Part 2

No. | Date and designation | Description of cession. | Color. | of Cherokee Treaties. | | ------+-------------------------+--------------------------------+----- 10_a_ |Treaty of Nov. 28, 1785, |Tract in Western North Carolina.|Yellow. | with United States. | | 10_b_ | do |Tract in Southern and Western |Green. | | Kentucky and Northern | | | Tennessee. | 11 |Treaty of July 2, 1791, |Tract in Western North Carolina |Brown. | with United States. | and Eastern Tennessee. | 12 |Treaty of Oct. 2, 1798, |Tract in Tennessee, between |Red. | with United States. | Hawkins' Line, Tennessee River| | | and Chilhowee Mountain. | 13 | do |Tract in North Carolina, between|Red. | | Pickens and Meigs line. | 14 | do |Tract in Tennessee, between |Red. | | Clinch River and Cumberland | | | Mountain. | 15 |Treaty of Oct. 24, 1804, |Tract in Georgia, known as |Red. | with United States. | Wafford's Settlement. | 16 |Treaty of Oct. 25, 1805, |Tract in Kentucky and Tennessee,|Yellow. | with United States. | west of Tennessee River and | | | Cumberland Mountain. | 17 |Treaty of Oct. 27, 1805, |Tract in Tennessee of one |Green. | with United States. | section at Southwest Point. | 18 | do |First island in Tennessee River |Mauve. | | above the mouth of Clinch | | | River. | 19 |Treaty of Jan. 7, 1806, |Tract in Tennessee and Alabama, |Red. | with United States. | between Tennessee and Duck | | | Rivers. | 20 | do |Long or Great Island in Holston |Red. 21 |Treaty of Mar. 22, 1816, |Tract in northwest corner of |Blue. | with United States. | South Carolina. | 22 |Treaty of Sept. 14, 1816,|Tract in Alabama and |Green. | with United States. | Mississippi. | 23 |Treaty of July 8, 1817, |Tract in Northeastern Georgia. |Yellow. | with United States. | | 24 | do |Tract in Southern Tennessee. |Green. 25 | do |Tract in Northern Alabama, |Blue. | | between Cypress and Elk | | | Rivers. | 26 | do |Tract in Northern Alabama, |Blue. | | above mouth of Spring Creek on| | | Tennessee River. | 27 |Treaty of Feb. 27, 1819, |Tract in Northern Alabama and |Yellow. | with United States. | Southern Tennessee. | 28 | do |Tract in Southern Tennessee, |Red. | | on Tennessee River. | 29 | do |Tract in Tennessee, North |Mauve. | | Carolina, and Georgia. | 30 | do |Jolly's Island, in Tennessee |Red. | | River. | 31 | do |Small tract in Tennessee, at and|Green. | | below the mouth of Clinch | | | River. | 32 | do |Tract of 12 miles square, on |Mauve. | | Tennessee River, in Alabama. | 33 | do |Tract of 1 mile square, in |Green. | | Tennessee, at foot of | | | Cumberland Mountain. | 34 | do |Tract of 1 mile square, at |Green. | | Cherokee Talootiske's | | | residence. | 35 | do |Tract of 3 square miles, |Green. | | opposite mouth of Hiwassee | | | River. | 36 |Treaty of Dec. 29, 1835, |Tract in Alabama, Georgia and |Blue. | with United States. | Tennessee, being all remaining| | | lands east of the Mississippi | | | River. | 37 |Treaty of May 6, 1828, |This treaty was with the |Green. | with United States. | Cherokees residing west of the| | | Mississippi, and they ceded | | | the lands in Arkansas granted | | | them by treaties of 1817 and | | | 1819, receiving in exchange a | | | tract further west. | | | These latter boundaries were | | | subsequently modified and | | | enlarged by the treaties of | | | Feb. 14, 1833, and Dec. 29, | | | 1835. | 38 |Treaty of July 19, 1866, |Tract known as "Neutral Land," |Red. | with United States. | in Kansas, ceded in trust to | | | be sold by the United States | | | for the benefit of the | | | Cherokees. | 39 | do |Tract known as "Cherokee Strip,"|Yellow. | | in Kansas, ceded in trust to | | | be sold for the benefit of the| | | Cherokees by the United | | | States. | 40 | do |Tract sold to Osages. |Green. 41 | do |Tract sold to Kansas or Kaws. |Red. 42 | do |Tract sold to Pawnees. |Red. 43 | do |Tract sold to Poncas. |Red. 44 | do |Tract sold to Nez Percés. |Yellow. 45 | do |Tract sold to Otoes and |Yellow. | | Missourias. | 46 |Present country of the |This is the country now actually|Red. | Cherokees east of 96° | occupied and to be permanently| | W. longitude. | retained by the Cherokees. | 47 |Present country of the |This is the remnant of the |Blue. | Cherokees west of 96° | country dedicated by the treaty| | W. longitude. | of July 19, 1866, to the | | | location of other friendly | | | tribes. The Cherokees retain | | | their title to and control over| | | it until actual purchase by and| | | location of other tribes | | | thereon. | ------+-------------------------+--------------------------------+-----

