Cherokee Nation West

Origin of the Cherokee Nation West.

In the 'Historical Period', it is impossible to say when the Cherokees first crossed the Mississippi. The Nation's 'Diviners' always foretold the future many years ahead. They knew the calamity to befall them at the hands of the invaders. So, the plans were made and when the time came, they split the people lest none survive.

1684: The earliest migration was said to have occurred soon after the 1684 treaty with Carolina. This emigration was led by Yuni-wi-usga-se-ti, Dangerous Man. Some say the last that was heard of them was on the edge of the Rockies. Others say they went into Mexico?
1775: Treaty of Sycamore Shoals (Henderson's Purchase) was basically a land sale and not valid under Chickamaugan nor Territorial British law. The deed constituted roughly 1/2 of the land in Kentucky and Tennessee, or about 50,000 square miles. Even after the Revolutionary war the Chickamaugans remained loyal to Britain and joined with them in a series of raids against encroachers. Younger chiefs withdrew to the western most edge of the lands and allied with the Creeks eventually founding the Lower Towns. This guerrilla war continued until the destruction of the Lower Towns in 1794.
1782: Cherokees, loyal to the British, applied to Spain for permission to settle on land within Spanish Territory. it was granted and they settled in Arkansas country.
1794: The Muscle Shoals Massacre; Scott and Stewart, on a trading venture in Indian Country happened upon the Bowl party soon after receiving their annuities from the US Government. They plied the Natives with whiskey until drunk then swindled them of their money. Bowl demanded redress and in the course of events Scott and Stewart were killed. Bowl fled up the St. Francis River into SE Missouri settling along the Sr. Francis valley until the earthquake of 1811. Seeing it as a bad omen they relocated into the Arkansas country. Bowl and company were exonerated of wrong doing in this matter.
Rev. J.W. Moore
Dear Brother:
- As it is at your repeated and earnest solicitation that the following "Reminiscences of the Indians," were committed to writing, I have thought that the form, as little exceptionable as any other, would be that of letters addressed to yourself. Such a form will serve in the place of a dedication; and will be a record of that friendship and fraternal regard which has subsisted between us on earth for nearly thirty years; and which, I trust, will soon be perpetuated in heaven.
- Before entering upon any of my personal reminiscences, it may be interesting to give some account of the first settlement of Cherokees west of the Mississippi river, and which led to the division of that tribe into Eastern and Western Cherokees. At the close of the war of the Revolution, large numbers of royalists, called Tories by the champions of freedom and independence, took refuge among Indian tribes. This was especially true of the royalists in South Carolina and Georgia. By the instigation of these royalists, several of the southern Indian tribes engaged in hostilities against the United States. The Cherokees were among those who thus engaged, on the pretext that the citizens of the United States were intruding upon their "hunting grounds." This pretext was founded in truth. This war with the Cherokees continued till 1785, the date of the first treaty between the Cherokees and the United States government. By this treaty, the Cherokees relinquished their lands, and the boundaries of their Nation accurately defined. In consideration of the lands ceded by this treaty, the United States stipulated to pay to the Cherokees certain annuities. The first payment under this treaty took place, I think in 1792. All the Cherokee people were convened for this purpose at a place in East Tennessee, "Tellico Block-House." This payment went off in harmony and to the satisfaction of all the Cherokee towns; and the people started for their homes in peace.
- One of the Cherokee towns was in the southwest part of their country, within the limits of the present State of Alabama. The inhabitants of this town were returning from the annuity, and had encamped, for the purpose of rest and to procure food by hunting, on the bank of the Tennessee river, at the upper end of the Muscle Shoals. While encamped, several boats, containing emigrants to Louisiana, came down the river, and landed at the head of Shoals. On board were two men, named Stewart and Scott who had goods for the purpose of traffic with the Indians through whose country they were to pass. Among the goods, there was, of course, a full supply of whiskey. These men soon ascertained that the Cherokees had money, and their cupidity was excited. They invited the Cherokees aboard and freely treated them with whiskey, until they were all drunk. They then displayed their Indian goods, consisting mainly of beads, vermilion and other paints, and pocket mirrors in gilded frames. These they sold at the rate of twelve dollars for a string of glass beads, sixteen dollars for a mirror, and thirty dollars an ounce for their paints.
