Episode 40 – The Cherokee – the “Principal People” Conclusion
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Episode 40 – The Cherokee – the “Principal People” Conclusion
Welcome to Episode 40 of the Hidden History of Texas, this episode concludes my discussion of the Cherokee. Before I get started, just a quick reminder that I have 3 audiobooks based on this series. You can find information about them at my website https://arctx.org. On the menu, under Digital Products -> Audiobooks. Check them out, thanks,
Now back to the Cherokee. Ever since Europeans had landed on the continent, the Cherokee had done their best to coexist. Unfortunately, their desire to live in peace on their ancestral lands conflicted with the new settlers desire to own that same land. As a result, they were forced off their land and as I mentioned in the last episode they arrived in what is now East Texas where they lived in relative peace for a few years. They did their best to maintain neutrality when conflict started between the Anglo Texans and the Mexican Government.
After Texas achieved independence in 1836, Texas Republic President Sam Houston was a strong advocate for peace with all Texas tribes. He spent many hours working to keep the Cherokees as allies as he tried to negotiate treaties with the Apache, Comanche, and the Kiowa. This even included the Cherokees agreeing in 1836 to send a company of 25 rangers to help patrol the land west of their settlements. In 1837 Cherokee leader Duwali agreed to be the republic’s emissary to the Comanches. However, in 1838 relations began to fall apart after a raid on settlers in East Texas was blamed on a combined Cherokee and Mexican force. As he was getting ready to leave office, Houston once again tried to keep the peace between Texans and the Cherokees. He established a boundary that could have served as a boundary separating the groups. This line upset the Anglos who wanted the land and who believed the Cherokees were actually allies of the Mexicans.
Mirabeau B. Lamar who took Houston’s place as Republic President was an ardent foe of the Cherokees and wanted them completely out of Texas. He initiated his campaign of elimination by sending troops to the Neches Saline (a small community in East Texas). When Chief Duwali had his people block the Texans and in response Lamar told the chief that the Cherokee would be relocated beyond the red river. His words to the chief were, “peaceably if they would; forcibly if they must.”
Lamar then put together a commission who were told they could compensate the Cherokees if they left their land. The Cherokees said no, and the result was what is known as the Cherokee War. The war, although it was really more of a pitched battle took place in the summer of 1839. That was when Chief Duwali led several hundred of his warriors in a fight that took place near present day Tyler Texas. The result was a disaster for the Cherokee as more than a 100 warriors including the chief were killed. The Texans then drove the remaining Cherokees across the Red River into what was then labeled Indian Territory. Not all Cherokee were exiled to the territory, some stayed and lived as fugitives in Texas and still others moved into Mexico. There were some Cherokee who conducted raids and fought for their lands, but they had little to no success.
In 1841 Sam Houston was elected to another term as president and he instituted a policy that he thought would help end future hostilities between the tribes and the settlers. This policy gave two treaties with the Cherokees who remained in Texas in 1843 and 1844.
After the Cherokees who had been moved north of the Red River they were able to reunite with the much larger group of Cherokee who had been settled in the northeastern corner of the territory. In 1846, the Cherokee signed an agreement with the U.S. that specified that all the Cherokee, those from Texas and those who were already in the Territory had equal rights to the lands of the Cherokee nation.
This union lasted until the Civil War. John Ross the primary officer of the nation was in favor of remaining neutral. However, Stand Watie a leader of the Southern Rights party wanted to fight for the South. In 1863, Union troops took control of the Cherokee land and many fled to Texas. After the war, as had happened many times in the past, the federal government sought to reduce the Cherokee territory. In 1866 the tribe agreed to give up the Cherokee Outlet, an eight-million-acre tract extending westward from the edge of the Cherokee Nation into the Plains. Previously this land had been set aside to guarantee that the Cherokees would have unobstructed access to buffalo. In 1893, the federal government paid approximately $1.40 an acre and opened the land White homesteaders.
The Cherokees were exempted from the provisions of the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887, which required tribal land to be broken up into individual allotments, but the exemption was short-lived. The Curtis Act, passed in 1898, required the Cherokees to establish tribal rolls and allot land to individual members on the basis of those rolls. By 1907, when Oklahoma became a state, the Cherokee lands had been severely reduced. The Cherokee never received just compensation for the lands they lost in Texas. Over the decades, they tried to sue the state but were never able to succeed in court.
That’s going to do it for this episode, for more information on this and the other topic I discuss, please visit the Texas State Historical Association. Next episode, it’s time to take a look at the Texas Rangers, not the baseball team, these are known as Los Diablos Tejano. Talk to you then.