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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION—BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. THE CHEROKEE NATION OF INDIANS: A NARRATIVE OF THEIR OFFICIAL RELATIONS WITH THE COLONIAL AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS. BY CHARLES C. ROYCE.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION—BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. THE CHEROKEE NATION OF INDIANS: A NARRATIVE OF THEIR OFFICIAL RELATIONS WITH THE COLONIAL AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS. BY CHARLES C. ROYCE.
Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1883—1884, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1887, pages 121—378....
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INTRODUCTORY.
INTRODUCTORY.
An historical atlas of Indian affairs has for some time past been in course of preparation under the direction of the Bureau of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution. The chief aim of this atlas is to show upon a series of State and Territorial maps the boundaries of the various tracts of country which have from time to time been acquired through the medium of treaty stipulation or act of Congress from the several Indian tribes resident within the present territory of the United States from the beg
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
The United States give peace to the Cherokees and receive them into favor and protection on the following conditions: 1. The Cherokees to restore to liberty all prisoners citizens of the United States or subjects of their allies; also, all negroes and other property taken from citizens during the late war. 2. The United States to restore to the Cherokees all Indian prisoners taken during the late war. 3. The Cherokees to acknowledge themselves under the exclusive protection of the United States.
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HISTORICAL DATA.
HISTORICAL DATA.
The Cherokee Nation has probably occupied a more prominent place in the affairs and history of what is now the United States of America, since the date of the early European settlements, than any other tribe, nation, or confederacy of Indians, unless it be possible to except the powerful and warlike league of the Iroquois or Six Nations of New York. It is almost certain that they were visited at a very early period following the discovery of the American continent by that daring and enthusiastic
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
1. Perpetual peace declared between the United States and the Cherokee Nation. 2. Cherokees to be under sole protection of the United States and to hold no treaty with any State or individuals. 3. Cherokees and the United States to mutually release prisoners captured one from the other. 4. Boundary between the United States and the Cherokees defined as follows: Beginning at the top of Currahee Mountain, where the Creek line passes it; thence a direct line to Tugelo River; thence northeast to Ocu
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HISTORICAL DATA.
HISTORICAL DATA.
The boundary line prescribed by the treaty of November 28, 1785, had been unsatisfactory to both the Cherokees and the whites. On the part of the former the chief cause of complaint was the non-removal of the settlers in the fork of the French Broad and Holston Rivers and their evident disposition to encroach still farther into the Indian country at every opportunity. The whites, on the other hand, were discontented because further curtailment of the Cherokee territory had not been compelled by
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
This treaty was negotiated as, and declared to be, an additional article to the treaty of July 2, 1791, and provided as follows: 1. That the annual sum to be paid to the Cherokees by the United States, in consideration of the relinquishment of lands, made in treaty of 1791, be $1,500 instead of $1,000....
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HISTORICAL DATA.
HISTORICAL DATA.
As stated in considering the treaty of July 2, 1791, the Secretary of War notified Governor Blount 88 that the President had ratified the same, and inclosed printed copies thereof to him for distribution. This was equivalent to its official promulgation, although the treaty as printed in the United States Statutes at Large gives February 17, 1792, as the date of proclamation. But, whichever may be the correct date, during the interval elapsing between them, a Cherokee delegation, without the inv
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
The treaty of July 2, 1791, not having been fully carried into effect, by reason of some misunderstanding, this treaty was concluded to adjudicate such differences, and contains the following provisions: 1. The treaty of July 2, 1791, declared to be in full force in respect to the boundaries, as well as in all other respects whatever. 2. The boundaries mentioned in the 4th article of treaty of July 2, 1791, to be ascertained and marked after ninety days' notice shall have been given to the Chero
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HISTORICAL DATA.
HISTORICAL DATA.
The destruction of the official records renders it very difficult to ascertain the details of the misunderstandings alleged in the preamble of this treaty of June 26, 1794, 97 to have arisen concerning the provisions of the treaty of 1791. But it is gathered from various sources that the principal cause of complaint was in reference to boundaries. At the treaty of 1791, Governor Blount, as he alleges, sought, by every means in his power, to have the boundary of the cession follow, so far as migh
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
Owing to misunderstandings and consequent delay in running the boundary line prescribed by the treaties of 1791 and 1794, and the ignorant encroachment of settlers on the Indian lands within the limits of such boundaries before their survey, it became desirable that the Indians should cede more land. The following treaty was therefore concluded: 1. Peace and friendship are renewed and declared perpetual. 2. Previous treaties acknowledged to be of binding force. 3. Boundaries of the Cherokees to
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HISTORICAL DATA.
