About midnight on the 30th of September, 1792, the Indian force,
consisting of several hundred Chickamaugas and other Cherokee,
Creeks, and Shawano, attacked Buchanan's station, a few miles south
of Nashville. Although numbers of families had collected inside the
stockade for safety, there were less than twenty able-bodied men
among them. The approach of the enemy alarmed the cattle, by which
the garrison had warning just in time to close the gate when the
Indians were already within a few yards of the entrance. The assault
was furious and determined, the Indians rushing up to the stockade,
attempting to set fire to it, and aiming their guns through the
port holes. One Indian succeeded in climbing upon the roof with
a lighted torch, but was shot and fell to the ground, holding his
torch against the logs as he drew his last breath. It was learned
afterward that he was a half blood, the stepson of the old white
trader who had once rescued the boy Joseph Brown at Nickajack. He
was a desperate warrior and when only twenty-two years of age had
already taken six white scalps. The attack was repulsed at every
point, and the assailants finally drew off, with considerable loss,
carrying their dead and wounded with them, and leaving a number of
hatchets, pipes, and other spoils upon the ground. Among the wounded
was the chief John Watts. Not one of those in the fort was injured. It
has been well said that the defense of Buchanan's station by such a
handful of men against an attacking force estimated all the way at
from three to seven hundred Indians is a feat of bravery which has
scarcely been surpassed in the annals of border warfare. The effect
upon the Indians must have been thoroughly disheartening. [179]
In the same month arrangements were made for protecting the frontier
along the French Broad by means of a series of garrisoned blockhouses,
with scouts to patrol regularly from one to another, North Carolina
cooperating on her side of the line. The hostile inroads still
continued in this section, the Creeks acting with the hostile
Cherokee. One raiding party of Creeks having been traced toward
Chilhowee town on Little Tennessee, the whites were about to burn
that and a neighboring Cherokee town when Sevier interposed and
prevented. [180] There is no reason to suppose that the people of
these towns were directly concerned in the depredations along the
frontier at this period, the mischief being done by those farther to
the south, in conjunction with the Creeks.
Toward the close of this year, 1792, Captain Samuel Handley, while
leading a small party of men to reenforce the Cumberland settlement,
was attacked by a mixed force of Cherokee, Creeks, and Shawano, near
the Crab Orchard, west of the present Kingston, Tennessee. Becoming
separated from his men he encountered a warrior who had lifted his
hatchet to strike when Handley seized the weapon, crying out "Canaly"
(for higina'lii), "friend," to which the Cherokee responded with the
same word, at once lowering his arm. Handley was carried to Willstown,
in Alabama, where he was adopted into the Wolf clan (29) and remained
until the next spring. After having made use of his services in
writing a peace letter to Governor Blount the Cherokee finally sent
him home in safety to his friends under a protecting escort of eight
warriors, without any demand for ransom. He afterward resided near
Tellico blockhouse, near Loudon, where, after the wars were over,
his Indian friends frequently came to visit and stop with him. [181]
The year 1793 began with a series of attacks all along the Tennessee
frontier. As before, most of the depredation was by Chickamaugas and
Creeks, with some stray Shawano from the north. The Cherokee from
the towns on Little Tennessee remained peaceable, but their temper
was sorely tried by a regrettable circumstance which occurred in
June. While a number of friendly chiefs were assembled for a conference
at Echota, on the express request of the President, a party of men
under command of a Captain John Beard suddenly attacked them, killing
about fifteen Indians, including several chiefs and two women, one of
them being the wife of Hanging-maw (Ushwâ'li-gûta), principal chief of
the Nation, who was himself wounded. The murderers then fled, leaving
others to suffer the consequences. Two hundred warriors at once took
up arms to revenge their loss, and only the most earnest appeal from
the deputy governor could restrain them from swift retaliation. While
