what was the journey of the cherokee to indian territory called
the Trail of Tears
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Cherokee removal Cherokee removal, part of the Trail of Tears, refers to the forced relocation between 1836 and 1839 of the Cherokee Nation from their lands in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Alabama to the Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma) in the then Western United States, and the resultant deaths along the way and at the end of the movement of an estimated 4000 Cherokee. The Cherokee have come to call the event "Nu na da ul tsun yi" (the place where they cried); another term is "Tlo va sa" (our removal)—both phrases not used at the
Cherokee removal
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that Georgia had no rights to enforce state laws in its territory. President Andrew Jackson refused to uphold the ruling of this case, and directed the expulsion of the Cherokee nation. U.S. Army forces were used in some cases to round them up. Their expulsion and subsequent route is called "The Trail of Tears." Of the 15,000 who left, 4,000 died on the journey to "Indian Territory" in the present-day U.S. state of Oklahoma. Cherokee Nation v. Georgia Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 30 U.S. (5 Pet.) 1 (1831), was a United States Supreme Court case. The Cherokee Nation sought a
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia
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fell solely into the hands of the whites. When the Cherokee were expelled by US forces from their villages, they were forced temporarily into "removal forts." One had been constructed in what is now Hiawassee, the county seat. They were forced to travel what is known as the Trail of Tears to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River, a journey during which many Cherokee died. As of the census of 2000, there were 9,319 people, 3,998 households, and 2,826 families residing in the county. The population density was 56 people per square mile (22/km²). There were 6,282 housing units
Towns County, Georgia
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Fort Cass Fort Cass, established in 1835, was an important site during the Cherokee removal from the Southeast, an extended forced removal known as the Trail of Tears for their overland journey to Indian Territory. Located on the Hiwassee River in present-day Charleston, Tennessee, Fort Cass housed a garrison of United States troops who watched over the largest concentration of internment camps where Cherokee were kept during the summer of 1838 before starting the main trek west to Indian Territory. The camps stretched for many miles through the valley south of Fort Cass toward present-day Cleveland, Tennessee. The Cherokee population
Fort Cass
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That year they signed the Treaty of New Echota with the United States, which forced the Cherokee to remove into the Ozarks in Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. They called their mass removal and overland journey the Trail of Tears, during which many people died of the thousands traveling. Nearby settlers knew a Cherokee woman who lived in the area until the 1850s; she refused to leave when her tribe was removed. The first written account of the falls was by William Williamson, who was exploring the area seeking land to claim in the Sixth Georgia Land Lottery.
Amicalola Falls State Park
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anthropologist Sharlotte Nealy, white teachers and boarding schools were forced on the Cherokee people in order to weaken and eliminate Cherokee culture while promoting American culture. Wachacha's grandson remembers Wachacha talking about her elder's experiences with the Trail of Tears. Not many Cherokee people wrote about this horrific journey; but nonetheless, this did not erase the Trail of Tears from the Cherokee historical memory through word of mouth. Wachacha's ancestors were some of the few Cherokee that were able to remain in North Carolina and avoid forced removal to Indian Territory. Wachacha was a clerk for the Eastern Band of
Maggie Axe Wachacha
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of Indian Removal from the Southeast to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). William Penn Adair was born on April 15, 1830, in the old Cherokee Nation in New Echota, Georgia. His parents were George Washington Adair (1806-1862) and Martha (née Martin) Adair. The family was forced to remove to Indian Territory in 1838, a process which their people called the Trail of Tears, because of the loss of their lands and the high number of deaths along the way. Adair attended Cherokee schools in Indian Territory, and studied law. He became a Freemason, belonging to the Vinita Lodge No. 5, which
William Penn Adair
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Assumption during the Chickasaw Wars. The Cherokee eventually moved south from the area now called Virginia. As European colonists spread into the area, the native populations were forcibly displaced to the south and west, including the Muscogee, Yuchi, Chickasaw and Choctaw peoples. Then, from 1838 to 1839, the US government forced the Cherokee to leave the eastern United States. Nearly 17,000 Cherokee were forced to march from eastern Tennessee to the Indian Territory west of the Arkansas Territory. This came to be known as the Trail of Tears, as an estimated 4,000 Cherokee died along the way. In the Cherokee
History of Tennessee
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and evicted the Cherokee and their slaves from their homes in the Southeast. They forced most of them west into Indian Territory (in eastern present-day Oklahoma). The Cherokee referred to their journey as the Trail of Tears. After his wife's death in 1836, Boudinot needed to relocate both himself and the children. He sent their son, Cornelius, to live with a family in Huntsville, Alabama, where he could be treated for his condition by a doctor. Another son traveled west with the Ridge family. The rest of the children were enrolled in school at Brainerd, where they could stay when
Elias Boudinot (Cherokee)
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Charles Thompson (Cherokee chief) Charles Thompson (Utselata, ᎤᏤᎳᏔ also ᎤᏤᎴᏛ in Cherokee) was born to a full-blood Cherokee father and a European-American mother in the Southeastern United States. According to one writer, the mother had been kidnapped at a young age and raised by Cherokees. She never learned the identities of her real parents nor when or where she was born. As a result, she did not speak English and could communicate only in Cherokee. The family migrated west to Indian Territory during the Trail of Tears, and settled near the present-day site of Lake Spavinaw, in what is now
Charles Thompson (Cherokee chief)
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known as Notchy Creek after the Natchez. The settlement was called Natchey Town or "Natsi-yi" (Cherokee for "Natchez Place"). It was the birthplace of the Cherokee leader Dragging Canoe, whose mother was Natchez. In later years Dragging Canoe's Cherokee father, "Attacullaculla", lived in Natchey Town. Most of the Natchez living with the Cherokee accompanied them in 1830 on the forced removal of the Trail of Tears to Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). A few remained in North Carolina. Their descendants are part of the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Some Cherokee-Natchez were permitted to remain in South Carolina as
Natchez people
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the historic Native Americans who occupied extensive areas along the Holston River at the time of European-American settlement. The United States settlers and army fought with the Cherokee over land in Tennessee, North Carolina, and further South into Georgia and Alabama. In the 1830s the government forced the Cherokee out on the Trail of Tears to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) west of the Mississippi River, under the authority of the Indian Removal Act passed by Congress in 1830. Maps by early French explorers in this area identified what is now known as the Holston River as the "Cherokee River", after
Holston River
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and Anna Kilpatrick. Cherokee removal, part of the Trail of Tears, refers to the forced relocation between 1836 and 1839 of the Cherokee Nation from their lands in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Alabama to the Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma) in the Central United States, which resulted in the death of an estimated 4000 Cherokee. In the Cherokee language, the event is called "Nu na da ul tsun yi" (the place where they cried); another term is "Tlo va sa" (our removal). However, this phrase was not used by Cherokee at the time, and seems to
History of the Cherokee language
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Cherokee families owning slaves. This was a higher percentage than generally across the South, where about 5% of families owned slaves. Cherokee slaveowners took their slaves with them on the Trail of Tears, the forced removal of Native Americans from their original lands to Indian Territory. Of the Five Civilized Tribes removed to Indian Territory, the Cherokee were the largest tribe and held the most enslaved African Americans. Prominent Cherokee slaveowners included the families of Joseph Lynch, Joseph Vann, Major Ridge, Stand Watie, Elias Boudinot, and Principal Chief John Ross. While slavery was less common among full-blood Cherokee, because these
