Appalachian Summit
23. Visions
In February 1811, a Cherokee prophet related a dream he had in which the Great Spirit expressed anger at the Cherokees because they were abandoning their ancient ways and adopting those of the white men. In December of the same year, the first of a series of earthquakes centered around New Madrid, Missouri shook the Appalachian Summit. Many of the Cherokees came to believe the earthquakes were both a punishment for and warning against the continued departure from their traditional culture.
Springplace Diaries
February 10, 1811: Early in the morning when Bro. and Sister Gambold were paying a visit at Peggy’s [widow of James Vann], the old Chief Keychzaetel [The Warrior’s Nephew] was very much surprised to see them and told them the following among other things: “In order that you might know how things are going in the world today,” thus began his narrative, “I want to tell you what happened here in the Nation just the other day. Just three nights ago I was at a Talk in Oostenally. To that place came a man and two women who told that while they were on a journey, they came to an unoccupied house near a hill called Rocky Mountain and entered it in order to spend the night there. Just as it had become dark, they heard a violent noise in the air and wondered whether a storm was brewing. As they went outside because of that to see about it, they saw a whole crowd of Indians arriving on the hill from the sky; they were riding on small black horses and their leader was beating a drum and came very close to them. They were much frightened and for that reason had wanted to go back into the house, whereupon that one [the drummer] called to them: “Don’t he afraid; we are your brothers and have been sent by God to speak with you. God is dissatisfied that you are receiving the white people in your land without any distinction. You yourselves see that your hunting is gone—you are planting the corn of the white people—go and sell that back to them and plant Indian corn and pound it in the manner of your forefathers; do away with the mills. The Mother of the Nation has forsaken you because all her bones are being broken through the grinding [of the mills]. She will return to you, however, if you put the white people out of the land and return to your former manner of life. You yourselves can see that the white people are entirely different beings from us; we are made from red clay; they, out of white sand. You may keep good neighborly relations with them, just see to it that you get back from them your old Beloved Towns. Furthermore, your Mother is not pleased that you punish each other so hard; you even whip until [you draw] blood. Now I have told you what God’s will is and you are to pass it on. If you don’t want to believe my words, however, then look up at the sky.” They did that and saw the heaven open and [coming from it] an indescribably beautiful light and in it four white houses.
The leader continued saying, “Such houses you are to build in your Beloved Towns, one for Capt. Blair (a white man in Georgia, who had already rendered many a service to the Indians and for that reason is much beloved by many), the rest are to be for other white men who can be useful to the Nation with writing. etc. You are to report everything which you have just heard to Col. Meigs. Now when you publish this and there is someone who does not believe it, then know that it will not be well with him.”
. . . the old chief was very eager to hear our ideas about this story: he himself believed it precisely and firmly and had himself spoken with the people who had had this vision and at the Council no one had contradicted them except The Ridge, who, however, had been ill-treated by the others because of it. Since we are well aware that the Indians have already considered in many council meetings how to get rid of the many white people who have penetrated [intruded upon their land], have also made various resolutions in that regard but have not carried anything out until the present time, so we could easily think for what purpose this story had been thought up. We sent to tell the good man that we could not express an opinion on the matter as we did not understand such visions; if there is something in the story, it might have been a dream.
May 10, 1811: The old Chief, Koh, ch z, o, te, Ii (The Warrior’s Nephew) visited us with his wife. He said he had come to bring us a report from the Council at which he is the most famous speaker. “It is true,” he said, “the white people must all go out of the Nation; however, 4 smiths, some school teachers and those who are building mills for us are to be tolerated, but later they, too, must return to their own country; and no one shall put anything in their way. We do not consider you as white people but as Indians. God has sent you to teach our people. You don’t want our land. You are here out of love for us.