The arrangement of the historical text has seemed to the writer to be that best suited to the object in view. As will be observed, an abstract of the salient provisions of each treaty is given, beginning with the first treaty concluded between the Cherokee Nation and the United States of America. In each instance, immediately following this abstract, will be found the historical data covering the period and the events leading to its negotiation, as well as those of the subsequent period intimately connected with the results of such treaty.

TREATIES WITH THE CHEROKEES.

TREATY CONCLUDED NOVEMBER 28, 1785.[2]

_At Hopewell, on the Keowee River, in South Carolina, between Benjamin Hawkins, Andrew Pickens, Joseph Martin, and Lachlane M'Intosh, Commissioners Plenipotentiary of the United States, and the Headmen and Warriors of all the Cherokees._

MATERIAL PROVISIONS.

The United States give peace to the Cherokees and receive them into favor and protection on the following conditions:

1. The Cherokees to restore to liberty all prisoners citizens of the United States or subjects of their allies; also, all negroes and other property taken from citizens during the late war.

2. The United States to restore to the Cherokees all Indian prisoners taken during the late war.

3. The Cherokees to acknowledge themselves under the exclusive protection of the United States.

4. The boundary line between the Cherokees' hunting-ground and the United States to be as follows, viz: Begin at the mouth of Duck River on the Tennessee; thence northeast to the ridge dividing the waters falling into the Cumberland from those falling into the Tennessee; thence eastwardly along said ridge to a northeast line to be run, which shall strike Cumberland River 40 miles above Nashville; thence along said line to the river; thence up the river to the ford where the Kentucky road crosses; thence to Campbell's line near Cumberland Gap; thence to the mouth of Claud's Creek on Holstein; thence to Chimney-Top Mountain; thence to Camp Creek, near the mouth of Big Limestone on Nolichucky; thence southerly six (6) miles to a mountain; thence south to the North Carolina line; thence to the South Carolina Indian boundary, and along the same southwest over the top of Oconee Mountain till it shall strike Tugaloo River; thence a direct line to the top of Currohee Mountain; thence to the head of the south fork of Oconee River.

5. Citizens of the United States or persons other than Indians who settle or attempt to settle on lands west or south of said boundary and refuse to remove within six months after ratification of this treaty to forfeit the protection of the United States, and the Indians to punish them or not, as they please: _Provided_, That this article shall not extend to the people settled between the fork of French Broad and Holstein Rivers, whose status shall be determined by Congress.

6. The Cherokees to deliver up for punishment all Indian criminals for offenses against citizens of the United States.

7. Citizens of the United States committing crimes against Indians to be punished by the United States in the presence of the Cherokees, to whom due notice of the time and place of such intended punishment shall be given.

8. Retaliation declared unjust and not to be practiced.

9. The United States to have sole right of regulating trade with the Indians and managing their affairs.

10. Traders to have liberty to trade with the Cherokees until Congress shall adopt regulations relative thereto.

11. Cherokees to give notice of any designs formed by other tribes against the peace, trade, or interests of the United States.

12. Cherokees to have the right to send a deputy of their choice to Congress whenever they think fit.

13. The hatchet to be forever buried between the United States and Cherokees.

HISTORICAL DATA.

FERNANDO DE SOTO'S EXPEDITION.

The Cherokee Nation has probably occupied a more prominent place in the affairs and history of what is now the United States of America, since the date of the early European settlements, than any other tribe, nation, or confederacy of Indians, unless it be possible to except the powerful and warlike league of the Iroquois or Six Nations of New York.

It is almost certain that they were visited at a very early period following the discovery of the American continent by that daring and enthusiastic Spaniard, Fernando De Soto.

