USA > Oklahoma > A standard history of Oklahoma; an authentic narrative of its development from the date of the first European exploration down to the present time, including accounts of the Indian tribes, both civilized and wild, of the cattle range, of the land openings and the achievements of the most recent period, Vol. I > Part 13
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Sequoyah grew up ignorant and untutored. When young he was unable to speak or understand English, and, even in later life, when signing his name to a document in English, he merely made his mark as any illiterate would. When he first saw books at the mission schools he was informed that the characters represented the words of the spoken language. He became greatly interested, though he was even then a man of mature years. He not only did not understand how the characters could be combined to represent words, but, apparently, he did not ask for any information in that line before beginning the task of making an alphabet for the Chero- kees. At first he undertook to make a separate character for each
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Cherokee people to the plane of literaey and that without the agency of schools. In brief, the Cherokees gave promise of becoming useful members of society if they were left undisturbed in what remained of their aneient home land. However, it probably was not the pres- ence of the Cherokees that the insistent white people of Georgia really objeeted to, but rather the integrity of such a vast body of
word in the Cherokee language. Finding that this was not praeti- eable, he then made a separate charaeter or letter for each possible syllable in the language with an additional one for the "hissing sound," i. e., the letter s. In all, he had eighty-five eharaeters or letters in his alphabet. Any Cherokee, old or young, eould learn this alphabet in three weeks' time, and that done, the art of reading was mastered. The news of this invention spread throughout the Cherokee Nation and all of the people beeame possessed with a zeal to learn to read. Within a few years there was a smaller percent- age of illiteracy in the Cherokee Nation than there was in many of the states of the Union.
Types of the new alphabet were cast and books and newspapers were printed in the Cherokee language. The missionaries had been endeavoring to print some literature in Cherokee, using the Roman text, but, seeing the advantage of the Sequoyah alphabet, they promptly seized upon it and made good use of it. Sequoyah, who in religious matters was a strictly orthodox Cherokee, viewing the advent of the missionaries and their teachings with distrust, is said to have expressed regret that his invention had been turned to good aeeount by the missionaries.
Sequoyah was greatly honored by his people and his memory is revered by them to this day. At the instance of the Cherokee Couneil, the United States mint made a medal which was eonferred upon him in commemoration of the invention of his alphabet, which was completed in 1821. He paid his first visit to the Western Cherokees the following year, and, a year later, he moved west and settled among the Cherokees in Arkansas. He was the leader, or chief, of the Western Cherokees (Old Settlers) at the time of the inigration of the main body of the Cherokee Nation in 1838-9. His death occurred while he was on a hunting and exploring expedition in Mexico in 1844. He left one son and two daughters. A number of his deseendants still live among the Cherokees in Oklahoma.
In his young manhood, the late William J. Weaver, of Fort Smith, frequently visited the home of Sequoyah, with whom he was personally acquainted. The latter was very retieent and reserved. Mr. Weaver said that he was mueh averse to talking of his own life and most of the information relative to the same was obtained from members of the family. As to the portrait commonly reputed to be that of Sequoyah, and which was first published in the MeKin- ney and Hall work, Mr. Weaver always maintained that the original must have been a fanciful sketch, for it eertainly was not a likeness of Guess, or Sequoyah. Vol. I -- 7
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land which was as yet beyond the speculation and exploitation of the particular interests which were responsible for the agitation for the removal of the Indians.
