Texas Cherokee History

The search for A New Homeland

The Cherokee call themselves Aniyunwiya, the Principal People. Their traditional homeland lay far to the east, in Tennessee, the Carolinas, and Georgia. They were a remarkable nation of Indians who were extremely adaptable and innovative.

One of the most renowned Cherokee, Sequoyah, single-handedly invented a syllabary for the Cherokee language. He is the only person in history to have accomplished such a task for his culture. Soon the Cherokee had books, libraries and schools. Their newfound literacy enabled them to translate portions of the Bible, and to publish a bilingual newspaper.

The Bowl or Chief Bowles led a band of Cherokee into battle with White immigrants on the Muscle Shoals along the banks of the Tennessee River in 1794.

The battle was called a massacre by the Whites and Chief Bowles knew it was fruitless to defend his actions against certain retaliation. From that moment on he was to lead his tribe across half a continent in search of a permanent home.

At first they settled in southeastern Missouri. The chief and his people were content on their new land and remained there until 1811. That year was marked by an earthquake of awesome proportions. Believing it to be an omen warning them to leave that piece of land, they relocated in Lost Prairie, Arkansas. Sequoyah joined Bowles’ tribe in Arkansas and it was here that Sequoyah diligently devised the Cherokee syllabary.

Misfortune befell the Cherokee again, this time in the guise of a team of surveyors. Bowles’ settlement was not on the land ceded to the Indians by the U.S. Government and they were forced to relocate once more.

Followed by sixty families Chief Bowles migrated to Texas in 1820. Among the group was the son of Sequoyah who married one of Chief Bowles’ daughters. Sequoyah, however, returned to the Cherokee nation in the east and introduced literacy to the people.

Although the Cherokee had written permission to emigrate to Texas, they did not have clear title to the land. Bowles knew all too well the importance of securing a legal document granting the land to the Texas Cherokee.

Their new homeland, between the Trinity and Sabine Rivers north of the old San Antonio Road, was much like their old lands to the east with tall pines, rolling hills, and clear streams. Their fortune was, indeed, too good to be true.

At this juncture it is imperative to take a close look at the personalities of a handful of men whose ambitious dreams destroyed one nation-the Texas Cherokee - while they simultaneously inspired the invention of another - the Republic of Texas. Foremost among them, is Chief Bowles, whose paramount motive for all of his actions was to secure a single piece of paper which would grant his people legal rights to their settlement.

John Dunne Hunter, once a captive of the Osage, grew into manhood as an Indian. An individual of remarkable abilities and energy, Hunter’s devotion to the Indian cause of unmolested freedom took him from Washington D.C. to England. He was, depending on who was doing the telling, famous or infamous. His dream of establishing an Indian Nation brought him to Texas in 1825. Here he conspired a revolution against Mexican authority a decade ahead of time.

Stephen F. Austin, a cautious political pragmatist, believed wholeheartedly in governmental authority, in this case - Mexican authority. Like many of his day he condoned slavery and the extermination of Indians.

Peter Illis Bean was a violent conspiratorial soldier of fortune. His opportunistic tendencies eventually earned him the rank of colonel in the Mexican army, and in this position he also served as a spy for Austin and supported Austin’s motives at every turn.

Sam Houston was the pre-eminent frontiersman and friend of the Indian. An adopted son of the Cherokee, he was known as colon-neh or The Raven. His efforts to secure the Texas Cherokee a permanent home earned him the enmity of many Texans who accused Houston of favoring his "pet indians."

All of these characters were, in the truest sense of the word, men of destiny. Each possessed the genius of leadership coupled with an unshakable cause.

Like the five fingers of a fist they shaped the course of Texas history in ways none of them imagined or desired. Both Austin and Bean were content with Mexican domination until events shifted their pragmatic convictions. I was Hunter, however, whose ambitions for an Indian empire set in motion a tragic course of events which neither Chief Bowles nor Sam Houston could avert.

The Fredonian Rebellion

As soon as Hunter arrived in Texas he went straight-away to the Cherokee and immediately rose to a position of leadership and authority.

Although Austin had a deep-set prejudice against Indians of any stripe, he held the abilities of the Cherokee warriors in high esteem. In 1826 he wrote, "100 Cherokee are decidedly superior to 500 Comanches." And it was this same year that he sought the assistance of the Cherokee in an attack on the Wacos and Tawakonis who were molesting the settlers. Ever the astute politician, Austin took full advantage of the Cherokee’s desire to attain title to their lands.

"I am a friend of the Cherokees," he wrote to their chiefs", and wish to give them an opportunity of showing the Government what good soldiers and faithful citizens, they make, and I have no doubt if you turn out in this expedition and destroy the Tawakany villages on the head of the Navasota that it will be the means of securing you land in the country for as many of your nation as wish to remove here.