the chief, whose wife was thus murdered and himself wounded, forebore
to revenge himself, in order not to bring war upon his people, the
Secretary of War was obliged to report, "to my great pain, I find to
punish Beard by law just now is out of the question." Beard was in
fact arrested, but the trial was a farce and he was acquitted. [182]
Believing that the Cherokee Nation, with the exception of the
Chickamaugas, was honestly trying to preserve peace, the territorial
government, while making provision for the safety of the exposed
settlements, had strictly prohibited any invasion of the Indian
country. The frontier people were of a different opinion, and in
spite of the prohibition a company of nearly two hundred mounted
men under Colonels Doherty and McFarland crossed over the mountains
in the summer of this year and destroyed six of the middle towns,
returning with fifteen scalps and as many prisoners. [183]
Late in September a strong force estimated at one thousand
warriors--seven hundred Creeks and three hundred Cherokee--under
John Watts and Doublehead, crossed the Tennessee and advanced in the
direction of Knoxville, where the public stores were then deposited. In
their eagerness to reach Knoxville they passed quietly by one or two
smaller settlements until within a short distance of the town, when,
at daybreak of the 25th, they heard the garrison fire the sunrise gun
and imagined that they were discovered. Differences had already broken
out among the leaders, and without venturing to advance farther they
contented themselves with an attack upon a small blockhouse a few miles
to the west, known as Cavitts station, in which at the time were only
three men with thirteen women and children. After defending themselves
bravely for some time these surrendered on promise that they should be
held for exchange, but as soon as they came out Doublehead's warriors
fell upon them and put them all to death with the exception of a boy,
who was saved by John Watts. This bloody deed was entirely the work
of Doublehead, the other chiefs having done their best to prevent
it. [184]
A force of seven hundred men under General Sevier was at once
put upon their track, with orders this time to push the pursuit
into the heart of the Indian nation. Crossing Little Tennessee and
Hiwassee they penetrated to Ustanali town, near the present Calhoun,
Georgia. Finding it deserted, although well filled with provision,
they rested there a few days, the Indians in the meantime attempting
a night attack without success. After burning the town, Sevier
continued down the river to Etowah town, near the present site of
Rome. Here the Indians--Cherokee and Creeks--had dug intrenchments
and prepared to make a stand, but, being outflanked, were defeated
with loss and compelled to retreat. This town, with several others in
the neighborhood belonging to both Cherokee and Creeks, was destroyed,
with all the provision of the Indians, including three hundred cattle,
after which the army took up the homeward march. The Americans had
lost but three men. This was the last military service of Sevier. [185]
During the absence of Sevier's force in the south the Indians made
a sudden inroad on the French Broad, near the present Dandridge,
killing and scalping a woman and a boy. While their friends were
accompanying the remains to a neighboring burial ground for interment,
two men who had incautiously gone ahead were fired upon. One of them
escaped, but the other one was found killed and scalped when the rest
of the company came up, and was buried with the first victims. Sevier's
success brought temporary respite to the Cumberland settlements. During
the early part of the year the Indian attacks by small raiding parties
had been so frequent and annoying that a force of men had been kept
out on patrol service under officers who adopted with some success the
policy of hunting the Indians in their camping places in the thickets,
rather than waiting for them to come into the settlements. [186]
In February, 1794, the Territorial assembly of Tennessee met at
Knoxville and, among other business transacted, addressed a strong
memorial to Congress calling for more efficient protection for the
frontier and demanding a declaration of war against the Creeks and
Cherokee. The memorial states that since the treaty of Holston (July,
1791), these two tribes had killed in a most barbarous and inhuman
manner more than two hundred citizens of Tennessee, of both sexes,
had carried others into captivity, destroyed their stock, burned their
