As already stated, a band of western Cherokee under Chief Bowl,
dissatisfied with the delay in fulfilling the terms of the treaty of
1817, had left Arkansas and crossed Red river into Texas, then under
Mexican jurisdiction, where they were joined a few years later by
Tahchee and others of the western band who were opposed to the treaty
of 1828. Here they united with other refugee Indians from the United
States, forming together a loose confederacy known afterward as "the
Cherokee and their associated bands," consisting of Cherokee, Shawano,
Delaware, Kickapoo, Quapaw, Choctaw, Biloxi, "Iawanie" (Heyowani,
Yowani), "Unataqua" (Nada'ko or Anadarko, another Caddo subtribe),
"Tahookatookie" (?), Alabama (a Creek subtribe), and "Cooshatta"
(Koasa'ti, another Creek subtribe). The Cherokee being the largest and
most important band, their chief, Bowl--known to the whites as Colonel
Bowles--was regarded as the chief and principal man of them all.
The refugees settled chiefly along Angelina, Neches, and Trinity
rivers in eastern Texas, where Bowl endeavored to obtain a grant of
land for their use from the Mexican government. According to the Texan
historians they were tacitly permitted to occupy the country and hopes
were held out that a grant would be issued, but the papers had not
been perfected when the Texas revolution began. [357] According to
the Cherokee statement the grant was actually issued and the Spanish
document inclosed in a tin box was on the person of Bowl when he
was killed. [358] On complaint of some of the American colonists in
Texas President Jackson issued a proclamation forbidding any Indians
to cross the Sabine river from the United States. [359]
In 1826-27 a dissatisfied American colony in eastern Texas, under
the leadership of Hayden Edwards, organized what was known as the
"Fredonia rebellion" against the Mexican government. To secure the
alliance of the Cherokee and their confederates the Americans entered
into a treaty by which the Indians were guaranteed the lands occupied
by them, but without specification as to boundaries. The Fredonia
movement soon collapsed and nothing tangible seems to have come of
the negotiations. [360]
In the fall of 1835 the Texan revolution began, resulting in the
secession of Texas from Mexico and her establishment as an independent
republic until annexed later to the United States. General Samuel
Houston, a leading member of the revolutionary body, was an old friend
of the Cherokee, and set forth so strongly the claims of them and
their confederates that an act was passed by the convention pledging
to these tribes all the lands which they had held under the Mexican
government. In accordance with this act General Houston and John Forbes
were appointed to hold a treaty with the Cherokee and their associated
bands. They met the chiefs, including Bowl and Big-mush (Gatûñ'wa`li,
"Hard-mush"), of the Cherokee, at Bowl's village on February 23,
1836, and concluded a formal treaty by which the Cherokee and their
allies received a fee simple title to all the land lying "west of
the San Antonio road and beginning on the west at a point where
the said road crosses the river Angelina, and running up said river
until it reaches the mouth of the first large creek below the great
Shawnee village, emptying into the said river from the northeast,
thence running with said creek to its main source and from thence a
due north line to the Sabine and with said river west. Then starting
where the San Antonio road crosses the Angelina and with said road
to where it crosses the Neches and thence running up the east side of
said river in a northwest direction." The historian remarks that the
description is somewhat vague, but is a literal transcription from
the treaty. [361] The territory thus assigned was about equivalent
to the present Cherokee county, Texas.
The treaty provoked such general dissatisfaction among the Texans that
it was not presented to the convention for ratification. General
Houston became President of Texas in November, 1836, but
notwithstanding all his efforts in behalf of the Cherokee, the treaty
was rejected by the Texas senate in secret session on December
16, 1837. [362] Texas having in the meantime achieved victorious
independence was now in position to repudiate her engagements with
the Indians, which she did, not only with the Cherokee, but with
the Comanche and other wild tribes, which had been induced to remain
neutral during the struggle on assurance of being secured in possession
of their lands.
In the meantime President Houston was unremitting in his effort to
secure the ratification of the Cherokee treaty, but without success. On
the other hand the Cherokee were accused of various depredations,
and it was asserted that they had entered into an agreement with
Mexico by which they were to be secured in the territory in question
on condition of assisting to drive out the Americans. [363] The charge
came rather late in the day, and it was evident that President Houston
put no faith in it, as he still continued his efforts in behalf of
the Cherokee, even so far as to order the boundary line to be run,
according to the terms of the treaty (45). [364]
In December, 1838, Houston was succeeded as President by Mirabeau
B. Lamar, who at once announced his intention to expel every Indian
tribe from Texas, declaring in his inaugural message that "the sword
should mark the boundaries of the republic." At this time the Indians
in eastern Texas, including the Cherokee and their twelve confederated
bands and some others, were estimated at 1,800 warriors, or perhaps
8,000 persons. [365]
A small force of troops sent to take possession of the salt springs in
the Indian country at the head of the Neches was notified by Bowl that
such action would be resisted. The Indians were then informed that they
must prepare to leave the country in the fall, but that they would be
paid for the improvements abandoned. In the meantime the neighboring
Mexicans made an effort to free themselves from Texan rule and sent
overtures to the Indians to make common cause with them. This being
discovered, the crisis was precipitated, and a commission consisting
of General Albert Sidney Johnston (secretary of war of the republic),
Vice-President Burnet, and some other officials, backed up by several
regiments of troops, was sent to the Cherokee village on Angelina
river to demand of the Indians that they remove at once across the
border. The Indians refused and were attacked and defeated on July 15,
1839, by the Texan troops under command of General Douglas. They were
pursued and a second engagement took place the next morning, resulting
in the death of Bowl himself and his assistant chief Gatûñ'wa`li,
"Hard-mush," and the dispersion of the Indian forces, with a loss in
the two engagements of about 55 killed and 80 wounded, the Texan loss
being comparatively trifling. The first fight took place at a hill
close to the main Cherokee village on the Angelina, where the Indians
made a stand and defended their position well for some time. The second
occurred at a ravine near Neches river, where they were intercepted
in their retreat. Says Thrall, "After this fight the Indians abandoned
Texas, leaving their fine lands in possession of the whites." [366]
By these two defeats the forces of the Cherokee and their confederates
were completely broken up. A part of the Cherokee recrossed Red river
and rejoined their kinsmen in Indian territory, bringing with them
the blood-stained canister containing the patent for their Texas
land, which Bowl had carried about with him since the treaty with
Houston and which he had upon his person when shot. It is still
kept in the Nation. [367] Others, with the Kickapoo, Delawares, and
Caddo, scattered in small bands along the western Texas frontier,
where they were occasionally heard from afterward. On Christmas
day of the same year a fight occurred on Cherokee creek, San Saba
county, in which several Indians were killed and a number of women
and children captured, including the wife and family of the dead
chief Bowl. [368] Those of the Cherokee who did not return to Indian
territory gradually drifted down into Mexico, where some hundreds of
them are now permanently and prosperously domiciled far south in the
neighborhood of Guadalajara and Lake Chapala, communication being
still kept up through occasional visits from their kinsmen in the
territory. [369]