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25. Two Nations

 

 

 

 

Following the end of the Creek War, the governors of Tennessee and Georgia at the urging of their citizens living on the frontiers of the states as well as wealthy, influential land speculators, increased their pressure on the federal government to somehow force the Cherokees to relinquish the lands they claimed that lay within the boundaries of those states.  The Cherokees were united in their resolve not to surrender any more of their land by treaty as they had so often done in the past.  Faced with that reality, the governors and their allies in the federal government devised new tactics to effect the same end.

 

 

Secretary of War William Crawford to Congress –

March 13, 1816

When every effort to induce among them ideas of separate property, as well in things real as personal, shall fail, let intermarriages between them and the whites be encouraged by the government.  This cannot fail to preserve the race, with the modifications necessary to the enjoyment of civil liberty and social happiness.  It is believed that the principles of humanity in this instance are in harmonious concert with the true interest of the nation.  It will redound more to the national honor to incorporate by a humane and benevolent policy, the natives of our forest in the great American family of freemen than to receive with open arms the fugitives of the old world whether their flight has been the effect of their crimes or their virtues.  [1]

 

 

To George Graham:

Washington City March 20^th 1816

Brothers

In our last communication to the Secretary of War [William H. Crawford], agreeably to the desire of our nation, we made application for the establishment of a military post at Tellico Block house or at a place convenient to the mouth of Highwassee River on the north side of Tennessee river for the purpose of stationing Troops to remove intruders off our lands.  We have not received any answer to this subject.  We wish to know the disposition of the Secretary of war in relation to such establishment.

We have been frequently told by the white people on our frontier, that our people were also intruders on the land of the white people on the Arkansas.  The Head Chief of our Country have consequently sent word to those of our people who are now on the Arkansas River to return again to our common Country as soon as practicable.  Tahlonteskee one of the principle chiefs who lived on the Arkansas is now in our country.  We are told that he intends removing back to his native country to live.  We have the honor to be yr. Obt. Servt.

Jno. Lowry                        Richd. Taylor

Jno. Walker                        Jno Ross

The Ridge                                    Cheucunsenee  [2]

 

 

Cherokee Agent Return J. Meigs to Andrew Jackson –

August 6, 1816

They were, at the close of the Revolution, a conquered people, their lands were forfeited, and at the treaty of Hopewell they were considered as minors - and there is no way to save them but by considering them as in a state of minority and compelling them to do what their guardians knew was best.  As minors they are entitled to protection by the federal government from invasion by frontier whites.  As a so-called sovereign nation, they were not entitled to such protection; this would soon seal their destruction.   [3]

 

Meigs to Crawford –

August 19, 1816

The United States have a right to make any arrangement they think proper and just with respect to their lands and when the United States propose to them to make cession, they have not the right in fact to put their veto on such propositions.  [4]

 

 

Hon. William H. Crawford, Secretary of War.

 

Executive Office, October 26, 1816

Since the policy of the Cherokees appears to be in favor of exchanging territory, I would beg leave to be indulged in suggesting to your honor the propriety of renewing to the Cherokees a proposition made to them during the administration of Mr. Jefferson for an exchange of territory as heretofore stated, with such modifications as you may deem expedient.  And I will here ask your permission to offer one or two for your consideration.

1^st.  That each able-bodied Cherokee embracing the plan [of removal] shall be furnished at some suitable point west of the Mississippi with a good new rifle gun, some powder, lead, ect.; and to allot to those who choose to remain where they now reside, say six hundred and forty, or one thousand acres of land to each family, to them, their heirs, ect. during their continuance thereon, and each Cherokee Indian thus settled to be considered as entitled to all the rights of a free citizen of color of the United States, to be subjected to the payment of taxes for their lands, polls, ect. 

2d.  And should any one or more of the Cherokees to whom lands have been allotted, their heirs or legal representatives, incline to dispose of their land claim with its improvements, they may be at liberty to sell, but to none other than an American citizen, and that on a lease for say five or ten years; at the expiration of which lease the land shall revert to the United States, unless it should lie within the limits of some particular State, the Legislature of which shall dispose of said lands at discretion.

Very respectfully, &c

JOS. McMINN  [5]

 

 

Meigs to Crawford –

November 8, 1816

They will require a considerable number of boats to move their families of old men and young children and such articles for housekeeping as are necessary for them. 

The able-bodied man will principally go with their livestock by land. . . .