Major Ridge to Thomas L. McKenney -
[About the year 1811] some of the Cherokees dreamed and others received, in various ways, communications from the Great Spirit, all tending to discredit the scheme of civilization. A large collection of these deluded creatures met at Oostenalee town where they held a grand savage feast and celebrated a great medicine dance which was performed exclusively by women, wearing terrapin shells, filled with pebbles, on their limbs, to rattle in concert with their wild, uncouth songs. An old man chanted a song of ancient times. No conversation was allowed during the ceremony; the fierce visage of the Indian was bent in mute attention upon the exciting scene, and the congregated mass of mind was doubtless pervaded by the solemnising conviction that the Great Spirit was among them. At this opportune crisis, a deputation from Coosa Wathla, introduced a half breed Cherokee from the mountains who professed to be the bearer of a message from heaven. His name was Charles. He was received with marked respect and seated close to Ridge, the principal person present, and who, though he deplored the superstition that induced the meeting, had thought proper to attend and ostensibly to join in the ceremonies. The savage missionary did not keep them long in suspense; he rose and announced that the Great Spirit had sent him to deliver a message to his people; he said he had already delivered it to some of the Cherokees in the mountains, but they disbelieved, and had beaten him. But he would not desist; he would declare the will of the Great Spirit at all hazards. The Great Spirit said that the Cherokees were adopting the customs of the white people. They had mills, clothes, feather beds, and tables—worse still, they had books and domestic cats. This was not good—therefore the buffaloe and other game were disappearing. The Great Spirit was angry and had withdrawn his protection. The nation must return to the customs of their fathers. They must kill their cats, cut short their frocks, and dress as became Indians and warriors. They must discard all the fashions of the whites, abandon the use of any communication with each other except by word of mouth, and give up their mills, their houses, and all the arts learned from the white people. He promised that if they believed and obeyed, then would game abound, the white man would disappear, and God would love his people. He urged them to paint themselves, to hold feasts, and to dance—to listen to his words and to the words the Great Spirit would whisper in their dreams. He concluded by saying, if any one says that he does not believe, the Great Spirit will cut him off from the living.
This speech, artfully framed to suit the prejudices of the Indians and to inflame the latent discontent of such as were not fully enlisted in the work of reform, caused a great excitement among them. They cried out that the talk was good. Major Ridge perceived at once the evil effect that would be produced by such haranges, and, with his usual decision, determined not to tamper with the popular feeling but to oppose and correct it. He rose in his place and addressing the tumultuous assemblage with his wonted energy said, “My friends, the talk you have heard is not good. It would lead us to war with the United States, and we should suffer. It is false; it is not a talk from the Great Spirit. I stand here and defy the threat that he who disbelieves shall die. Let the death come. I offer to test this scheme of impostors!” The people, mad with superstition, rushed upon the orator who dared thus to brave their fury and rebuke their folly and would probably have put him to death had he not defended himself. Being an athletic man, he struck down several of the assailants but was at last thrown to the ground, and his friend, John Harris, stabbed at his side. Jesse Vann and others rallied around him, and beating back the crowd, enabled him to rise; and at length an old chief had sufficient influence over the infuriated savages to quell the tumult. As the tempest of passion subsided, the fanaticism which had caused it died away. The threat of the pretended messenger of heaven had proved false. His challenge had been accepted, and the daring individual who had defied him lived, an evidence of his imposition.
Springplace Diaries
December 16, 1811: Early at three o’clock two shocks of an earthquake were felt. The house[s] trembled and everything in them was in movement. The hens fell to the ground from their roosts and set up a pitiful cry. At 8 o’clock another but lighter shock was felt.
December 17, 1811: Chief Bead Eye, his brother The Trunk, and two other Indians came to us to get information about the earthquake. They all seemed to be very much disturbed and said that the earth is probably very old, would it soon collapse? We explained to them what causes earthquakes; but with the addition that Almighty God has made the earth and everything on it and has maintained it until now and He also has the might and power to discipline people who live on it in various ways and for this purpose He has also used concussions of the earth from time to time. The inhabitants of this land have reason to thank Him that He has been so gracious to them this time and should regard it as a warning to do away with the service to sin and listen to his voice. One thing is certain that God has destined one day on which He will judge all people, will reward each one according to his works. At that time the earth will be consumed by fire, etc. They bowed their heads and seemed to be in deep thought.
