America The Beautiful?

Part Four

Caliban, Coyote and the Knights of the Golden Circle

Page Five

The Keetowah Society And The Knights Of The Golden Circle

After this removal (which the founder of social anthropology called 'emigration') all the elements of a very complex civil war were present among the displaced Cherokee of Oklahoma. The 'Treaty Party' of the Ridges and Waties opposed the anti-removal Party of John Ross. Both opposed the 'Old Settlers' who had maintained a traditional form of government, both in Arkansas and following their own removal to Oklahoma.

Six months after the arrival of the latest emigrants, on June 22, 1839, Major Ridge, John Ridge and Elias Boudinot were executed by assassination (in 1806 The Ridge, while arranging the assassination of Doublehead had sponsored the law which now demanded his own and his colleagues' execution). Stand Watie, having been warned in advance, arranged to be absent when the executioners came calling. Though deep resentment endured and many scores remained to be settled this effectively settled matters for the meantime within the élite. Civil war between the formerly eastern and western Cherokee, however, continued until 1846 when a proposal in the U. S. Congress that the Cherokee be divided into two tribes was enough to persuade the Old Settlers to accept the democratic rule of the eastern élite.

The reconsolidation of the élite was facilitated and marked by a very energetic economic reconstruction on the basis of extended use of slave labour. Before removal the slaves used by the élite amounted to 10% of the total population in the Cherokee Nation. By 1860 this had risen to 25%. I must stress that the increased numbers of slaves were not being used by more Cherokee; the slaveowning class was still confined to the élite which was simply using more slaves. One consequence of this was a series of slave revolts which disturbed the Nation in 1842, 1846 and 1850. Another was the emergence of the slavery question as the new point of the old division between traditionalists and accommodationists that had underpinned the struggle between the treaty and anti-removal parties.

A move early in 1835 to free all the slaves held in the Cherokee Nation and accept them as citizens was overshadowed and undone by the signing of the New Echota Treaty. The removal of the eastern Cherokee to Oklahoma then translated them from the heart of the South to a borderland which was in dispute between pro and anti slavery States. In 1845 the Baptists of the United States split into Southern and Northern branches over the slavery question. The missionaries among the Cherokee were all abolitionists and all went with the Northern Baptists.

The passage of the Kansas—Nebraska Act of 1854 and the subsequent Dred Scott judgment repealed the Missouri Compromise and opened up the prospect of a western extension of slavery which in turn led to civil war in Kansas and Missouri in 1855/56.

"Bleeding Kansas" showed the slaveowning Cherokee élite that the economic basis of its reconstituted life in Oklahoma was under threat from abolitionism and the new Republican Party. It was most immediately concerned about the influence of abolitionist missionaries on the most vigorous and confident elements of the 90% majority of Cherokee who still clung to what they had been able to salvage of their traditional way of life.

Those elements had been John Ross's support in the anti-removal struggles of the 30s and he still relied on them in the 50s to maintain his position as Principal Chief. Consequently, though he was a slaveowner himself he continually frustrated attempts by the rest of the accommodationist élite to have the abolitionist Baptist missionaries (many of whom, by this period, were Cherokee traditionalists attracted by Evan Jones' adaptation of Christianity to Cherokee ritual practice) expelled from the Nation.

This was not simply self-interest. The accommodationist strategy in the period up to the constitutionalisation of its civilised state in 1828 had been to convince the whites that they could be safely left to their own devices on their own land. That had not succeeded. The Cherokee had lost their homeland, but they were still a unique, separate and theoretically independent people. Ross was concerned to protect that position. In a period of radically reduced possibilities he remained an accommodationist on the increasingly narrow ground of seeking to maintain the national coherence of the Cherokee.

The majority of the ruling class, which by the mid 50s was organised around the surviving removal man, Stand Watie, had gone beyond accommodation and was prepared to accept assimilation, was indeed pushing strenuously to achieve assimilation into the mainstream of upper class white Southern society. In 1855 John Ross was shown to be the last accommodationist of the Cherokee élite. The rest joined Stand Watie in the secret secessionist society, The Knights of the Golden Circle.