The whole expense of moving is only a feather contrasted with the great advantages to be derived to the United States by the exchange. . . .

We shall gain eleven or twelve million acres of land. . . . Georgia will be made immensely rich. . . . Tennessee will acquire a very great addition to her wealth, and the United States will have a valuable tract for sale in the Alabama region. [6]

 

Cyrus Kingsbury to Samuel Worcester –

November 28, 1816

. . . I expect an attempt will be made at the coming session of Congress to induce the Cherokees to remove over the Mississippi. . . . If the attempt should succeed, I should blush for my country, though I am not confident that it would not be for the good of the Indian.  [7]

 

Cherokee Valley Chiefs to Meigs –

December 18, 1816

. . . we wish to live where we are for many ages or generations.  The Great Spirit is above us all. . . . We want the ancient lines yet to stand. . . . We do not want to go toward the setting sun.  We want to remain toward the rising sun.  [8]

 

Charles Hicks to Meigs –

February 18, 1817

. . . the state of North Carolina wants to take all the land in her charter limits and the states of Georgia and Tennessee will want to take their limits too, and if they all get [their desires] we shall then have no lands for our people to live and raise their stocks on.  [We] do not wish to part with any more lands. [9]

 

Cherokee Chiefs to Meigs –

March 20, 1817

The corn they had down there was taken or stole by white people.  These families were told they were to be paid for their places but had received no payment.  We all have divided our supplies with them as long as we had any food in this place, and now we have all become poor alike for our crop of corn was but lite last year in all these parts and the Intruders, by driving their stocks on the land, has destroyed all the cane Range so the Cherokees' hogs and cattle die or were only skin and bones. [10]

 

Meigs to Secretary of War George Graham –

May 6, 1817

. . . the shortness of crops which pervaded the greatest part of our country, greatly affected the Cherokee country.  I have been obliged to draw orders . . . to prevent actual suffering.  [The Cherokees had said that] a father will not let his children perish with hunger . . . [I] bought six hundred bushels of corn for them.  [11]

 

Cherokee Chiefs to Jackson –

July 2, 1817

Friends and Brothers:  We feel assured that our father, the President, will not compel us into measures so diametrically against the will and interest of a large majority of our nation.  . . .

Brothers:  We wish to remain on our land and hold it fast.  We appeal to our father, the President, to do us justice.  We look to him for protection the hour of distress  We are now distressed with the alternative proposal to remove from this country to the Arkansas or stay and become citizens of the United States.  We are not yet civilized enough to become citizens of the United States nor do we wish to be compelled to move so much against our inclination and will, where we would, in the course of a few years, return to the same savage state of life that we were in before the United States, our white brothers, extended their fostering care towards us, and brought us out of a savage state into a state similar to theirs. 

Brothers:  You tell us to speak freely and make our choice.  Our choice is to remain on our lands and follow the pursuits of agriculture and civilization, as all the Presidents, our fathers have recommended and advised us to do. . . . 

Brothers:  The emigration of a small part of our people to the Arkansas was unauthorized by the chiefs and headmen of this nation.  We have always wished them to remain in their native country.  This we acknowledge to be the weak and feeble defence for our beloved country. [12]

 

 

 

 

Treaty of July 8, 1817   The annuities for 1818 and there-after to be divided upon the basis of a census between the Cherokees east of the Mississippi and those on the Arkansas.  The lands east of the Mississippi also to be divided, and the proportion of those moved and agreeing to remove to the Arkansas to be surrendered to the United States.   The United States agree to the removing Cherokees a tract of land on the Arkansas and White Rivers equal in area to the quantity ceded to the United States.   Land ceded: 1,855 square miles

 

 

 

Treaty of July 8, 1817

 

Each head of a Cherokee family residing on lands herein or hereafter ceded to the United States shall receive a reservation of 640 acres, to include his or her improvements, for life, with reservation in fee simple to children, subject to widow's dower.

Poor warriors departing for the west will be given a rifle, ammunition, blanket, and brass kettle or beaver trap each, as full compensation for improvements left by them.  [13]

 

Honbe
Wm  Rabun

 

Washington 31st July 1817
Dear Sir

We have just recd the proceedings of the commissioners who have concluded a treaty with the Cherokees. By the treaty the State of Georgia acquires the Cherokee lands East of the Chatahoochee river. A small tract North of the river is ceded to Tennessee. No intrusion is to be permitted until after the treaty is ratified by the Senate. Boats provisions &c. are to be supplied by the U S. to such as wish to emigrate to the Arkansaw. In the year 1818 a census is to be taken of those who remain, and of those who have emigrated, or shall then declare their intention to emigrate, and a division of the Cherokee lands shall then be made in proportion to the emigrants who shall have assigned them by the U S. acre for acre shall be assigned by them to the U. S.

