Relevant History of the Chickamauga Nation
The Chickamauga Nation has academically proven it is a federally recognized tribe which has been excluded through an oversight from federal servicing. They are academically verified to being an indigenous people with their religion and culture originating in the Southeast Ceremonial Complex. Academic verification of the Fourth Annual Address of George Washington which specifically identifies them and describes their possession of the Five Lower Towns thus acknowledging them and acknowledging their treaty lands. Their numerous years of receiving annuities from the United States, numerous treaties their Chiefs signed including:
Chickamauga are historically misplaced because they have been historically combined with the Cherokee. Historically, the Chickamauga were trading partners with France, Spain, England, and the Colonies. Here is where the misunderstanding takes place for the Chickamauga: They have been identified by the United States as Cherokee because they spoke a trade dialect of Cherokee. This led to their misidentification in the 1700s and 1800s as Creek, Red Stick Creek, Cherokee, Lower Town Cherokee, Immigrant Cherokees, Western Cherokee, Arkansas Cherokee, Renegade Band of Cherokee, and a handful of lesser names. The naming and renaming of the Chickamauga by Europeans was eventually taken up by their blood enemy, the Cherokee.
It is impossible to understand who the Chickamauga are without understanding they are first, Indigenous with a culture and religion most associated with their origins in the Late Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian eras. Second, anthropologically they are associated with the religion and culture of the Ceremonial Mound Complexes throughout the central and southern North American continent. The Ceremonial Mound Complexes ranging from Spiro, Oklahoma, Cahokia, Illinois, northern Georgia, and the Tennessee River Valley do have similarities in religion, culture, pottery, effigies, and architecture of which almost all of the Southeast Woodland peoples claim in part or the whole.
It is the current anthropological understanding that the Chickamauga are best classified as having an indigenous, Southeast Woodland descent who became more organized in the Late Woodland period retaining their identity through the Mississippian, Muskogean, and Mobillian periods inclusive of contact and present. The anthropological underpinnings provide one additional item that is often overlooked in traditional understandings of the Chickamauga. The Chickamauga are NOT ethnically Cherokee. The Chickamauga are ethnically of Mississippian, Muskogean, and Mobillian descent while the Cherokee are of Iroquoian, Huron, and Erie descent.1 Most of the confusion comes as the British and Colonists combined the two disparate people into a single entity in eighteenth century because the Chickamauga spoke a dialect of trade called Southern Cherokee. Ultimately combining the two as, “of all the Cherokees of the other” in the Treaty of 1785, the Hopewell Treaty in which at least 3 of the signers signed as Chickamauga.2 The Treaty gave permission for the Cherokee to punish anyone entering their treaty lands without permission. The United States promised their military would keep colonists from becoming settlers in Treaty lands.
Editorial Note: The Chickamauga never considered themselves to be Cherokee. While the United States combined them, mostly for treaty purposes, the two could never be combined because of their vast ethnic, cultural and religious differences. Return Meigs, the Cherokee agent who oversaw the U.S. interests in the Chickamauga moving west, played a pivotal role in continuing the association with the name Cherokee. Because the Cherokee played a significant role in assassinating, pillaging, and murdering the Chickamauga, the Chickamauga find it repulsive to be called Chickamauga Cherokee. One current Chief from Tennessee says it is tantamount to calling a Jewish Person a Jewish Nazi.
Tennessee and Georgia (1700s)
As descendants of the Southeast Woodlands, the Chickamauga are of mixed ethnicity having intermarriages with mostly Spanish, French, British, Colonists, Creek, Choctaw, Seminole, Chickasaw and Cherokee. It is of great interest that the Chickamauga never imagined they would disappear as a people because of intermarriage. The Chickamauga Chief, Bloody Fellow proclaimed, “even should they themselves become white by intermarriage not a drop of Indian blood would be lost; it would be spread more widely but not lost.”3 Then and now the Chickamauga take this into account when they proclaim they are full-blood.
The 1700’s play a pivotal role in Chickamauga history. While the French and Spanish missionaries came to teach the “Indians” about the God of the Bible, the Chickamauga held onto their own ancient religion passed down from generation to generation. They were taught by the priests and missionaries in 1 Samuel 15:23 “For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and defiance is like wickedness and idolatry.” The Chickamauga understood divination (witchcraft) and knew from their religion that witchcraft is a capital offense and those practicing witchcraft must be put to death.
