J. B. Milam

Jesse Bartley Milam (1884–1949) was best known as the first Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation appointed by a U.S. President since tribal government had been dissolved before Oklahoma Statehood in 1907. He was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941, who reappointed him in 1942 and 1943; he was reappointed by President Harry S. Truman in 1948. He died while in office in 1949.

J. B. Milam, as he was commonly known, was born on March 10, 1884, near Italy, Texas to Sarah Ellen (née Couch) and William Guinn Milam. His mother's family had fled the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory to Texas in 1863 as refugees from the fighting during the American Civil War. His father's family had immigrated to Texas from Alabama. He was Cherokee through his mother, who was a member of the Long Hair Clan. According to the Cherokee matrilineal kinship system, he was considered born into her clan, receiving his social status from her people. In 1887 his family returned to Cherokee Nation lands in northeastern Indian Territory and settled near what is now Chelsea, Oklahoma.

Milam attended the Cherokee Male Seminary, a tribally run college in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. In 1901 and 1902, he studied at the Metropolitan Business College in Dallas, Texas. After college, he returned to Chelsea and worked in his father's hardware store. He also worked as a cashier at the Bank of Chelsea. He also ventured into the burgeoning oil and gas business. Together with his brother-in-law, Woodley G. Phillips, Milam founded the Phillips and Milam Oil Company, which grew rapidly.

On April 6, 1904, he married Elizabeth Peach McSpadden. Her Cherokee Dawes Roll number was #12943, while his was #24953. These numbers are from the census rolls of Cherokee citizens from 1899 to 1907 documented by the US federal government's Dawes Commission to allot tribal lands. The couple had two daughters and one son.

In 1915, Milam became the president of the Bank of Chelsea, the first bank in the Cherokee Nation. He later founded the Rogers County Bank in Claremore, Oklahoma.

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