It may be proper to state that some doubts exist as to the regularity of the transaction, and the War department hesitated about the execution of those articles which must be carried into effect before the ratification of the treaty by the Senate upon due consideration of the subject the department has been advised to make the necessary arrangements & disbursements for the transportation of this emigrants & their families and for furnishing them with arms & ammunition to induce them to emigrate. By promptly supplying them with the means of emigration & of subsistence it is probable that a large proportion will be found on the Arkansaw before the Census will be taken. Should the treaty be ratified there is every reason to expect a considerable acquisition of territory in the course of the next year.

This advice has been accepted and measures are now in train for furnishing boats, provisions, arms & ammunition for the transportation of such as wish to emigrate this season.

It is hoped that our citizens will abstain from intruding upon the lands until the treaty is ratified, according to the engagement to that effect.

If the irregularity attended to should induce the Senate to postpone the ratification of it the execution of a part of it by the execution will strengthen our claim upon the Indians, and give us advantages in further efforts for the accomplishment of our object which will abundantly compensate for the expence which may be incurred under the treaty. It is due to the commissioners to state that the irregularity which is supposed to exist is at least very equivocal. I have myself but little doubt of the ratification of the treaty by the Senate.

I am dear sir respectfully your most obt & very humble servt 
Wm H Crawford   [14]

 

Pathkiller to Meigs-

August 6, 1817

Toochelar and The Glass have let go of my people and country and joined themselves to the Arkansaw Cherokees, and they have no business to speak for the people and country here, as you and the commission have divided my warriors and made us two Nations.  [15]

 

Meigs to Pathkiller –

August 9, 1817

Brother, your nation is not divided . . . . the Cherokees here and on the arkansas are one people . . . you are both here and there only one family. [16]

 

Meigs to Graham –

October 30, 1817

They still silently adhere to the wish to remain on their old grounds as one people, subject only to their ancient laws and customs; this is perhaps a National sentiment in man, but in the present case it is . . .  utterly inadmissible and impracticable; inadmissible because an independent Government placed within the center of another independent Government would be a phenomenon, if not a monster of politics.  The Indian tribes have had, and many of them still have, the erroneous ideas of their sovereignty and independence.  We must keep them dependent.  Their political state in relation to the United States is that of minors. . . . By their local and moral condition they are appendages only to the United States . . . it is of the first importance to the peace, even to the safety of the U. States, that we occupy and fill with good citizens all the Country from the interior to the seashore, from New Orleans to the State of Georgia.  [17]

 

Gov. McMinn to George Graham –

November 13, 1817

Toochelar and The Glass have enrolled themselves as emigrants. . . . for which cause alone, as I am informed, they have both been discarded and struck form the list of chiefs notwithstanding they have become Gray in the service of their Country.  [18]

 

Cherokee Council to Meigs –

May 10, 1818

We have understood that there is numbers of our people that have drawn guns and other articles that were made drunk to induce them to take these things to go over to the Arkansas.  This ought not to be allowed when drunk.  [19]

 

 

Cherokee Council Minutes

 

Cherokee Agency May 20th 1818

At a meeting of the Chiefs headmen and warriors of the Cherokee Nation of [document damaged] [illegible] by Col. Meigs at the request of [document damaged] Excellency Governor McMinn under instructions from the war Department at the counsel [document damaged] at this place. By order of his Excellency James C. Mitchell Esquire was appointed Secretary to the Governor during the Continuance of the assembly. Who proceeded to the duties of his office; and there not having convened a sufficient number of [illegible] to proceed to Business Council Adjourned untill to morrow.

 

May the 21st 1818 Met and adjourned until to morrow

.

Friday May the 22d 1818

The Chiefs &c having Assembled in the Council House

The Chiefs represented to his Excellency that they had brought with them a considerable [document damaged] of young men and Boys for the purpose of Obtaining arms agreeable to the promise made to the Arkansas Delegation by their Father the President of Washington City last winter and which is also contained in the Presidents Speech addressed to said Delegation.