Although flooded rivers and creeks prevented the Cherokee form taking immediate and full advantage of the promise, they did on this and other occasions, defend the Texas settlements against the more independent Plains tribes. One of the most noted warriors in their cause was Chief Tachee or The Dutch.

Because of Hunter’s cosmopolitan air and worldly experience - he knew many of the most eminent American and British politicians on a first-name bases - he was soon enlisted by the Cherokee to journey to Mexico City and negotiate for title to their lands. Hunter was unsuccessful in this effort and the experience convinced him that there would be no peaceful means to secure their land from Mexico.

Hunter’s presence disconcerted many Texans who considered him either a British agent or a spy for the U.S. government. Hunter was a keen observer of people and he could quickly surmise which way the political winds were blowing. A spy he was not, a man with an almost messianic devotion to the Indian cause he was.

So when Hunter got wind of the troubles brewing on the Hayden Edwards Settlement, which included the very disreputable town of Nacogdoches, he wasted little time using the events to shape his dream of an Indian empire.

Edwards received in 1825 a contract form the Mexican government to settle eight hundred families in one of the most lawless regions of Texas. A portion of the Edwards grant was on Cherokee lands. Other portions had long been settled by Mexican who generally did not have titles to the lands they occupied. In an effort to establish his authority, Edward’s treatment of the settlers, particularly the Mexicans, led to the eventual annulment of his contract.

Those were the conditions that existed in 1826 when Hunter ventured into Nacogdoches. His sole purpose was to visit the embittered brothers, Haden and Benjamin Edwards, who were facing financial ruin, and propose to them a scheme which was as bold as it was ill-advised.

He proposed an alliance with the anglo Texans and Indians, with the sole purpose of declaring a war of independence from Mexico. Hunter, along with Chief Fields, the principal chief of the Cherokee at the time, promised to marshall that tribe and alliance of twenty-three other Indian tribes to the cause.

A Committee of Independence was formed on December 21, 1826, complete with a signed declaration. A flag of red and white, representing the row races, was created. Inscribed on the banner was the motto, "Independence, Freedom, and Justice."

The alliance, in the mind of Austin, threatened the existing order and promised anarchy. He called the proposed Republic of Fredonia "a small party of infatuated madmen."

Austin and Bean seemed to be of one mind and orchestrated their efforts to a single purpose: divide the Indian leadership by promising land to the Cherokees if they would assist in suppressing the Fredonian Rebellion.

In a letter to Hunter, Austin wrote, " I know the Cherokees can get their lands if legal steps are adopted, and if they take the wrong course they are lost." To the Cherokee chiefs he wrote, " The Cherokees are a civilized and honorable people. God forbid that we should ever shed each other’s blood. Let us be friends and live in peace and harmony."

Among the Anglo Texas, Austin characterized the Whites involved in the rebellion as " no longer Americans, for they have forfeited all title to that high name by their unnatural and bloody alliance with Indians."

Austin mobilized troops which joined the Mexicans in a move to suppress the revolt. In collusion with Bean, Austin formed a truly unnatural and bloody alliance with the Indians.

Again holding out the promise of a secure title to the Cherokee lands, Austin and Bean enticed Chief Bowles and Big Mush in a plot to assassinate Chief Fields and Hunter.

Bowles and Big Mush were trapped between a rock and a hard place. Without their support the Cherokee were seriously divided. Hunter was forced to rally at Nacogdoches with less than thirty warriors. Upon their arrival they found, instead of an army of determined revolutionaries, a drunken brawl. Disenchanted, over half of the Indians left for home.

While Hunter and Fields scoured the countryside for conscripts to the cause, they were slain, as planned, by warriors under the direction of Chief Bowles and Big Mush.

By way of payment for this part in suppressing the rebellion, Chief Bowles received from the Mexican government praise and the title of lieutenant colonel in the Mexican army.

Austin’s duplicity in his dealings with the Cherokee were clearly evident in a letter he wrote to the Mexican authorities protesting "the forced and unnatural accumulation of savages. And we further present to Your Excellency (Bustmente) the great danger and manifest impolicy of making any promises of concessions of lands, either temporary or perpetual, and of offering any other rewards or emoluments, whether it be military appointments or civic honors, on any of the chiefs or head warriors of these barbarous tribes - the friendship of savages is always treacherous - it is purchased today and lost tomorrow."

The Birth of a Republic

Although the insurrection failed, it planted the idea in the minds of Texans for independence. Meanwhile, The Edwards grant was up for grabs. Austin, in a series of letters to David G. Burnet, enticed his friend to relocate permanently in Texas and lay claim to a portion of the grant.

