REMEMBERING ARKANSAS
Some Cherokees moved to state before ‘Trail of Tears’
TOM W. DILLARD
Publication:Arkansas Democrat-Gazette;
Date: Sunday, May 16, 2004 Sunday, May 16, 2004 ;
#note :This is a copy of the email I sent asking for permission .
Tina Easley
Hi , I was sent this copy from the newspaper and was wondering if I could have your permission to post it on our Greene County Site (the link below) with all credit due to you of course. I do the site for free for our county no profit is made from it just alot of hard work and trying to help other researchers. I have alot of questions asked by other researchers about The Trail of Tears whether helping people locate there families or students doing school reports. And anything I come across to help others I try to get permission to help . I was born and raised on the St. Francis and have always heard the old stories from the old timers about the Indians . I wish I was smart enough back then to write them all down to pass along. Thank you
Tina Easley
Come Take A Trip In History !
Greene County , Arkansas Website
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ar/county/greene/
Hello Ms. Easley,
Yes, indeed, feel free to post the piece on the website. Please credit me and the Democrat-Gazette. I admire the work you do. Thanks. Tom
REMEMBERING ARKANSAS
Some Cherokees moved to state before ‘Trail of Tears’
TOM W. DILLARD
This
month marks the 176th anniversary of the removal of
the Cherokee Indians from Arkansas. Though the tribe’s
ancestral homelands were in the lower ranges of the Appalachian
Mountains in the Carolinas, Alabama and Georgia, Cherokees began
moving into what is today Arkansas while it was still a part of
Spanish Louisiana.
By 1800, more than 1,000 Cherokees were
living along the St. Francis River in northeastern Arkansas. As
more whites encroached on Cherokee lands in the east, additional
Cherokees moved west, with many settling along the Arkansas River
and Illinois Bayou in the vicinity of modern Russellville and
Dardanelle. These were known as the "Western
Cherokees." Their numbers also grew because of factionalism
within the Eastern Cherokees. This bitter factional dispute would
resurface later in Arkansas. By 1805 the Cherokee
population along the Arkansas had grown to the point that a
government trading post was established at Spadra near
Russellville. The Cherokees, who during their long association
with Europeans had grown accustomed to trading with whites,
exchanged hides and bear oil for an array of manufactured goods.
In 1817 the Western Cherokees signed a
treaty with the federal government by which they received a large
reservation in northwestern Arkansas between the Arkansas and
White rivers.
The Osage Indians, who considered
northwest Arkansas part of their hunting grounds, did not welcome
the Cherokees. Osage warriors attacked Cherokee farmsteads
regularly, and a bitter conflict resulted. When the Cherokees
complained to the U.S. government, Fort Smith was built to keep
the two tribes separated.
The Cherokees were in many ways more akin
to their white neighbors than the Osages. After generations of
close contact with British and American colonists, the Cherokees
had adopted an agricultural economy, complete with animal
husbandry, the use of fences and growing row crops.
Early visitors to Arkansas often
commented on how well Cherokees blended into the general frontier
scene. They tended to live in log houses, wear European clothing,
and some owned slaves. Not all tribal traditions were abandoned,
with the Green Corn Ceremony surviving to this day.
Hiram A. Whittington, a Boston native who
settled in Little Rock, was keen on the Cherokees, writing,
"... there is no comparison between the Cherokees and the
people of Little Rock, this sink of iniquity." He described
Chief John Jolly as "a real fine old fellow, and has a large
double house surrounded by china trees; about 50 acres in corn
and a large peach orchard, too."
In 1818 Chief Tolontuskee invited the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to establish
a presence among the Arkansas Cherokees. Two years later Cephas
Washburn and Albert Finney arrived in Arkansas where they built
Dwight Mission, which served as both a religious mission and as a
school.
Situated on Illinois Bayou about five
miles north of the Arkansas River, Dwight Mission quickly became
a thriving operation. By 1824 the mission contained about 30
buildings, including a large dormitory where about 75 Cherokee
children lived during the week, a large dining hall, a gristmill,
and housing for the teachers.
Among the Cherokees who lived in Arkansas
was George Guess, the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet. Guess,
whose Cherokee name was Sequoyah, began working on his alphabet
about 1809 while living in Alabama. He moved to Arkansas along
with a large number of other Cherokees in 1818. His alphabet was
complete by 1821, and he immediately set about to popularize it
among his tribesmen.
By 1837, large numbers of Cherokees were
already literate. The tribe also published a newspaper, The
Cherokee Phoenix.
In May 1828, the Cherokees agreed to
leave Arkansas in exchange for a similar reservation farther west
in what is now Oklahoma. They established their tribal
headquarters at Tahlequah. Their numbers increased dramatically
in 1838-39 when almost all of the remaining Eastern Cherokees
were relocated to Indian Territory by what became known as the
"Trail of Tears."
With the arrival of the Civil War in 1861
the Cherokees split into unionist and secessionist factions. Most
Cherokees eventually sided with the Confederacy, and Stand Watie
rose to the rank of brigadier general in the rebel army. He was
the last Confederate general to surrender his forces.
More than 150,000 Cherokees live in
Oklahoma today, and a small remnant survives in western North
Carolina where their ancestors hid in the rugged mountains to
escape the Trail of Tears.
Tom W. Dillard is curator of the Butler Center for Arkansas
Studies at the Central Arkansas Library System in Little Rock. He
can be reached at tomd@cals.lib.ar.us