Cherokee freedmen controversy
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Removal Act, a specific implementation of the Removal Policy, was signed by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830. The Act transformed most of the current state of Oklahoma into an Indian Territory, where southern aboriginal natives (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole, also called the Five Civilized Tribes) were relocated. The Trail of Tears is a name given to the forced relocation of the Choctaw Nation in 1831. In 1834, Congress created the first Indian Territory, with the Five Civilized Tribes occupying the land that became the State of Oklahoma, excluding its panhandle. See: Indian Territory in the American
Oklahoma Organic Act
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tribes from their homes east of the Mississippi River took place over several decades during the series of removals, which is also known as the Trail of Tears. The territory to which they were displaced was, at the time, called Indian Territory, currently eastern Oklahoma. The most infamous removal was the Cherokee Trail of Tears of 1838, when President Martin Van Buren enforced the contentious Treaty of New Echota with the Cherokee Nation. One point of contention regarding the treaty is whether it is an instrument of mass displacement in violation of the human rights on which the new republic
Five Civilized Tribes
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She was born about 1788 in Cherokee territory in present-day Tennessee and died September 1, 1839 in Fairfield, Cherokee Nation (Indian Territory). Children: Elly, Judge Jay, William Jr, Ruth, Carrington, Margaret, Abijah, Ella, and Sallie. Sallie died on the Trail of Tears Sept 1, 1839. William Hicks (Cherokee chief) William Abraham Hicks (1769 – c.1837, age 68) (Cherokee) was a leader and chosen interim Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation in October 1827. He succeeded his older brother Charles Hicks, who died in office in January that year, two weeks after coming to the position. The Cherokee Council named John
William Hicks (Cherokee chief)
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Southern Cherokee Nation of Kentucky The Southern Cherokee Nation of Kentucky (SCNK) is an unrecognized tribe based in Kentucky. Members of the SCNK claim descent from the Cherokee forcibly removed to Indian Territory in 1838, and to have first emerged as a distinct political faction known as the Treaty Party before the Trail of Tears, c. 1835. They report having fled Indian territory, after the American Civil War, c. 1871 for Kentucky to escape Reconstruction era violence. The City of Henderson, Kentucky published a proclamation stating they have been headquartered there since the late 19th century, and according to the
Southern Cherokee Nation of Kentucky
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most of the people refused to migrate, the U.S. Army removed them forcibly in what is called “The Trail of Tears" in 1838. Harriet died in 1836. After that, Boudinot moved with their children to Indian Territory. In 1839 he and three other treaty leaders were assassinated there by opponents of the 1835 Treaty, as by tribal law it was a capital crime to give up the Cherokee traditional communal lands. The orphaned Boudinot children were sent to their mother's Gold family in Connecticut, where they were raised and given European-American educations. After completing education up to age 18, son
Harriet R. Gold Boudinot
1929368
States and Spanish Mexico. This continued until the United States annexed Texas after the Mexican–American War, in 1846. The treaty was made shortly after "Old Settler" Cherokees moved to near what became known as Webbers Falls on the Arkansas River. That area, then part of Arkansas Territory would become Indian Territory and later Oklahoma, was traditional territory of the Osage, leading to conflict and a treaty in 1828 but still unresolved by the time thousands of additional Cherokee refugees moved to the area during the Trail of Tears. By the time Fort Smith was established in 1817, larger capacity watercraft
Arkansas River
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the Cherokee. After 1838, the US government forcibly rounded up the remaining Cherokee (along with their slaves) on tribal lands. They were the last people to make the journey that became known as the "Trail of Tears," during which nearly 4,000 Cherokee died. Accompanied by his wife, daughter, and one of son John's children, Major Ridge traveled by flatboat and steamer to a place in Indian Territory called Honey Creek, near the Arkansas-Missouri Border. The land Ridge had chosen was fifty miles from the territory assigned to the Cherokee. He no longer wished to live among his people. His son
Major Ridge
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Believing that removal was inevitable in the face of settlers' greed, they wanted to try to get the best lands and settlements possible. They moved with followers to Arkansas Territory, establishing what later became known as the Cherokee Nation West. They next moved to Indian Territory following an 1828 treaty between their leaders and the US government. They were called the "Old Settlers" in Indian Territory and lived there nearly a decade before the remainder of the Cherokee were forced to join them. Likewise, the remaining leaders of the Lower Towns proved to be the strongest advocates of voluntary westward
Chickamauga Cherokee
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Indian Removal of the Five Civilized Tribes from the Southeast region, to extinguish their land claims and allow European-American settlement in the area. They were given lands in what was called Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River, mostly in present-day Oklahoma. This part of Kansas was included at the time in the Cherokee Neutral Lands, and the county was named after this tribe. In 1854, the US organized the Kansas Territory. Settlers began to move into the territory, with violence breaking out between supporters of slavery and those who wanted to abolish it. In 1861, Kansas was admitted as
Cherokee County, Kansas
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the Native American groups were moved onto reservations in what is now Oklahoma, towns and trading posts were established. Eventually the present-day Oklahoma was divided into Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory. The history of Pond Creek and the surrounding area can be easily confused with other streams called Pond Creek (see e.g.). The present community of Pond Creek is located in what is called the Cherokee Strip, more properly known as the Cherokee Outlet. The land at the confluence of Osage Creek and Pond Creek was known as the Pond Creek Stockade on the original Chisholm Trail used by cattle
Pond Creek, Oklahoma
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Trail of Tears. The initial results were so disastrous that Cherokee leaders, including Goingsnake, successfully petitioned Scott for delays and to allow self-leadership of future detachments. Goingsnake left with the first detachment under Cherokee leadership, which departed on September 28, 1838. Arriving in Indian Territory after a 4-month journey, Goingsnake built his cabin on Ward Branch Creek about 6 miles north of present-day Westville, OK. Goingsnake's last recorded political service was participation in the general convention between the eastern and western Cherokee at Tahlequah, Indian Territory on July 12, 1839 He was 81 years old at that time. Shortly thereafter,
Goingsnake
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long. The cities of Enid, Woodward, and Ponca City would later be founded within the boundaries of what had been the Cherokee Outlet. The Cherokee Strip was a two-mile wide piece of land running along the northern border of much of the Cherokee Outlet. It was the result of a surveying error. The whole of the Cherokee Outlet is often called the Cherokee Strip. In 1836, the Treaty of New Echota between the Cherokees and the United States obligated the Cherokees to move west of the Mississippi River to lands assigned them in Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). Their new lands
Cherokee Outlet
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the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory to Texas in 1863 as refugees from the fighting during the American Civil War. His father's family had immigrated to Texas from Alabama. He was Cherokee through his mother, who was a member of the Long Hair Clan. According to the Cherokee matrilineal kinship system, he was considered born into her clan, receiving his social status from her people. In 1887 his family returned to Cherokee Nation lands in northeastern Indian Territory and settled near what is now Chelsea, Oklahoma. Milam attended the Cherokee Male Seminary, a tribally run college in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. In