HISTORICAL DATA.
In the year 1797 the legislature of the State of Tennessee addressed a memorial and remonstrance to Congress upon the subject of the Indian title to lands within that State. The burden of this complaint was the assertion that the Indian title was at best nothing greater than a tenancy at will; that the lands they occupied within the limits of the State had been granted by the State of North Carolina, before the admission of Tennessee to the Union, to her officers and soldiers of the Continental
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
It is agreed and stipulated that— 1. The Cherokee Nation relinquish and cede to the United States a tract of land bounding southerly on the boundary line between the State of Georgia and the Cherokee Nation, beginning at a point on the said boundary line northeasterly of the most northeast plantation in the settlement known by the name of Wafford's Settlement, and running at right angles with the said boundary line 4 miles into the Cherokee land, thence at right angles southwesterly and parallel
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HISTORICAL DATA.
HISTORICAL DATA.
Congress, under date of February 19, 1799, 127 appropriated $25,000 to defray the expense of negotiating a treaty or treaties with the Indians, and again, on the 13th of May, 1800, 128 appropriated $15,000 to defray the expense of holding a treaty or treaties with the Indian tribes southwest of the Ohio River, with the proviso that nothing in the act should be construed to admit an obligation on the part of the United States to extinguish for the benefit of any State or individual the Indian cla
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
1. All former treaties providing for peace and prevention of crimes are continued in force. 2. The Cherokees cede to the United States all the land which they have heretofore claimed lying to the north of the following boundary line: Beginning at the mouth of Duck River; thence up the main stream of the same to the junction of the fork at the head of which Fort Nash stood, with the main south fork; thence a direct course to a point on the Tennessee River bank opposite the mouth of Hiwassa River.
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
1. The Cherokees cede the section of land at Southwest Point, extending to Kingston, reserving the ferries and the first island in Tennessee River above the mouth of Clinch River. 2. The Cherokees consent to the free and unmolested use by the United States of the mail road from Tellico to Tombigbee so far as it passes through their country. 3. In consideration of the foregoing the United States agree to pay the Cherokees $1,600 within 90 days. 4. Treaty to be obligatory on ratification by the Pr
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HISTORICAL DATA RESPECTING BOTH TREATIES.
HISTORICAL DATA RESPECTING BOTH TREATIES.
The commissioners (Return J. Meigs and Daniel Smith) who were appointed and instructed under date of April 4,1804, and who negotiated the treaty of October 24, 1804, with the Cherokees, it will be remembered, failed in the object of their instructions, except as to the single matter of securing the cession of a tract covering the settlement of Colonel Wafford and others near Currahee Mountain. They were, however, directed to continue their negotiations from time to time until the full measure of
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
1. The Cherokees relinquish to the United States all claim to "all that tract of country which lies to the northward of the river Tennessee and westward of a line to be run from the upper part of Chickasaw Old Fields, at the upper point of an island called Chickasaw Island on said river, to the most easterly head-waters of that branch of said Tennessee River called Duck River, excepting the two following described tracts, viz: one tract bounded southerly on the said Tennessee River, at a place c
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
This treaty is simply an elucidation of the first article of the treaty of January 7, 1806, and declares that the eastern limits of the tract ceded by the latter treaty "shall be bounded by a line so to be run from the upper end of the Chickasaw Old Fields, a little above the upper point of an island, called Chickasaw Island, as will most directly intersect the first waters of Elk River; thence carried to the great Cumberland Mountain, in which the waters of Elk River have their source; then alo
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HISTORICAL DATA.
HISTORICAL DATA.
Shortly after the conclusion of the treaties of October 25 and 27, 1805, a delegation of Cherokee chiefs and headmen visited Washington. Messrs. Return J. Meigs and Daniel Smith, the commissioners who had negotiated those treaties, accompanied them. The Secretary of War, Hon. Henry Dearborn, was specially deputized by the President to conduct negotiations with them for the purchase of such portions of their country as they might feel willing to sell, but more especially to extinguish their claim
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
1. The Cherokees cede to the State of South Carolina the following tract: Beginning on the east bank of Chattuga River, where the boundary line of the Cherokee Nation crosses the same, running thence with the said boundary line to a rock on the Blue Ridge, where the boundary line crosses the same, and which rock has been lately established as a corner to the States of North and South Carolina; running thence south sixty-eight and a quarter degrees west, twenty miles and thirty-two chains, to a r
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
1. The north boundary of the lands ceded by the Creek treaty of 1814, as between such cession and the Cherokees, is declared to extend from a point on the west bank of Coosa River opposite the lower end of the Ten Islands and above Fort Strother, in a direct line, to the Flat Rock or Stone on Bear Creek, a branch of the Tennessee, which line shall constitute the south boundary of the Cherokee country lying west of Coosa River and south of Tennessee River. 2. The Cherokees concede to the United S
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HISTORICAL DATA.