The mass of the Cherokee people still remaining in the East were unalterably opposed to selling their lands or moving to the new reservation west of the Mississippi. In fact, practically all of the Cherokees who were willing to do so had already migrated. But the pressure exerted by Georgia interests caused the Government to redouble its efforts to secure the consent of the Cherokees to the ces- sion of all of their remaining lands east of the Mississippi and thus bring about the removal of all the Cherokee people to the reserva- tion in the Indian Territory. Then gold was discovered in the mountains of Northern Georgia, thus whetting the spirit of Cauca- sian avarice still further. Moreover, the election and inauguration of Andrew Jackson as President of the United States was not a propitious event for the Cherokees. Jackson was the product of an environment of war, and war does not tend to develop a charitable regard for the rights of others. Then, too, Jackson had been a pio- neer in Tennessee when that meant to be an Indian fighter and an Indian hater and whatever Andrew Jackson did was done with his might. True, a regiment of Cherokees and a strong force of Lower Creeks had served under Jackson in the war with the Upper Creeks and there were Choctaws and Chickasaws in his command at the Battle of New Orleans, but, for all that, it is not probable that he was seriously impressed with the idea that an Indian had any rights which a white man was bound to regard. It is certain that the Georgia authorities had his moral support in the course which they pursued with regard to the Cherokees, even when they were defying the laws and treaties of the Federal Government, and it has been hinted that they may have acted at his suggestion. Be all that as' it may, however, his accession to the presidency was certainly a most unhappy event insofar as it concerned the Cherokees.
Within a few weeks after the election of Jackson to the presi- dency (December 20, 1828), the Legislature of the State of Georgia passed an act annexing part of the Cherokee country, extending the state's jurisdiction over the same, declaring the Cherokee laws null and void and rendering all persons of Indian blood or descent living within the Indian country incompetent to serve as a witness or party to any suit in which the defendant was a white man. It was made impossible for an Indian property owner to defend his rights in any court. Other laws which were equally arbitrary were also enacted. The Cherokees were prohibited from assembling for any
1
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public purposes or convening in council. Another law forbade the Indians from digging gold on their own land. One of the most drastic laws required that all white men living among the Chero- kees should take a special oath of allegiance to the State of Georgia. The penalty of failure to comply with this law was imprisonment in the state penitentiary for the term of four years. The purpose of this act was to drive out the missionaries and teachers who would otherwise strive to protect the Indians in the exercise of their natural rights. The deliberate intent of this policy was to make conditions unbearable for the Cherokees in the hope that they would decide to migrate to the West, yet its real effect was to deepen their feeling of attachment to the land of their fathers.
The Cherokees appealed to President Jackson for protection in their rights which were thus invaded and trampled under foot by a power which acted through the forms of law. In reply to this ap- peal the Cherokees were told that the Federal Government would do nothing to protect them. In other ways they were made to feel that weight of its influence was against them. The annuity which was due from the Government was no longer paid to the treasurer of the Cherokee Nation, hence it was no longer available for the sup- port of their tribal schools. As it only amounted to 42 cents per capita-a sum so small that few of the Cherokees sought to secure payment in person-it remained undisturbed in the hands of their agent. Nor were the rigors of this heartless policy visited on the Indians alone. Missionaries and teachers were arrested for failing to comply with the law requiring them to take a special oath of allegiance to the State of Georgia. John F. Wheeler, the printer of the Cherokce Phoenix, was among the number arrested and the pub- lication of the paper was temporarily discontinued. While some of those who were placed under arrest reluctantly took the oath of allegiance or agreed to leave the Cherokee country, Rev. Samuel A. Worcester and Dr. Elizur Butler, two of the missionaries, refused to subscribe to the oath of allegiance. They were held without bail, tried, convicted and sentenced to hard labor in the penitentiary for the full term of four years. The case of Rev. S. A. Worcester was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, by which tribunal it was decided in his favor and his release was ordered. The Georgia authorities defied .the mandate of the Supreme Court and refused to liberate the imprisoned missionaries, the governor of the state even threatening armed resistance in case the Federal Government undertook to enforce the order of the Supreme Court. As for President Jackson (whose reputation for firm and impartial
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enforcement of law rests largely upon the positiveness with which he treated the threat of nullification in the neighboring State of South Carolina), he not only disregarded this flagrant act of nullifi- cation on the part of Georgia, as such, but he was also currently reported to have remarked concerning the Supreme Court decision in the Worcester case: "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it."
Meanwhile, repeated attempts were being made to induce the Cherokees to relinquish their lands and move West. To all such overtures they steadfastly refused to listen. At one time it was reported that they were seriously considering migrating as a body to the British possessions on the Pacific Coast, which rumor had a very disquieting effect in administration circles in Washington and no time was lost in endeavoring to counteract the sentiment among the Cherokees in favor of such a movement.
