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 and administer their own laws, after the manner of
their brethren east of the Mississippi.
Long and patient hearings were accorded to this delegation by the
authorities of the Government, and, predicated upon their requests,
instructions were issued[243] to Governor William Clark, superintendent
of Indian affairs at Saint Louis, among other things, to secure a
cessation of hostilities then raging between the Arkansas Cherokees
and the Osages; furthermore, to induce, if possible, the Shawnees
and Delawares then residing in the neighborhood of Cape Girardeau to
relinquish their land and join the Western Cherokees, or, in the event
of a favorable termination of the Quapaw treaty then pending, that they
might be located on lands acquired from them.
During the year the Arkansas Cherokees had also learned that the
Oneidas of New York were desirous of obtaining a home in the West,
and had made overtures for their settlement among them.[244] The main
object of the Cherokees in desiring to secure these originally eastern
Indians for close neighbors is to be found in the increased strength
they would be able to muster in sustaining their quarrel with their
native western neighbors.
It may be interesting in this connection to note the fact that in 1825
the Cherokees sent a delegation to Wapakoneta, Ohio, accompanied by
certain Western Shawnees, whose mission was to induce the Shawnees
at that point to join them in the West. Governor Lewis Cass, under
instructions from the War Department, held a council at Wapakoneta,
lasting nine days,[245] having in view the accomplishment of this end,
but it was unsuccessful.
Governor Clark was also advised by his instructions of the desire of
the Cherokees to secure an indefinite outlet west, in order that they
should not in the future, by the encroachments of the whites and the
diminution of game, be deprived of uninterrupted access to the more
remote haunts of the buffalo and other large game animals. He was
instructed to do everything consistent with justice in the matter to
favor the Cherokees by securing from the Osages the concession of such
a privilege, it being the object of the President that every favorable
inducement should be held out to the Cherokees east of the Mississippi
to remove and join their western brethren. This extension of their
territory to the west was promised them by the President in the near
future, and in the summer of 1819[246] the Secretary of War instructed
Reuben Lewis, United States Indian agent, to assure the Cherokees that
the President, through the recent accession of territory from the
Osages, was ready and willing to fulfill his promise.
_Survey of east boundary of Cherokees in Arkansas._--Provision having
been made in the treaty of 1817[247] for a definition of the east
line of the tract assigned the Cherokees on the Arkansas, Mr. Reuben
Lewis, the Indian agent in that section, was designated, in the fall of
1818,[248] to run and mark the line, and upon its completion to cause
to be removed, without delay, all white settlers living west thereof,
with the single exception mentioned in the treaty.
These instructions to Mr. Lewis miscarried in the mails and did
not reach him until the following summer. The line had in the mean
time been run by General William Rector, under the authority of the
Commissioner of the General Land Office, which survey Mr. Lewis was
authorized to accept as the correct boundary provided the Cherokees
were satisfied therewith.[249] The field notes of this survey were
certified by General Rector April 14, 1819, and show the length of the
line from Point Remove to White River to have been 71 miles 55 chains
and the course N. 53° E.[250]
_Treaty between Cherokees and Osages._--During this interval[251]
Governor Clark had succeeded in securing the presence at Saint Louis
of representative delegations of both the Osage and Western Cherokee
tribes, between whom, after protracted negotiations, he succeeded in
establishing the most peaceful and harmonious relations, which were
evidenced by all the usual formalities of a treaty.