J. B. Milam
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Cherokee (not just a Cherokee Freedman) listed on the Dawes Rolls (1902–1906). 23232 Indian Territory in the American Civil War During the American Civil War, most of what is now the U.S. state of Oklahoma was designated as the Indian Territory. It served as an unorganized region that had been set aside specifically for Native American tribes and was occupied mostly by tribes which had been removed from their ancestral lands in the Southeastern United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. As part of the Trans-Mississippi Theater, the Indian Territory was the scene of numerous skirmishes and seven
Indian Territory in the American Civil War
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Texas Cherokees Texas Cherokees were the small settlements of Cherokee people who lived temporarily in what is now Texas, after being forcibly relocated from their homelands, primarily during the time that Spain, and then Mexico, controlled the territory. After the Cherokee War of 1839, the Cherokee communities in Texas were once again forcibly removed to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. While scattered individuals remained in Texas and assimilated, surviving families who remained culturally Cherokee generally returned to the Cherokee Nation. In 1806 a band of Cherokee, most likely migrating south from the Arkansas area of the Louisiana Territory, founded a
Texas Cherokees
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to continue with Indian removal, and negotiated The Treaty of New Echota, on December 29, 1835, which granted Cherokee Indians two years to move to Indian Territory (modern Oklahoma). Only a fraction of the Cherokees left voluntarily. The U.S. government, with assistance from state militias, forced most of the remaining Cherokees west in 1838. The Cherokees were temporarily remanded in camps in eastern Tennessee. In November, the Cherokee were broken into groups of around 1,000 each and began the journey west. They endured heavy rains, snow, and freezing temperatures. When the Cherokee negotiated the Treaty of New Echota, they exchanged
Trail of Tears
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Indian Territory in 1839.) They bought back land in what is known as Qualla Boundary, part of their traditional territory that had been ceded to the US government by other Cherokee leaders prior to removal. Their Museum of the Cherokee Indian exhibits an extensive collection of artifacts and items of historical and cultural interest, from the early Mississippian Period, of which there are remains in the area, to the Cherokee Culture brought by their migrants in the 16th and 17th centuries. They are an Iroquoian-speaking people related to those nations in the Iroquois Confederacy and other Iroquoian-speaking groups traditionally occupying
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
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to present-day western North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. During and after the American Revolutionary War, European Americans came into increasing conflict with the Cherokee by migrating west of the Appalachian Mountains and encroaching on Cherokee territory. The Cherokee had tolerated traders but resisted settlers who tried to take over their territory. In 1819, the Cherokee Agency— the official liaison between the U.S. government and the Cherokee Nation— was moved to the Hiwassee area, a few miles north of what is now Cleveland. The Indian agent was Colonel Return J. Meigs. Charleston and Blythe Ferry (about 15 miles, or 24 kilometers,
Cleveland, Tennessee
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create a federal court for the Indian Territory, undermining the tribal courts. During his administration, the Cherokee strip cattle lease sale was negotiated at a rate double the prior lease, the cattle lease negotiated by Chief Bushyhead in 1883 having a five year term. The Cherokee Outlet sale opening lands to white settlers after massive emigration into what had been Creek tribal lands four years earlier also occurred suring his administration. U.S. Judge James M. Shackelford, established the first U.S. District Court in what had been Indian Territory at Muskogee on April 1, 1889. Mayes was easily re-elected to a
Joel B. Mayes
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United States Treasury subject to order of the Cherokee national council. Cherokee Strip (Kansas) The Cherokee Strip of Kansas, in the United States, was a disputed strip of land on the southern border of the state. In 1825 the Osage Nation was given a reservation in eastern Indian territory in what is now Kansas. In the Treaty of New Echota, May 23, 1836, the northern border of the Cherokee Nation's land was set as the southern border of the Osage lands. When Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act on May 30, 1854, it set the southern border of the Kansas Territory
Cherokee Strip (Kansas)
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became the "Sac River and White River Bands of the Chickamauga Cherokee Indian Nation of Arkansas and Missouri", which had its own split producing the "Chickamauga Cherokee Nation White River Band". Today, the Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory, continues as the only group that has claims state recognition in Missouri and Arkansas by way of two Governor's Proclamations and Resolutions. However, the Northern Cherokee Nation's claim of Missouri state recognition is sometimes called "misleading," because, according "to a master list maintained by the National Conference of State Legislatures, Missouri recognizes no Indian tribes except those recognized by
Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory
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Cherokee in the American Civil War The Cherokee in the American Civil War were active in the Trans-Mississippi and Western Theaters. In the east, Confederate Cherokees led by William Holland Thomas hindered Union forces trying to use the Appalachian mountain passes of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Out west, Confederate Cherokee Stand Watie led primarily Native Confederate forces in the Indian Territory, in what is now the state of Oklahoma. Before Indian Removal, the Cherokee Nation was centered in and around the Blue Ridge Mountains—southwestern North Carolina, southeastern Tennessee, western South Carolina and northeastern Georgia. The Cherokee attempted to
Cherokee in the American Civil War
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Owasso, Oklahoma Owasso is a city in Rogers and Tulsa Counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, and a northern suburb of Tulsa. The population was 28,915 at the 2010 census. Originally settled in 1881 in Indian Territory, the town incorporated in 1904 just prior to Oklahoma statehood and was chartered as a city in 1972. Scenes in "The Outsiders" film were shot in Owasso. Owasso began as a settlement in 1881, located in the Cooweescoowee District of the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory, near what is now 66th Street North and North 129th East Avenue. It was called Elm
Owasso, Oklahoma
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via land grant from the federal government of the United States or they purchased the land receiving fee simple recorded title. Many of the tribes forcibly relocated to Indian Territory were from Southeastern United States, including the so-called Five Civilized Tribes or Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creeks, and Seminole, but also the Natchez, Yuchi, Alabama, Koasati, and Caddo people. Between 1814 and 1840, the Five Civilized Tribes had gradually ceded most of their lands in the Southeast section of the US through a series of treaties. The southern part of Indian Country (what eventually became the State of Oklahoma) served
Indian Territory
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lawyer, defended him. Watie, a slave holder, developed a successful plantation on Spavinaw Creek in the Indian Territory. He served on the Cherokee Council from 1845 to 1861, and served as Speaker from 1857 to 1859. After John Ross fled to Federal-controlled territory in 1862, Watie replaced Ross as principal chief. Watie was the only Native American to rise to a brigadier general's rank in the Confederacy during the war. Fearful of the Federal Government and the threat to create a State (Oklahoma) out of most of, what was then, the semi-sovereign "Indian Territory", a majority of the Cherokee Nation
Stand Watie
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eight slave captives back to Choctaw territory. The fugitives killed the hunters and allowed the family to join their party. Although an Indian party had captured and killed some of the slaves near the beginning of their flight, the Cherokee sought reinforcements. They raised an armed group of more than 100 of their and Choctaw warriors to pursue and capture the fugitives. Five slaves were later executed for killing the two slave catchers. What has been described as "the most spectacular act of rebellion against slavery" among the Cherokee, the 1842 event inspired subsequent slave rebellions in the Indian Territory.