houses, and laid waste their plantations, had robbed the citizens
of their slaves and stolen at least two thousand horses. Special
attention was directed to the two great invasions in September,
1792, and September, 1793, and the memorialists declare that there was
scarcely a man of the assembly but could tell of "a dear wife or child,
an aged parent or near relation, besides friends, massacred by the
hands of these bloodthirsty nations in their house or fields." [187]
In the meantime the raids continued and every scattered cabin was
a target for attack. In April a party of twenty warriors surrounded
the house of a man named Casteel on the French Broad about nine miles
above Knoxville and massacred father, mother, and four children in
most brutal fashion. One child only was left alive, a girl of ten
years, who was found scalped and bleeding from six tomahawk gashes,
yet survived. The others were buried in one grave. The massacre
roused such a storm of excitement that it required all the effort
of the governor and the local officials to prevent an invasion in
force of the Indian country. It was learned that Doublehead, of the
Chickamauga towns, was trying to get the support of the valley towns,
which, however, continued to maintain an attitude of peace. The
friendly Cherokee also declared that the Spaniards were constantly
instigating the lower towns to hostilities, although John Watts,
one of their principal chiefs, advocated peace. [188]
In June a boat under command of William Scott, laden with pots,
hardware, and other property, and containing six white men, three
women, four children, and twenty negroes, left Knoxville to descend
Tennessee river to Natchez. As it passed the Chickamauga towns it was
fired upon from Running Water and Long island without damage. The
whites returned the fire, wounding two Indians. A large party of
Cherokee, headed by White-man-killer (Une'ga-dihi'), then started in
pursuit of the boat, which they overtook at Muscle shoals, where they
killed all the white people in it, made prisoners of the negroes, and
plundered the goods. Three Indians were killed and one was wounded in
the action. [189] It is said that the Indian actors in this massacre
fled across the Mississippi into Spanish territory and became the
nucleus of the Cherokee Nation of the West, as will be noted elsewhere.
On June 26, 1794, another treaty, intended to be supplementary to that
of Holston in 1791, was negotiated at Philadelphia, being signed by
the Secretary of War and by thirteen principal men of the Cherokee. An
arrangement was made for the proper marking of the boundary then
established, and the annuity was increased to five thousand dollars,
with a proviso that fifty dollars were to be deducted for every horse
stolen by the Cherokee and not restored within three months. [190]
In July a man named John Ish was shot down while plowing in his field
eighteen miles below Knoxville. By order of Hanging-maw, the friendly
chief of Echota, a party of Cherokee took the trail and captured the
murderer, who proved to be a Creek, whom they brought in to the agent
at Tellico blockhouse, where he was formally tried and hanged. When
asked the usual question he said that his people were at war with
the whites, that he had left home to kill or be killed, that he had
killed the white man and would have escaped but for the Cherokee,
and that there were enough of his nation to avenge his death. A few
days later a party of one hundred Creek warriors crossed Tennessee
river against the settlements. The alarm was given by Hanging-maw, and
fifty-three Cherokee with a few federal troops started in pursuit. On
the 10th of August they came up with the Creeks, killing one and
wounding another, one Cherokee being slightly wounded. The Creeks
retreated and the victors returned to the Cherokee towns, where their
return was announced by the death song and the firing of guns. "The
night was spent in dancing the scalp dance, according to the custom
of warriors after a victory over their enemies, in which the white
and red people heartily joined. The Upper Cherokee had now stepped
too far to go back, and their professions of friendship were now no
longer to be questioned." In the same month there was an engagement
between a detachment of about forty soldiers and a large body of
Creeks near Crab Orchard, in which several of each were killed. [191]
It is evident that much of the damage on both sides of the Cumberland
range was due to the Creeks.