The missionaries also taught the that the God of the Bible hated the sin of moving ancient boundary markers. The Chickamauga identified treaties with the white men as setting boundary markers that are to remain in place. Deuteronomy 19:14 states “You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, established at the start in the inheritance you will receive in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.” Proverbs 22:28, “Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have set.” Proverbs 23:10, “Do not remove the ancient landmark, nor enter the fields of the fatherless, for their Redeemer is mighty; He will plead their cause against you.”
It is the making of treaties and breaking of treaties in the 1700s and 1800s that leads to the perceived annihilation of their Muskogean ways of life. First, the Chickamauga were involved in the Whitehall Treaty of 1730 as the British included the Chickamauga as Cherokee. From the Whitehall Treaty of 1730,
That the Cherrokees (sic) shall not suffer their people to trade with the white men of any other Nation but ye English, nor permit white men of any other Nation to build any forts, cabins, or plant corn amongst 'em, or near to any of ye Indian towns, or upon the lands which belong to the Great King, and if any such attempt shall be made, you must acquaint the English Governor therewith, and do whatever he directs, in order to maintain and defend the Great King's right, to the country of Carolina.4
Again, in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 the British reaffirmed that the lands west of the Appalachians were held in reserve for the Native Americans.5 The Transylvania Purchase or the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals in 1775 is in complete violation of the Whitehall Treaty of 1730 and the Royal Proclamation allowing colonists to take land held in reservation for the Indian.
1792 was a monumental year for the Chickamauga in the War Department Records. The Treaty of Holston had become a flash-point for the more traditional Chickamauga. John Sevier to Secretary of War William Blount notifying him that the five Lower Towns had declared war on the United States and there was a divide in the Cherokee nation.6 Blount in writing to Bloody Fellow (Chickamauga Chief), “admits President failed to meet promises he made to Cherokees by keeping settlers from encroaching on Cherokee land but denied any settlement happened after the treaty was signed. Advised that Bloody Fellow keep Cherokees from entering Cumberland and Blount will keep white settlers from moving farther west.”7 Henry Knox writing to Governor Edward Telfair of Georgia, “Intelligence from Gov. Blount states that five hundred warriors from Chickamaga (sic) towns and some banditti Upper Creeks plan hostilities against the U.S. and will strike the Cumberland settlements. Authorized Governor to make defensive preparations.”8 Knox, “provides Blount with his assessment of the situation with the southern Indians and projected additions to the military establishment in the South. . . Blount is asked to take whatever action is needed to end conflict with the Chickamaugas.”9
In late October and Early November of 1792, Congress and the President of the United States get involved in the Chickamauga Issue. Secretary of War, Henry Knox sends a letter to Henry Lee, the Governor of Virginia, stating, “Congress to discuss war and peace with Chiccamagas (sic). Only defensive action by state to be taken in dealing with Indians.”10 President George Washington, federally recognizes the Chickamauga and even stipulates their lands during his fourth Annual Address to Congress.
“A part of the Cherokees, known by the name of Chickamagas, inhabitating five Villages on the Tennesee River, have been long in the practice of committing depredations on the neighbouring settlements.
It was hoped that the treaty of Holstin, made with the Cherokee nation in July 1791, would have prevented a repetition of such depredations. But the event has not answered this hope. The Chickamagas, aided by some Banditti of another tribe in their vicinity, have recently perpetrated wanton and unprovoked hostilities upon the Citizens of the United States in that quarter. The information which has been received on this subject will be laid before you. Hitherto defensive precautions only have been strictly enjoined and observed.
