Book is the Property of Federal Record Center located in Ft. Worth, Texas.)
1889 – Otelia Eveline Fent (Tillie) married Leander Louis Creech on Oct 14, 1889 at Cotton Wood Falls, Chase Co. Kansas. Their marriage in 1889 preceded the Inter Marriage Law recognized by most Tribes.
1894 – James and Mary Fent lived in several different places till he was removed to Pawnee, Oklahoma in 1894.
1898 – Lucinda Llewellyn Marshall was listed on the Delaware Census Roll for Delaware Indians residing in the Cherokee Nation on or before Aug. 4, 1898. Wm Marshall was listed on the 1898 Citizenship roll of Delaware Indians living on the Cherokee Nation on or before Aug 4, 1898.
1902 – Cherokee Nation passed a bill to remove all Intermarried and Freedman Indians from the Delaware Indian Rolls. They were told to go to the District Office of the Bureau of Indians Affairs in Billings, Montana to protest.
1907 – The Creech family moved to South 23rd St. in Billings, Montana.
1911 – While residing in Billings, Montana, Otelia Creech and her Eldest daughter Viola Creech hired Attorney Thad Smith of Billings, Montana to find out why they had not received their Allotments as Delawares of the Cherokee Nation. Copies of Att. Smiths letters show that the Ancestry was of Delaware blood (Letter sent to the Secretary of the Interior, dated Feb 8, 1911 – List the Ancestry. Also letter sent to the Secretary of the Interior dated Oct 8, 1912 list the Ancestry.)
1913 – On Oct 14, 1913, they were advised by the Commissioner that the names of none of the persons mentioned in the above letters could be found upon any of the citizenship rolls of the Cherokee Nation, nor did it appear that an application for the enrollment of said persons as Cherokee or Delaware Citizens could be located. (Letter dated Oct 14, 1913 on file in the National Archives.) Otelia Creech and family were rejected as not being Cherokee or Delaware.
1924 – The Creech family moved to Ontario, Oregon and Idaho and settled in the Payette Valley in Idaho on Birdies Island. Birdies Island
1945 – The Creech family home on Birdies Island burned down and the tribe was forced to move.
1960 – Idaho Fish and Game purchased Birdies Island and turned it into a Wildlife Management Area. It is now known as Birding Island.
1969 – Genealogical Research was began by Charlotte Simmons, Great Granddaughter of Otelia Creech.
1976 – Charlotte Simmons completed the genealogical research proving Otelia Fents statement in 1911, that we are Delaware Indians.
1978 – Delawares of Idaho, Inc. is founded by Chief White Antelope (Arthur A. Creech)
1979 – Delawares of Idaho filed a letter of intent to petition for federal recognition. Petition for federal recognition was filed soon afterward.
1980 – Delaware Judgement Fund Act signed into law by President Carter on August 1, 1980 that proved the Delawares of Idaho are direct lineal descendants of members of the Delaware Nation as listed on Pratts Registry of 1867.
1986 – Chief White Antelope (Arthur A. Creech) passes away. Clyde Wesley Creech, Sr. is named Chief.
2008 – Supplement to petition sent to BIA regarding Federal Recognition.
2010 – Chief Clyde Wesley Creech passes away.
2011 – Members of the Delawares of Idaho meet with the tribal council of the Delawares of Oklahoma on June 6, 2011 to request to rejoin the Delaware Nation.
2019 – Charlotte Simmons makes recordings of the Lenape language as taught to her on Birdies Island when she was a child. She was taught the oral language using peyote tea and the written language with a stick in the dirt.
2025 – Heritage Chief Charlotte Simmons, the last known speaker of the lenape language within our tribe passes away. Ken Sereduk, grandson of Charlotte Simmons is appointed as Heritage Chief.