HISTORICAL DATA.
Subsequent to the ratification of the treaty of September 11, 1807, with the Cherokees, no other treaty receiving the final sanction of the Senate and President was concluded with them until March 22, 1816; 174 but in the interval sundry negotiations and matters of official importance were conducted with them, which it will be proper to summarize. In the early part of the year 1807, Col. Elias Earle, of South Carolina, proposed to the Secretary of War the establishment of iron works, with suitab
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
To perpetuate peace and friendship between the United States and the Cherokees and to remove all future dissensions concerning boundaries it is agreed: 1. Peace and friendship are established between the United States and Cherokees. 2. The Cherokee Nation acknowledge the following as their western boundary: South of the Tennessee River, commencing at Camp Coffee, on the south side of the Tennessee River, which is opposite the Chickasaw Island; running from thence a due south course to the top of
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HISTORICAL DATA.
HISTORICAL DATA.
On the 27th of May, 1816, the Secretary of War instructed Agent Meigs to endeavor, at the next session of the national council of the Cherokees, to obtain a cession of the Cherokee claim north of Tennessee River within the State of Tennessee. For this proposed cession he was authorized to pay $20,000, in one or more payments, and $5,000 in presents; also to give Colonel Lowry, an influential chief among them, a sum equal to the value of his improvements. 218 He was further instructed to make an
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
1. The whole Cherokee Nation cede to the United States all the lands lying north and east of the following boundaries, viz: Beginning at the High Shoals of the Appalachy River, and running thence along the boundary line between the Creek and Cherokee Nations westwardly to the Chatahouchy River; thence up the Chatahouchy River to the mouth of Souque Creek; thence continuing with the general course of the river until it reaches the Indian boundary line; and should it strike the Turrurar River, the
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HISTORICAL DATA.
HISTORICAL DATA.
In the settlement and colonization by civilized people of a country theretofore a wilderness, and inhabited only by savage tribes, many important and controlling reasons exist why the occupation of such a country should be accomplished by regular and gradual advances and in a more or less connected and compact manner. It was expedient that a united front should be presented by the earlier settlers of this continent, in order that the hostile raids and demonstrations of the Indian warriors might
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
1. The Cherokee Nation cedes to the United States all of their lands lying north and east of the following line, viz: Beginning on the Tennessee River at the point where the Cherokee boundary with Madison County, in the Alabama Territory, joins the same; thence along the main channel of said river to the mouth of the Highwassee; thence along its main channel to the first hill which closes in on said river, about two miles above Highwassee Old Town; thence along the ridge which divides the waters
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HISTORICAL DATA.
HISTORICAL DATA.
Early in 1818 a representative delegation from that portion of the Cherokees who had removed to the Arkansas visited Washington with the view of reaching a more satisfactory understanding concerning the location and extent of their newly acquired homes in that region. As early as January 14 of that year, they had addressed a memorial to the Secretary of War asking, among other things, that the United States should recognize them as a separate and distinct people, clothed with the power to frame
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
The preamble recites the desire of the United States to secure to the Cherokees, both east and west of the Mississippi, a permanent home, "that shall never in all future time be embarrassed by having extended around it the lines or placed over it the jurisdiction of a Territory or State, nor be pressed upon by the extension in any way of any of the limits of any existing Territory or State." It also assumes that their actual surroundings, both east and west of such river, were unadapted to the a
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HISTORICAL DATA.
HISTORICAL DATA.
Return J. Meigs had for nearly twenty years 270 occupied the position of United States agent for the Cherokee Nation. As a soldier of the Revolutionary war he had marched with Arnold through the forests of Maine and Canada to the attack on Quebec in 1775. 271 He had also, by his faithful, intelligent, and honest administration of the duties of his office as Indian agent, secured the perfect confidence of his official superiors through all the mutations of administration. He had acquired a knowle
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
It having been ascertained that the territory assigned to the Cherokees by the treaty of May 6, 1828, conflicted with a portion of the territory selected by the Creek Nation in conformity with the provisions of the Creek treaty of January 24, 1826, and the representative men of those two nations having met each other in council and adjusted all disputes as to boundaries, the United States, in order to confirm this adjustment, concluded the following articles of treaty and agreement with the Cher
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HISTORICAL DATA.