The Knights of the Golden Circle grew out of the Southern Rights Clubs of the 1830s when these were taken over and reorganised by George W. L. Bickley in 1854. Bickley's Golden Circle was an area 2,400 miles in diameter which was centred on Cuba, stretching north to Pennsylvania and Ohio, South to the Isthmus of Darien, and including the West Indies, Mexico and Central America—which was southern expansionism's idea of the natural homeland throughout the earth of slave society. Within that area the Knights aspired to establish a monopoly on the world supply of tobacco, sugar, rice and coffee—with happy knowing-their-place Darkies and Mint Juleps for ever in this garden of earthly delights. Bickley's Knights were prepared to secede from Boston and Philadelphia, but not to give up the souls they had invested in Manifest Destiny.

Anyway, in 1855, Stand Watie, with fellow stalwarts of the former Treaty Party (and another Elias Boudinot, a son perhaps?) established a "castle" of the Knights of the Golden Circle in the Cherokee Nation. Its constitution stated:—

"We, a part of the people of the Cherokee Nation, in order to form a more perfect union and protect ourselves and property against the works of Abolitionists do establish this Constitution for the government of the Knights of the Golden Circle in this Nation…

"No person shall become a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle in the Cherokee Nation who is not a pro-slavery man…

"The Captain, or in case of his refusal, then the Lieutenant has the power to compel each and every member of their Encampment to turn out and assist in capturing and punishing any and all abolitionists in their minds who are interfering with slavery…

"You do solemnly swear that you will keep all the secrets of this order and that you will, to the best of your abilities protect and defend the interests of the Knights of the Golden Circle in this Nation, so help you God." (quoted in Patrick Minges, op.cit chapter 2.3, The Birth Of The Keetowah Society).

This was clearly aimed against Evan Jones and his son John (who was fluent in Cherokee and had just graduated from the University of Rochester) but it was of even more immediate interest to the 'fullblood' traditionalists who had found a practical outlet for their concern to conserve as much as possible of the old Cherokee way of life in Jones' Baptist congregation. Three years later these men came together to form themselves in opposition to Watie's Knights as The Keetowah Society. Minges gives some brief biographical notes on the leaders of this movement:—

"Lewis Downing (Lewie-za-wau-na-skie): Downing was born in Eastern Tennessee in 1823, of British, Irish, and Cherokee heritage. He came west with the party led by Jesse Bushyhead and Evan Jones to settle near the Baptist Mission in the Goingsnake District. He was educated in the Valley Town Mission (West) and the Baptist Mission (Bacone University) under the tutelage of Evan Jones. Downing was unanimously chosen Pastor of Flint Baptist Church succeeding Jesse Bushyhead. He was also chair of the Cherokee Missionary Society.

"Budd Gritts: Gritts was a prominent conservative Baptist minister, author of the first Keetowah Constitution.

"Smith Christie (Gasannee): Christie was a full-blood blacksmith/gunsmith whose shop served as a political forum. He was a leader of conservative fullblood politics as well as a native Baptist minister.

"Thomas Pegg: Pegg was a member of the Grand Council of the Cherokee and a delegate of John Ross to Washington in 1855." (ibid., ch. 2,4 The Keetowah Society)

On April 15, 1858 those men met, with Evan and John Jones probably attending, to found The Keetowah Society. Its Constitution, as approved on April 29, 1859, stated:—

"As lovers of the government of the Cherokees, loyal members of Keetowah Society, in the name of the mass of the people, we began to study and investigate the way our nation was going on, so much different from the long past history of our Keetowah forefathers who loved and lived as free people and had never surrendered to anybody: They loved one another for they were just like one family, just as if they had been raised from one family. They all came as a unit to their fire to smoke, to aid one another and to protect their government with what little powder and lead they had to use in protecting it.

"Now let us Cherokees study the condition of our government. We are separated into two parts and cannot agree and they have taken lead of us. It is clear to see that the Federal Government has two political parties, North and South. South are the people who took our lands away from us which lands the Creator had given to us, where our forefathers were raised. Their greed was the worst kind; they had no love and they are still following us to put their feet on us to get the last land we have. It is plain that they have come in on us secretly, different organizations are with them and they have agreed to help one another in everything. They control our political offices because our masses of the people are not organized.

