Chapter 9: United We Stand – Divided We Fall (45.09)

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By: Dr. Bill Ambrose

United We Stand – Divided We Fall

In the fall of 1817, the Cherokee Council met and declared their opposition to the 1817 Treaty.

Source: https://picryl.com/media/historical-caricature-of-the-cherokee-nation

Note that this treaty with exchange of Cherokee land in the East for equal land beyond the Mississippi River represents the actualization of Thomas Jefferson’s wish to remove Native Americans in the East to lands “beyond the Mississippi.”

Grace Woodward in her book, “The Cherokees,” wrote about this time in the Cherokee Nation:

The old weakness – that of a loose confederation of headmen of the Nation – had again proved that what the Cherokee Nation needed was a head chief who would weld the nation into ‘a body politic.’ Too late the Cherokee National Council appointed a committee of thirteen to safeguard their nation against future land cessions made without the consent of a full council of chiefs. Too late did Pathkiller (now the Cherokees’ principal chief) and Charles Hicks (their second chief) send a carefully selected deputation to Washington to protest the 1817 treaty.

Treaty of 1819

On Feb. 27, 1819, the United States demanded more of the Cherokees “peripheral lands” as compensation for past and future emigration onto lands in Arkansas. These cessions were said to be the last required by the U.S. – Cherokee migration cessions would be discontinued. The 1819 Treaty cessions were extensive, reducing the Cherokee Nations land to 10,000,000 acres.

Areas 27

Source: MoTrailofTears.com Geographic Information System (GIS)

Source: MoTrailofTears.com Geographic Information System (GIS)

Source: MoTrailofTears.com Geographic Information System (GIS) Missing Areas 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10A, 10B, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, & 27.

The treaty language is shown below. The land taken in this cession broadly encircled what became the focus of the Cherokee Nation over the remaining 20 years until removal. One can gain an appreciation for the crippling and circumscribing effect all 24 cessions had on the Cherokees. All their original homeland was important to them; as it shrunk with cessions, the nation did not become more consolidated, it became fragmented.

When reading the treaty language describing the “line” north and east of which are Cherokee lands being treated away, one can follow along that line on the map shown as Areas 27, 28, and 29 are removed. The Royce Map was drawn to detail the Cherokee Treaty cessions, so the topographical features used in the treaty language are essential elements of the map.

Areas 28

Source: MoTrailofTears.com Geographic Information System (GIS)

Source: MoTrailofTears.com Geographic Information System (GIS)

Source: MoTrailofTears.com Geographic Information System (GIS) Missing Areas 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10A, 10B, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, & 28.

The Cherokee Nation cedes to the United States all of their lands lying north and east of the following line, viz: Beginning on the Tennessee River at the point where the Cherokee boundary with Madison County, in the Alabama Territory, joins the same; thence along the main channel of said river to the mouth of the Highwassee; thence along its main channel to the first hill which closes in on said river, about two miles above Highwassee Old Town; thence along the ridge which divides the waters of the Highwassee and Little Tellico to the Tennessee River at Tallahassee; thence along the main channel to the junction of the Cowee and Nanteyalee; thence along the ridge in the fork of said river to the top of the Blue Ridge; thence along the Blue Ridge to the Unicoy Turnpike Road; thence by straight line to the nearest main source of the Chestatee; thence along its main channel to the Chattahoochee; and thence to the Creek boundary; it being understood that all the islands in the Chestatee, and the parts of the Tennessee and Highwassee (with the exception of Jolly’s Island, in the Tennessee, near the mouth of the Highwassee) which constitute a portion of the present boundary, belong to the Cherokee Nation; and it is also understood that the reservations contained in the second article of the treaty of Tellico, signed the twenty-fifth October, eighteen hundred and five, and a tract equal to twelve miles square, to be located by commencing at the point formed by the intersection of the boundary line of Madison County already mentioned and the north bank of the Tennessee River, thence along the said line and up the said river twelve miles, are ceded to the United States, in trust for the Cherokee Nation, as a school fund, to be sold by the United States, and the proceeds vested as is hereafter provided in the fourth article of this treaty; and also that the rights vested in the Unicoy Turnpike Company by the Cherokee Nation * * * are not to be affected by this treaty.

Area 29

Source: MoTrailofTears.com Geographic Information System (GIS)

Source: MoTrailofTears.com Geographic Information System (GIS)

Source: MoTrailofTears.com Geographic Information System (GIS) Missing Areas 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10A, 10B, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, & 29.

The Governor Convened a Council of the Cherokees

Tennessee Governor McMinn had called for a council with the Cherokee chiefs during the treaty discussions for this treaty. Royce provided this summary of that council with McMinn’s arguments for total Cherokee removal:

Millions of acres of valuable lands, rich in all the elements that combine to satisfy the necessities and the desires of the husbandman—mountain, valley, and plain—comprising every variety of soil, fertilized by innumerable running streams and clothed with heavy forests of the finest timber, were yet in the possession of the native tribes of this region. Other lands in great quantities, available for white settlement and occupation, both in Kentucky and the adjoining States, were, it is true, lying idle. In point of soil, water, and timber they were doubtless equal if not superior to the Indian possessions. But the idea was all-prevalent then as it is now in border communities, that, however attractive may be the surrounding districts of public lands open to the inclination of anybody who desires to settle thereon, the prohibited domain of a neighboring Indian reservation must of necessity surpass it, and no application of the principles of reason, philosophy, or justice will serve to lessen the desire for its possession. Governor McMinn convened a council of the Cherokees, at which he presented to them in the strongest light the benefits that would accrue to their nation in the increasing happiness, prosperity, and population such as would attend their removal to the Arkansas, while, on the other hand, nothing but evil could follow their continued residence east of the Mississippi. Their lands would be constantly encroached upon by white settlers; border desperadoes would steal their stock, corrupt their women, and besot their warriors. However anxious the Government might be to protect them in the uninterrupted enjoyment of their present possessions, it would, from the circumstances of the case, be utterly unable to do so. He therefore proposed to them that they should, as a unit, agree to remove west of the Mississippi, and that the United States should pay them for their lands the sum of $100,000, in addition to all expenses of removal; which amount, upon their prompt and indignant refusal, he at once offered to double, but with as small measure of success.”

The Cherokee chiefs rejected his offer!

Next: Chapter 10: Consent to Cession? (45.10)

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