1842 Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation
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A mixed-blood named James Bigby, Jr. travelled to Indian Territory five times (three as government interpreter for different detachments, as Commissary for the Colston detachment, and as an individual in 1840). In addition, a small but significant number of mixed-bloods and whites with Cherokee families petitioned to become citizens of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, or Tennessee and thus ceased to be considered Cherokee. During the journey, it is said that the people would sing "Amazing Grace", using its inspiration to improve morale. The traditional Christian hymn had previously been translated into Cherokee by the missionary Samuel Worcester with
Cherokee removal
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Cherokee Strip (Kansas) The Cherokee Strip of Kansas, in the United States, was a disputed strip of land on the southern border of the state. In 1825 the Osage Nation was given a reservation in eastern Indian territory in what is now Kansas. In the Treaty of New Echota, May 23, 1836, the northern border of the Cherokee Nation's land was set as the southern border of the Osage lands. When Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act on May 30, 1854, it set the southern border of the Kansas Territory as the 37th parallel north. It was thought at the time
Cherokee Strip (Kansas)
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up land to the Cherokee. In the late 1830s and 1840, the mass of thousands of Cherokee from the Southeast were forcibly moved into Indian Territory as a result of the US policy of Indian Removal. Webber had settled here with some of the first Cherokee to go to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River; it was then considered part of Arkansas Territory. He opened a trading post and a portage service, as well as building a house. Of mixed-race Cherokee-European descent, Webber was married to a full-blood Cherokee. They had adopted many American ways and outfitted their house
Webbers Falls, Oklahoma
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Cherokee Outlet The Cherokee Outlet, or Cherokee Strip, was located in what is now the state of Oklahoma in the United States. It was a sixty-mile (97 km) wide parcel of land south of the Oklahoma-Kansas border between the 96th and 100th meridians. The Cherokee Outlet was created in 1836. The United States forced the Cherokee Nation of Indians to cede to the United States all lands east of the Mississippi River in exchange for a reservation and an "outlet" in Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). At the time of its creation, the Cherokee Outlet was about 225 miles (360 km)
Cherokee Outlet
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an unknown servant traveled into the Overhill settlements area to deliver a copy of the treaty with Virginia to the Cherokee. Timberlake's diary and map of his journey ("see above"), were published in 1765. His diary contained what historians assessed was an accurate description of Cherokee culture. Pro-French leader, Standing Turkey, was deposed and replaced as "First Beloved Man" with the pro-British Attakullakulla. John Stuart became British Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southern District, based out of Charlestown, South Carolina, and was the main liaison between the Cherokee and the British government. His first deputy, Alexander Cameron, lived among
Anglo-Cherokee War
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Narcissa Chisholm Owen Narcissa Chisholm Owen (October 3, 1831 – July 11, 1911) was an American educator, memoirist and artist of the late 19th and early 20th century. The "mother of Cherokee painting", she was the daughter of Old Settler Cherokee chief Thomas Chisholm, wife of Virginia state senator Robert L. Owen Sr. and mother of U.S. Senator Robert Latham Owen Jr. Born on October 3, 1831 in a log cabin near Webbers Falls (in what was then Arkansas Territory, soon became Indian Territory and would become Oklahoma) to Cherokee chieftain Thomas H. Chisholm (1790–1834) and his Virginia-born wife Malinda
Narcissa Chisholm Owen
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it and moved west. Looney's Reservation was never surveyed. Around 1828 Looney and the other Cherokee who lived in Arkansas were forced to move farther west into what later became Indian Territory (N.E. Oklahoma). This group of Cherokee were recognized as the "Western Cherokee" and sometimes referred to as the "Old Settlers" or the "Old Settlers-Treaty Party". John Looney, who had been elected as Third Chief, became Principal Chief of the Western Cherokee after the death of John Jolly on December 28, 1838. It was about this time that the Eastern Cherokee were arriving from the west due to their
John Looney (Cherokee chief)
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and allow the construction of military posts and roads within the Cherokee Nation. However, no Indian regiment was to be called on to fight outside Indian Territory. As a result of the treaty, the 2nd Cherokee Mounted Rifles, led by Col. John Drew, was formed. Following the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, March 7–8, 1862, Drew's Mounted Rifles defected to the Union forces in Kansas, where they joined the Indian Home Guard. In the summer of 1862, Federal troops captured Chief Ross, who was paroled and spent the remainder of the war in Washington and Philadelphia proclaiming Cherokee loyalty to
Native Americans in the American Civil War
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Southeast to Indian Territory in what became known as the 1838 Trail of Tears. By the 1880s, all Cherokee people faced increased pressure by the US government for assimilation. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Cherokee and other Native American children were sent to Indian boarding schools away from home for their education: they were expected to speak only English, were generally prohibited from speaking their own languages, and were expected to adopt Christianity rather than practice native spirituality. The US federal government unilaterally closed and seized Cherokee and other Native American governmental and public institutions through the
United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians
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speech, he published his speech in a pamphlet by the same title. "An Address to the Whites" was well received and "proved to be remarkably effective at fund-raising". The Indian removal policy was a result of the discovery of gold in Cherokee territory, the growth of the cotton industry, and the relentless European-American desire for land in the Southeast. European Americans resented Cherokee control of their lands, and conflicts increasingly arose. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 called for all Indian peoples living east of the Mississippi River to be removed and sent west beyond the river. While the majority
Elias Boudinot (Cherokee)
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respective states, mostly mixed-bloods and Cherokee women married to white men. Together, these groups were the basis for what is now known as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The American Civil War was devastating for both East and Western Cherokees. Those Cherokees aided by William Thomas became the Thomas Legion of Cherokee Indians and Highlanders, fighting for the Confederacy in the American Civil War. Cherokees in Indian Territory split into Confederate and Union factions. As in southern states, the end of the Civil War brought freedom to enslaved African Americans held by Cherokee. By an 1866 treaty with the
Cherokee history
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Cherokee Male Seminary The Cherokee Male Seminary was a tribal college established in 1846 by the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory. Opening in 1851, it was one of the first institutions of higher learning in the United States to be founded west of the Mississippi River. After removal to Indian Territory, the Cherokee Nation worked to rebuild its institutions and society. In October 1846, Chief John Ross submitted a proposal to the Cherokee National Council to pass legislation for the creation of institutions of higher learning for both Cherokee men and women. On November 26, 1846 the Council passed a
Cherokee Male Seminary