"We therefore now declare and bind ourselves together the same as under our oaths to abide by our laws and assist one another. There must be a confidential captain and lodges in numerous places and confidential meetings, the time and place to be designated by the captains. But we shall continue on making more laws. If any member divulges any secret to any other organization it shall be considered that he gave up thereby his life. But every time they meet they must fully explain what their society stands for. They must have a membership roll in order to reorganize (sic) one another." quoted ibid, ch. 2,4)

One year later this was added…

"Be it further resolved, that the Head Captains shall be the only ones authorized to appoint anyone to contact any candidates for new membership. Only fullblood Cherokees uneducated, and no mixed blood friends shall be allowed to become a member.

"Under the Cherokee Constitution, after confidential conference, a number of honored men began to discuss and deliberate and decide secretly among friends whom they love, to help each other in everything. The institution is, first, their constitution and laws are to be the most sacred. Second, Federal and Indian Treaties, will be abided by. Third, in the division between North and South, we should not take sides with either. Fourth, we should not become citizens of the United States. Now since these decisions have been made we will now follow our forefathers' traditions just as they met around the fire and smoked tobacco with joy and loyalty to one another. They had never surrendered. We will also approve same. Our secret society shall be named Keetowah. All of the members of the Keetowah Society shall be like one family. It should be our intention that we must abide with each other in love. Anything which derive from English or white, such as secret organizations, that the Keetowahs shall not accept or recognize. Now all above described must be adopted same as under oath to be abided by. We must not surrender under any circumstance until we shall 'fall to the ground united.' We must lead one another by the hand with all our strength. Our government is being destroyed. We must resort to bravery to stop it." (quoted ibid.)

The "Head Captains" were Downing, Gritts and Christie, which immediately raises the question of what was meant by "full-blood"? The Keetowah Cherokee clearly did not mean what the founder of social anthropology meant by the term. Unlike Morgan they had a social understanding of social categories. Anyone who lived with the Cherokee as a Cherokee, accepting the values, traditions and practices of the Cherokee, was fully a Cherokee. Though they were bound by the racial terminology of their racist oppressors the Keetowah had failed to progress (by stages from savagery through barbarism and the Belsens and Bosque Redondos of civilisation) to all that bloody nonsense.

In McLoughlin's account of the matter the Keetowah Society was formed by the abolitionist, antislavery, Baptist missionary, Evan Jones ("Perhaps the most remarkable achievement of Evan Jones was his work in creating the Cherokee Keetowah Society in 1857" —The Cherokees and Christianity, page 32), to be something that was non-sectarian and was neutral with regard to both slavery and its abolition. Really, for McLoughlin, the society was founded by Jones because obviously it could not have been an autonomous Cherokee development, and Jones is the only white to hand who might have formed it. But really it was an autonomous Cherokee development, which by 1860 had 1,500 members in the Cherokee sense of full blood; it is unlikely that there were 1,500 full bloods, in the sense of social anthropology, in the Cherokee Nation at that time.

The Cherokee And The American Civil War

At the beginning of the 1860s, as the prospect of war between the disunited states loomed, the policy of John Ross was that of the Keetowah Society—neutrality. The policy of Stand Watie and the former Treaty Party, which having been accommodationist had become assimilationist, was alliance with the secessionist South. A problem for Ross and the Keetowah was that while the South was interested in an alliance with the "civilized tribes" of Indian Territory, the North was not interested in their neutrality (and may, in fact, having been deliberately pushing them into the Confederacy's open arms).

Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861. He immediately began replacing the Indian Agents to the "five civilized tribes", who were Confederate sympathisers, with agents who were Confederate sympathisers, perhaps just a little more competently so. In April all Union troops were withdrawn from Indian Territory. E. H. Carruth reported to the Southern Superintendency of Indian Affairs:—

"I sometimes hear rejoicing on the part of the Northern people, that these tribes are seceding, because they say that such violation of their treaties will lose them their lands, whose beauty & fertility have long been admired by western farmers. I have been twelve years among these tribes & I know the full bloods to be loyal to the Gov't. That Gov't. is bound by treaties to protect these nations, to keep up Forts for that purpose. The Agents are either resigned or working under "confederate" commissions. The Indians are told that the old Gov't. is bankrupt, that it must die, that England and France will help the south, that they are southern Indians & own slaves, & have interests only with & in the south, that the war is waged by the North for the sole purpose of killing slavery, & stealing the Indians' land, etc., etc. What have the Indians with which to disprove this? The 'Confederate' Gov't. is represented there by an army and Commissioners, but the United States has not been heard from for six months. Every battle is believed to be against the old Gov't. & those who control the news know what shape it should go to have influence…The agents who hold commissions from Mr. Lincoln & go to Montgomery to have Jeff. Davis endorse them, show a faith in the issue, that is not lost upon the Indians." (quoted in Minges, op. cit.)

In February, a month before Lincoln's inauguration, Ross was represented at a Five Nations Council by his nephew William P. Ross who was instructed…

"On your deliberations, it will be proper for you to advise discretion, and to guard against any premature movement on our part, which might produce excitement or be liable to misrepresentation. Our duty is very plain. We have only to adhere firmly to our respective treaties. By them we have placed ourselves under the protection of the United States, and of no other sovereign whatsoever. We are bound to hold no treaty with any other foreign Power, or with any individual State or combination of States nor with Citizens of any State. Nor even with one another without the interposition and participation of the United States." (quoted, ibid)

Immediately following Lincoln's inauguration a secession convention was held in Arkansas of which the Cherokee Knight, Elias C. Boudinot, was secretary. At this time the governor of Arkansas, H. M. Rector, wrote to Ross, calling on the Cherokee to:

"…co-operate with the South in defence of her institutions, her honor, and her firesides…" (quoted in Halliburton, op. cit. page 123)

Ross replied:—

"The relations which the Cherokee people sustain toward their white brethren have been established by subsisting with the United States Government, and by them they have placed themselves under the 'protection of the United States and of no other sovereign power whatsoever.' They are bound to hold no treaty with any foreign power, or with any individual state, nor with the citizens of any state. On the other hand, the faith of the United States is solemnly pledged to the Cherokee Nation for the protection of the right and title in the lands, conveyed to them by patent, within their territorial boundaries, as also for the protection of all other of their national and individual rights and interests of persons and property." (ibid page 123/124)

On May 6, Arkansas seceded from the Union. Having been promised arms and military support Stand Watie set about mobilising the Knights of the Golden Circle as battalions of the army of the Confederacy. On July 12, he was commissioned as a Colonel in that army.

In June pro-confederate elements of the Five Nations met with the Confederacy's chief Indian Agent, Albert Pike, at North Fork Village in the Creek Nation and announced the formation of the "United Nations of the Indian Territory".

In February a plot had been discovered to assassinate Evan Jones. Jones took refuge with John Ross and then in June 1861 "…he carried word from Ross to the federal officials in Kansas to the effect that the Cherokees were loyal but needed military aid" (McLoughlin, The Cherokees and Christianity, page 120).

On August 10, Watie's regiment fought in the Confederate victory at Wilson's Creek in southwest Missouri. Eleven days later Ross made a last ditch effort to defend the policy of neutrality at a special Council held at Tahlequah, saying…

"The great object with me has been to have the Cherokee people harmonious and united in the free exercise and enjoyment of all their rights of person and property. Union is strength; dissension is weakness, misery, ruin. In time of peace together! In time of war, if war must come, fight together. As Brothers live; as Brothers die! While ready and willing to defend our firesides from the robber and the murderer, let us not make war wantonly against the authority of the United or Confederate States, but avoid a conflict with either, and remain strictly on our own soil. We have home endeared to us by every consideration, laws adapted to our condition and of our own choice, and rights and privileges of the highest character. Here they must be enjoyed or nowhere else. When your nationality ceases here, it will live nowhere else. When these homes are lost, you will find no others like them. Then, my countrymen, as you regard your own rights—as you regard your own posterity, be prudent how you act." (quoted Minges, op. cit.)