In the meantime Governor Blount was trying to negotiate peace with the
whole Cherokee Nation, but with little success. The Cherokee claimed
to be anxious for permanent peace, but said that it was impossible
to restore the property taken by them, as it had been taken in war,
and they had themselves been equal losers from the whites. They said
also that they could not prevent the hostile Creeks from passing
through their territory. About the end of July it was learned that a
strong body of Creeks had started north against the settlements. The
militia was at once ordered out along the Tennessee frontier, and
the friendly Cherokees offered their services, while measures were
taken to protect their women and children from the enemy. The Creeks
advanced as far as Willstown, when the news came of the complete
defeat of the confederated northern tribes by General Wayne (30), and
fearing the same fate for themselves, they turned back and scattered
to their towns. [192]
The Tennesseeans, especially those on the Cumberland, had long ago
come to the conclusion that peace could be brought about only through
the destruction of the Chickamauga towns. Anticipating some action
of this kind, which the general government did not think necessary
or advisable, orders against any such attempt had been issued
by the Secretary of War to Governor Blount. The frontier people
went about their preparations, however, and it is evident from
the result that the local military authorities were in connivance
with the undertaking. General Robertson was the chief organizer of
the volunteers about Nashville, who were reenforced by a company
of Kentuckians under Colonel Whitley. Major Ore had been sent by
Governor Blount with a detachment of troops to protect the Cumberland
settlements, and on arriving at Nashville entered as heartily into the
project as if no counter orders had ever been issued, and was given
chief command of the expedition, which for this reason is commonly
known as "Ore's expedition."
On September 7, 1794, the army of five hundred and fifty mounted men
left Nashville, and five days later crossed the Tennessee near the
mouth of the Sequatchee river, their guide being the same Joseph Brown
of whom the old Indian woman had said that he would one day bring the
soldiers to destroy them. Having left their horses on the other side
of the river, they moved up along the south bank just after daybreak of
the 13th and surprised the town of Nickajack, killing several warriors
and taking a number of prisoners. Some who attempted to escape in
canoes were shot in the water. The warriors in Running Water town,
four miles above, heard the firing and came at once to the assistance
of their friends, but were driven back after attempting to hold their
ground, and the second town shared the fate of the first. More than
fifty Indians had been killed, a number were prisoners, both towns and
all their contents had been destroyed, with a loss to the assailants
of only three men wounded. The Breath, the chief of Running Water, was
among those killed. Two fresh scalps with a large quantity of plunder
from the settlements were found in the towns, together with a supply
of ammunition said to have been furnished by the Spaniards. [193]
Soon after the return of the expedition Robertson sent a message to
John Watts, the principal leader of the hostile Cherokee, threatening
a second visitation if the Indians did not very soon surrender
their prisoners and give assurances of peace. [194] The destruction
of their towns on Tennessee and Coosa and the utter defeat of the
northern confederates had now broken the courage of the Cherokee,
and on their own request Governor Blount held a conference with them
at Tellico blockhouse, November 7 and 8, 1794, at which Hanging-maw,
head chief of the Nation, and Colonel John Watt, principal chief
of the hostile towns, with about four hundred of their warriors,
attended. The result was satisfactory; all differences were arranged
on a friendly basis and the long Cherokee war came to an end. [195]
Owing to the continued devastation of their towns during the
Revolutionary struggle, a number of Cherokee, principally of the
Chickamauga band, had removed across the Ohio about 1782 and settled
on Paint creek, a branch of the Scioto river, in the vicinity of
their friends and allies, the Shawano. In 1787 they were reported
to number about seventy warriors. They took an active part in the
hostilities along the Ohio frontier and were present in the great
battle at the Maumee rapids, by which the power of the confederated
northern tribes was effectually broken. As they had failed to attend
the treaty conference held at Greenville in August, 1795, General Wayne
sent them a special message, through their chief Long-hair, that if
they refused to come in and make terms as the others had done they
would be considered outside the protection of the government. Upon
this a part of them came in and promised that as soon as they could
gather their crops the whole band would leave Ohio forever and return
to their people in the south. [196]
The Creeks were still hostile and continued their inroads upon the
western settlements. Early in January, 1795, Governor Blount held
another conference with the Cherokee and endeavored to persuade them
to organize a company of their young men to patrol the frontier against
the Creeks, but to this proposal the chiefs refused to consent. [197]
In the next year it was discovered that a movement was on foot to
take possession of certain Indian lands south of the Cumberland
on pretense of authority formerly granted by North Carolina for
the relief of Revolutionary soldiers. As such action would almost
surely have resulted in another Indian war, Congress interposed,
on the representation of President Washington, with an act for the
regulation of intercourse between citizens of the United States and the
various Indian tribes. Its main purpose was to prevent intrusion upon
lands to which the Indian title had not been extinguished by treaty
with the general government, and under its provisions a number of
squatters were ejected from the Indian country and removed across the
boundary. The pressure of border sentiment, however, was constantly
for extending the area of white settlement and the result was an
immediate agitation to procure another treaty cession. [198]
In consequence of urgent representations from the people of
Tennessee, Congress took steps in 1797 for procuring a new treaty
with the Cherokee by which the ejected settlers might be reinstated
and the boundaries of the new state so extended as to bring about
closer communication between the eastern settlements and those on the
Cumberland. The Revolutionary warfare had forced the Cherokee west and
south, and their capital and central gathering place was now Ustanali
town, near the present Calhoun, Georgia, while Echota, their ancient
capital and beloved peace town, was almost on the edge of the white
settlements. The commissioners wished to have the proceedings conducted
at Echota, while the Cherokee favored Ustanali. After some debate a
choice was made of a convenient place near Tellico blockhouse, where
the conference opened in July, but was brought to an abrupt close by
the peremptory refusal of the Cherokee to sell any lands or to permit
the return of the ejected settlers.