They also stated that they wanted the terms of the treaty so varied that the women should draw the Kettles and Blankets Stipulated to be given to the poor warriors.

To which his Excellency made the following reply

"Friends and Brothers Your request relative to furnishing the young men and Boys with arms is founded upon the highest authority known to the American Government and shall be attended to with cheerfulness and promtitude Notwithstanding the power and Authority with which I am invested on this point is indeffinite as relates to age or size: You must permit me to exercise that Authority with an eye to the interest of my Government as well as that of yours and I do assure you that an unbiased discretion shall be my Guide.

I will select one from a [document damaged] Those young men and Boys whose height shall be marked on the doorpost of the United States Store House as a standard: and it must be distinctly understood that no guns will be furnished to any whose hight shall fall below the standard measure nor will any Blankets or Kettles be furnished to Boys under this arrangement but will be kept in reserve for the widows & children you have just now brought into view. Too whose wants I am authorized by your Father the President to make adequate Provision. But as to withholding the Kettles and Blankets from the poor warriors, it can not be granted they are secured to them by the 6th Article of the late Treaty which must be regarded in the most solemn manner and let it be remembered that the Guns given to the Boys and the Kettles and Blankets given to the widows and Children form no part of the Treaty, but are presents made to your people as a sure mark of your Fathers Goodness and friendship toward the red people"

With which reply of his Excellency the Council appeared to be much pleased

 

Saturday May the 23d 1818

The council met and Adjourned

Monday May the 25th 1818 The Chiefs headmen and warriors having met in the Council House and the meeting having been announced by fireing the Cannon

His Excellency met them in the Open council and explained to them the cause of calling them together at this time in an apt and an appropriate introductory address. Among other things he stated: by the terms of the Treaty the sensus of the whole Nation is to be taken in the month of June next as well those who reside on the Arkansasas those who reside on the East of the Mississippi; and that he wished to have this talk over in time for them to return to their respective houses before the Arrival of the Period at which the sensus is to be taken, when you are at your houses My Brothers (he added) a correct account can be taken of your numbers, and the opportunity at least is not so great for the comission of Errors in taking the Sensus and more accuracy can be Observed than in any other situation in which you can be placed, and I hope my Red Brothers (he added) that the course I have taken will be entirely satisfactory to you to which they all nodded assent. . . .  [20]

 

 

Cherokee Council to Gov. McMinn - 

June 30, 1818

We consider ourselves as a free and distinct nation and that the Government of the United States have no police over us further than a friendly intercourse in trade.  [21]

 

Charles Hicks to Meigs –

July 5, 1818

. . . you tell us to become citizens or we must go over the Mississippi.  That would be force which you said we were free from.  [22]

 

Pathkiller to Meigs –

July 12, 1818

It appears to me that you want to dispossess us of our habitation . . . but I will hold my country fast. . . . I love my country where I was raised.  I never will find another such Country if you was to dispossess us of our boundary. [23]

 

Ard Hoyt to Worcester –

July 25, 1818

We think with the Chiefs of this people, that a general removal would greatly distress this people and in a great degree retard, if not ultimately defeat, the benevolent design of bringing them out of their state of darkness to the light of divine truth and the privileges of civilization.  [24]

 

Calhoun to Gov. McMinn –

July 29, 1818

The conduct on the part of the Cherokee nation merits the severest censure.  After ratification of the treaty, resistance to its fair execution can be considered little short of  hostility.  The menaces offered to those who choose to emigrate or to take reservations cannot be tolerated. . . . Surrounded as the Cherokees are by the white population, they are in danger of perpetual collisions with them, or, even if disputes can be avoided, to fall under the train of vice and misery to which a savage people are doomed when they come into contact with enlightened and civilized nations.  It is vain for the Cherokees to hold to the high tone which they do as to their independence as a nation; for daily proof is exhibited that, were it not for the protecting arm of the United States they would become victims of fraud and violence.  If the opposers of the treaty are really the champions of the independence of their nation, they ought to be the advocates of emigration to the Arkansas.  There, their claim to independence would be much better founded; and there, at a distance from us, they might, before the white population would crowd on them, acquire the arts of civilized life, and become proper subjects of our regular Government. [25]

 

Gov. McMinn to Calhoun –

August 7, 1818

So completely are they under the control of Hicks and others that those who have given me assurance of their going to the West dare not even look at me nor speak to me. 

