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Occupied 1834 by Chief Black Dog's Osage band on buffalo hunt. Gen. Henry Leavenworth and the First Dragoons, including officers Henry Dodge, S.W. Kearney, R.B. Mason, Jefferson Davis, Nathan Boone, and noted artist, George Catlin, camped here June 26, 1834, on expedition west to secure peace with Plains tribes.

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*Early morning all is sleeping:)

Kullihoma Grounds consists of 1500-acres owned by the Chickasaw Nation. The land was purchased in 1936, and the Chickasaw built traditional tribal dwellings on the site, and used it as a stomp ground. Traditional Chickasaw households consisted of summer and winter houses and a corn crib. A circular council house also exists on site. Prior to 1936, the Green Corn Ceremony was practiced on this land.

Kullihoma means “Red Springs” in the Chickasaw language. It received the name due to spring-fed water at Kullihoma turning reddish prior to storms because of atmospheric anomalies. However, the springs were choked off because of silt and sawdust deposits from a lumber mill years ago, according to Postoak’s narrative. Awe, :(

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The United States Dragoon Regiment left Fort Gibson, Indian territory, on 20 June 1834, under the command of General Henry Leavenworth. In addition to the troops, there were 30 Cherokee, Delaware, Osage, and Seneca tribesmen who served as guides. The expedition entered the Cross Timbers region on July 10. The difficult terrain of the Cross Timbers region, together with summer heat, sickness, and death slowed the progress of the expedition; one hundred fifty of the five hundred men died on the march. The expedition stopped at Camp Leavenworth, where General Leavenworth, sick and injured from a buffalo hunt, sent the troops onward under the command of Colonel Henry Dodge. On July 16, 1834, the expedition left 75 sick men, including American traveling artist George Catlin, at Camp Comanche; Colonel Dodge and the rest of his men continued onward. General Leavenworth died on July 21, 1834.

On July 21, 1834, Colonel Dodge and the remaining men reached a village of Wichita Indians at Devils Canyon. One of the Wichita men was the father of a woman travelling with the expedition. The reunion resulted in easing Dodge's negotiations with the tribe on the next day, during which Dodge invited the tribe to send representatives to Washington, D. C. He also won the release of a white boy that the Wichitas had captured during the previous Spring.

Dodge also met with some Kiowas, who had arrived with some Comanches. Another woman traveling with the Leavenworth-Dodge group was a Kiowa, who had been kidnapped by Osages in 1833. Dodge returned her to her tribe, winning their friendship. He urged the three tribes to avoid attacking white and Eastern Indian people. A few days later, the main body of the expedition left for Fort Gibson which they reached on August 15, 1834.

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