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law was amended so that the punishment for non-Cherokee citizens teaching blacks was a request for removal from the Cherokee Nation by authorities. After removal to Indian Territory with the Cherokee, enslaved African Americans initiated several revolts and escape attempts, attesting to their desire for freedom. In the Cherokee Slave Revolt of 1842, several African-American slaves in Indian Territory, including 25 held by Cherokee planter Joseph Vann, left their respective plantations near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma to escape to Mexico. The slaves were captured by a Cherokee militia under the command of Captain John Drew of the Cherokee Lighthorse near Fort
Cherokee freedmen controversy
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Joel B. Mayes Joel Bryan Mayes ("Tsa-wa Gak-ski", in Cherokee) (1833 – 1891) was Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. He was born on October 2, 1833 in present-day Carterville, Bartow County, Georgia to the former Nancy Adair (b. 1808, and part-Cherokee) and her husband Samuel Mayes (1803-1858, and adopted into the Cherokee tribe upon his marriage in 1825). In 1838, Samuel Mayes and his family (as well as the Adair family and others of mixed Scots/Irish and Cherokee ancestry and their slaves), relocated across the Mississippi River into what was then Indian Territory. Many of these "Old Settlers" had
Joel B. Mayes
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Ross (who was primarily Scottish) while the mixed-blooded Cherokee supported the 3/4 Cherokee Stand Watie. Stand Watie in 1862 was elected Chief of the newly declared Southern Cherokee Nation. For the duration of the war, a series of small battles and constant guerrilla warfare were waged by Cherokee in the Indian Territory. Stand Watie officially became the last Confederate general to end fighting on June 25, 1865 at Fort Towson, in the southeast portion of the Indian Territory. The terms of the armistice allowed Watie and his command, the First Indian Brigade of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi, to demobilize
Cherokee in the American Civil War
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Cherokee Nation (1794–1907) The Cherokee Nation (ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ, pronounced "Tsalagihi Ayeli") from 1794–1907 was a legal, autonomous, tribal government in North America recognized from 1794 to 1907. Often referred to simply as ""The Nation"" by its inhabitants, it should not be confused with what is known in the 21st century also as the Cherokee Nation. It consisted of the Cherokee (ᏣᎳᎩ —pronounced "Tsalagi" or "Cha-la-gee") people of the Qualla Boundary and the southeastern United States; those who relocated voluntarily from the southeastern United States to the Indian Territory (circa 1820 —known as the "Old Settlers"); those who were forced by
Cherokee Nation (1794–1907)
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initially voted to support the Confederacy in the American Civil War for pragmatic reasons, though less than a tenth of the Cherokee owned slaves. Watie organized a regiment of cavalry. In October 1861, he was commissioned as colonel in what would become the 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles. Although he fought Federal troops, he also led his men in fighting between factions of the Cherokee and in attacks on Cherokee civilians and farms, as well as against the Creek, Seminole and others in Indian Territory who chose to support the Union. Watie is noted for his role in the Battle of
Stand Watie
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guaranteed protection, rations of food, livestock, tools and other goods, as well as a delegate to the Confederate Congress at Richmond. In exchange, the Cherokee would furnish ten companies of mounted men, and allow the construction of military posts and roads within the Cherokee Nation. However, no Indian regiment was to be called on to fight outside Indian Territory. As a result of the Treaty, the 2nd Cherokee Mounted Rifles, led by Col. John Drew, was formed. Following the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, March 7–8, 1862, Drew's Mounted Rifles defected to the Union forces in Kansas, where they joined
Native Americans in the American Civil War
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plus Wyandot, Ojibwa, Ottawa, Potowatomi, Mingo, and Muscogee warriors, and a company of Canadian militia under Alexander McKillop. The short battle ended in a complete rout of the Indian force by the Legion more than twice its size and sounded the death knell of the Western Confederacy. In August 1794, the US Indian Agent to the Chickasaw sent word from Chickasaw territory to General Robertson of the Mero District (allegedly a misspelling of the name Don Estevan Miro, who was then the so-called Governor of New Orleans ), as the Cumberland region was then called, that the Cherokee and Muscogee
Cherokee–American wars
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cotton, corn, hemp, and tobacco. Most of the men also had large cattle and horse herds. By 1860, the Cherokee held an estimated 4,600 slaves, and depended on them as farm laborers and domestic servants. At the time of the Civil War, a total of more than 8,000 slaves were held in all of the Indian Territory, where they comprised 14 percent of the population. The mass escape of 20 enslaved African Americans from the Cherokee territory began on November 15, 1842, and has been called "the most spectacular act of rebellion against slavery" among the Cherokee. Most of the
1842 Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation
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River, they followed routes previously established by the Choctaws and the Creeks. Once in Indian Territory, the Chickasaws merged with the Choctaw nation. By 1838, about 2,000 Cherokee had voluntarily relocated from Georgia to Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma). Forcible removals began in May 1838 when General Winfield Scott received a final order from President Martin Van Buren to relocate the remaining Cherokees. Approximately 4,000 Cherokees died in the ensuing trek to Oklahoma. In the Cherokee language, the event is called "nu na da ul tsun yi" ("the place where they cried") or "nu na hi du na tlo hi
Trail of Tears
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gold-mining missions as regular proselytizing missions. By the time of the Utah War, the California Mission had largely stopped functioning. The Sandwich Islands Mission was begun in 1850. Among the first missionaries sent to what are now called the Hawaiian Islands was George Q. Cannon who converted Jonatana Napela. The two of them translated the "Book of Mormon" into Hawaiian, and the church was able to gain many native Hawaiian converts. The last antebellum mission was the Indian Territory Mission. Organized in 1855 with Henry W. Miller as president, this mission mainly focused on teaching the Cherokee in what is
Mission (LDS Church)
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History of Alabama Alabama became a state of the United States of America on December 14, 1819. The United States arranged for Indian Removal after 1830, relocating most Southeast tribes to west of the Mississippi River to what was then called Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). These actions affected the Cherokee, Creek (Muscogee), and Chickasaw, among others. After this, European-American arrived in large numbers, bringing or buying African Americans in the domestic slave trade. In antebellum Alabama, wealthy planters created large cotton plantations based in the fertile central Black Belt of the upland region, which depended on the labor of enslaved
History of Alabama
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more difficult, as the offices had offered both services. The article is largely copied from History of Alabama Alabama became a state of the United States of America on December 14, 1819. The United States arranged for Indian Removal after 1830, relocating most Southeast tribes to west of the Mississippi River to what was then called Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). These actions affected the Cherokee, Creek (Muscogee), and Chickasaw, among others. After this, European-American arrived in large numbers, bringing or buying African Americans in the domestic slave trade. In antebellum Alabama, wealthy planters created large cotton plantations based in the
History of Alabama
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Indian Territory. Upon arrival in Indian Territory, the Moravians selected a spot north of Tahlequah, the new Cherokee Nation capital, to found New Springplace Indian Mission, near current-day Oaks. The area selected was a beautiful one with plentiful oak trees (which is probably where Oaks got its name from) and a spring creek (today called Spring Creek), and the site was on the military road from Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, to St. Louis, Missouri. The Civil War temporarily closed the mission, but work resumed until 1902, when Danish Lutherans took over. Also in 1902, Oaks-Mission School was formed to accommodate