With Stand Watie at the head of Confederate forces and Union troops skulking in Kansas, prudence was very clear about what was required. At the end of the Council Ross had no choice but to declare…

"…the time has now arrived when you should signify your consent for the authorization of the Nation to adopt preliminary steps for an alliance with the Confederate States upon terms honorable and advantageous to the Cherokee Nation." (quoted ibid)

By October the Cherokee had joined the United Nations of the Indian Territory in negotiating new treaties with the Confederate States of America. According to Angie Debo…

"…under these treaties a Choctaw-Chickasaw, a Creek-Seminole, and a Cherokee delegate sat in the Confederate Congress throughout the war—a prospect held out to the Indians ever since the Delaware treaty in 1778, but never implemented by the United States," (op. cit. page 172)

The Cherokee treaty with the Confederacy was signed at Hunters Home Plantation on October 7, 1861. A Cherokee regiment (in addition to Stand Watie's men) was raised among the Keetowah and commanded by Colonel John Drew. That the aim of this was simply to lay hands on weapons and stall for time until Union support arrived was proved when that support finally did arrive in June 1862. At the first opportunity Drew's 2,200 men deserted and enlisted as a second Cherokee regiment in the Union army.

The Union expeditionary force out of Kansas was commanded by Colonel William Weer and accompanied by Evan and John B. Jones. Evan Jones carried a letter to John Ross from Superintendent William Coffin which read…

"As our mutual friend, Evan Jones, is about leaving with the military expedition that is about marching for the Protection of the Indian Territory, I embrace the opportunity as an Agent of the Government to assure you that the United States Government has no disposition to shrink from or evade any of its obligations to the Indian Tribes that remain loyal to it, and I earnestly hope that the time is not distant when Communications, so long cut off, may be renewed…And I would most respectfully state to your Excellency that Mr. Jones has, during his exile, been the most unceasing advocate of your people and their rights, and is eminently worthy of your consideration and regard." (quoted Minges op.cit.)

The combined Cherokee/Union force briefly drove the Confederates from the Cherokee Nation. Stand Watie immediately returned with a larger force and drove the Keetowah's back to Kansas. A packed Council held at Tahlequah on August 21, 1862, then deposed John Ross and elected Stand Watie in his place as Principal Chief. It also passed a conscription law that served as cover for a very thorough pogrom.

Ross meanwhile gathered up the treasury and records of the Cherokee Government and went into exile, first in Kansas, then Washington, finally in Philadelphia.

In February 1863, the Union Keetowahs returned briefly to their national territory. They held a Council at Cowskin Prairie at which they reaffirmed their loyalty to John Ross, elected Lewis Downing (now Chaplain of one of the Union Cherokee regiments) as acting chief, repudiated the treaty with the Confederacy and passed a law emancipating all the slaves in the Nation. They also passed an act confiscating the property of all those who had been disloyal to the Cherokee Nation; ie. Watie and his men.

Later, in the Spring of 1863, a second expeditionary force entered the Cherokee Nation and defeated the Confederates at Honey Spring. This force immediately withdrew leaving just enough Indian troops behind to ensure that the civil war in the Cherokee Nation would be as bloody and devastating as possible. And bloody and devastating it was, with the Cherokee losing 1/3 of their total population (greater loss by far than was suffered by any other state on either side of the conflict).

Two months after Lee's surrender at Appomatox, Stand Watie, now a Brigadier General, finally surrendered. He was the last Confederate general to do so. The articles of Stand Watie's surrender were a treaty, this treaty…

"Treaty stipulations made and entered into this 23rd day of June 1865 near Doaksville Choctaw Nation between Sent. Colonel A. C. Mathews and W. H. Vance U. S. Vol. commissioners appointed by Major General Herron U. S. A. on part of the military authorities of the United States and Brig. General Stand Watie Governor and Principal Chief of that part of the Cherokee Nation lately allied with Confederate States in acts of hostilities against the Government of the United States as follows, to wit:

"ARTICLE I. All acts of hostilities on the part of both armies having ceased by virtue of a convention entered into on the 26th day of May 1865 between Major General E. R. S. Cantry U. S. A. comdg. Mil. Division West Miss. and General E. Kirby Smith C. S. A. Comdg. Trans. Miss Department. The Indians of the Cherokee Nation here represented lately allied with the Confederate States in acts of hostilities against the Government of the United States.