It is not understood that any breach of Treaty, or aggression whatsoever, on the part of the United States, or their Citizens, is even alleged as a pretext for the spirit of hostility in this quarter. (sic)11
Moving ancient boundary markers and breaking treaties is the recurring theme for the Chickamauga. Their desire to remain a traditional Native American people was being challenged not only by the United States but by rogue land speculators enticing state militias and volunteer militias to drive the Natives from their ancestral lands. In 1794, the military and the state militias took matters into their own hands when it came to the Chickamauga. William Blount to the Chiefs, “and others of the Cherokees in which he cites a long list of depredations by the Indians on innocent whites, including women and children. He warns the chiefs that the violence must stop and the terms of the Treaty of Holston followed or the whites will retaliate with no regard for the age or sex of their victims.”12 Blount,
“Letter from William Blount, Governor of Southwest Territory, to Double-head, Chief of the Lower Cherokees. Blount warns Double-head that General Logan of Kentucky has raised a "large army of volunteers, unauthorized by Government, to invade and destroy the Lower Cherokee towns." General Logan's reasoning behind the illegal attack is that the Lower towns have provoked violence on the frontier, and stolen horses and black slaves. Double-head and the Cherokee are allies of the United States. Blount advises that Double-head immediately return all prisoners, negroes, and horses, so the people of Kentucky will not attack.”13
General James Robertson could easily be the subject of a doctoral dissertation. He was brutal in his dealings with the Chickamauga. In 1794, General Robertson informs Major Ore that he is to defend the district of Mero against a large party of Creeks and Cherokees of the Lower towns. Ordered to "destroy the Lower Cherokee towns... taking care to spare women and children, and to treat all prisoners, who may fall into your hands, with humanity, and thereby teach those savages to spare the citizens of the United States, under similar circumstances."14 James McHenry to the House of Representatives, “Cantrill requested compensation for services provided related to expedition in Cherokee nations country. Cantrill ordered by General Robertson to destroy two Indian towns (Running Water and Nickajack). Secretary of War did not sanction event.”15 Blount to Logan, “After having corresponded with Double-head, Chief of the Cherokees, Governor William Blount of Southwest Territory orders that General Benjamin Logan immediately desist from attempts to invade Lower Cherokee towns, who are in a state of peace with the United States. Rogue elements of the military had previously destroyed the friendly Cherokee towns of Nickajack and Running Water.”16
Moving to Arkansas (1800s)
Many of those moving west of the Mississippi fostered the desire to be free of the everyday annoyance of the lying, stealing, and murdering white man and Cherokee. Most wanted to retain their traditional culture and religion. Most preferred the capacity to hunt, fish, ranch, and farm as far from the white man as he could be.
In May 1792, a group of Cherokees contacted Estevan Miro, the Spanish governor of the Louisiana Territory, and received permission to settle in Spanish territory west of the Mississippi River.”17 One of the first to leave east of the Mississippi was The Bowl who was allowed to settle on the St Francis river. The Promised Land: The Cherokees, Arkansas, and Removal, 1794 – 1839 identifies these early emigrants were Chickamauga Cherokees, also known as the Lower Towns Cherokees, who resisted assimilation and sought to retain traditional religious and hunting traditions.18 Thomas Jefferson in writing to the Chickamauga leaders that he would trade land with them in the east for lands in the west was too good to pass up.
“As cessions of Cherokee land continued at frequent intervals during the first two decades of the nineteenth century, the number of Cherokees emigrating to Arkansas increased. Many of the new arrivals settled further west, between the Arkansas and White river valleys. The Cherokee population in this region grew so rapidly that in 1805 John B. Treat opened a trading post at Spadra Bluff, near present-day Clarksville, to serve the emigrants. A land cession obtained by the federal government from the Osages in 1808 (negotiated in St. Louis by William Clark, the renowned explorer) opened vast tracts of land in the northwest part of the state. Between 1809 and 1812, approximately 2,000 Cherokees settled along the White River and in the Arkansas River valley upstream from Little Rock.”19
On July 20 1809, Tahlonteskee and seventeen followers came upriver to Hiwassee and presented Meigs with a list of Lower Town Cherokees who wished to move over the Mississippi under the conditions agreed upon with President Jefferson in Washington. Jefferson encouraged the Chickamauga to go West because Blount was prepared to send in the militias to quell the civil war between the Chickamauga and the various Cherokee Nations. The list was a long one of 1,023 people, including 386 men and 637 women and children. Later, an additional 107 Cherokees joined the group as it made preparations to move20 that included 1,273 black cattle, 369 horses, 868 hogs, 46 spinning wheels, 13 looms, 36 plows, and other smaller items. They also took along 68 black slaves.21
Tahlonteskee’s group settled mostly south of the Arkansas with his capital city near Dardanelle, on the Illinois Bayou. Major William Lovely, “arrived on the Arkansas the following July to establish a Cherokee subagency at the mouth of Illinois Bayou. He was delighted with the country, dubbing it the "Garden of the Worlds." But, he pointed out, “We have to pound the Corn into Meal having no Mills in all this part of the World every Article is Scarce & very high, flower which is brought by the traders on the Mississippi is from 18 to 24$ per barrel."”22 Most of the Chickamauga chiefs who arrived in Arkansas after 1809 settled south of the Arkansas because Jefferson’s letter did not deny them from settling there. The most important factor of the offering of the letter for trade of land was that it was not an official treaty between the United States and the Chickamauga.