- The result was, the Cherokees and their money were soon parted. When the fumes of the whiskey had passed off, and they were again sober, they perceived that their money was all gone, and that they had nothing of real value in return for it. The chief of the party, named The Bowl, and subsequently known as General Bowls, went aboard the boat, and remonstrated with Stewart and Scott. He returned all the mirrors, and beads, and paints and offered to pay for the whiskey at the rate of four dollars a gallon, and requested a return of the balance of the money. This offer was indignantly spurned, and he was ordered off the boat. When he ascended the bank to his people, and reported the refusal Of his offer, they were greatly incensed; and commenced loading their rifles. The Bowl, wishing to avoid all violence and outrage, took two of the most calm and deliberate of his men with him, and went aboard again to remonstrate against the fraud, and to warn the traders of the exasperated state of the Indians on shore. Stewart and Scott, instead of heeding his warning, seized each a boat pole and commenced an attack upon the three on board. Stewart plunged the iron socket of his pole into the breast of one of the men, and instantly killed him. Scott struck another on the head with his pole and knocked him down, and then threw him into the river. He either drowned or was killed by the blow on his head. The Bowl escaped unhurt to land, and still tried to restrain his men; but his efforts were vain. They were exasperated beyond endurance. They fired upon Stewart and Scott, who instantly were killed. They then went aboard and killed every white man aboard the boat, saving the women and children and servants alive.
- After this bloody tragedy, which is known as the "Muscle Shoals Massacre," the whole party of Cherokees went aboard the boats, descended the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi, to the mouth of the St. Francis river. There they placed all the white women and children in one boat; relinquished to them all the furniture which they claimed; granted to each of the married ladies a female servant; put on board an ample stock of provisions, and four strong and faithful black men, and let them descend the Mississippi to New Orleans, the place of their destination. With one of these ladies I afterwards became well acquainted. At her residence I have frequently domiciled, when visiting New Orleans, and found her, though a widow, truly "a mother in Israel." She was to New Orleans, what Mrs. Isabella Graham was to New York. It was from her lips that I received the foregoing particulars: She often spoke of the kindness and courtesy with which she and all the white ladies and children were treated by The Bowl and his party.
- But to return to my narrative. After the departure of the boat for New Orleans, The Bowl and his party ran the other boats, with their contents of goods, servants, etc, a few miles up the St. Francis river to await the issue of the affair. They feared that their conduct at the Muscle Shoals would be regarded by our government as a violation of the treaty of amity, and as a renewal of hostility. As soon as the massacre of Muscle Shoals was known by the Cherokees in their towns, they convened a general council and in a memorial to the United States government, declared that they had no part in the tragedy; that they wished to be at peace with the United States and that they would do all in their power to aid the United States in bringing them to justice. They sent to The Bowl and his party to return, and submit to a trial for taking the lives of white citizens of the United States. When this whole matter was investigated by the government of the United States, the Cherokees were fully justified; and the property was confiscated, and declared by treaty to belong justly to the perpetrators of the "Muscle Shoals Massacre."
- The course pursued by the Cherokee council towards the refugees tended to alienate their minds from their people in the home of their fathers, and made them less reluctant to remain in their new homes west of the Mississippi. Added to this; the abundance of game, the fertility of the soil, and the blandness of the climate, soon made them prefer their homes here to those where they had resided in the east. Other parties, who crossed the Mississippi for the purpose of hunting and trapping, when they saw the prosperity of these original refugees, joined them. In 1812 by an arrangement of the government, they removed from St. Francis and White rivers and settled on the Arkansas. In 1812, a considerable accession was made to their number by voluntary emigration from the old Nation; and they became so numerous, that an agent of the United States was sent to reside among them; and from that time, until the whole tribe were united in the west of the State of Arkansas, in 1839, they were known and treated with as the "Arkansas Cherokees; or the Cherokee Nation West."
