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The Tulsa Beacon

 

Rosemary Durham

A community of mission leaders helped bring about peace

Tulsa Beacon

[Why our area has its unique political and religious attitudes.] Among the very first Old Settler Cherokees, who migrated from near Chickamauga, Tennessee, was a distinguished clan who influenced the nation to this day. Talontuskee (Disrupter) was the leader of the tribe after 1817 while they lived near Illinois Bayou and Petit Jean Creek along…

The mother of a Cherokee clan truly changed the world

Tulsa Beacon

[Why our area has its unique political and religious attitudes.] The leaders of the Old Settler Cherokee who moved west of the Mississippi were of the same clan, and apparently the same mother. For over 30 years, we have pursued genealogy with history. Deciphering the mothers of the late 1700s is extremely difficult. Why? Until…

The New Madrid earthquake shook up a lot of Indians

Tulsa Beacon

[Why our area has its unique political and religious attitudes.] Road trip, some of our favorite words. Ehh, we have to navigate Memorial Drive to reach the backroads. The first villages of Old Settler Cherokee had moved from Tennessee to the New Madrid area, west of the Mississippi River the year before the great earthquakes,…

Crossing the Mississippi River was a complicated process

Tulsa Beacon

[Why our area has its unique political and religious attitudes.] The movement of the southeastern woodlands Indians across the Mississippi River occurred over a century in spurts. As a new village chief became frustrated with the state-of-affairs, he would move his clan across the great river to get away from the burgeoning United States and…

Confrontation follows the loss of freedom

Tulsa Beacon

[Why our area has its unique political and religious attitudes.] In 1803, the Native Cherokee were one Nation since the British coercion to combine under one leader. After 1794, they had ended the American Revolution against the Americans. Many were amalgamating and moving into the American lifestyle and culture. Those who demanded greater freedom of…

The proud Cherokee Nation began as the tribes merged

Tulsa Beacon

[Why our area has its unique political and religious attitudes.] In the colonial period, most Native American clans were simply a village or two. Those who spoke a common language, such as Iroquois by the Cherokee, would live in the same general district and may trade, but most often did not have a centralized government…

Why did the Cherokee Tribe seem to move around so much?

Tulsa Beacon

[Why our area has its unique political and religious attitudes.] Where have all the Cherokees gone? For several articles we have looked at the almost constant movement of Native Americans before their forced settlement to Indian Territory about 1838. When looking through the telescope of history, we tend to think the world and people were…

What caused the first Old Settlers to escape to the West?

Tulsa Beacon

[Why our area has its unique political and religious attitudes.] In 1788, Chief Torquo (Turkey) moved a large contingent of southeastern Native Americans to Spanish Louisiana. After that, many Cherokee had left or were amalgamating, so the influence center of the traditional Cherokee shifted near Chickamauga River (Creek). The Chickamauga/Lower Cherokee towns were in an…

‘Gifts from the government’ stripped dignity, brought poverty

Tulsa Beacon

[Looking at why our area has its unique political and religious attitudes.] What is history? History is not a sequential event, but a confluence of numerous parallel ventures. The North Carolina Indians continued to migrate from the southeastern colonies and states under duress. Consequentially, the culture and people developed in multiple locations, having different leadership,…