In 1817, both the U.S. Senate and President Monroe gave advance approval of the objectives of a contemplated treaty to officially sanction a Cherokee reserve in the west. Although some of the most powerful eastern chiefs, such as Pathkiller, an adamant opponent of the treaty, were not in attendance, Andrew Jackson on July 8, 1817, secured all the Cherokee signatures he needed to accomplish the deal.23 The Treaty of 1817, provided for the Chickamauga an official treaty land in Arkansas. It references back to the Thomas Jefferson letter to Tahlonteskee and provides additional lands to the lands that they already reserved under the Thomas Jefferson letter.
“The Treaty of 1817 had sweeping ramifications for Cherokees living on both sides of the Mississippi River. Because Pathkiller and several other prominent Eastern Cherokees, such as John Ross and Major Ridge, did not participate in the negotiations of the treaty, many members of the eastern band contested its legitimacy and the Cherokee council refused to ratify it. The council also continued to oppose splitting the tribal annuity with the Arkansas group -- called for in the treaty’s fourth article -- and unrealistically demanded that the Arkansas Cherokees return to their ancestral homelands. Despite the protests, federal officials proceeded as if the treaty were a done deal. For all practical purposes, it was. Jackson, ever the proponent of American expansionism, believed the treaty offered “justice to all,” and in truth his opinion mattered the most.”24
While the treaty was agreeable to the Chickamauga, there was one thing missing, the “Clear opening to the setting of the sun” that was promised in the text of the treaty. “ln August 1819 the Western Cherokees wrote to President James Monroe requesting the "clear opening to the setting of the sun" that had been promised them. The lead signers of the letter were Takatoka, Dick Justice, Glass, and John Jolly, followed by John McLemore, Walter Webber, Thomas Maw (son of Hanging Maw), and Thomas Graves.25
As a result of the 1809 Jefferson letter offering a land trade, many of the Chiefs took their people south of the Arkansas River and settled there while others moved north. The lands in the south along with the “clear opening to the setting of the sun” were promises made by the United States to the Chickamauga. The Treaty of 1819 removed the “clear opening to the setting sun.” An 1820s US Geological survey map specifically defines the lands south of the Little Rock to the Red River as “Cherokee” but again, the Chickamauga noted that the U.S. was moving boundary markers so white people could covet and steal their lands.
In 1826 the Arkansas Cherokee passed a law making it a capital offense for selling or trading lands to the United States or to white men. In 1828 a, “delegation comprised of Black Fox, John Rogers, Tom Graves, Thomas Maw, George Marvis, John Looney, and Sequoyah . . . traveled to Washington to “arrange and finally adjust with the President of the United States or others all the unsettled matters”26 of Lovely’s Purchase relating to the 1817 and 1819 Treaties.
There was certainly no intention by the Cherokee council that this delegation should become involved in a treaty that would trade away their Arkansas lands; nor had the delegation any such thoughts. But once they reached Washington, the Cherokees were detained in their hotel for well over a month while government officials cajoled, whiskered, and bribed them into signing an agreement for exchanging their Arkansas land for that of Lovely's Purchase.27
The 1828 Treaty would be considered an illegal contract today because the signatories would have been intoxicated and incapable of giving consent. In addition, “the government bribery included twelve hundred dollars for Thomas Graves; five hundred dollars for George Guess, plus rights to a saline on Lees Creek of present Oklahoma to replace one in Arkansas; and five hundred dollars to James Rogers. It must be assumed that the others were similarly rewarded.”28
After 1828, it became necessary for the Chickamauga to hide in plain sight. Most had lived in “white homes and clothes” for decades and it was hard to tell many apart from their white neighbors. Then, in 1837, Arkansas codified their own anti-miscegenation laws forbidding Indians or blacks to marry whites. The Chickamauga in Arkansas had been marrying whites for decades and now the ownership of lands of mixed marriages became almost impossible.