- By the treaty of Turkey-town, in 1817, the government stipulated to give the Arkansas Cherokees as much land, "acre for acre," between the Arkansas and White rivers, as they would cede of their domain in the east, beside paying to emigrants for their improvements, transport them to their new homes, subsist them for twelve months after their arrival, besides other perquisites and valuable consideration. The result of this treaty was a considerable emigration from the east to the west, in the years 1818 and 1819. From then till their union by the treaty of 1833, which was not effected, in fact, till 1839, the Arkansas Cherokees were estimated at one-third of the whole tribe. Thus, I have given you a succinct account of the origin of the "Cherokee Nation West." I have omitted many details for the sake of brevity. So much seemed necessary as an introduction to the Reminiscences, in the following sheets of these letters.
Yours truly, C. W.
Reminiscences of the Indians, Cephas Washburn, Hugh Park 1955
1803:Louisiana Purchase: Small bands were constantly crossing the river west until the US acquired disputed rights to this land in 1803. Thomas Jefferson even admitted he "stretched the constitution until it cracked." Early in 1803 Thomas Jefferson made plans to remove all the Original Inhabitants to this land. An appropriation was made for this in 1804.
1805: The removal crisis did not begin with the election of Andrew Jackson to the presidency. Rather, it began with the second term of Thomas Jefferson in 1805.
1808: Col. Meigs was told to use every effort to obtain and exchange of lands east for west. The civilizing policy of the US formed a deep schism between the Cherokee factions. The Chickamaugans preferred the old ways and agreed to look at the lands west for lands east, but did not expect the result to be forced relocation. This visit occurred in 1809 and some chose to relocate, but none permanently.
1810: Yawhoo Falls Massacre
1817: The Treaty of 1817: The Osage would not honor agreements which led to war with the Cherokees. A memorial was presented opposing the treaty of 1817 by 67 headmen of the nations. This memorial stated that the delegates had acted without any authority of the nation. They declared that a great many chose to remain in the land of their birth. But all their pleas fell on deaf ears and the treaty ratified. Throughout all this time it was clear that if they chose they could return to the East. Read the treaties (1817, 1819, 1828) to confirm this fact. They never intended to remain in the West!
"There can be no question that a very large portion, and probably a majority of the Cherokee nation residing east of the Mississippi had been and still continued bitterly opposed to the terms of the treaty of 1817. They viewed with jealous and aching hearts all attempts to drive them from the homes of their ancestors, for they could not but consider the constant and urgent importunities of the federal authorities in the light of an imperative demand for the cession of more territory. They felt that they were, as a nation, being slowly but surely compressed within the contracting coils of the giant anaconda of civilization; yet they held to the vain hope that a spirit of justice and mercy would be born of their helpless condition which would finally prevail in their favor. Their traditions furnished them no guide by which to judge of the results certain to follow such a conflict as that in which they were engaged. This difference of sentiment in the nation upon a subject so vital to their welfare was productive of much bitterness and violent animosities. Those who had favored the emigration scheme and had been induced, either through personal preference or by the subsidizing influences of the government agents, to favor the conclusion of the treaty, became the object of scorn and hatred to the remainder of the nation. They were made the subjects of a persecution so relentless, while they remained in the eastern country, that it was never forgotten, and when, in the natural course of events, the remainder of the nation was forced to remove to the Arkansas country and join the earlier emigrants, the old hatreds and dissensions broke out afresh, and to this day they find lodgment in some degree in the breasts of their descendants."
Royce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, 217-218, 1888.
1818: A delegation was sent to DC to obtain more accurate land boundaries recognition as a separate nation. The land boundaries were set but they weren't recognized as a separate nation. Missouri Governor William Clark arranged a peace conference between the Osage and the Old Settlers and eventually it was obtained.
