I have found some hints of a tax rebellion in “Indian Territory” (now Oklahoma) in , but most of what I’ve been able to dig up comes from a newspaper — the Indian Chieftain — that took a stand against the rebellion and had to defend itself in its editorial columns, so I’m getting a skewed view on what was going on.
Apparently, cattle farmers in the Territory had been refusing to pay their Cherokee Nation taxes into the U.S. Department of the Interior, and had refused some $50,000 dollars by the time the controversy hit the paper. The Chieftain came out against the resisters, and the resisters tried to organize a boycott of the paper in response. “Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel,” goes the saying, but they heeded it not, and the Chieftain devoted many columns to its frequently repetitive denunciations of the boycotters, and to reprinting those of sister papers.
![The Indian Chieftain Boycott. First National Bank Espouses the Cowmen’s Unjust Cause — The Resolution. Whereas, it has come to the knowledge of the directors of the First National Bank that certain articles have recently appeared in a newspaper known as The Indian Chieftain reflecting on the honor and integrity of a large part of the stockholders of this bank and also urging the officers of the United States to enter upon a course of unjustifiable hostility toward a large part of the stock holders of this bank [i.e., the cattlemen], and it appears that the attacks and insinuations made therein are uncalled for and unwarranted and made out of a spirit of malice, therefore be it resolved, by the directors of this bank, that this bank do not further patronize said paper, and that the executive officers of this bank be instructed to withdraw all advertisements and that hereafter to have all printing necessary for the bank done by persons other than those interested in or connected with said Indian Chieftain. Passed October 13, 1899](chieftain.png)
To hear the Chieftain and its allies make the case, the cattle ranchers were largely out-of-state people trying to take advantage of weak law enforcement in tribal areas and hoping they could get free pastureland and that the U.S. government would not bother to try to enforce the per-head cattle royalty against them. Free riders, essentially.