In Missouri, the Thirteenth General Assembly enacted, “An Act to Restrain Intercourse with Indians,” which made it illegal for Indians to be within the state. Indians: Subsection 2. No person shall give to any Indian a permit to come or remain within this state; nor a permit, or other instrument of writing, with the intent to induce any Indian to come or remain within this state, except the proper agent, under the authority of the United States. Subsection 11, It shall be the duty of the Governor to transmit a copy of this act to the agents of all the Indian tribes on the borders of this state, with a request to such agents not to grant a permit to any Indian to come into this state for the purpose of hunting, or without necessary business, or who is not of a peaceful character.29
These laws drove the Chickamauga not only to hide in plain sight, it forced them to declare on the U.S. Census that they were white. Accounts from hundreds of Chickamauga families today tell an ominous story of their ancestors. The families told their children to never talk about their ancestry out of fear that they would lose their homes and land or even worse, be killed for their land and homes. While the secret was safe in public settings, the Chickamauga continued to the best of their abilities to retain their culture, religion, and language. Most have retained governmental allegiance to bands and tribes of Chickamauga over the centuries while keeping their affiliations secret from the outside world. Over the almost 200 years since the Treaty of 1828 and the statehood of Arkansas, there are a limited few which have been able to retain the religion and even fewer language speakers left. Many family reunions and gatherings of the Chickamauga today still instill many of the aspects of the culture. Even so, technological advances and inculcation into the American society as a whole is devastating the remaining cultural identity of being a Chickamauga.
Following Spanish Protection to Texas (1820s – 1830s)
Chief Duwali Bowles is one of the most colorful Chiefs of the Chickamauga. He was born in North Carolina sometime around 1756 and became Chief of the Lower Town, Running Water in 1792. In 1794 He is involved in what has been come to be known as the Muscle Shoals Massacre. He then immediately traveled up the St. Francis River from Arkansas and into Southeastern Missouri under the protection of the Spanish Crown. While in Missouri, he joined other Chickamauga immigrants that had crossed the Mississippi River. “Why are they Chickamauga?” some will ask. There are two specific reasons. The first, he could not have been the Chief at Running Water had he not been Chickamauga. Second, no Cherokee would move across the Mississippi because to do so would mean that they would immediately forfeit their Citizenship in the Cherokee Nation. Knowing more about the background and culture of the Chickamauga and Cherokee assists in putting together the history of both people.
After the New Madrid Earthquake, he took it as a sign from God that he was to move his people to a safer place so he moved to the White River lower down that the 1817 and 1819 treaties covered, but the 1809 Land trade with Jefferson allowed and covered as reservation land. Chief Bowles was always on the move seeking less occupied lands for his people. After traveling and stopping in the Arkansas River Valley near Petit Jean River and traveling again south of Mt. Magazine, through the Ouachita Mountains and then finally to the Red River near the Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas boarders, he finally settled for lands fifty or so miles north of Nacogdoches.
In November 8, 1822, he and Chief Big Mush gained protection with a grant of land totally 1,500,000 acres from the Spanish crown in the Treaty of San Antonio de Bexar.
The Cherokee Nation, according to their statement, numbers fifteen thousand souls; but there are within the borders of Texas only one hundred warriors and two hundred women and children. They work for their living, and dress in cotton-cloth, which they themselves manufacture. They raise cattle and horses and use firearms. Many of them understand the English language. In my opinion, they ought to be useful to the Province, for they immediately became subject to its laws, and I believe will succeed in putting a stop to carrying stolen animals to the United States, and in arresting those evil-doers that infest the roads.30
While protection was agreed to by a land grant from Spain, Mexico gained its independence and the new government agreed to continue the protection of the Chickamauga. They lived there and farmed and ranched the lands, but the illusive treaty for ownership of the land alluded them.