In the east, Governor McMinn was putting strong pressure on the Eastern Cherokee to emigrate. In November he called a council and attempted to coerce them to leave with no success. He then offered them $100,000 for all their land and when they refused he doubled it still without success. Persisting, Meigs conducted a delegation of the Nations to DC where they were tricked into 'selling' a large tract of land in compensation for lands west.
1819: Treaty of 1819
1820: The Cherokee Republic was formed.
1823: Johnson and Graham's Lessee v. William M'Intosh 1823 Supreme Court Decision 21 U.S. (8 Wheat.), 1823. The case of Johnson v. M'Intosh was a critical moment in the history of Indian law in particular and American land claims in general. This 1823 Supreme Court decision stated that Indians could occupy lands within the United States, but could not hold title to those lands. This was because their "right of occupancy" was subordinate to the United States' "right of discovery." In response to the great threat this posed, the Creeks, Cherokee, and Chickasaw instituted policies of restricting land sales to the government.
1827: The Indian Removal Act was prompted by the adoption, in late 1827, of the Cherokee Republic's first Constitution (directly patterned after the U.S. Constitution) which implied Cherokee sovereignty over all their lands and affairs which would've made the Cherokee lands a sovereign island inside the U.S. This led Congress to act by removing all Indians who could claim sovereignty to lands then also claimed by states. Jackson's pointed address to Congress of December 1829, urging passage of the Act, helped push it through by the end of May, 1830.
1828: Gold was found near Dahlonega Georgia. The 1828 election distracted Congress from acting on the proposed Removal Act until 1829. Further, distractions over the Bank of the U.S. and other matters led to Congress' failure to enact the bill during that first term.
Treaty of 1828: "WHEREAS, it being the anxious desire of the Government of the United States to secure to the Cherokee nation of Indians, as well those now living within the limits of the Territory of Arkansas, as those of their friends and brothers who reside in States East of the Mississippi, and who may wish to join their brothers of the West, a permanent home, and which shall, under the most solemn guarantee of the United States, be, and remain, theirs forever- a home that shall never, in all future time, be embarrassed by having extended around it the lines, or placed over it the jurisdiction of a Territory or State, nor be pressed upon by the extension, in any way, of any of the limits of any existing Territory or State;..."
1830: To a certain extent the Indian removal issue defined Andrew Jackson's Presidency. No other policy spanned Jackson's entire eight-year term with such a steady concentration of resources. He was not the first to propose the land swap - equal lands east for west - but he was the first who refused to take no for an answer. In seven of his eight annual messages to Congress Jackson devoted several paragraphs to the policy of Indian removal culminating in The Indian Removal Act ( text copy) which was passed into law in 1830. Also see, President Andrew Jackson's Case for the Removal Act First Annual Message to Congress, 8 December 1830
. In fact, Removal outlasted his tenure since the last of the Cherokee were infamously forced on the Trail of Tears death march in 1838, two years after Jackson's second and final term ended. Georgia immediately capitalized on his ideas and put forth that sovereign states had a constitutional right to assume jurisdiction over all land within its borders. A series of laws were enacted by the Georgia legislature around 1830:
- Assumed possession of all indian lands in its borders
- Abolished all Cherokee tribal governments
- Reduced Cherokees to 2nd class citizens by depriving them of their right to testify against a white man.