Oaks, Oklahoma
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Samuel Houston Mayes Samuel Houston Mayes (May 11, 1845 – December 12, 1927) of Scots/English-Cherokee descent, was elected as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), serving from 1895 to 1899. His maternal grandfather belonged to the Deer clan, and his father was allied with members of the Cherokee Treaty Party in the 1830s, such as the Adair men, Elias Boudinot, and Major Ridge. In the late nineteenth century, his older brother Joel B. Mayes was elected to two terms as Chief of the Cherokee. Born in Indian Territory, Mayes attended a Cherokee school, served with
Samuel Houston Mayes
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government counted the remainder of tribal land as "surplus" and sold it to non-Cherokee individuals. The Curtis Act of 1898 dismantled tribal governments, courts, schools, and other civic institutions. For Indian Territory, this meant abolition of the Cherokee courts and governmental systems. This was seen as necessary before the Oklahoma and Indian territories could be admitted as a combined state. In 1905, the Five Civilized Tribes of the Indian Territory proposed the creation of the State of Sequoyah as one to be exclusively Native American, but failed to gain support in Washington, D.C.. In 1907, the Oklahoma and Indian Territories
Cherokee
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book, showed the Rickohockens occupying all of present-day southwestern Virginia, southeastern Kentucky, northwestern North Carolina and the northeastern tip of Tennessee. Needham departed with a guide nicknamed 'Indian John' while Arthur was left behind to learn the Cherokee language. On his journey, Needham engaged in an argument with 'Indian John', resulting in his death. 'Indian John' then tried to encourage his tribe to kill Arthur but the chief prevented this. Arthur, disguised as a Cherokee, accompanied the chief of the Cherokee tribe at Chota on raids of Spanish settlements in Florida, Indian communities on the east coast, and Shawnee towns
Cherokee history
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laws dissolving tribal government and regulating residency on American Indian lands. In 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected president, and he supported Indian removal, signing legislation to that effect by Congress in 1830. Later he used US Army forces to remove the remnants of the Southeastern Indian tribes through the 1830s. The Creek, the Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Chickasaw and the Seminole were all removed to Indian Territory. Following Indian Removal, the Muscogee reorganized in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). In 1867 they founded a new capital, which they called "Okmulgee" in honor of their sacred mounds on the plateau of
Ocmulgee National Monument
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1842 Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation The 1842 Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation, then located in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) west of the Mississippi River, was the largest escape of a group of slaves to occur among the Cherokee. The slave revolt started on November 15, 1842, when a group of 20 African-American slaves owned by the Cherokee escaped and tried to reach Mexico, where slavery had been abolished in 1836. Along their way south, they were joined by 15 slaves escaping from the Creek in Indian Territory. The fugitives met with two slave catchers taking a family of
1842 Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation
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Indian Territory working the Seneca Circuit. Daniel died in 1843, but Adams continued working for the Methodist Mission Service. Adams married a second time with a Cherokee newspaper editor, John Walker Candy, whose Cherokee name was Dâguwadâ. His first wife was Mary Ann Watie, sister of Stand Watie. He had begun his career as a printer in New Echota, Georgia first serving as an apprentice on the "Cherokee Phoenix". John came to the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory one year prior to the removal to establish the printing office at the Union Mission. In 1840, he printed the earliest volume
Electa Quinney
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Sequoyah and his quest to unite Cherokee factions, J. B. Milam funded an expedition to Mexico to find Sequoyah's gravesite. Cherokee and non-Cherokee scholars drove from Oklahoma to Eagle Pass, Texas in January 1939. They discovered what they believed to be his grave near a spring in the Mexican state of Coahuila; however, they could not conclusively prove the grave belonged to Sequoyah. The Cherokee Nation's tribal government had been dismantled by the US Federal government under the Curtis Act of 1898, an amendment to the Dawes Act that applied to the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory in allotting
J. B. Milam
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History of Tulsa, Oklahoma This article traces the history of Tulsa, part of present-day Oklahoma. What was to ultimately become Tulsa was part of Indian Territory, which was created as part of the relocation of the Five Civilized Tribes—the Choctaw, Cherokee, Muscogee(Creek), Chickasaw, and Seminole peoples. These Native American tribes moved into the region after the passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, when they were forced to surrender their lands east of the Mississippi River to the federal government in exchange for land in Indian Territory. Each of the larger tribes was given extensive land holdings, individual governments
History of Tulsa, Oklahoma
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of African-American ancestors. In the Indian Territory in what is the present-day state of Oklahoma, the Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, Cherokee, and Natchez formed the Four Mothers Society to resist the federal government's attempts of forced assimilation and breakup of the five civilized tribes. Some people who are ineligible for tribal membership join Heritage groups to identify with the Cherokee people. This identification may be based on documented distant heritage, or family rumors, or on unfounded myths about Native American history. While it is true that some Cherokee avoided enrollment, in those cases they almost always married into non-Native families and
Cherokee heritage groups
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Jemima Boone said, "The Indians were kind to us, as much so as they well could have been, or their circumstances permitted." The Cherokee may have abducted the girls as a response to what they viewed as D. Boone's failure to observe Cherokee treaties. The Treaty of the Green River Wilderness promised Kentucky to Cherokee Tribe for "as long as the waters flow." Daniel Boone may have also been initiated into Cherokee Tribe as an adopted man. Daniel Boone may have also had Indian wives. The Cherokee claimed most of what is now called Kentucky, and some Cherokee Chiefs were
Capture and rescue of Jemima Boone
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took over as principal chief of the pro-Union Cherokee. Following Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, Pegg called a special session of the Cherokee National Council. On February 18, 1863, it passed a resolution to emancipate all slaves within the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation. After many Cherokee fled north to Kansas or south to Texas for safety, pro-Confederates took advantage of the instability and elected Stand Watie principal chief. Ross' supporters refused to recognize the validity of the election. Open warfare broke out between Confederate and Union Cherokee within Indian Territory, the damage heightened by brigands with no allegiance
Stand Watie
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cease hostilities if they could their arms for hunting. Brigadier General Stand Watie, commanding officer of the First Indian Brigade of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi and Principal Chief of the Confederate Cherokee, demobilized his forces under a cease-fire agreement with the Union commander at Fort Towson (in Choctaw Nation territory) on July 23, 1865. The Civil War was devastating for the Western Cherokee, who fought on both sides. After their forced removal from their southern homelands to the Indian Territory, the Cherokee were wary of the south; however, the Confederacy wooed them with promises of autonomy and land security.