The Cherokees sent a strong delegation to Washington and, during the winter of 1832-33, this delegation, headed by Chief John Ross, used every possible influence upon the President and Congress to secure some amelioration of the hard condition in which their nation was placed. The President was firm in his determination not to interfere, as he said, in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. He urged that it was only by removing from such surround- ings that the Cherokees could hope to escape the fate which had already befallen so many other Indian tribes. In January, 1834, the Cherokee delegation returned to Washington. This time its members proposed that the autonomy of the Cherokee tribal gov- ernment should be continued for a certain definite time, at the ex- piration of which their lands might be allotted in severalty and the surplus thereof sold, the Cherokees themselves to become citizens of the United States. This tentative suggestion was accompanied by a reiteration of the determination of the Cherokees never to sell their lands and move West voluntarily. In response to this offer it was stated that the President saw no hope of ending the embarrassments under which the Cherokees labored unless they removed to the coun- try west of the Mississippi.
Although practically all of the Cherokees yet remaining cast of the Mississippi were personally opposed to removal at the begin- ning of this agitation, some of them began to conclude that opposi- tion was hopeless. A few of these were called together by Andrew Ross for the purpose of seeing what could be done in the way of securing a treaty. A delegation was selected and sent to Washing- ton, and, in due course of time, a treaty was negotiated and signed,
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June 19, 1834, in which provision was made for removal to the West. This treaty was not ratified by the Senate, Chief John Ross having not only made a personal protest but also filed a written protest which was said to have been signed by 13,000 Cherokees. Ross and his delegation then presented a memorial to Congress which, while stating their case plainly and candidly, was yet a model of dignity and self restraint.3
3 The memorial of the Cherokee delegation is reproduced in full in "The Cherokee Nation of Indians," by Charles C. Royce, Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 276-7, 1888.
CHAPTER XVII REMOVAL NEGOTIATIONS, CONCLUDED
CHEROKEE REMOVAL TREATIES
The next winter there were two rival delegations of Cherokees in Washington, one headed by Chief Ross and the other by Major Ridge. The Ross delegation was still firmly opposed to the cmigra- tion proposition, while the delegation of which Major Ridge was the leader was composed of men who had become convinced that further resistance to the policy of the administration at Wash- ington would be futile and they were therefore willing to enter into negotiations for removal. Several years prior to this time President Jackson had appointed three commissioners for the removal of cer- tain tribes to the West, namely, Hon. Henry L. Ellsworth, Gov. Montfort Stokes and Rev. John F. Schermerhorn. These men spent much of their time in the West, with the Indians who had already moved to the Indian Territory, but apparently Mr. Scher- merhorn was in Washington when these rival Cherokee delegations arrived and, with Gov. William Carroll, of Tennessee, he was delegated to enter into negotiations with the members of the one favoring removal. A treaty which provided for the relinquishment of the Cherokee lands in the East and for the removal of all of the Cherokee people to the West was formulated and was signed by the members of the Ridge delegation, March 14, 1835.
