Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney
1817. They viewed with jealous and aching hearts all attempts to drive
1260 words | Chapter 16
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." [254]
Two months after the signing of the treaty of July 8, 1817, and
three months before its ratification, a council of the nation sent
a delegation to Washington to recount in detail the improper methods
and influences which had been used to consummate it, and to ask that
it be set aside and another agreement substituted. The mission was
without result. [255]
In 1817 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
established its first station among the Cherokee at Brainerd, in
Tennessee, on the west side of Chickamauga creek, two miles from
the Georgia line. The mission took its name from a distinguished
pioneer worker among the northern tribes (37). The government aided
in the erection of the buildings, which included a schoolhouse,
gristmill, and workshops, in which, besides the ordinary branches,
the boys were taught simple mechanic arts while the girls learned the
use of the needle and the spinningwheel. There was also a large work
farm. The mission prospered and others were established at Willstown,
Hightower, and elsewhere by the same board, in which two hundred pupils
were receiving instruction in 1820. [256] Among the earliest and most
noted workers at the Brainerd mission were Reverend D. S. Buttrick and
Reverend S. A. Worcester (38), the latter especially having done much
for the mental elevation of the Cherokee, and more than once having
suffered imprisonment for his zeal in defending their cause. The
missions flourished until broken up by the state of Georgia at the
beginning of the Removal troubles, and they were afterwards renewed
in the western country. Mission ridge preserves the memory of the
Brainerd establishment.
Early in 1818 a delegation of emigrant Cherokee visited Washington
for the purpose of securing a more satisfactory determination of
the boundaries of their new lands on the Arkansas. Measures were
soon afterward taken for that purpose. They also asked recognition
in the future as a separate and distinct tribe, but nothing was done
in the matter. In order to remove, if possible, the hostile feeling
between the emigrants and the native Osage, who regarded the former
as intruders, Governor William Clark, superintendent of Indian affairs
for Missouri, arranged a conference of the chiefs of the two tribes at
St. Louis in October of that year, at which, after protracted effort,
he succeeded in establishing friendly relations between them. Efforts
were made about the same time, both by the emigrant Cherokee and by
the government, to persuade the Shawano and Delawares then residing in
Missouri, and the Oneida in New York, to join the western Cherokee,
but nothing came of the negotiations. [257] In 1825 a delegation of
western Cherokee visited the Shawano in Ohio for the same purpose,
but without success. Their object in thus inviting friendly Indians
to join them was to strengthen themselves against the Osage and other
native tribes.
In the meantime the government, through Governor McMinn, was bringing
strong pressure to bear upon the eastern Cherokee to compel their
removal to the West. At a council convened by him in November, 1818,
the governor represented to the chiefs that it was now no longer
possible to protect them from the encroachments of the surrounding
white population; that, however the government might wish to help them,
their lands would be taken, their stock stolen, their women corrupted,
and their men made drunkards unless they removed to the western
paradise. He ended by proposing to pay them one hundred thousand
dollars for their whole territory, with the expense of removal, if
they would go at once. Upon their prompt and indignant refusal he
offered to double the amount, but with as little success.
Every point of the negotiation having failed, another course was
adopted, and a delegation was selected to visit Washington under the
conduct of Agent Meigs. Here the effort was renewed until, wearied
and discouraged at the persistent importunity, the chiefs consented
to a large cession, which was represented as necessary in order to
compensate in area for the tract assigned to the emigrant Cherokee in
Arkansas in accordance with the previous treaty. This estimate was
based on the figures given by Governor McMinn, who reported 5,291
Cherokee enrolled as emigrants, while the eastern Cherokee claimed
that not more than 3,500 had removed and that those remaining numbered
12,544, or more than three-fourths of the whole nation. The governor,
however, chose to consider one-half of the nation as in favor of
removal and one-third as having already removed. [258]
The treaty, concluded at Washington on February 27, 1819, recites
that the greater part of the Cherokee nation, having expressed an
earnest desire to remain in the East, and being anxious to begin
the necessary measures for the civilization and preservation of
their nation, and to settle the differences arising out of the
treaty of 1817, have offered to cede to the United States a tract
of country "at least as extensive" as that to which the Government
is entitled under the late treaty. The cession embraces (1) a tract
in Alabama and Tennessee, between Tennessee and Flint rivers; (2)
a tract in Tennessee, between Tennessee river and Waldens ridge; (3)
a large irregular tract in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia,
embracing in Tennessee nearly all the remaining Cherokee lands
north of Hiwassee river, and in North Carolina and Georgia nearly
everything remaining to them east of the Nantahala mountains and
the upper western branch of the Chattahoochee; (4) six small pieces
reserved by previous treaties. The entire cession aggregated nearly
six thousand square miles, or more than one-fourth of all then held
by the nation. Individual reservations of one mile square each within
the ceded area were allowed to a number of families which decided
to remain among the whites and become citizens rather than abandon
their homes. Payment was to be made for all substantial improvements
abandoned, one-third of all tribal annuities were hereafter to be
paid to the western band, and the treaty was declared to be a final
adjustment of all claims and differences arising from the treaty of
Reading Tips
Use arrow keys to navigate
Press 'N' for next chapter
Press 'P' for previous chapter