Their avowed object is to take the Enumeration as soon as possible with the expectation that the greater part of the people will be found here, where, by the terms of the treaty, a tract will be laid off for them upon which they and their heirs will live in the full enjoyment of all their savage customs. [26]

 

 

Honorable
Daniel Graham
Secretary of State
Murfreesboro

 

Cherokee Agency 23 Sept 1818
Dear Secy 

I have not had the Pleasure of receiving any thing from you Since, that the receipt of which I have already acknowledged -- Tho hope I may on sending to the P. office, which I shall do early on tomorrow morning --

I am kept very closely confined at this place and Scarcely know how to leave here to attend to my business at Knoxville -- you cannot conceive of a more disordered society than at this place, every action & expresion has to undergo the ordeal -- their Hatred and their Jealously has formed them the most compleat subject of Partizanship that my eyes ever beheld -- as I do not expect that Capt. Childress has returned I will forbear writing to him until next mail -- and in the mean time beg you to repeat what I asked you as afore in my last in relation to the family, and for yourself accept the Sincere esteem of your Friend

Joseph M. Minn
Washington T [Tennessee] 23 Sept 1818  [27]

 

Honorable
Daniel Graham
Secretary of State
Murfreesborough

cherokee agency 19 Nov 1818
Dear Secretary

I have arisen this morning at 4 oclock to avail my self of the pleasure of advising you that, we are still engaged here in the business of exchanging Countries, with brightened prospects every day, and its now confidently believed by my friends that I will effect a total extinguishment of Cherokee tittle to all thier land, east of the Mississippi  For my self when I reflect upon the importance of such an event, and that I have to continue Single handed with an opposition as formidable as the one in question, I can Scarcely be as Sanguine as my friends, but if I Should succeed which God grant I may, I Shall live and Die under the pleasing belief that his hand led to the victory. . . .

This letter will be handed you by a mr. Gamble Mercht. of Richmond V.A. who I presume you will conceive to be very worthy of your attention -- He has only tarried here 2 days and I have been so much engaged that I fear he will think I have neglected him -- Remember Me as usual and believe me to be your friend

Jos. McMinn
 
politeness
Colonel Gamble

Gov McMinn
19 N 1818  [28]

 

 

Cherokee Council to Gov. McMinn –

November 21, 1818

. . . if we were to accede to your proposition to compel a whole nation of people, contrary to their free will and choice, to leave the land of their nativity, which moldered the bones of their forefathers, and so much esteemed and reverenced by them. . . .

. . . The theory upon which you have founded the principle of taking private property for public good, we are not fully capable of comprehending your excellency’s ideas on that point; unless you mean that the public good requires the acquisition  of this country, and that you are determined to seize it.  On these points, beloved brothers, how far the disposition of the government of the United States are disposed to act towards your poor red brothers, you are the best judge, but we cannot for a moment withhold our sense of the humane benevolence and benignity of the United States, to believe that the country which has been solemnly guarantied to the Cherokees by them will be viewed as private property, and the obligations of all their treaties with the Cherokee people trampled under foot.

With deliberation, candor, and good nature, we again inform your excellency that we have decisively rejected your propositions for an entire extinguishment of all our claims to land east of the Mississippi river . . .  [29]

 

 

 

 

Brainerd Journal

November 25, 1818

 

This people consider the offer of taking reserves and becoming citizens of the United States as of no service to them.  They know that they are not to be admitted to the rights of freemen or the privileges of their oath, and say no Cherokee or whiteman with a Cherokee family, can possibly live among such white people as will first settle their country and surround the reserves.  [30]

 

 

Honorable
Daniel Graham
Secretary of State

cherokee agency 11th Decr 1818

Dear Secretary

At half past 2 oclock A.M. I Set down to advise that, I am yet alive, and should realy be happy to hear evan that much from you & friends in murfreesboro

Since the adjournment of the conference I have been industrously engaged in Paying the migrants for improvements & arranging for their embarkation to the west, and have at this time a large number here who look up entirely to me, for every thing they require, and I feel it so much my duty, and the interest of all parties concerned, that they Should leave here with their wants well supplied, and thier  affections well secured to the Government, that no portion of my time is spent, without affording the pleasing reflection of believing, that the best interest of my Beloved Country is to be promoted when I Shall be mouldering in the dust. For Sir as I am daily enrolling new recruits, its of great importance that they should discover, with what care and freindship the Government is fulfilling its engagements with their Country men, who have entered the list before them. And for my Self personally I assure you, that thro all the opposition made to the execution of the treaty, I have never yet recived  from an emigrant whether drunk or sober the first impression, that could possibly wound the feeling of even a Lady

