Kim Collins, Cherokee Nation ************************************************************** ***************************************************************** File contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kim Collins ****************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. Unauthorized use for commercial ventures expressly prohibited. All information submitted to this project remains - to the extent the law allows - the property of the submitter who, by submitting it, agrees that it may be freely copied but NEVER sold or used in a commercial venture without the knowledge & permission of its rightful owner. 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Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ****************************************************************** ****************************************************************** CHEROKEE HISTORY August 13, 1885-Indian Journal-In 1721, the French made treaties with thirty-seven different chieftains of the Cherokees, and to contract their intentions it was the wish of Great Britain to make friends and allies out of so powerful a tribe, and accordingly made a treaty with them in 1703, on the headwaters of Hiawassee River in North Carolina, Sir Alexander Cummings representing England. This treaty was made in the month of April, with the lower Middle Valley and Overhill Cherokees, and was then that Matoy, of Tahlequah, became commander of all the other Cherokees. The crown of the Cherokees was brought from off of the Tennessee River from their beloved town Chota and sent to his majesty the King of England, five chiefs accompanying the crown and assisting in making its subjects to another nation. The Cherokees by this treaty remained friendly for many years. In 1755, Gov. Glen, of South Carolina, made another treaty with them Chulock Culla was chosen as speaker by the Cherokees. By this treaty the Cherokees ceded a good portion of her best lands to the king of England, and deeds of conveyance were formally executed by the head men in the name of the whole people, and for all this vast cession of territory they got a few blankets and beads, now and then a gun, and some other paltry articles. Now, at this time, the Cherokees owned all the Northern portion of North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, the whole of Tennessee, North Carolina and in common with other tribes, Kentucky. Look at your map and see the richest country in the United States, in the before mentioned States, and then consider what we own today in exchange for them. In 1758, Oconstola was the greatest chief the Cherokees had. He lived on Little Tennessee River. The writer of this article lived near the same place for a number of years-Chota, the beloved town of he Cherokees and one of their places of refuge. Cilico Toco and Telica were all neighboring Cherokee towns in 1758, and it was here my ancestors were reared on an old Indian reservation, and today owned in part by one of their descendants. About the year 1775, when Henderson & Co. went to those Indian towns to make their great purchase of land from the Cherokees, accompanied by Daniel Boone and others, twelve hundred Indians were present, and it was here that the venerable old Chief. Oconstola, arose and in a prophetic manner, told how the Cherokees would dwindle away before the white people, and today we are thousands of miles away from the graves of our ancestors, and only a century since the great orator foretold the destiny of his people, and ere another half-century rolls around our nation will have become extinct. Atta Kulla Kulla was another great Cherokee chief who lived in 1761. At this date he was an old man and very friendly with the English people, and after the fatal battle of Etchoe, where the Cherokees were badly whipped and their crops and herds destroyed, he went to the white people and made a treaty that lasted with good friendship to both nations for years, and was the means of bringing many emigrants to the Cherokee country, who pursuing the devious progress of the streams, sought out their sources and planted their little settlements on the sides of lofty hills or in the bosom of a lovely valley. At this time, 1761, Tennessee was nothing but a wilderness, but today has a population of over two million. Could an aboriginal inhabitant of Tennessee revisit now this theatre of his nation’s existence, and stand on the summit of Lookout Mountain and cast his eyes around as far as he could see, he would notice with surprise the magic changes effected in this land of his forefather’s. The solitude of his native forests has given away to the industry and enterprise of a strange people, and he sees no more the wigwam of his chief as he calls his warriors around him to hold council, or takes part in the war and scalp dance; his father’s hut where he spent his boyhood days hunting and fishing, and in the evening listened to those savage tales of still more savage men, as recited by his father-he finds them all gone; and in there places he sees the spires of churches, school houses and large factories, all busily engaged in their avocations; the war paths of his ancestors have been changed and converted into channels of a gainful commerce; in the place of their council fires are courts of justice-he draws a sigh and turns his eyes toward the setting sun, and sees the descendants of those old chiefs and mighty warriors merging into an enlightened and civilized nation; their school houses and churches adorning the prairies, hills and valleys of the might West; in the place of the rifle, bow and arrows he sees the plow, the reaper, the improved implement of every variety used by a skillful and prosperous people, almost ready to become citizens of a government who has raised her mantle of protection to oppressed citizens of every nation under the sun. Oconstola’s prophesy is drawing to its end and we will soon be known only in history as the Cherokee Nation, and fellow citizens is it not time to begin to discuss the best methods to become one of the great nations of the Union? Being a Cherokee citizen by blood myself, and all my interest identified with yours in common, I repeat: let us come together as heirs of a great estate ready for settlement and consult as to the best method to settle by. Our lands belong to us in common, and have been held by our nation of people in that way time immemorial, and our chiefs and councils from time to time from the first treaty to the present day, have sold and traded away our lands until we have about twelve million acres left to our nation and over on-half of it is leased out to a trifle. We have now (leaving out the lands west of 96 degrees, known as the strip) about 250 acres to the head, leaving out the disputed citizens. Now, at the rate of increase in population by intermarriage with whites and Negroes, we will in twenty more years not have 100 acres to the head. The Negroes will have increased more in proportion than the whites and Indians combined. We will take this problem and it is working now faster than it ever did since the Indians came in contact with the white people. I am an Indian boy and marry a Cherokee lady after arriving to years of maturity, and by that marriage I raise six children, who are entitled to 100 acres of land fairly per capita. Now reverse, and I will marry a white lady and we raise six children; the Cherokee lady marries a white man and they raise six children. Now we have by the last problem twelve heirs instead of six and only fifty acres per capita. Most of all the Cherokees today have white renters and their sons and daughters are bound to inter-marry with Cherokees, and in less than twenty more years our lands-the good portions of it-will have been opened up and only about one-half of the Cherokees owning them, the remainder belonging to idle and lazy set amongst us who will then want a divide in our valuable improvements, after setting with heir hands folded for years. Fellow citizens you had better look into this land system of ours a little more closely. We are not the same people we were fifty years ago with our prairies and woods full of game and our cattle roaming at will over the rich grassy plains we then had. God has given the talent in good rich soil and we must use it, and use it all, and keep none of the buried and hidden away, or else some one more worthy may take and use it. It is ours, every foot of it, and the United States will protect it. And in the course of human events it becomes the duty of nations themselves to change their laws, constitutions and manner of living to keep pace with other great nations around them, and to meet the views of a more enlightened people. It is so with us today? Do we need a change in our way of holding lands? Would it not be better to divide our lands per capita now and let it be inherited here after by families instead of nations, and let it be entailed to the Cherokees from generation to generation, until Providence, ordains it otherwise? Ft. Smith Elevator