"Do agree at once to return to their respective homes and there remain at peace with United States, and offer no indignities whatever against the whites or Indians of the various tribes who have been friendly to or engaged in the service of the United States during the war.

"ARTICLE II. It is stipulated by the undersigned commissioners on part of the United States, that so- long as the Indians aforesaid observe the provisions of article first of this agreement, they shall be protected by the United States authorities in their person and property, not only from encroachment on the part of the whites, but also from the Indians who have been engaged in the service of the United States.

"ARTICLE Ill. The above articles of agreement to remain and be in force and effect until the meeting of the Grand Council to meet at Armstrong Academy, Choctaw Nation on the 1st day of September A. D. 1865 and until such time as the proceedings of said Grand Council shall be ratified by the proper authorities both of the Cherokee Nation and the United States.

"In testimony whereof the said Lieut. Col. A. C. Mathews and adjutant W. H. Vance commissioners on part of the United States and Brig. General Stand Watie Governor and Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation have hereunto set their hands and seals.
Signed.
A. C. Mathews, Lieut. Col.
W. H. Vance, Adjt. Commissioners.
Stand Watie Brig. Genl.,
Governor and Principal Chief
Cherokee Nation.
(I copied this from a website, the address of which I have managed to lose, sorry!)

So, interestingly enough, at the end of the American Civil War the Cherokee who had fought with the Confederacy had a treaty with the United States. Stand Watie was recognised as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation (in one Article of part of the Nation, of the whole Nation in another). The Cherokee who had fought with the victorious Union soon discovered that they had no treaty with the United States. At the same time John Ross discovered that he was not recognised by Washington as Principal Chief of any part of the Cherokee Nation.

Two weeks after Watie's surrender and recognition as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, the Cherokee National Council met under Acting Principal Chief, Lewis Downing, and passed an act designed to permit the peaceful reunification of the Nation. Its conclusion read as follows…

"Now, therefore, be it known, that I, Lewis Downing, Assistant and Acting Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, do hereby offer amnesty and pardon to all citizens of the Cherokee Nation who participated in the Rebellion in the United States, and against the existing Government of the Cherokee Nation, upon the conditions set forth in the foregoing act, and earnestly invite all such citizens to return to the Cherokee Nation, comply with the requirements of said act, and henceforth lend their support to law and order in the Cherokee Nation." (quoted Minges, op. cit. ch 5,2 Thorough Harmony)

That was on July 13, 1865. In September a Commission headed by the new Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Dennis H. Cooley (and including Ely Parker, the only Indian to become good without first dying) met in conference at Fort Smith with delegations of the "civilized tribes" composed of men who had been through their own civil wars and through the American Civil War on the Union side. Cooley greeted them, saying…

"By these nations having entered into treaties with the so-called Confederate States, and the rebellion being now ended, they are left without any treaty whatever, or treaty obligations for protection by the United States.

"Under the terms of the treaties with the United States, and the laws of Congress of July 5, 1862, all these nations and tribes forfeited and lost all their rights to annuities and lands. The President, however, does not desire to take advantage of or enforce the penalties for the unwise actions of these nations." (quoted Minges op.cit.)

More succinctly, Hello Suckers!