At our adjournment I had determined on setting out for home on yesterday, tho was very poletily requested on the 4th to await the decission of a Talk to be held at Hickes, which commenced on yesterday. the object of the meeting is to Select a deputation to visit the City immediately, for the purpose of puting a period to all our former differences, which inevitably will take place provided they go on. If they do I am invited to accompany them, which I have promised I will do, God willing. and should it also meet his pleasure I hope to be engaged in this pleasing employment of paying my friendly & gratefull Salutations to you & friend, on the 21st inst. 

I have enrolled upward of 300 Families since the 20th October, and its now progressing with unabating ardor --

After presenting my affectionate regard for my friend, generally you will please accept the high esteem with which I am your friend

Jos. McMinn

P.S. I have the mortification to state that from a long indisposition, I fear mrs mcminn will not be able to accompany me, indeed I am far from having recovered my Self tho trust I will be able   [31]

 

 

Meigs to John Calhoun –

December 16, 1818

Some of the Cherokees may be destitute of local attachment, but these are few.  The greater number have strong local attachments - the rivers, the springs, and the mountains, their old hunting grounds, and more than all, the bones of several generations of their ancestors, lie buried in their plantations and on the battlegrounds in their wars with the northern tribes. . . . Although told that they are going to a country with the same mild climate and temperature as this, their philosophy is not sufficient to silence local recollection.  [32]

 

Daniel Butrick to Samuel Worcester –

January 8, 1819

After the late council (November 1818) Gov. McMinn adopted a measure which some think will terminate in the removal of all the Cherokees from this country.  He opened an office at the Cherokee Agency for the sale of all improvements made by Arkansas emigrants to the highest bidder, thus to fill the country with whites and, as he might expect, with whites of the most abandoned character.  This measure the Cherokees say was in direct opposition to the treaty of 1817. . . . Unless some measure is taken by the General Government to prevent the white people from intruding, the Cherokees will probably soon be gone from this country. [33]

 

Meigs to Calhoun –

February 10, 1819

They have a strong desire to perpetuate their national existence and name, but this can only be done if they remove to the West.  [34]

 

Calhoun to the Cherokee Delegation -

February 11, 1819

You are now becoming like the white people; you can no longer live by hunting but must work for your subsistence. In your new condition, far less land is necessary for you.  Your great object ought to be to hold your land separately among yourselves, as your white neighbors; and to live and bring up your children in the same manner they do, and gradually adopt their laws and manners. It is thus only that you can be prosperous and happy.  Without this, you will find you have to emigrate, or become extinct as a people.  As you see the Great Spirit has made our form of society stronger than yours, and you must submit to adopt ours, If you wish to be happy by pleasing him.   [35]

 

 

 

 

Treaty of February 27, 1819   The United States agree to pay for all valuable improvements on the land within the country ceded by the Cherokees, and to allow a reservation of 640 acres to each head of family (not enrolled for removal to Arkansas) and who elects to become a citizen of the United States.   Land ceded: 5,104 square miles

 

 

 

 

 

To James Monroe:

Washington City, March 5^th 1819

Father,

. . . The Cherokees do not depend on hunting for a livelihood and they are fully sensible that game cannot always exist - experience has clearly demonstrated this matter to them - had they been insensible of the fact - they would not have objected to follow those of their fellow countrymen who had separated themselves from the soil of their nativity and emigrated to the West.  The establishment of schools in our nation has been productive of the greatest good, there are now two missionary establishments in our nation, one at Spring Place under the patronage of the Moravian Society, and the other at Brainerd on Chickamaugah, under that of the American Board of foreign Missions - and they are both in a flattering and progressive situation. . . . We have now surrendered to the United States a large portion of our country for the benefit of those of our Countrymen who have emigrated to the Arkansas and we hope that the Government will now strictly protect us from the intrusions of her bad citizens and not solicit us for more land - as we positively believe that the comfort and convenience of our nation requires us to retain our present limits.