The tribe at present numbers about 150 families, the total number of persons being about 800. The property of the Cherokees, consisting of about 3,000 head of cattle; about the same number of hogs and 500 or 600 horses. The subscribers inform you that the said tribe lives chiefly by tilling the soil and raising cattle.31
On February 23, 1836 Chickamauga Chief Duwali Bowles signed the Treaty of Bowles Village with Sam Houston for the 1,5000,000 acres in East Texas that the Chickamauga had worked so hard to attain. The Bronze Sculpture commigrating the Signing of the Treaty still stands In Nacogdoches, Texas as documented by the Texas State Historical Association.32
In 1839 Duwali asked his friend Tahchee to convince the National Council in Tahlequah to send warriors to help him in Texas and to bring the Creek and Seminole. He informed Tahchee that the Mexicans said if they conquered Texas, General Vincente Filisola would give them the land in the region. 33 The Council debated Duwali’s request and decided not to help the Cherokees in Texas ordering none of their young men to leave. 34 This abandonment demonstrated again that the Cherokee Nation could not be trusted and led to furthered ethnic cleansing at the hands of the Cherokee and the Texans.
Chief Bowles and Chief Big Mush knew that the outcome of Lamar’s “termination war” against the Indians in Texas would ultimately end in the brutal removal of the Indians out of Texas. The Texas Cherokee: A People Between Two Fires, 1819 – 1840 documents where Duwali was disavowed by the Cherokee in Oklahoma saying that Chief Bowles and his people were not of their people. Feeling betrayed by the Cherokee of Oklahoma, betrayed by the government of his great friend Sam Houston, and out of time on this earth, Duwali went into a battle he knew he could not win. His young Chiefs drug him into a battle like he had done so many times as a younger man. To set the example for his warriors, the Chief led one final battle as a warrior Chief.
The Texan Army numbered only 500, compared to 700 to 800 Indians, but Bowles' warriors were routed, and pursuit continued until July 24. The old chief, wearing a handsome sword and sash given him by Sam Houston, remained in the field on horseback for two days. On the last day, he signaled retreat, but few of his men were left to flee. Bowles was shot in the leg and his horse was wounded. As he climbed from his mount, he was shot in the back.
As the Texas militia approached him, he sat down, crossed his arms and legs facing the soldiers, and waited for his death. The captain of the militia walked to where Bowles sat, placed a pistol to his head, and killed him. The Texans took stripes of skin from his arm as souvenirs. His body was left where it lay. No burial ever took place.35
THE CHICKAMAUGA NATION
Today, the Chickamauga Nation is painstaking and slowly attempting to reconnect with and reestablish their language and religion while at the same time attempting to revitalize their culture. According to the Chickamauga Nation, they already hold Federal Recognition, so on July 18, 2019, their National Chiefs traveled to Washington D.C. to meet with the lawyers for the US Senate Indian Affairs committee concerning their being placed on the Serviced Tribes Roll. The National Chiefs were charged by the legal team with the task of researching their anthropology and history and having their research verified by academic experts in those fields. They have just recently announced that more than 400,000 pages of research has been verified.
Notes
1 Thomas, C.; (1890): The Cherokees in Pre-Columbian Times; N.D.C Hodges Publisher; New York. Pgs 4-6.
2 http://bkoatohee.homestead.com/files/1785_Treaty_of_Hopewell.htm; Retrieved 2/4/2020
3 Garrison, T. A. and O’Brien, G.; (2017): The Native South: New Histories and Enduring Legacies; University of Nebraska Press; Lincoln. Pg 97.
4 Steele, W. O.; (1977): The Cherokee Crown of Tannassy; J. F. Blair Publisher, Pg 147
5 https://www.ushistory.org/us/9a.asp. Retrieved 2/5/2020.
6 National Registry; National Archives; Papers of the War Department, Document Number: 1792091390100. https://wardepartmentpapers.org/s/home/item/43570. Retrieved 2/6/2020
7 National Registry; National Archives; Papers of the War Department, Document Number: 1792091390000. https://wardepartmentpapers.org/s/home/item/43569. Retrieved 2/6/2020
8 National Registry; National Archives; Papers of the War Department, Document Number: 1792102700100. https://wardepartmentpapers.org/s/home/item/43726. Retrieved 2/6/2020
9 National Registry; National Archives; Papers of the War Department, Document Number: 1792112600000. https://wardepartmentpapers.org/s/home/item/43876. Retrieved 2/6/2020
10 National Registry; National Archives; Papers of the War Department, Document Number: 1792103013001. https://wardepartmentpapers.org/s/home/item/43737. Retrieved 2/6/2020
11 National Registry; National Archives; Founders Online, George Washington Fourth Annual Address to Congress. https://founders.archives.gov/?q=Series%3AWashington- 05&s=1511311113&r=4003. Retrieved 2/6/2020.