In the evening during heavy rain, we had the pleasure of seeing coming here to us our former pupil Tommy with his father [Chief Chulioa, Shoeboot] and our friend Chulioa and his wife. They also were in deepest perplexity and fright because of the earthquake. Chulioa brought us a letter from Mr. Charles Hicks in which among other things he reported the following: “I am not able to describe the great perplexity into which we came last night. Our dwelling house was in the most violent movement so that it seemed to be near to falling in. Just before that there was a strong violent noise heard from the W. N. W. and some saw a streak of lightning having its beginning from the same direction as the noise. This morning between 7 and 8 o’clock we felt two more shocks but not as strong as the former one, and without the slightest noise. But our house was trembling very much and the roof moved. The trees were also all in movement without the slightest wind. Oh,” Mr. Hicks added, “that we might glorify merciful God for his protection from day to day and implore Him for future help to improve our life.” Mr. Hicks had sent this company as well as the above-mentioned one [letter] for our instruction in this matter. We talked with them in a similar manner as with the former ones and our Tommy [a pupil at the Moravian school] translated our words with the greatest seriousness.
Our Peggy, who had been on business today with neighboring Indians, could not describe vividly enough the perplexity in which she found the people everywhere. Some of them attribute the occurrence to the sorcerers; some, to a large snake which must have crawled under their house; some to the weakness of old age of the earth which will now soon cave in . Our sister took advantage of this occasion to proclaim to them emphatically the love and severity of God and to remind them that they should be concerned about the salvation of their souls.
February 6, 1812: An Indian came to us in order to get information about the frequent earthquakes and toward evening another, who is a Chief and is called Dargungi [came] for the same purpose. Both of them looked very troubled. We talked with them in the usual way and they seemed to give assent to our words. . . .
February 9, 1812: . . . we heard today from a traveler that in Taloni, an Indian town 30 miles from here along the road to Georgia, in a field 13 sink holes appeared as a result of the earthquake, the largest of which is 20 feet deep and 120 feet in circumference and is supposed to he full of greenish water.
February 11, 1812: The Ridge visited us and asked profoundly about the earthquake, and said he had also discussed the matter with Mr. Charles Hicks, who had told him that God lets them come about. Now he would also like to know whether the end of the world were not near? We answered him, as we had others who asked similar questions, that no man knows this, but that it behooves us to be prepared and ready. . . . The Ridge said, “It is true, we are very bad! May God make us better!” . . . As we talked further about the day of Judgment and the eternal blessedness of the believers, he asked the question: whether on that great day God’s Son would not treat very angrily those who had spent a large part of their lives in evil but had later improved and regretted their former bad life? . . . He sat a long while in deep thought, and finally said, “Oh, we are all too bad. Now I also want to tell a story which took place not far from Tellico a short time ago. The Indians there were killing each other in a very cold-blooded way. A respected Indian—who is well known to us, and in other respects had a good character, invited some Indians to his house for drinking and dancing; a tired old man laid down to sleep at one side of the house; the owner of the house beat him dead with a piece of wood, dragged him to the hearth and on to the fire and let him roast. For another one, without any reason, whatsoever, his skull was split so that the brain ran out!” Then he asked, “What do you think of such things?” We expressed to him our compassion because of the hard slavery in which the Evil Spirit keeps the poor Indians imprisoned. . . .
February 17, 1812: The Shoeboot [Chulioa], confessed his perplexity in regard to the unusual earthquakes here in the land and said in a very emphatic way that many Indians believe that the white people were responsible because they had already taken possession of so much of the Indian land and wanted still more. God was angry because of that and He wanted to put an end to it through the earthquakes. This much was believed by all the Indians that God was causing the earthquakes. We then let our understanding be told and asked them to pray very diligently the publican’s prayer, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.”