During the two years following Jackson's election, Georgia unilaterally extended its laws to Cherokee territory. Cherokee lands were divided by lottery and the Cherokee were stripped of legal protection. Georgia citizens were free to kill, burn, and steal leading to the alternative of a war which would result in their annihilation. John Ross fought for his people's rights in the United States courts winning both cases brought before the Supreme Court: Cherokee Nation vs Georgia, 1831 and Worcester vs Georgia, 1832, (The decision), (about the Reverend Worcester case)
However referring to Worcester v. Georgia President Andrew Jackson stated "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it." defying treaties forced on the Cherokee through torture and coercion, defying the laws passed by the US Congress, defying the Supreme Court, a pattern of defial of US Law that Tennessee and Georgia still continue today. Without federal interference, Georgia and Tennessee began a reign of terror using arrest, murder and arson against the Cherokee. Ross was arrested, and the offices of the Cherokee Phoenix burned in May, 1834. The mansion of the wealthiest Cherokee, Joseph Vann, was confiscated by the Georgia militia, and the Moravian mission and school was converted into a militia headquarters. When Ross travelled to Washington to protest, Jackson refused to see him. Instead overtures were made to Major Ridge, his son John Ridge, and nephew Elias Boudinot (Buck Oowatie), editor of the Phoenix (Cherokee newspaper). The hopelessness of the situation finally convinced these men to sign the Treaty of New Echota (December, 1835) surrendering the Cherokee Nation's homeland in exchange for $5,000,000, seven million acres in Oklahoma, and an agreement to remove within two years.
1833: Treaty of 1833: "WHEREAS articles of convention were concluded at the city of Washington, on the sixth day of May one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, between James Barbour Secretary of War, being specially authorized therefor by the President of the United States and the chiefs and head men of the Cherokee nation of Indians west of the Mississippi, which articles of convention were duly ratified. And whereas it was agreed by the second article of said convention as follows " That the United States agree to possess the Cherokees, and to guarantee it to them forever, and that guarantee is solemnly pledged, of seven millions of acres of land,..."
December 29, 1835, Treaty at New Echota Georgia
Major Ridge, John Ridge and the Watie brothers (Stand Watie and Elias Boudinot) were the only prominent Cherokees to sign the Treaty of New Echota, in Georgia. Only 350 of 17,000 Cherokee actually endorsed the agreement with about 80 to 100 people present being eligible to vote. Ross and the legitimate council were nowhere near. The Ridges became known as the Treaty Party (Ridgites). Threatened by violence from their own people, the Ridge's and 2,000 family members quickly gathered their property and left for Oklahoma. Clearly the treaty was a fraud, and a petition of protest with 16,000 Cherokee signatures was dispatched to Washington to halt ratification. After violent debate, Jackson succeeded in pushing it through the Senate during May by the margin one vote dooming the Cherokee Nation. For the next two years, Ross tried every political and legal means to stop the removal, but failed. When the deadline arrived in May, 1838, 7,000 soldiers under General Winfield Scott moved into the Cherokee homeland. The Cherokee found that their reward for 'taking the white man�s road' was to be driven from their homes at gunpoint. It was the beginning of the Nunadautsun't or 'the trail where we cried.' History would call it the Trail of Tears. This treaty ended all Indian land claims in the Southeast. Many thousands of Cherokees died from disease, hunger, cold and deliberate brutality by volunteer Georgia troops and regulars led General Winfield Scott and others.
The treaty was roundly denounced by such unlikely allies as Davy Crockett and Daniel Webster. Cherokees in the East had to leave the Southeast in return for a payment of $15 million and 800,000 acres in Indian Territory (in what would become northeastern Oklahoma and part of Kansas). The Cherokees were to be removed within two years. The Ridge-Watie faction ("treaty party") thought the terms generous--that they had gotten a good price. Whether or not the terms were generous, the treaty was a disgrace, as it was opposed by some 90 percent of the tribe.
1846: Treaty of 1846 "...to assure the tribe or nation with which the exchange is made, that the United States will forever secure and guarantee to them, and their heirs or successors, the country so exchanged with them; and if they prefer it, that the United States will cause a patent or grant to be made and executed to them for the same: Provided, always, That such lands shall revert to the United States if the Indians become extinct or abandon the same."...
Friction between the Old Settlers and the immigrants caused this treaty to be drafted. However, note that the Old Settlers are only referred to in this treaty and not named since they resisted the exhange lands east for west and the termination of land rights in the Arkansas territory.
Old Settlers (Western Cherokee) claims

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