The rest of the summer was spent in negotiation along the lines already
proposed, and on October 2, 1798, a treaty, commonly known as the
"first treaty of Tellico," was concluded at the same place, and was
signed by thirty-nine chiefs on behalf of the Cherokee. By this treaty
the Indians ceded a tract between Clinch river and the Cumberland
ridge, another along the northern bank of Little Tennessee extending up
to Chilhowee mountain, and a third in North Carolina on the heads of
French Broad and Pigeon rivers and including the sites of the present
Waynesville and Hendersonville. These cessions included most or all
of the lands from which settlers had been ejected. Permission was
also given for laying out the "Cumberland road," to connect the east
Tennessee settlements with those about Nashville. In consideration of
the lands and rights surrendered, the United States agreed to deliver
to the Cherokee five thousand dollars in goods, and to increase their
existing annuity by one thousand dollars, and as usual, to "continue
the guarantee of the remainder of their country forever." [199]
Wayne's victory over the northern tribes at the battle of the Maumee
rapids completely broke their power and compelled them to accept the
terms of peace dictated at the treaty of Greenville in the summer
of 1795. The immediate result was the surrender of the Ohio river
boundary by the Indians and the withdrawal of the British garrisons
from the interior posts, which up to this time they had continued to
hold in spite of the treaty made at the close of the Revolution. By the
treaty made at Madrid in October, 1795, Spain gave up all claim on the
east side of the Mississippi north of the thirty-first parallel, but on
various pretexts the formal transfer of posts was delayed and a Spanish
garrison continued to occupy San Fernando de Barrancas, at the present
Memphis, Tennessee, until the fall of 1797, while that at Natchez,
in Mississippi, was not surrendered until March, 1798. The Creeks,
seeing the trend of affairs, had made peace at Colerain, Georgia,
in June, 1796. With the hostile European influence thus eliminated,
at least for the time, the warlike tribes on the north and on the
south crushed and dispirited and the Chickamauga towns wiped out of
existence, the Cherokee realized that they must accept the situation
and, after nearly twenty years of continuous warfare, laid aside the
tomahawk to cultivate the arts of peace and civilization.
The close of the century found them still a compact people (the
westward movement having hardly yet begun) numbering probably about
20,000 souls. After repeated cessions of large tracts of land, to
some of which they had but doubtful claim, they remained in recognized
possession of nearly 43,000 square miles of territory, a country about
equal in extent to Ohio, Virginia, or Tennessee. Of this territory
about one-half was within the limits of Tennessee, the remainder being
almost equally divided between Georgia and Alabama, with a small area
in the extreme southwestern corner of North Carolina. [200] The old
Lower towns on Savannah river had been broken up for twenty years,
and the whites had so far encroached upon the Upper towns that the
capital and council fire of the nation had been removed from the
ancient peace town of Echota to Ustanali, in Georgia. The towns on
Coosa river and in Alabama were almost all of recent establishment,
peopled by refugees from the east and north. The Middle towns, in
North Carolina, were still surrounded by Indian country.