The Creech & Fent Delawares
Our Ancestors spent several years in Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas. They moved from Kansas to Oklahoma in 1894, and lived near Coffeeville, Oklahoma. they were issued 160 acres of land from the Cherokee’s. (The Bureau of Indian Affairs paid the Cherokee Tribe for land for the Delaware Indians to settle.)
Leander Louis Creech and Otelia Evoline Fent married on October 5, 1889. In addition to being a cattleman, and a hunter for the army, they lived at a stage relay stop. On more than one occasion when they would get up in the morning they would find 15 to 30 men sleeping on the floor. They were the Jesse James gang, who would stop in and sleep for a little while, get fresh horses and go on their way. They never offered to pay, but as grandma cleaned-up after them, she would find little bags of gold, here and there in the room. (If the authorities had ever heard about it, they would have been in serious trouble.)
While living at Coffeeville several children were born. One of them was Bruce Leander Creech, who was born in 1893.
In 1902 the Cherokee Indians got a bill passed which gave them the right to remove all Intermarried and Freedman Indians from the Delaware Indian Rolls. They were told if they did not agree with the decision, that they would have to go to the area Bureau of Indian Affairs office in Billings, Montana to protest the action.
It was 1907 that they went to Billings, Montana to protest. Grandpa & his son (Bruce) worked in the Heating Plant in Billings, Montana.
Bruce married Viola Emma Sherwood in 1917, and one son – Clifford Creech was born. They were divorced in 1919, and Bruce in 1920 then married Martha Elizabeth Johnson. They had three children, Clyde W. Creech (July 11, 1921), Lawrence E. Creech (Sept. 22, 1922), and Vera E. Creech-Cox (June 14, 1924).
Shortly after Vera’s birth the Creech’s moved to Ontario, Oregon. It was about 1925 that Bruce and Martha moved there also.
From there Leander & Bruce (and Families) moved to Payette, Idaho. Next they moved to New Plymouth, Idaho and bought a farm. He raised grain and watermelons, some stock, and cut firewood, too. Many of the family lived there, and made their home there. That area was called ‘The Islands’, and people for miles around came to buy wood.
(More than one individual referred to the Indians who lived there, and some still remember about it today.) Bruce trapped in the winter, and had a summer fruit route and sold fruit all over the state of Idaho. (Many times Clyde accompanied his dad on the route.)
Clyde went on his own in September of 1935, going all over the United States. Clyde married Dorothy E. Curtis on August 1, 1942 at Modesto, Calif. It was in 1943 that he entered the Marines, and served his country for 2 1/2 years. During that time he was 4 invasions, and wounded in the right shoulder, while on Iwo Jima.
There are six surviving children of this marriage. Shirley ? Creech (Musgrove), Marlene R. Creech (Menges), Beverly D. Creech (Jenkins), Rosmarie S. Creech (Kingston), Clyde W. Creech Jr., and Carl B. Creech.
It was in 1946 that Clyde learned the Masonry trade. He worked in the trade for about 28 years, and it was shortly after Beverly was born that they moved back to Idaho, and then on to Montana. Over the next period of years, they lived in Wyoming, Idaho, California, and Idaho again.
It was 1969 that research was started to prove Otelia Fent – Creech’s statement that we were in fact Indian. From 1969 to 1976 researching was done to prove their Indian Heritage. We filed to share in the Delaware Judgement Funds which was going to be released to the Cherokee-Delawares in Oklahoma. We were told at this time that we did not qualify to receive funds, and advised by our attorney to form a Corporation. It was in January of 1978 that the ‘Delawares of Idaho’ was incorporated. It was after much correspondence with officials in Washington, D.C.; Muskogee, Oklahoma; and with the Cherokee-Delawares in Bartlesville, Oklahoma that 2 delegations went to Washington, D.C. They testified before a Senate Select Committee, and before the B.I.A.
They got a bill passed, which gave them the right to share in the Delaware Judgement Funds. This was passed and signed into law on August 1, 1980, by President Jimmy Carter.