When John Ross attempted to assert his authority at the Fort Smith conference Cooley countered by reading a declaration from Secretary of the Interior, James Harlan:—

"Whereas, we believe him still at heart an enemy of the United States and disposed to breed discord among his people…and is not the choice of any considerable portion of the Cherokee nation for the office which he claims, but which by their law we believe he does not in fact hold…we the undersigned commissioners sent by the President of the United States…refuse as commissioners to recognize said Ross as chief of the Cherokee nation." (quoted ibid)

The point of this was, of course, the usual point. The Cherokee had land and the United States had settlers waiting in Kansas and Railroad companies who wanted the land. It was the point that E. H. Carruth had recognised some four years previously in his report to the Southern Superintendency—"I sometimes hear rejoicing on the part of the Northern people, that these tribes are seceding, because they say that such violation of their treaties will lose them their lands, whose beauty & fertility have long been admired by western farmers." It is impossible for me to resist the conclusion that it was the point of Lincoln's withdrawal of Union troops from Indian Territory at the beginning of the war.

At the conclusion of proceedings at Fort Smith the Creek and Seminole peoples subscribed to a confession of war guilt, which seems incredible but there you go, somebody had to have started the war. Wasichu said "give up warring, and adopt the ways of the White man." Coyote laughed.

The Confederate Cherokee signed a new treaty giving Wasichu everything he asked for, which amounted to a dissolution of the Cherokee Nation, but this was a provisional arrangement which had to be endorsed at a formal council in Washington.

In the meantime a full Cherokee National Council was held in October which endorsed Ross as Principal Chief. In July 1866, a delegation of Keetowah Cherokee went to Washington and negotiated and signed a new treaty which surrendered 800,000 acres of land for white settlement and railroad development, but maintained the integrity and right to self-government of the Cherokee Nation. The treaty was signed on July 19. John Ross died on August 1.

On October 19, the National Council chose William Potter Ross to succeed his uncle as Principal Chief. W. P. Ross was a Princeton educated lawyer who spoke only English and was more concerned to settle scores with his uncle's enemies than with healing the divisions of the Civil War(s). In the next election of August 1867 he was replaced by the Keetowah's Head Captain, Lewis Downing.

In his first address to the National Council Downing pledged himself to the Keetowah programme of reconciliation and unity, saying…

"The very great importance of the entire unity of our Nation cannot have escaped your attention. Our laws should be uniform, the jurisdiction of our Courts should be the same over every part of our Nation and over every individual citizen. It is for the interest of the people of Canadian District as well as for the people of other Districts, that every line of distinction be blotted out. That we should be one in our laws, one in our institutions, one in feeling, and one in destiny. I, therefore, recommend that the Council adopt immediate measures for bringing about the removal of such distinctions." (quoted in Minges, op.cit. ch. 5.5, A New Mission)

On the basis of that programme the Confederate Cherokee returned to the Nation. Stand Watie came back and settled in the Canadian District. So it was a success, but a limited success and one bought at incredible cost. And it was not to last. Such success as was won then was must be judged in the light of Lee Sultzman's brief summary of later Cherokee history.

"The Dawes commission attempted to get the Five Tribes to accept allotment in 1893, but they refused. This led to the passage of the Curtis Act (1895) which dissolved tribal governments and forced allotment during 1901. Grafting (swindles) of Indian lands became a massive and unofficially sanctioned form of theft in Oklahoma. Of the original seven million acres granted the Cherokee in the New Echota Treaty, the Cherokee Nation kept less than 1/3 of 1 percent. As compensation, the Cherokee became citizens in 1901 and were finally allowed to vote. An attempt by the Five Tribes to form their own state of Sequoyah in eastern Oklahoma failed in 1905, and the Cherokee Nation was officially dissolved on March 3, 1906. The following year Oklahoma was admitted as the 46th state. The present government of the Cherokee Nation was formed in 1948 after passage of the Wheeler-Howard Indian Reorganization Act (1934). In 1961 the Cherokee Nation was awarded $15,000,000 by the U.S. Claims Commission for lands of the Cherokee Outlet." (op.cit.)

Growing up I read and sang about the settlers who moved onto the lands of the Cherokee and, having destroyed the Cherokee, destroyed the land. Knowing nothing about the Cherokee I sympathised with the Dust Bowl Refugees who were met at the California border with the refrain…

"If you ain't got the do re mi, boys,
If you ain't got the do re mi,
You'd better go back to beautiful Texas,
Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee…"

Now, well…Wasichu said "give up warring, and adopt the ways of the White man." Coyote laughed.