HISTORICAL DATA.
The treaty of January 24, 1826, 336 with the Creek Indians had provided for the removal of that tribe west of the Mississippi. In accordance with its provisions, a delegation consisting of five representative men of the tribe proceeded to the western country and selected the territory designed for their future occupancy. The year following this selection a party of Creeks removed to and settled thereon. The country thus selected and occupied lay along and between the Verdigris, Arkansas, and Can
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
The preamble recites at considerable length the reasons for the negotiation of the treaty and the preliminary steps taken, following which the provisions of the treaty as concluded are given. 1. The Cherokee Nation cedes to the United States all the land claimed by said Nation east of the Mississippi River, and hereby releases all claims on the United States for spoliations of every kind for and in consideration of $5,000,000. In case the United States Senate should decide that this sum does not
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
These articles were concluded as supplementary to the treaty of December 29, 1835, and were ratified at the same time and as a part of that treaty. They were rendered necessary by the determination of President Jackson not to allow any pre-emptions or reservations, his desire being that the whole Cherokee people should remove together to the country west of the Mississippi. 1. All pre-emption rights and reservations provided for in articles 12 and 13 are declared void. 2. The Cherokees having su
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HISTORICAL DATA.
HISTORICAL DATA.
While the events connected with the negotiation and the execution of the treaty of 1828 with the Western Cherokees were occurring those Cherokees who yet remained in their old homes east of the Mississippi River were burdened with a continually increasing catalogue of distressing troubles. So soon as the treaty of 1828 was concluded it was made known to them that inducements were therein held out for a continuance of the emigration to the Arkansas country. Agent Montgomery was instructed 347 to
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
The preamble recites the difficulties that have long existed between the different factions of the nation, and because of the desire to heal those differences and to adjust certain claims against the United States growing out of the treaty of 1835 this treaty is concluded, and provides: 1. The lands now occupied by the Cherokee Nation shall be secured to the whole Cherokee people for their common use and benefit. The United States will issue a patent therefor to include the 800,000-acre tract an
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HISTORICAL DATA.
HISTORICAL DATA.
In the spring of 1844 a delegation headed by John Ross arrived in Washington. In a communication 476 to the Secretary of War they inclosed a copy of a letter addressed to them by President Tyler on the 20th of September, 1841, previously alluded to, promising them a new treaty to settle all disputes arising under the treaty of 1835. They advised the Secretary of their readiness to enter upon the negotiation of the promised treaty, and submitted 477 a statement of the salient points of difference
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
Whereas existing treaties between the United States and the Cherokee Nation are deemed to be insufficient, the contracting parties agree as follows, viz: 1. The pretended treaty of October 7, 1861, with the so-called Confederate States, repudiated by the Cherokee National Council February 18, 1863, is declared to be void. 2. Amnesty is declared for all offenses committed by one Cherokee against the person or property of another or against a citizen of the United States prior to July 4, 1866. No
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MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
MATERIAL PROVISIONS.
This treaty is concluded as a supplemental article to the treaty of July 19, 1866. After reciting that a contract was entered into August 30, 1866, for the sale of the Cherokee neutral land, between James Harlan, Secretary of the Interior, and the American Emigrant Company; that such contract had been annulled as illegal by O. H. Browning, as Secretary of the Interior, who in turn entered into a contract of sale October 9, 1867, with James F. Joy, for the same lands, it is agreed by this treaty,
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HISTORICAL DATA.
HISTORICAL DATA.
It had for several years been the hope of the Government that so soon as the war was ended arrangements could be perfected whereby concessions of territory could be obtained from the principal Southern tribes. To territory thus acquired it was proposed, after obtaining their consent, to remove the several tribes possessing reservations in Kansas, or at least such of them as were not prepared or willing to dissolve their tribal relations and become citizens of the United States. The fertile and a
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GENERAL REMARKS.
GENERAL REMARKS.
With the exception of these questions and complications arising out of the construction of the various articles of the treaty of July 19, 1866, nothing of an important character has occurred in connection with the official relations between the Cherokee Nation and the Federal Government since the date of that treaty. Their history has been an eventful one. For two hundred years a contest involving their very existence as a people has been maintained against the unscrupulous rapacity of Anglo-Sax
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