Napoleon B. Johnson

Napoleon Bonaparte Johnson (more often written as either N. B. Johnson or Napoleon B. Johnson) was born on January 17, 1891, in Maysville, Oklahoma (then in Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory). He was the oldest child of John Wade and Sarah (née Mays) Johnson, who had three other children, as well. John Johnson was half Cherokee, and his wife was white, making Napoleon and his siblings one-quarter Cherokee. The father was a professional stock trader and an elder in a local Presbyterian church. John raised his son like any other native Cherokee boy and saw to it that he started his education in a local Presbyterian mission school. (He moved to Talequah, where he lived from 1893 to 1896, before moving to Anadarko in 1896.) His formal education ended with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree at Cumberland University.

In 1908, Napoleon apparently felt the urge to venture more widely. After visiting a naval recruiting station in Oklahoma City, he won parental approval to enlist. According to Herley, he became quite homesick while even before he arrived at a naval base in California. Still, he persisted, and spent a month training aboard the U.S.S. Pensacola, before returning home. It was the end of his naval career. Johnson graduated from Mary Gregory Memorial School, a Presbyterian mission school, at Anadarko in western Oklahoma in 1909.

By 1952, Johnson was hearing warnings that many members felt that his approach was ineffective in combating the political leaders who continued to press for termination of Federal benefits to Indians. Some members even claimed that NCAI was controlled by "...a small clique of its present officers," and "stooges of the Indian Bureau." An astute politician, Johnson announced that he was resigning as President of NCAI, and would be replaced by W. W. Short.

One copy of Corn's affidavit was sent to Federal Judge Stephen Chandler. Simply having Corn's affidavit in hand was not enough to start a battle for reform. Chandler then called one of the most recently elected Supreme Court judges, William H. Berry, for a private meeting at Chandler's home, where Berry read the document and agreed that somehow the document must be made public. With Chandler's agreement, Berry contacted Oklahoma County Representative, G. T. Blankenship, who was appalled by what the document revealed. (Blankenship happened to be the first Republican elected from Oklahoma County since 1928.)

After Johnson's conviction, Justice Berry wrote a book, Justice for Sale: The Shocking Scandal of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, detailing his views of the scandal. In it, he placed much of the blame on the system Oklahoma used for selecting judges, especially those trying to become appellate judges. Berry called the old system, in which bribes were simply passed off as "campaign contributions," "...a scandal waiting to happen." Burck Bailey, president of the Oklahoma Bar Association, said in a 1988 address to the OBA:"The villain in this sordid affair may be the method used in Oklahoma to fill judicial office.... The potential for corruption is inherent in the system. These payoffs, (as claimed by Cargill and Corn) were simply ‘campaign contributions’."

Personal Napoleon B. Johnson married Martha Lee Webber. The couple had one child, a daughter. He adhered to the Presbyterian faith, and belonged to the Masons, the American Legion, and the Chamber of Commerce.