[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 the incessant encroaching of settlers and settlements. People who prefer the freer lifestyle become oppressed when they cannot roam the countryside and commune with nature as the Creator made it, independent from subservience.

Because of the location of their towns closer to the encroaching settlements, the Cherokee went through a longer period of interaction than the Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, or Shawnee who were further south and west. In some ways these other four Southeastern tribes” relations were a consequence to the Cherokee problems.

By 1810, the Carolina Cherokee towns had largely assimilated and amalgamated into the dominant society. Virtually every Cherokee family had a white father in the lineage, because of the matrilineal polyamorous tradition of selecting mates from outside their clan. Indian-European leaders from that period include James Vann, Charles Hicks, Major Ridge, Elias Boudinot, John Ross, Stand Waite, Sequoyah, Talontuskee, John Jolly, Jesse Chisolm, John Bowles, and Tiana Rogers. Cherokee Principal Chief John Ross was less than 1/8 Cherokee. A similar list exists on the Muscogee side with leaders such as Chief Pleasant Porter, who was less than 3/8 Creek. Muscogee Chief Porter married the daughter of Cherokee Chief Justice Riley Keys, the son of a white man.

Resolving inter-tribal conflict is simple. Put boys and girls in proximity and nature takes care of the rest. The animosity of people like Andrew Jackson against the Indians, who were often also European heritage, is inexplicable.

But the antipathy of others is not one-way. The Cherokees in Tahlequah do not recognize their cousins in Texas or Louisiana as Cherokee. The co-mingling and intermingling between tribes and cultures virtually assures blended family lines. Dilution of blood-quanta continues, but the culture can also continue.

The Cherokee cultural traditionalists wanted to separate from the upper towns. After the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, in 1808 as one of his final acts, President Jefferson allowed the Chickamauga (lower town) Cherokee to consider Arkansas Territory, which at that time included Indian Territory. Now we have a solution, but it did not last.

Later that same year, the Secretary of War instructed agent Colonel Return Meigs to use every inducement to get the Cherokee to exchange eastern land for west of the Mississippi. Where President Jefferson allowed those who wanted to move west in the new Louisiana lands, the next administration began coercion of all people of any native heritage to move west. History repeatedly shows that good policy of one administration morphs to bad politics of another.

Old Settlers (Western Cherokee, Keetowah) included several villages who had crossed the Mississippi over the past hundred years into Arkansas, Louisiana No Man’s Land, and Spanish Tejas.

Shortly after President Jefferson’s authorization in 1808, the Osage who had edged south from Missouri were complaining about the Cherokee moving into the White River area. It seems there was no place to call home.

In 1810, Headman Duwali (John Bowles), a protégé of the great war chief Dragging Canoe, moved his clan from Little Hiwassee (North Carolina/Tennessee) on the Hiwassee River to the area near the old Spanish trading post of New Madrid (AR/MO). Chief Tsulawi (Fox) moved his village to the same neighborhood. Their contingent was about 75 people. With Chief Talontuskee’s 200 or so people, the Cherokee in 1810 comprised about 300 souls west of the Mississippi in the Arkansas Territory. It seems incongruous that others would not let that small group find space for a home, east or west.

What do you recall about the history of the New Madrid area in 1811? Beginning on 16 December 1811, three 7.7, 7.3, and 7.5 earthquakes with 200 moderate to large quakes rattled the earth, until 7 February 1812. The disturbances were so dramatic that the Mississippi River flowed backward, and the terrain forever changed. The quaking was four times larger than the 1964 Alaska tremors and 10 times larger than the 1906 San Francisco faulting, according to the USGS.

Do you suppose this phenomenal event had an impact on our intrepid travelers who had just moved there? It moved them further west up the Arkansas River. But that will have to wait for another story.

Let’s do a quick recap of adversaries in this saga, Osage against the Western Cherokee against Lower Town Cherokee against U.S. government and every possible combination in addition to Nature.

A few settlers were trouble makers, but most were live and let live. A few Native Americans were trouble makers, but most were just trying to survive. The groups interacted, intermarried, and helped each other.

Think about what causes animosity between people groups. Although tented in those terms, conflict was not racial. The Native Americans were largely intermingled Indian-European by the Revolution. Intra-tribal conflict was not racial, it was between families.

Animosity has been used for government leaders and their cronies to build a power structure by stirring groups to take from those who have attained anything. It continues in education practices today. Most people think that racial discrimination has been illegal in this country for over 100 years. Is it possible the hostility is not really about race?

The caution is to prevent the natural tendency of government to discriminate against any group in favor of another for any reason.

Excerpts from our book:

Where Indians, Outlaws & Oilmen Were Real, ISBN: 9781658834643.