This treaty especially provided that it should not become ef- fective unless ratified by the Cherokee people in general council. Under its stipulations the Cherokces were to receive $3,250,000 and some additional lands in the West as a consideration for re- linquishing their tribal holdings and moving to the Indian Ter- ritory. The Ross party submitted an offer to accept the treaty if the consideration were raised to $20,000,000, but this was rejected by the Senate. The Cherokees held their general council in October, 1835, and rejected the Ridge treaty by a practically unanimous vote. The Georgia authorities evidently reached the conclusion
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that the time for temporizing had passed. The home of John Ross, which was on the Tennessee side of the interstate boundary line, was invaded by the Georgia militia, who placed him under arrest and seized all of his private papers. The publication of the Chero- kee Phoenix, the national newspaper of the Cherokees, was sup- pressed and its press, type and other equipment were seized. With their leaders under duress and official organ no longer published, the Cherokees found themselves in a demoralized condition so far as their tribal interests were concerned. Meanwhile, another council had been called to convene at New Echota, Georgia, in December, where Commissioner Schermerhorn was to meet the Cherokees in an endeavor to secure another treaty. Although it was planned to be a popular gathering of the tribe, less than five hundred people of a total population of over 17,000 were present, and of this meagre representation many were women and children. None of the prin- cipal officers of the Cherokee Nation attended the council at New Echota, but Commissioner Schermerhorn proceeded with due solemnity to draw up another treaty, which was signed on the 29th of December, 1835, by men who were without official authority to act. The New Echota treaty relinquished all of the lands then held by the Cherokees in the states east of the Mississippi and agreed to accept, in return therefor, the sum of $5,000,000, together with a joint interest in the reservation which had been previously granted to the Western Cherokees and the addition of a smaller tract in what is now in Southeastern Kansas. The cost of moving was also to be defrayed by the government, which was bound to furnish supplies and provisions to last one year after the arrival of the Indians in their new country. Improvements on lands then held were also to be recompensed to the individual Indians to whom they belonged. An unsuccessful effort was made to provide that some of the Cherokees who were educated and progressive might remain and become citizens of the states from which the main body of the tribe was to be removed, but this clause was eliminated at the express command of President Jackson.1
1 The Treaty of New Echota contained numerous stipulations of minor interest, including provision for the payment of debts due from the Indians (to be paid out of funds due under the treaty), the re-establishment of the missions and schools in the West, pen- sions for Cherokees who had been wounded in the service of the United States during the War of 1812, and for the settlement of the dispute between the Cherokees and the Osages, besides a num- ber of other matters.
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The treaty was signed by twenty Cherokees, of whom Major Ridge and his nephew, Elias Boudinot, were probably the most prominent and influential. John Ridge, son of Major Ridge, and Stand Watie, brother of Elias Boudinot, signed the treaty two months after the conclusion of the council at New Echota.2 Gover- nor Carroll, who did not attend the council, also signed the treaty later as one of the commissioners. James Rogers and John Smith, who were present at the council as the duly authorized representa- tives of the Western Cherokees, and, as such, they signed their names to a statement attached to the treaty, whereby the formal consent and approval of that branch of the Cherokees was granted.
CHICKASAW REMOVAL TREATIES
The Chickasaw Indians originally ranged over the region im- mediately east of the Mississippi River, from the mouth of the Ohio south to the central part of the State of Mississippi. By a treaty made October 19, 1818, the Chickasaws had relinquished their claim to all lands lying in Kentucky and Tennessee. When the rest of the tribes living in the states of the South, east of the Mississippi River, were being pressed for agreements to move to the West, it was scarcely to be expected that the Chickasaws would be permitted to remain undisturbed. In October, 1832, the Chickasaws were in session in general council at their council house, on Pontotock Creek, Mississippi, Gen. John Coffee, being present as a commis-
2 After he had signed the treaty, John Ridge was taunted with having been prompted to do so by an ambition to become the princi- pal chief of the reunited Cherokee Nation in the West. He is said to have denied the charge most effectively in substantially the fol- lowing language, speaking of himself in the third person :
"You say John Ridge was moved by a selfish ambition when he signed that treaty ? It is not so. John Ridge signed his own death warrant when he signed that treaty, and no one knows it better than he knew it when he wrote his name on that paper. John Ridge may not dic today or tomorrow; he may not be killed while the Cherokees remain in this country, nor yet on the road to their new country west of the Mississippi; but, sooner or later, he will have to yield his life as the penalty for signing that treaty. John Ridge has not acted blindly, for he sees plainly that his people cannot hope to stand against the white men in their present situation. By mov- ing to the West, they may in time so learn the ways of civilization as to enable them to sustain themselves in competition with the white men. Let it not be said that John Ridge was actuated by motives of personal ambition; he has acted for what he believed to be the best interests of his people."
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sioner on the part of the Federal Government. A treaty was nego- tiated, providing for the sale of the Chickasaw lands east of the Mississippi River, and for the ultimate removal of the whole tribe to some place in the West, as yet undetermined at that time.3 This treaty was signed October 20, 1832. Two days later, a supplemental treaty, covering a number of matters of detail which were over- looked in the other one, was signed. Another supplemental treaty, covering additional matters of detail, was signed May 24, 1834.