Conspiratorial schemes ran deep and wide in Texas during 1835. For example, in April of that year Austin wrote to Burnet, " The Mexicans have not been my worst enemies and now I do not know that any of them are my enemies." In October of the same year, in another letter to Burnet, Austin wrote, "I hope to see Texas forever free from Mexican domination of any kind."

Bean, evidently in collusion with the new band of Texas revolutionaries, advised the Mexican officials to withhold title to the Cherokee lands. He maintained they would bring vast numbers of barbarous Indians to the area. He advised, instead, to relocate them on the Texas frontier in Indian Territory.

Although Bean’s advice was hatched in the mid of Austin, its timing is significant. To achieve success in their struggle for independence the Texans could ill afford to fight a war on three fronts: the Cherokee to the north, the Comanche to the west, and the Mexicans to the south. By forcing the Cherokee to face off against the Comanche in the west, all the Texans would have to contend with would be the Mexicans. It was an ingenious plan which never transpired.

It’s alternate, however, was equally effective. In November 1835, at San Felipe de Austin, the colonial headquarters on the Brazos River, the Texas delegates gathered to declare their war for independence. At that time they drafted a " Solemn Declaration" which was signed by Henry Smith ( the provisional governor of Texas), Sam Houston and others. In February the following year the Provisional Government of Texas negotiated its first treaty - with the Texas Cherokee. Both documents assured the Cherokee clear title to their lands if they would remain neutral in the upcoming conflict with Mexico.

The following month, independence was declared and David G. Burnet was chosen interim president. One of Burnet’s first acts was to send an emissary to the Cherokee with $2,000 worth of presents to re-enforce the treaty, but not to make any further promises of land.

As is well known, the Republic of Texas won its independence in 1836. At that time the prospects for the Texas Cherokee never looked better as their friend, Houston, was elected president of the Republic.

An effort to further cement the bond between the Cherokee and the Texans prompted Houston to request Chief Bowles to venture into Indian Territory and negotiate a peace treaty with the prairie tribes. Bowles’ effort almost cost him his life, and he returned to Houston to report that all but the Comanches were willing to sign a treaty.

Betrayal and Expulsion

The Cherokee were shocked when, in December of 1837, the Texas Senate refused to ratify the first treaty of the government of Texas. The Cherokee were denied title to their lands as they formed part of the Burnet grant. Houston was succeeded as head of government by Mirabeau B. Lamar who vowed that "the sword should mark the boundaries of the republic."

Bowles’ Cherokees and their allied tribes of Indians were desperate and furious. Bowles wrote, in a letter to Houston, that his people "from the biggest to the least have a little dread of their minds." In am attempt to save face, and the peace, Houston sent a survey team into Cherokee country to set a demarcation or boundary line. This act infuriated land speculators, citizens, empresarios and soldiers.

Nevertheless, Houston vowed to set the line "of I will give them my life or my land for I will not tell them a lie." The line was completed in 1838 by Alexander Horton, an able man appointed to the task by Houston.

"You may be sure that everything that art, villainy, corruption and treachery could invent were resorted to, to break down and destroy the expedition, but all in vain." Horton wrote to Houston, " We have succeeded and all are home safely and the Indians are all well satisfied and will remain in peace if the whites will let them alone."

Lamar responded to Houston’s actions in his presidential address of December 21, 1838 by saying, "It is not necessary to inquire into the nature and extent of the pledge given to the Cherokees by the consultation of 1835 and the Treaty of February, 1836… for the treaty was never ratified by any competent authority.

Lamar’s statement added insult and hypocrisy to betrayal. The struggle for independence was over and the attention of many Texans turned to the Indians in the north for the second stage in their manifest destiny.

Burnet was appointed to head up a commission to remove the Cherokee from their lands - an act in which Burnet had quite an interest as a portion of the Cherokee lands would fall into his hands. The appointment was re-enforced by President Lamar who wrote to the commissioners, "Recent events of which you are already apprised convince me of the necessity of the immediate removal of the Cherokee Indians, and the ultimate removal of all other immigrant tribes now residing in Texas and unless they consent at once to receive a fair compensation for their improvements and other property and remove out of this country, nothing short of the entire destruction of all of their tribe will appease the indignation of the white people against them.."

As could be expected, Bowles and the other immigrant tribes refused to relinquish their homes and farmlands. The attitude of the Whites in the states and Texas toward the Indians was clearly defined by the virtual simultaneous expulsion of the Texas Cherokee and their relatives in the east. This, despite existing laws and treaties to the contrary.