Cherokee military history
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Nancy Fields, around 1809. The ferry was an important river crossing on the "Great Road" between Chattanooga and Knoxville. Blythe sold the ferry in 1825, and the Blythe family would make the trek west with the Cherokee in the 1830s. In 1836, the Treaty of New Echota was ratified, transferring all Cherokee lands east of the Mississippi River to the United States. The treaty called for a general relocation of the Cherokee Nation to the Indian Territory (modern Oklahoma). In 1838, President Martin Van Buren ordered General Winfield Scott to round up all Cherokees who had not voluntarily made the
Blythe Ferry
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In 1836, the Cherokee relinquished control of the Copper Basin to the U.S. government as part of lands they ceded in Tennessee and Georgia in the Treaty of New Echota. Although the U.S. removed many of the basin's Cherokee inhabitants in the march to Indian Territory, some avoided the roundup by hiding out in the surrounding mountains. They would later help build the Old Copper Road (now part of US-64). In the 1840s and 1850s, Ducktown was called "Hiwassee" or "Hiawassee," after the Cherokee name for a major river in the area. This name was subsequently adopted for the city's
Ducktown, Tennessee
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18th century, in what is called ethnogenesis, from Muscogee (Creek) and Florida tribes. They incorporated some Africans who had escaped from slavery. Other maroons formed separate communities near the Seminole, and were allied with them in military actions. Much intermarriage took place. African Americans living near the Seminole were called Black Seminoles. Several hundred people of African descent traveled with the Seminole when they were removed to Indian Territory. Others stayed with a few hundred Seminole in Florida. By contrast, an 1835 census of the Cherokee showed that 10% were of African descent. In those years, censuses of the tribes
Black Indians in the United States
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Battle of the Neches The Battle of the Neches, the main engagement of the Cherokee War of 1838–1839 (part of the Texas-Indian Wars), took place on 15–16 July in 1839 in what is now the Redland community (between Tyler and Ben Wheeler, Texas). It resulted from the Córdova Rebellion and Texas President Lamar's determination to remove the Cherokee people from Texas. Many had migrated there from the American Southeast to avoid being forced to Indian Territory in present-day Kansas and Oklahoma. During Sam Houston's first term as President of Texas, while maintaining the Rangers to police rogue Indians, Houston used
Battle of the Neches
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selling them to eastern Cherokee. Accounts differ as to whether chief Clermont was killed in the raid. After the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was passed by Congress, this area was designated as part of Indian Territory and the Cherokee Nation were assigned much of this territory. Claremore and the mound ere within a part of the Cooweescoowee District in the northwestern part of the Cherokee Nation. The Rogers family, for whom the county is named, were among the first European-American settlers. Clem Rogers, father of the famous entertainer Will Rogers, moved to the county in 1856. He acquired lands
Claremore, Oklahoma
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Act of 1830, the U.S. government forced most of the members of these Southeast tribes to go west of the Mississippi River to Indian Territory to the west. They wanted to extinguish their land claims to open the area to development by European-American settlers. Numerous Cherokee and mixed-race European-Cherokee descendants, sometimes called "Black Dutch", have stayed in the Lawrence County area. According to the census, the county has the highest number of self-identified Native Americans in the state. The state-recognized Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama has 4,000 enrolled members. The Cherokee Nation opposes federal recognition of this tribe. According to
Lawrence County, Alabama
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William Wirt Hastings William Wirt Hastings (December 31, 1866 – April 8, 1938) was an American politician and a U.S. Representative from Oklahoma. Born on a farm in Benton County, Arkansas, near the Indian Territory boundary, Hastings was the son of William Archibald "Yell" and Louisa J. Stover Hastings, and moved with his parents to a farm at Beatties Prairie, Delaware County (then part of the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory), Oklahoma, and attended the Cherokee tribal school. He graduated from Cherokee Male Seminary, at Tahlequah, in 1884. He was married to Lula Mayfield Starr on December 9, 1896, and
William Wirt Hastings
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Will Rogers William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American stage and motion picture actor, vaudeville performer, American cowboy, humorist, newspaper columnist, and social commentator from Oklahoma. He was a Cherokee citizen born in the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory. Known as "Oklahoma's Favorite Son", Rogers was born to a Cherokee family in Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma). As an entertainer and humorist, he traveled around the world three times, made 71 films (50 silent films and 21 "talkies"), and wrote more than 4,000 nationally syndicated newspaper columns. By the mid-1930s Rogers was hugely
Will Rogers
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pamphlets, educational materials, legal documents and books were translated into the Cherokee language. Thousands of Cherokee became literate and the literacy rate for Cherokee in the syllabary was higher than that of whites in the English alphabet. Though use of the Cherokee syllabary declined after many of the Cherokee were relocated to Indian Territory, present day Oklahoma, it has survived in private correspondence, renderings of the Bible, and descriptions of Indian medicine and now can be found in books and on the internet among other places. In 1827, the Cherokee National Council appropriated funds to print a newspaper. The "Cherokee
History of the Cherokee language
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US agents and going to Washington, DC for meetings. The Western Cherokee resisted sharing their territory with immigrants to be resettled from the Southeast, as the US government proposed in 1834. They finally agreed that year, in exchange for an increased amount of land and annuities. In the late 1830s and 1840, the mass of thousands of Cherokee from the Southeast were forcibly moved into Indian Territory as a result of the US policy of Indian Removal. "Rich Joe" Vann, among the thousands of Cherokee emigrants forced from Georgia during Indian Removal, settled nearby and established a plantation, where he
Webbers Falls, Oklahoma
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Territory (present-day Oklahoma); the community was a crossroads of many Indian nations. In the summer of 1843, Stanley went to the council at Tahlequah called by the Cherokee chief John Ross and the Republic of Texas. An estimated 10,000 Native Americans of 17 tribes attended to negotiate peace with Texas, as did many European Americans. Stanley spent four weeks there and worked intensely through the next three months to complete his numerous paintings of individuals and tribal groups. He also spent more time with Cherokee and Creek groups, painting portraits. That fall he accompanied the party of the US Indian
John Mix Stanley
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Tears and a hundred years after the allotment of Indian Territory. In "Our Fire Survives the Storm", Daniel Heath Justice traces the expression of Cherokee identity in that nation’s literary tradition. Through cycles of war and peace, resistance and assimilation, trauma and regeneration, Cherokees have long debated what it means to be Cherokee through protest writings, memoirs, fiction, and retellings of traditional stories. Justice employs the Chickamauga consciousness of resistance and Beloved Path of engagement—theoretical approaches that have emerged out of Cherokee social history—to interpret diverse texts composed in English, a language embraced by many as a tool of both