12 National Registry; National Archives; Papers of the War Department, Document Number: 1792052390000. https://wardepartmentpapers.org/s/home/item/42997. Retrieved 2/6/2020
13 National Registry; National Archives; Papers of the War Department, Document Number: 1794110190300. https://wardepartmentpapers.org/s/home/item/48508. Retrieved 2/6/2020
14 National Registry; National Archives; Papers of the War Department, Document Number: 1794090690000. https://wardepartmentpapers.org/s/home/item/47869. Retrieved 2/6/2020
15 National Registry; National Archives; Papers of the War Department, Document Number: 1798040500000. https://wardepartmentpapers.org/s/home/item/61814. Retrieved 2/6/2020
16 National Registry; National Archives; Papers of the War Department, Document Number: 1794110190000. https://wardepartmentpapers.org/s/home/item/48505. Retrieved 2/6/2020
17 Markham, R. P.; (1872): “The Arkansas Cherokees: 1817-1828,” diss., University of Oklahoma, Pg. 7
18 Logan, C. R.; The Promised Land: The Cherokees, Arkansas, and Removal, 1794 – 1839; Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Little Rock, Arkansas. Pg 5
19 George Sabo III, Paths of Our Children: Historic Indians of Arkansas, Arkansas Archeological Survey Popular Series No. 3 (Fayetteville, Arkansas: Arkansas Archeological Survey, 1992) Pgs. 96 - 98.
20 Meigs to Chisholm, November 2, 1809, Records of Cherokee Agency in Tennessee (M-208), NA
21 Passport signed by Return J. Meigs, January 10, 18101 American Register or General Repository of History, Politics, and Science, 6:316-18.
22 Territorial Papers, 14:706.
23 Markham, R. P.; (1872): “The Arkansas Cherokees: 1817-1828,” diss., University of Oklahoma, Pg. 79-80, 82
24 Hoig, S. W.; (1998): The Cherokees and their Chiefs: In the Wake of Empire; University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville. Pg. 133
25 Markham, R. P.; (1872): “The Arkansas Cherokees: 1817-1828,” diss., University of Oklahoma, Pg. 79-80, 82
26 Hoig, S. W.; (1998): The Cherokees and their Chiefs: In the Wake of Empire; University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville. Pg. 139
27 Series of letters between U.S. government and delegates of Cherokees West, February through July 1828, Letters Received, OIA, Cherokee Agency West (M-234), NA.
28 McKenney to Duval, May 28, 1828, Letters Sent by Office of Indian Affairs, 1824-1831 (M- 21), NA
29 The Revised Statutes of the State of Missouri, Thirteenth General Assembly; 1845; Page 307. https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QacXL09mqAsBM6pZZ815ViCis64uzBAICn5S5TULfYek2IhS-qJuimVH7gau11tqmucMALRM4NtGN9lXE-- z31vFYh8OTBikAu_zZhGSCg1VWD4Ks2-VNfRhXP7N0KAuaUwBy-uusuldu9_OrfISQrPzugXFaYRqCrzuMm0NDFpH136ikQ62zCH_qJ1pNYp6uhRgd2IkVupZhw3WuuPyXUTjOjg1_6e3rHY1ws9jBZxqyxydF2qzsD02WWJvsXUtKGsL5ao2pZ SvKfzLbVO7ydTwqIKtyh1lYtOk_WztWbPaIBQzZcE. Retrieved 2/12/2020
30 Starr, E.; (1921): History of the Cherokee Indians and Their Legends and Folk Lore; Oklahoma City, pp. 189-190.
31 Woldert, A.; (1923): “The Last of the Cherokees in Texas, and the Life and Death of Chief Bowles,” Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. 1, No. 3; p. 192.
32 https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbo47
33 Arbuckle to Jones, 30 May 1838; Records of the U.S. Army Continental Commands, Record Group 393, Fort Gibson Letterbooks, National Archives: Simmons to Vose, 30 May 1838, Fort Gibson Letterbooks.
34 Holland Coffee to General Felix Huston, 17 December 1838, S. Doc. 14, 38
35 Everett, D.; (1995): The Texas Cherokees: A People Between Two Fires, 1819 – 1840, University of Oklahoma Press