Ch Hicks                                    George Lowery

Jno Ross                                    Cabbin Smith

Lewis Ross                        Sleeping Rabbit

James Brown                        Small Wood

John Martin                        Currohee Dick            [36]

 

 

Rev. S. A. Worcester to Hicks –

March 4, 1819

I rejoice with you and thank the Great and Good Spirit for his kindness to you and your nation.  It was a day of darkness. . . .  You feared that you would be compelled to give up your houses, your cornfields, your rivers, plains and mountains. . . . The dark cloud has passed away. . . . A good portion of your land is secured to you; the wicked men who seek your hurt are to be kept from troubling you.  You are allowed to sit quietly around your own fires and under your own trees and all things are to be set before you and your children.  [37]

 

Ross to Hoyt –

April 10, 1819

I have the pleasure and satisfaction of becoming acquainted with the Rev. Dr. Worcester who has been here several days and been very active in promoting much good towards our welfare and future happiness.  I cannot express my feeling of gratitude in behalf of the Cherokee Nation to those religious societies who has so much softened the hearts and influenced the minds of the gentlemen of Congress, as well as the heads of department toward the interest of the poor red children of nature. [38]

 

Hoyt to Worcester –

April 10, 1819

. . . the joyful information that God has heard the prayers of his people in behalf of the poor, despised, and afflicted Cherokees. . . This deliverance, beyond expectation, has spread joy and gladness through the nation. . . .  [39]

 

 

Brainerd Journal

April 12, 1819

While an entire exchange of country was thought of a measure they might be pressed to adopt, Hicks spirit was often greatly borne down with discouragement; but since they have succeeded in getting a part of their country guaranteed to them anew and so many Christian people are engaged for their instruction, his spirit has been raised up.  [40]

 

 

Walter Adair –

June 1819

In the late treaty between the United States and Cherokee Indians I see there is a reservation of six hundred and forty acres of land is made to me, provided I Give notice in due time that I intend to become a perminent residinter on the land, these are therefore to inform you, I expect of the reservation agreeable to the articles of said treaty.  [41]

 

 

To James Monroe:

New Town

November 2^nd 1819

Beloved Father 

. . . We have ever been opposed to Emigration to the west of the Mississippi knowing that we could not get out of the way of the white people by going there, and that the wild game would last no longer there than they had done here, and we believed our children could be better educated in the land of their fathers and be taught to the habits of industry, than to follow the precious life of the chase. . . .

Path Killer

Ch Hicks

Jno Ross  [42]

 

Jackson to Calhoun –

September 2, 1820

It is high time to do away with the farce of treating with Indian tribes as sovereign nations.  There can be no question but congress has the right to legislate on this subject.  It has always appeared very absurd to me to pretend that Indians were sovereign nations.  More justice can be done the Indians by legislation than by treaty, for in treaty making the scheming halfbreeds always end up enriching themselves at the expense of the real Indians.  [43]

 

 

To David Brown:

Rossville, Cherokee Nation, July 13, 1822

Dear Sir

. . . To reflect seriously on the condition of the Indian Tribes inhabiting the continent of America, and to review the miserable fate which has befalled and swept into wretchedness and oblivion the numerous Tribes that once inhabited the country bordering on the Atlantic, is enough to make the remnant of those Tribes, who are now encompassed by the white population, shudder.  Yet I cannot believe, that the Indians are doomed to perish in wretchedness, from generation to generation, as they are approached by the white population, until they shall be annihilated from the face of the earth. 

. . . the United States Government . . . as has hitherto been adopted, to effect the purpose of removing nation after nation from the lands of their fathers into the remote wilderness, where their encroachment on the hunting grounds of other Tribes has been attended with the unhappy consequences of quarrels, wars, and bloodshed.  Has not this been the result of the removal of part of our nation to the Arkassaw?   Yes! the uplifted tomahawk is now wielding, and the scalping knife is unsheathed, between the Arkansaw, Cherokees and the Osages, for the horrid destruction of each other.

Jno Ross  [44]

 

 

The Ridge to Cherokee Council

February 9, 1829

 

If the country, to which we are directed to go is desirable and well watered, why is it so long a wilderness and a waste, and uninhabited by respectable white people, whose enterprise ere this would have induced them to monopolize it from the poor and unfortunate of their fellow citizens as they have hitherto done?

 From correct information we have formed a bad opinion of the western country beyond the Mississippi.  But if report was favorable to the fertility of the soil, if the running streams were as transparent as crystal, and silver fish abounded in their element in profusion, we should still adhere to the purpose of spending the remnant of our lives on the soil that gave us birth, and is rendered dear from the nourishment we received from its bosom.  [45]