(Republished) If you wake up on a beautiful Oklahoma morning and find yourself in need of some farm and ranch supplies from Atwood's or some general merchandise from the Dollar General Store it's fairly easy to jump into the vehicle and drive down to the local shopping plaza.
When you get there, at least over in Sand Springs, if you're concerned about finding your car after you are finished shopping you can always park your vehicle next to the cemetery fence in the parking lot.
That's right. IN the parking lot. The small Tullahassee Creek Indian Cemetery in Sand Springs is fully enclosed in the parking lot of the bustling Atwood's Plaza just off Charles Page Boulevard, to the south of I-244, Hwy 412, Hwy 64 - Keystone Expressway.
The first burial in what is now a quarter-acre plot occurred in 1883 and the last was in 1912. This cemetery -- also known as Adams Creek Cemetery -- contains the known graves of thirty-eight souls and while most of them reside in unmarked graves, eleven markers still remain.
The cemetery was created by Lt. Thomas Adams, a Creek Indian that served in the Confederacy during the Civil War and was interered at the site in 1883. He founded the settlement of "Oktahv Uekiwa" which is now known as Sand Springs.
Adams, who was born in 1821 and brought his family to the area and settled by the springs, from which the name Sand Springs derived. The settlement which arose was originally named Adam's Springs. With the coming of the white settlers, the Creeks were pushed back and only their small burial ground was left behind.
His household Adams enrollment record for the Creek Census (card #2285) shows members, man if which are buried in the plot; Lieutenant Adams, Parent, Male City of Residence: Tulsa Canadian Creek Adams Lieutenant 0 Male P Creek Adams Thomas 16 Male Full #6958 BB Creek Adams Samuel 19 Male Full #6957 BB Creek Harjo Selina 12 Female Full #6956 BB Creek Harjo Moleyar 45 Female Full #6955 BB Creek Harjo Nocus 67 Female Full #6954 BB
As often happens, many years after the finally burial in an antique cemetery, progress encroached on the area but the person who owned the land stipulated that the person purchasing it had to maintain the Stone Garden.
There is no historical or public record showing that the cemetery was surveyed before it was fenced off. There is a good chance that there are several graves outside the fence and beneath the asphalt.
Several of the Creek Indians buried in the now- urban graveyard were part of the Perryman family, who at one time had owned almost all of Tulsa. There is a Perryman family cemetery at 32nd and Utica in Tulsa, but it is residential; supposedly the surrounding neighborhood was built on Indian burial grounds as one of the women nursed family members and travelers who became sick and they were buried there.
The Coble Florist Shop in Sand Springs is seven-tenths of a mile from the cemetery on North Main Street. The next time you are over that way. visit them first and grab a few flowers for a few pioneer graves.