In reply, the other one, called Big Bear, said, “I should also like to tell something as I should like to know what you think about it. Soon after the earth had trembled so for the first time, an Indian was sitting in his house in deep thought, and his children were lying sick in front of the fire. At that point a tall man, clothed entirely in the foliage of the trees, with a wreath of the same foliage on his head, who was carrying a small child in his arm and had a larger child by the hand, said to him, ‘The small child on his [my] arm is God. I am not able to tell you now whether God will soon destroy the earth or not. But God is not pleased that the Indians have sold so much land to the white people. Tugalo, which is now possessed by white people, is the first place which God created. There in a hill he placed the first fire, for all fire comes from God. Now the white people have built a house on that hill. They should abandon the place; on that hill there should be grass growing, only then will there be peace. And the Indians no longer thank God before they enjoy first fruits of the land. They are no longer organizing, as was formerly the custom, dances in his honor before they eat the first pumpkins, etc. Furthermore,’ the messenger said to the Indian, ‘You are sad because you think your children are ill; they are really not ill, but have only taken in a little dust.’ Thereupon he gave him two small pieces of bark from a certain tree, which he also named, and told him to cook them and to give the drink to his children, and from that they became well right then. He then also told him about other remedies for use during illnesses and at the end he said he would now take God back home.”
During this silly narration, the Indian looked so solemn as if he were really proclaiming God’s will and word. We told him that we are no judges of such visions nor do we get involved in such things. We adhere to God’s word and in that his will is clear. It is good to thank God for his gifts, but we wish with all our hearts that the poor Indians might really learn to know Him in his great love and might honor and love Him truly. “That is well said,” said Big Bear. “Yes,” said Shoehoot, “The white people know God from the Book and we, from other things.” He said further, “I love you; I have never heard anything bad about you. But there are also very bad white people.” In which we agreed with him.
February 23, 1812: . . . toward evening the wife of Mr. Charles Hicks brought us a very pleasing letter from him in which he wrote among other things: ”The present is a very strange point in time. May God in his great mercy prepare us for the life to come. The people in my neighborhood are deeply disturbed because of the earthquakes, and I believe that fear and terror have spread through the whole Nation. How else could it be? Do not these belong to the signs which are to come to pass before the [last] great day? . . . “
Mr. [David] McNair [a white man living in Tennessee, married to a Cherokee] came in the evening and spent the night here. Again we heard much about dreams and false prophets. May God have mercy. There is at the present time a real tumult in the Nation and a dark, heavy feeling. . . . It is unbelievable to what kind of foolish fables the blinded heathen will give hearing. During these days the residents of one town fled into the hills and tried to crawl into hiding in the holes of the rocks in order to escape the danger of the hail stones the size of half bushels, which were to fall on a certain day. As the stated terrible day passed without hail, they came back to their dwelling places, ready and willing to believe every new deceiver.
March 1, 1812: Early an old Indian woman, called Laughing Molly, came to us in great perplexity. She asked us very urgently that we should tell her if the talk of the Indians has any basis, namely that in the space of 3 months the moon would again become dark, and thereafter hail stones as large as hominy blocks would fall, all cattle would die and soon thereafter the earth would come to an end. A sorcerer had said until then there would he peace; how things would he after that he did not know. It was true that she was already old and presumably would not live much longer, but she did not want to spend her remaining days in anxiety.
We expressed comfort to her through Peggy and said that the eclipses of the moon are natural phenomena and occur annually and do not do any harm to the earth: that the tales of the Indians are nothing but lies, that God loves people unspeakably much and would like nothing more than that all should believe in Him and be saved; that He had destined a day in which He will make an end to the world, but when this day would come no man could know. She should pray to Him faithfully that He would have mercy on her and save her, etc. Oh, how happy the poor soul was! She pressed our hand repeatedly and said: “I am no longer afraid! I will believe your words and no longer listen to the liars and sorcerers.”
After that Mr. Charles Hicks came to attend our services. We had several deep conversations with this dear man. The Chiefs had sent him an embassy from Hightower [Etowah] in order to learn his opinion concerning the various fantastic predictions. We told them not to give the liars any hearing at all, but much rather to embarrass them publicly, indeed to punish them, and showed them out of God’s word—the Old Book, as they call the Bible—what our dear Lord himself has said about the end of the world. And then they brought out that the Indian called The Duck, because he did not want to believe the visions and the messengers from God to the Indians, had soon after that died; so he said to him, “Was The Duck given the right ahead of other men never to die, [if] had he also believed the lies or pretended to believe? None of them knows how soon he will have to die whether he believes the visions or not.” They agreed that he was right and promised to report his words faithfully to the Chiefs [at Etowah].