In determining the exact route pursued by him from his landing in Florida to his death beyond the Mississippi, many insuperable difficulties present themselves, arising not only from an inadequate description on the part of the historian of the courses and distances pursued, but from many statements made by him that are irreconcilable with an accurate knowledge of the topographic detail of the country traversed.

A narrative of the expedition, "by a gentleman of Elvas," was published at Evora in 1557, and translated from the Portuguese by Richard Hakluyt, of London, in 1609. From this narrative it appears that after traveling a long distance in a northeasterly direction from his point of landing on the west coast of Florida, De Soto reached, in the spring of 1540, an Indian town called by the narrator "Cutifachiqui." From the early American maps of De L'Isle and others, upon which is delineated the supposed route of De Soto, this town appears to be located on the Santee River, and, as alleged by the "gentleman of Elvas," on the authority of the inhabitants, was two days' journey from the sea-coast.

The expedition left Cutifachiqui on the 3d of May, 1540, and pursued a northward course for the period of seven days, when it came to a province called Chelaque, "the poorest country of maize that was seen in Florida." It is recorded that the Indians of this province "feed upon roots and herbs, which they seek in the fields, and upon wild beasts, which they kill with their bows and arrows, and are a very gentle people. All of them go naked and are very lean."

That this word "Chalaque" is identical with our modern Cherokee would appear to be almost an assured fact. The distance and route pursued by the expedition are both strongly corroborative of this assumption. The orthography of the name was probably taken by the Spaniards from the Muscogee pronunciation, heard by them among the Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws. It is asserted by William Bartram, in his travels through that region in the eighteenth century, that in the "Muscogulge" language the letter "r" is not sounded in a single word, but that on the contrary it occurs very frequently in the Cherokee tongue.[3]

Through this province of Chalaque De Soto passed, still pursuing his northward course for five days until he reached the province of "Xualla," a name much resembling the modern Cherokee word Qualla. The route from Cutifachiqui to Xualla lay, for the most part, through a hilly country. From the latter province the expedition changed its course to the west, trending a little to the south, and over "very rough and high hills," reaching at the end of five days a town or province which was called "Guaxule," and two days later a town called "Canasagua," an orthography almost identical with the modern Cherokee name of Canasauga, as applied to both a stream and a town within their Georgia limits.

Assuming that these people, whose territory De Soto thus traversed, were the ancestors of the modern Cherokees, it is the first mention made of them by European discoverers and more than a century anterior to the period when they first became known to the pioneers of permanent European occupation and settlement.

_Earliest map._--The earliest map upon which I have found "Chalaqua" located is that of "Florida et Apalche" by Cornely Wytfliet, published in 1597.[4] This location is based upon the narrative of De Soto's expedition, and is fixed a short distance east of the Savannah River and immediately south of the Appalachian Mountains. "Xualla" is placed to the west of and near the headwaters of the "Secco" or Savannah River.

EARLY TRADITIONS.

Haywood, in his Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, records many of the traditions concerning the origin and the primal habitat of the Cherokees. He notes the fact that they were firmly established on the Tennessee or Hogohege River before the year 1650, and exercised dominion over all the country on the east side of the Alleghany Mountains, including the headwaters of the Yadkin, Catawba, Broad, and Savannah Rivers, and that from thence westward they claimed the country as far as the Ohio, and thence to the headwaters of the Chattahoochee and Alabama. One tradition which he alleges existed among them asserts their migration from the west to the upper waters of the Ohio, where they erected the mounds on Grave Creek, gradually working eastward across the Alleghany Mountains to the neighborhood of Monticello, Va., and along the Appomattox River.

From this point, it is alleged, they removed to the Tennessee country about 1623, when the Virginians suddenly and unexpectedly fell upon and massacred the Indians throughout the colony. After this massacre, the story goes, they came to New River and made a temporary settlement there as well as one on the head of the Holston; but, owing to the enmity of the northern Indians, they removed in a short time to the Little Tennessee and founded what were known as "Middle Settlements." Another tribe, he alleges, came from the neighborhood of Charleston, South Carolina, and settled lower down the Tennessee. This branch called themselves "Ketawanga," and came last into the country. The tradition as to those who came from Virginia seeks also to establish the idea that the Powhatan Indians were Cherokees. The whole story is of the vaguest character, and if the remainder has no stronger claims to credibility than their alleged identity with the Powhatans, it is scarcely worthy of record except as a matter of curiosity.

In fact the explorations of De Soto leave almost convincing proof that the Cherokees were occupying a large proportion of their more modern territory nearly a century prior to their supposed removal from the Appomattox.