Firearms had been introduced into the tribe about one hundred years
before, and the Cherokee had learned well their use. Such civilized
goods as hatchets, knives, clothes, and trinkets had become so
common before the first Cherokee war that the Indians had declared
that they could no longer live without the traders. Horses and other
domestic animals had been introduced early in the century, and at
the opening of the war of 1760, according to Adair, the Cherokee had
"a prodigious number of excellent horses," and although hunger had
compelled them to eat a great many of these during that period, they
still had, in 1775, from two to a dozen each, and bid fair soon to
have plenty of the best sort, as, according to the same authority,
they were skilful jockeys and nice in their choice. Some of them
had grown fond of cattle, and they had also an abundance of hogs
and poultry, the Indian pork being esteemed better than that raised
in the white settlements on account of the chestnut diet. [201] In
Sevier's expedition against the towns on Coosa river, in 1793, the
army killed three hundred beeves at Etowah and left their carcasses
rotting on the ground. While crossing the Cherokee country in 1796
Hawkins met an Indian woman on horseback driving ten very fat cattle
to the settlements for sale. Peach trees and potatoes, as well as
the native corn and beans, were abundant in their fields, and some
had bees and honey and did a considerable trade in beeswax. They seem
to have quickly recovered from the repeated ravages of war, and there
was a general air of prosperity throughout the nation. The native arts
of pottery and basket-making were still the principal employment of
the women, and the warriors hunted with such success that a party of
traders brought down thirty wagon loads of skins on one trip. [202]
In dress and house-building the Indian style was practically unchanged.
In pursuance of a civilizing policy, the government had agreed, by the
treaty of 1791, to furnish the Cherokee gratuitously with farming tools
and similar assistance. This policy was continued and broadened to such
an extent that in 1801 Hawkins reports that "in the Cherokee agency,
the wheel, the loom, and the plough is [sic] in pretty general use,
farming, manufactures, and stock raising the topic of conversation
among the men and women." At a conference held this year we find
the chiefs of the mountain towns complaining that the people of the
more western and southwestern settlements had received more than
their share of spinning wheels and cards, and were consequently more
advanced in making their own clothing as well as in farming, to which
the others retorted that these things had been offered to all alike at
the same time, but while the lowland people had been quick to accept,
the mountaineers had hung back. "Those who complain came in late. We
have got the start of them, which we are determined to keep." The
progressives, under John Watts, Doublehead, and Will, threatened to
secede from the rest and leave those east of Chilhowee mountain to
shift for themselves. [203] We see here the germ of dissatisfaction
which led ultimately to the emigration of the western band. Along
with other things of civilization, negro slavery had been introduced
and several of the leading men were now slaveholders (31).
Much of the advance in civilization had been due to the intermarriage
among them of white men, chiefly traders of the ante-Revolutionary
period, with a few Americans from the back settlements. The families
that have made Cherokee history were nearly all of this mixed
descent. The Doughertys, Galpins, and Adairs were from Ireland; the
Rosses, Vanns, and McIntoshes, like the McGillivrays and Graysons
among the Creeks, were of Scottish origin; the Waffords and others
were Americans from Carolina or Georgia, and the father of Sequoya
was a (Pennsylvania?) German. Most of this white blood was of good
stock, very different from the "squaw man" element of the western
tribes. Those of the mixed blood who could afford it usually sent their
children away to be educated, while some built schoolhouses upon their
own grounds and brought in private teachers from the outside. With the
beginning of the present century we find influential mixed bloods in
almost every town, and the civilized idea dominated even the national
councils. The Middle towns, shut in from the outside world by high
mountains, remained a stronghold of Cherokee conservatism.