March 8, 1812: . . . because there was another earthquake shock last night, Mother Vann [mother-in-law of Peggy Vann] talked with us another time about this occurrence; . . . she told us that new lies are being broadcast among the Nation. Namely, that it has been revealed to one Indian by God that there would be an intense darkness and that it would last three days; during which all the white people would be snatched away as well as all Indians who had any clothing or household articles of the white man’s kind, together with all their cattle. Therefore, they should put aside everything that is similar to the white people and that which they had learned from them, so that in the darkness God might not mistake them and snatch them away with the former. He who does not believe this will die at once together with all his stock. This had already happened to one Indian. Mother Vann added that in fact many are already doing away with their household articles and clothing, but she had offered to buy one item or another from them just to show them that she did not pay any attention to the lies.
We see only too clearly for what this evil enemy is aiming: this cunning spirit does not mean in any way the outward garb of the poor heathen but their change of heart. He wants to warn them against the teaching of the white people of Jesus, the crucified, their only rightful Lord and Master, in order that he might keep them securely fettered in his chains. We find for that reason much need to plead very urgently to our good Lord that He might destroy very soon this new strategem of the Devil and in general his work in this land.
In addition, the false prophets pretend to have seen ugly and terrifying appearances of God. Johnston [a pupil at the mission school] said that in his neighborhood there was also the talk that a new earth would come into being in the Spring, but he did not pay attention to their absurd talking and was glad that he had heard the truth here and knew now what to believe.
Return J. Meigs –
19 March 1812
[The Cherokee] are at this time in a remarkable manner—occasioned by the late shocks of the earth—endeavoring to appease the Anger of the great Spirit, which they conceive is manifest by the late shocks of the earth. They have revived their religious dances of ancient origin with as much apparent solemnity as ever was seen in worship in our churches. They then repair to the water, go in and wash. These ablutions are intended to show that their sins are washed away and that they are cleansed from all defilements.
Amongst them are some fanatics who tell them that the Great Spirit is angry with them for adopting the manners, customs, and habits of the white people who they think are very wicked. In some few instances some have thrown off their clothing into the fire and burned them up; some of the females are mutilating fine muslin dresses and are told they must discontinue their dancing reels and country dances which have become very common amongst the young people, being told by these fanatics that these are amongst the causes of the displeasure of the Great Spirit.
This fanaticism will, I think probably, for a short time have a partial retrograde effect as respects civilization, but will, after the present frenzy has subsided, acellerate improvement. At a late meeting when a man burned his hat as a sacrifice, he called on a young chief present to follow his example. The young chief told him that he would not and, putting his hand to his Breast, said it is no matter what cloaths I wear while my heart is straight. This was sufficient to silence further importunity. A young Cherokee woman told me that she was told that the Cherokees ought to throw away the habits of the white people and return to the ancient manners and that she told them that was nothing, that they ought to become good people and leave off stealing horses and drinking whiskey instead of destroying their clothes. They deserve some pity and compassion because they are looking from the effect to the cause. . . .
Springplace Diaries
April 30, 1812: . . . Col. Meigs had prevailed upon Bro. [John] Gambold to make this journey to the Council in order to calm as much as possible the emotions of the Indians which were made very fearful through the oft-mentioned false prophets. They found, however, to their joy, that those present and particularly the Chiefs, were sufficiently convinced of the vanity of these things and instead of being detained by them they undertook useful considerations and decided on several new [tribal] arrangements. All the Indians and especially the older Chiefs showed themselves very friendly towards Bro. Gambold and when the old Chief Sower Mush had once talked in the Council with much effort, he had a translator say to Bro. Gamhold that he was angry neither with him nor with the white people in general, but rather that the misconduct of his own people had brought him to such zeal. In his address he had said among other things to those present: “As the earth moved sometimes a short time ago, you were in great anxiety and feared that you would sink down into it, but when you go among the white people to break down their stables and steal their horses, you are not afraid, and there is much great danger for if they should catch you in such an act they would surely shoot you down, and then you would surely be sunk into the earth. [1]