Jesse Chisholm

Jesse Chisholm. (circa 1805-1868). A section of the famed Chisholm Trail (1867-1885), which was used to drive cattle from Texas to the rail heads in Kansas after the Civil War, crosses a portion of Vance AFB near the entrance to the Armed Forces Reserve Center. The trail was named after Jesse Chisholm, a true pioneer of the American West. Born in 1805 to a Scottish father and a Cherokee mother, he was the very embodiment of the collision of two great cultures. A merchant, guide, and interpreter, Chisholm established small trading posts in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kansas from the 1830s to late 1860s. Fluent in fourteen Native American dialects and a natural diplomat, Chisholm served as interpreter for numerous treaty councils in Texas, Indian Territory (Oklahoma), and Kansas. While his reputation for fairness and neutrality earned him the nickname of "Peacemaker of the Plains," he is best known as the namesake to the Chisholm Trail, the world's greatest cattle trail (1867-1885). At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Chisholm and a number of Wichita Indians left their homes in South Central Oklahoma and moved near present day downtown Wichita, Kansas. On their return to the plains of Indian Territory after the war, their wagons carved out the route which later became known as the Chisholm Trail.