January 17, 1837, the representatives of the Chickasaw Nation entered into a treaty agreement with those of the Choctaw Nation whereby the Chickasaws purchased a joint interest in the reserva- tion of the Choctaws, paying the sum of $530,000 therefor, of which amount $30,000 was to be paid in cash and the rest in United States bonds given on account of the sale of the Chickasaw lands east of the Mississippi. All that part of the Choctaw reservation lying west of the Moshalatubbe and Pushmnataha districts was to be organized into the Chickasaw District, which was to have its own chiefs and to be entitled to the same representation in the Choctaw National Council as that possessed by each of the districts of the
3 Unlike the Choctaws, Creeks and Cherokees, the Chickasaws did not exchange their lands in the East for new reservations in the West. On the contrary, they authorized the Government to have their lands surveyed and sold to the best possible advantage, at public auction and private sale, and the net proceeds, after de- ducting expenses incident to surveying and selling, to be placed to the credit of the Chickasaw Nation, to be used wholly or in part in the purchase of a new reservation.
The preamble of the Treaty of Pontotock is a pathetic state- ment of the unhappy situation in which the Chickasaws found them- selves, the laws of the State of Mississippi having been extended over their reservation, just as those of Georgia were extended over the Cherokee country and probably for identical reasons. The lan- guage of the instrument also gives evidence of the great concern which the Federal Government felt for the welfare of the Chick- asaws and is characteristic of the verbiage of all of the removal treaties of the time. In fact, practically all of the removal treaties of the period embracing the years 1825 to 1835 abound in fine phrases concerning the tender solicitude of the United States for the welfare of the poor Indian! To be sure, the poor Indian held valuable lands which were as yet beyond the reach of exploitation by speculative interests, but, to read any of the removal treaties, couched in high-sounding phrases and reciting the generosity and disinterested helpfulness of the United States, one would not be led to the supposition that there was a land grabber within a thousand miles of the tribal reservation.
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Choctaw Nation. Members of either tribe were entitled to settle at pleasure in any district, but tribal funds and annuities were to be kept entirely separate, so that those who were enrolled in one tribe had no right to participate in the benefits of membership in the other.
THE SEMINOLE REMOVAL TREATY
James Gadsden, the distinguished South Carolina statesman, acting as a commissioner for the United States, negotiated a treaty with the Seminole tribe of Indians which was signed at Payne's Landing, Florida, May 9, 1832, and which provided that the Semi- noles should relinquish all of their lands in the (then) Territory of Florida and emigrate to the West, where they were to be received as a constitutent part of the Creek tribe, of which the Seminoles were originally an offshoot. A delegation of Seminole chiefs visited the Creek country, in the Indian Territory and, on February 14, 1833, entered into a supplemental treaty with Gov. Montfort Stokes, Henry L. Ellsworth and John F. Schermerhorn, commission- ers of the United States, at Fort Gibson, in which a particular part of the Creek country between the two Canadian rivers was desig- nated as a special residence district for the Seminoles. However, the treaty of Payne's Landing was repudiated by the greater part of the Seminole tribe and a war lasting eight years followed.4
4 The war with the Seminoles between 1834 and 1842 cost the lives of nearly 1,500 officers and men of the United States army, besides an expenditure of $20,000,000. Among the soldiers who were killed or died of disease during the course of the campaigns against the Seminoles in Florida there were a number who had seen service in the Indian Territory-at Forts Gibson, Smith and Towson.
CHAPTER XVIII
REMOVAL OF THE INDIANS FROM THE EAST
As soon as was practicable after the negotiation and ratification of the treaties providing for the removal of the tribes from the South, the Government made the necessary arrangements to have them transported to their new reservations in the Indian Territory. Although in nearly every instance, the Indians had had at least a year's notice of their proposed removal, yet such was their attacli- ment to the land of their birth that they paid little heed to the notice and made practically no preparation for the long journey that lay before them. Consequently, when the appointed time drew near, they were not only unready but also unwilling to leave. In numerous instances physical force had to be used in compelling them to go.
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