Samuel Checote (1819–1884) (Muscogee) was a political leader, military veteran, and a Methodist preacher in the Creek Nation, Indian Territory.
He served two terms as the first principal chief of the tribe to be elected under their new constitution created after the American Civil War.
Following removal, the Lower Creek Council, which had earlier been dominated by those who wanted to take up some European-American ways, passed laws in 1832 and 1844 forbidding any tribal member from preaching Christianity.
Some of the Creek and members of the other Civilized Tribes held enslaved African Americans; they had taken many to Indian Territory at the time of removal, and later purchased others.
He enlisted in the Confederate Army on August 13, 1861, as captain of Company B of the First Regiment of Creek Mounted Volunteers.
Checote's skills as a political leader were tested by tribal tensions and rivalries, which increased over the next decade.
After the death of Harjo, the group turned to Isparhecher, a former Checote supporter and district judge, as their chief.
The Methodist Church, South, chose Checote as a delegate to the international 1882 Ecumenical Council in London, England.
In early 1883 Checote called on the Creek Lighthorse, the law enforcement unit, led by Pleasant Porter, to put down the rival movement.
While Isparhecher believed that he had won and briefly served as principal chief during December 1883, the Secretary of the Interior intervened.