Cherokee Phoenix: Camp Gruber forced 2nd removal for Cherokees

Cherokee Phoenix: Camp Gruber forced 2nd removal for Cherokees

"As war broke out in 1939 in Europe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called for military preparedness, requiring the government to condemn land for military camps, including Camp Gruber in Muskogee County. That camp forced out more than 70 Cherokee families living on 50 square miles of restricted and allotment lands. ...

"Harold [Summerlin] was 12, the oldest of six children, when the government took 32,000 acres for Camp Gruber. He said his parents got a notice that they had 45 days to vacate.

"'The best I remember they offered us $1,200 for the farm. I think it was 160 acres, two houses, two ponds, one barn, a chicken house and an orchard. My dad hired a lawyer and got $400 more, but the lawyer got half of that,' Harold said. 'We moved out around early July of 1942. We moved a couple of miles across the Cherokee County line into Sequoyah County.'"