With the exception of Priber, there seems to be no authentic record of
any missionary worker among the Cherokee before 1800. There is, indeed,
an incidental notice of a Presbyterian minister of North Carolina
being on his way to the tribe in 1758, but nothing seems to have come
of it, and we find him soon after in South Carolina and separated
from his original jurisdiction. [204] The first permanent mission was
established by the Moravians, those peaceful German immigrants whose
teachings were so well exemplified in the lives of Zeisberger and
Heckewelder. As early as 1734, while temporarily settled in Georgia,
they had striven to bring some knowledge of the Christian religion to
the Indians immediately about Savannah, including perhaps some stray
Cherokee. Later on they established missions among the Delawares in
Ohio, where their first Cherokee convert was received in 1773, being
one who had been captured by the Delawares when a boy and had grown
up and married in the tribe. In 1752 they had formed a settlement
on the upper Yadkin, near the present Salem, North Carolina, where
they made friendly acquaintance with the Cherokee. [205] In 1799,
hearing that the Cherokee desired teachers--or perhaps by direct
invitation of the chiefs--two missionaries visited the tribe to
investigate the matter. Another visit was made in the next summer,
and a council was held at Tellico agency, where, after a debate in
which the Indians showed considerable difference of opinion, it was
decided to open a mission. Permission having been obtained from the
government, the work was begun in April, 1801, by Rev. Abraham Steiner
and Rev. Gottlieb Byhan at the residence of David Vann, a prominent
mixed-blood chief, who lodged them in his own house and gave them every
assistance in building the mission, which they afterward called Spring
place, where now is the village of the same name in Murray county,
northwestern Georgia. They were also materially aided by the agent,
Colonel Return J. Meigs (32). It was soon seen that the Cherokee
wanted civilizers for their children, and not new theologies, and
when they found that a school could not at once be opened the great
council at Ustanali sent orders to the missionaries to organize a
school within six months or leave the nation. Through Vann's help
the matter was arranged and a school was opened, several sons of
prominent chiefs being among the pupils. Another Moravian mission
was established by Reverend J. Gambold at Oothcaloga, in the same
county, in 1821. Both were in flourishing condition when broken up,
with other Cherokee missions, by the State of Georgia in 1834. The
work was afterward renewed beyond the Mississippi. [206]
In 1804 the Reverend Gideon Blackburn, a Presbyterian minister of
Tennessee, opened a school among the Cherokee, which continued for
several years until abandoned for lack of funds. [207]
Notwithstanding the promise to the Cherokee in the treaty of 1798
that the Government would "continue the guarantee of the remainder
of their country forever," measures were begun almost immediately to
procure another large cession of land and road privileges. In spite
of the strenuous objection of the Cherokee, who sent a delegation of
prominent chiefs to Washington to protest against any further sales,
such pressure was brought to bear, chiefly through the efforts of
the agent, Colonel Meigs, that the object of the Government was
accomplished, and in 1804 and 1805 three treaties were negotiated at
Tellico agency, by which the Cherokee were shorn of more than eight
thousand square miles of their remaining territory.