Daniel Heath Justice
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Harriett married, he and several other Cherokee leaders of the Treaty Party signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835 with the U.S. Government. Signatories included John Ridge. They believed that removal to Indian Territory was inevitable and sought to make the best deal for the nation to protect its future. Their decision and the treaty was opposed by a majority of the Nation, many chiefs of the National Council, and the Principal Chief John Ross. The treaty Cherokee leaders agreed to cede their lands in Cherokee Nation (Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina) and relocate to Indian Territory. When
Harriet R. Gold Boudinot
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objective was to prevent the newspaper from falling under the influence of John Ross. The state militia was organized to police the Cherokee territory which the state had claimed. The "Cherokee Phoenix" published intermittently after Cherokee removal to Indian Territory. Since the late 20th century, it has been revived and is now published by the Cherokee Nation as a monthly broadsheet in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The newspaper has modernized. It publishes on the Internet and is available on the iPhone, and there is a print version. A digitized, searchable version of the paper is available through the University of Georgia libraries
Cherokee Phoenix
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the American Civil War. Cherokee in Indian Territory divided into Union and Confederate factions, with most supporting the Confederacy. Stand Watie, the leader of the Ridge Party, raised a regiment for Confederate service in 1861. John Ross, who had reluctantly agreed to ally with the Confederacy, was captured by Federal troops in 1862. He lived in self-imposed exile in Philadelphia, supporting the Union. In Indian Territory, the national council of those who supported the Union voted to abolish slavery in the Cherokee Nation in 1863, but they were not the majority slaveholders and the vote had little effect on those
Cherokee
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Fort Smith during the 1830s era of Indian Removal, primarily of tribes from the American Southeast to west of the Mississippi River in Indian Territory, which is now Oklahoma. In 1838 the Army moved back into the old military post near Belle Point, and expanded the base. They used troops to escort Choctaw and Cherokee, from their ancestral homelands in the Southeast; they were the last of the tribes to leave. Remnants of the Five Civilized Tribes remained in the southeast, and their descendants in some cases have reorganized and been federally recognized. The Cherokee called the forced march the
Fort Smith, Arkansas
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John Ross (Cherokee chief) John Ross () (October 3, 1790 – August 1, 1866), (meaning in Cherokee: "Mysterious Little White Bird"), was the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1828–1866, serving longer in this position than any other person. Described as the Moses of his people, Ross influenced the Indian nation through such tumultuous events as the relocation to Indian Territory and the American Civil War. John Ross was the son of a Cherokee mother and a Scottish father. His mother and maternal grandmother were of mixed Scots-Cherokee ancestry, since his maternal grandfather was another Scottish immigrant. As a
John Ross (Cherokee chief)
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Cherokee Male Seminary. The tribe continued using the school building as a co-educational facility after Oklahoma statehood, but it burnt down in 1910. The last students graduated that year, with commencement ceremonies being held at Northeastern State Normal School. The Cherokee Nation has not operated a tribal college since then. Cherokee Male Seminary The Cherokee Male Seminary was a tribal college established in 1846 by the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory. Opening in 1851, it was one of the first institutions of higher learning in the United States to be founded west of the Mississippi River. After removal to Indian
Cherokee Male Seminary
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James Robertson (explorer) James Robertson (June 28, 1742 – September 1, 1814) was an American explorer, soldier and Indian agent, and one of the founding fathers of what became the State of Tennessee. An early companion of explorer Daniel Boone, Robertson helped establish the Watauga Association in the early 1770s, and to defend Fort Watauga from an attack by Cherokee in 1776. In 1779, he co-founded what is now Nashville, and was instrumental in the settlement of Middle Tennessee. He served as a brigadier general in the Southwest Territory militia in the early 1790s, and as an Indian Commissioner in
James Robertson (explorer)
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university has many courses focused on Native American linguistics, and offers Cherokee language Education as a major. Cherokee can be studied as a second language, and some classes are taught in Cherokee for first language speakers as well. On May 7, 1851, the Cherokee Nation founded the "Cherokee National Female Seminary" at Tahlequah, the same year that it opened a male seminary in its territory. This was after its removal to Indian Territory and part of its building institutions to support its future. On March 6, 1909, after statehood, the State Legislature of Oklahoma passed an act providing for the
Northeastern State University
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new Indian Territory. Andrew Jackson said the removal policy was an effort to prevent the Cherokee from facing extinction as a people, which he considered the fate that "the Mohegan, the Narragansett, and the Delaware" had suffered. But, there is ample evidence that the Cherokee were adapting modern farming techniques. A modern analysis shows that the area was in general in a state of economic surplus and could have accommodated both the Cherokee and new settlers. The Cherokee brought their grievances to a US judicial review that set a precedent in Indian Country. John Ross traveled to Washington, D.C., and
Cherokee
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Stand Watie. Believing that Indian Removal was inevitable, they supported making a treaty with the United States government to protect Cherokee rights. The Ridges and Boudinot were both signatories to the Treaty of New Echota of 1835, by which they ceded Cherokee lands east of the Mississippi in exchange for lands in Indian Territory. The land cession was opposed by the majority of the tribe and the Principal Chief John Ross, but the treaty was ratified by the US Senate. In 1839, after removal to Indian Territory, opponents assassinated the Ridges, Boudinot, and other Treaty Party members for their roles
John Ridge
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Battle of Chusto-Talasah The Battle of Chusto-Talasah (also known as Bird Creek, Caving Banks, and High Shoal) was fought December 9, 1861, in what is now Tulsa County, Oklahoma (then Indian Territory) during the American Civil War. It was the second of three battles in the Trail of Blood on Ice campaign for the control of Indian Territory during the American Civil War. A series of battles were fought in December in bad weather between the Confederate Cherokee and Choctaw Indians and the Union Creek and Seminole Indians (led by the Muscogee Creek chief Opothleyahola) who supported the Federal government.
Battle of Chusto-Talasah
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There are still remnant earthworks at the site. The settlement was located in what was then the southwesternmost part of the original Cherokee Nation (in present-day DeKalb and Etowah counties of Alabama) prior to the Indian removal of 1836. It was commonly called "Willstown" after its headman, a red-headed man of mixed-race named Will Weber (also known as "RedHead Chief Will"), who was famous for his mane of thick red hair. The town, which had sometimes also been called Wattstown because Chickamauga leader, John Watts, had used it as his headquarters, was founded during the Cherokee–American wars, and served as
Willstown (Cherokee town)