Pickett, in his History of Alabama, improves upon the legend of Haywood by asserting as a well established fact what the latter only presumes to offer as a tradition.

However, as affording a possible confirmation of the legend related by Haywood concerning their early location in Eastern Virginia, it may be worth while to allude to a tradition preserved among the Mohican or Stockbridge tribe. It appears that in 1818 the Delawares, who were then residing on White River, in Indiana, ceded their claim to lands in that region to the United States. This land had been conditionally given by the Miamis many years before to the Delawares, in conjunction with the "Moheokunnuks" (or Stockbridges) and Munsees. Many of the latter two tribes or bands, including a remnant of the Nanticokes, had not yet removed to their western possessions, though they were preparing to remove. When they ascertained that the Delawares had ceded the lands to the United States without their consent, they objected and sought to have the cession annulled.

In connection with a petition presented to Congress by them on the subject in the year 1819, they set forth in detail the tradition alluded to. The story had been handed down to them from their ancestors that "many thousand moons ago" before the white men came over the "great water," the Delawares dwelt along the banks of the river that bears their name. They had enjoyed a long era of peace and prosperity when the Cherokees, Nanticokes, and some other nation whose name had been forgotten, envying their condition, came from the south with a great army and made war upon them. They vanquished the Delawares and drove them to an island in the river. The latter sent for assistance to the Mohicans, who promptly came to their relief, and the invaders were in turn defeated with great slaughter and put to flight. They sued for peace, and it was granted on condition that they should return home and never again make war on the Delawares or their allies. These terms were agreed to and the Cherokees and Nanticokes ever remained faithful to the conditions of the treaty.

The inference to be drawn from this legend, if it can be given any credit whatever, would lead to the belief that the Cherokees and the Nanticokes were at that time neighbors and allies. The original home of the Nanticokes on the Eastern Shore of Maryland is well known, and if the Cherokees (or at least this portion of them) were then resident beyond the Alleghanies, with sundry other powerful tribes occupying the territory between them and the Nanticokes, it is unlikely that any such alliance for offensive operations would have existed between them. Either the tradition is fabulous or at least a portion of the Cherokees were probably at one time residents of the Eastern slope of Virginia.

The Delawares also have a tradition that they came originally from the west, and found a tribe called by them Allegewi or Allegans occupying the eastern portion of the Ohio Valley. With the aid of the Iroquois, with whom they came in contact about the same time, the Delawares succeeded in driving the Allegans out of the Ohio Valley to the southward.

Schoolcraft suggests the identity of the Allegans with the Cherokees, an idea that would seem to be confirmatory of the tradition given by Haywood, in so far as it relates to an early Cherokee occupancy of Ohio.

EARLY CONTACT WITH VIRGINIA COLONISTS.

Whatever the degree of probability attending these legends, it would seem that the settlers of Virginia had an acquaintance with the Cherokees prior to that of the South Carolina immigrants, who for a number of years after their first occupation, confined their explorations to a narrow strip of country in the vicinity of the sea-coast, while the Virginians had been gradually extending their settlements far up toward the headwaters of the James River and had early perceived the profits to be derived from the Indian trade.

Sir William Berkeley, governor of Virginia, equipped an expedition, consisting of fourteen Englishmen and an equal number of Virginia Indians, for the exploration of the country to the west of the existing settlements. The party was under the command of Capt. Henry Batt, and in seven days' travel from their point of departure, at Appomattox, they reached the foot of the mountains. The first ridge they crossed is described as not being very high or steep, but the succeeding ones "seemed to touch the clouds," and were so steep that an average day's march did not exceed three miles.

They came upon extensive and fertile valleys, covered with luxuriant grass, and found the forests abounding in all kinds of game, including turkeys, deer, elk, and buffalo. After passing beyond the mountains they entered an extensive level country, through which a stream flowed in a westward course, and after following it for a few days they reached some old fields and recently deserted Indian cabins. Beyond this point their Indian guides refused to proceed, alleging that not far away dwelt a powerful tribe that never suffered strangers who discovered their towns to return alive, and the expedition was therefore compelled to return. According to the historian, Burke, this expedition took place in 1667, while Beverly, not quite so definite, assigns it to the decade between 1666 and 1676.[5] It is believed that the powerful nation of Indians alluded to in the narrative of this expedition was the Cherokees, and, if so, it is apparently the first allusion made to them in the history of the colonial settlements.