By the first of these treaties--October 24, 1804--a purchase
was made of a small tract in northeastern Georgia, known as the
"Wafford settlement," upon which a party led by Colonel Wafford had
located some years before, under the impression that it was outside
the boundary established by the Hopewell treaty. In compensation
the Cherokee were to receive an immediate payment of five thousand
dollars in goods or cash with an additional annuity of one thousand
dollars. By the other treaties--October 25 and 27, 1805--a large tract
was obtained in central Tennessee and Kentucky, extending between
the Cumberland range and the western line of the Hopewell treaty,
and from Cumberland river southwest to Duck river. One section was
also secured at Southwest point (now Kingston, Tennessee) with the
design of establishing there the state capital, which, however, was
located at Nashville instead seven years later. Permission was also
obtained for two mail roads through the Cherokee country into Georgia
and Alabama. In consideration of the cessions by the two treaties
the United States agreed to pay fifteen thousand six hundred dollars
in working implements, goods, or cash, with an additional annuity
of three thousand dollars. To secure the consent of some of the
leading chiefs, the treaty commissioners resorted to the disgraceful
precedent of secret articles, by which several valuable small tracts
were reserved for Doublehead and Tollunteeskee, the agreement being
recorded as a part of the treaty, but not embodied in the copy sent
to the Senate for confirmation. [208] In consequence of continued
abuse of his official position for selfish ends Doublehead was soon
afterward killed in accordance with a decree of the chiefs of the
Nation, Major Ridge being selected as executioner. [209]
By the treaty of October 25, 1805, the settlements in eastern
Tennessee were brought into connection with those about Nashville
on the Cumberland, and the state at last assumed compact form. The
whole southern portion of the state, as defined in the charter, was
still Indian country, and there was a strong and constant pressure
for its opening, the prevailing sentiment being in favor of making
Tennessee river the boundary between the two races. New immigrants
were constantly crowding in from the east, and, as Royce says,
"the desire to settle on Indian land was as potent and insatiable
with the average border settler then as it is now." Almost within two
months of the last treaties another one was concluded at Washington on
January 7, 1806, by which the Cherokee ceded their claim to a large
tract between Duck river and the Tennessee, embracing nearly seven
thousand square miles in Tennessee and Alabama, together with the
Long island (Great island) in Holston river, which up to this time
they had claimed as theirs. They were promised in compensation ten
thousand dollars in five cash installments, a grist mill and cotton
gin, and a life annuity of one hundred dollars for Black-fox, the aged
head chief of the nation. The signers of the instrument, including
Doublehead and Tollunteeskee, were accompanied to Washington by the
same commissioners who had procured the previous treaty. In consequence
of some misunderstanding, the boundaries of the ceded tract were still
further extended in a supplementary treaty concluded at the Chickasaw
Old Fields on the Tennessee, on September 11, 1807. As the country
between Duck river and the Tennessee was claimed also by the Chickasaw,
their title was extinguished by separate treaties. [210] The ostensible
compensation for this last Cherokee cession, as shown by the treaty,
was two thousand dollars, but it was secretly agreed by Agent Meigs
that what he calls a "silent consideration" of one thousand dollars
and some rifles should be given to the chiefs who signed it. [211]
In 1807 Colonel Elias Earle, with the consent of the Government,
obtained a concession from the Cherokee for the establishment of iron
works at the mouth of Chickamauga creek, on the south side of Tennessee
river, to be supplied from ores mined in the Cherokee country. It was
hoped that this would be a considerable step toward the civilization
of the Indians, besides enabling the Government to obtain its supplies
of manufactured iron at a cheaper rate, but after prolonged effort
the project was finally abandoned on account of the refusal of the
state of Tennessee to sanction the grant. [212] In the same year, by
arrangement with the general government, the legislature of Tennessee
attempted to negotiate with the Cherokee for that part of their unceded
lands lying within the state limits, but without success, owing to
the unwillingness of the Indians to part with any more territory,
and their special dislike for the people of Tennessee. [213]
In 1810 the Cherokee national council registered a further advance
in civilization by formally abolishing the custom of clan revenge,
hitherto universal among the tribes. The enactment bears the signatures
of Black-fox (Ina'li), principal chief, and seven others, and reads
as follows:
In Council, Oostinaleh, April 18, 1810.
1. Be it known this day, That the various clans or tribes which
compose the Cherokee nation have unanimously passed an act of
oblivion for all lives for which they may have been indebted one
to the other, and have mutually agreed that after this evening
the aforesaid act shall become binding upon every clan or tribe
thereof.
2. The aforesaid clans or tribes have also agreed that if, in
future, any life should be lost without malice intended, the
innocent aggressor shall not be accounted guilty; and, should
it so happen that a brother, forgetting his natural affections,
should raise his hands in anger and kill his brother, he shall
be accounted guilty of murder and suffer accordingly.
3. If a man have a horse stolen, and overtake the thief, and should
his anger be so great as to cause him to shed his blood, let it
remain on his own conscience, but no satisfaction shall be required
for his life, from his relative or clan he may have belonged to.