Villages were torched and Indians of every age and sex were slaughtered. Chief Bowles, in his 83^rd year, made a stand in a clearing near the Neches River. His horse was shot out from under him, and as he attempted to walk from the field of battle he was shot in the back by Henry Conner.

Bowles sat wounded on the field facing the enemy. Captain Robert Smith approached the chief, extended his pistol to Bowles’ head and fired. Others in the party scalped the dead Indian and cut strips of flesh from his back to be used for bridle reins. General Douglas reported to the Secretary of War that Bowles had been killed and, "All Texans behaved so gallantly it would be invidious to particularize."

One might think that this horrid tale end here, in the long hot summer of 1839. But misfortune wasn’t finished with the Texas Cherokee.

Chief Bowles and Big Mush were dead. Those that could, escaped and finally rested on the banks of the San Saba River enroute to Mexico. There, they were again attacked. Many were killed and taken captive. The attack occurred on Christmas Day, 1839.

The Indians who escaped fled to Mexico where they were joined by Sequoyah who died there searching for his son and daughter-in-law. There the Cherokee were assaulted by the Mexicans, stripped of all their belongings and every article of clothing. Absolutely demoralized they returned to Bird’s Fort, Texas. These once proud people had to beg for clothes to hide their nakedness. On September 29, 1843 they signed their last treaty with the Texans.

The first article of the treaty stated: "Both parties agree and declare that they will live in peace and always meet as friends and brothers. Also that the war which may have heretofore existed between them shall cease and never be renewed." With this treaty the Cherokee were expelled from Texas.

One might ask why, in the face of such overwhelming opposition, the Cherokee resisted at all? To understand this one need only understand the Indian. In Cherokee the word for land, "Eloheh," also means culture, history and religion.

So they stayed and they fought. They Fought and they lost. They lost time and time again. What they didn’t lose, they gave up, or buried deep in their hearts.

Some of the Cherokee in the east disappeared in the mountains for years before venturing out and eventually establishing a reservation. In Texas many hid out, like the illegal immigrants today, in remote migrant camps. They intermarried with Whites, adopting new names, a new language, a new life. But they stayed with the land, and in a few instances passed on, however dormant, the roots of the Aniyunwiya in Texas.

The Cherokees are one of the most important tribes in Texas History. They are not originally from Texas. They moved to Texas from the east around 1823. One reason the Cherokees are important is because Sam Houston was an adopted Cherokee. Sam Houston was the first President of the Republic of Texas and the General of the Texas Army that defeated the Mexicans in the Texas Revolution in 1835. From Tennessee, he followed his Cherokee family first to Arkansas in 1828, then to Texas in 1832. Sam Houston's Cherokee name was "the Raven".

The Cherokees are also important in Texas history because they took over the leadership role of the Indian tribes of East Texas from the Caddo. They became the dominant Indian tribe in East Texas.

The importance of the Cherokees in Texas is more historical than cultural. By the time they arrived in Texas their culture had become very much like the Americans and Europeans in many ways. To find the original Cherokee Indian culture you have to go back 200 years before they came to Texas.

The Cherokees are one of the five civilized tribes. They were called this because by the time large numbers of European settlers arrived around them, the Cherokees had already learned to make and use metal tools, European style clothes and European style houses. We will look at this in more detail later on.

The Cherokees are an Iroquoian speaking people who originally lived in eastern Tennessee and the surrounding areas. Their territory included almost all of Tennessee and Kentucky, the northern part of Georgia, the northern part of Alabama, the eastern tips of North and South Carolina and Virginia . This is a lot of territory and the Cherokees were a big nation. They were a part of the larger mound-building cultures of the Southeastern United States. The mound-building cultures included many other Indian tribes or nations.
In the east and in Texas the Cherokee were primarily farmers who lived in villages. They also hunted and gathered wild plants for food and medicines when they could. Before European contact, they farmed corn, beans, pumpkins, squash, and several other kinds of plants. They did not have domesticated animals like cows or chickens. They did have dogs.

The Cherokee are famous for their beautiful baskets. They used baskets to hold food like corn as they picked it and to hold wild berries and roots.

After the Europeans came, the Cherokee were quick to adopt European ways and things. By the end of the 1700s many of them lived on farms just like the English and Americans did. By then, they did have livestock like pigs and cows and chickens. They also adopted European clothing. The men wore cloth pants and shirts and the women worn dresses and skirts. You could still tell a Cherokee from an American by the way he dressed. The men liked to wear cloth turbans with feathers and stick pins in them. They also wore wide colorful cloth sashes around their waists. These turbans and sashes were not part of what Europeans wore back then. Today many of the Cherokee have adopted Plains Indian style costumes. The tourists and others expect Indians to look like this so the Cherokee dress up in feather head dresses and fringed buckskins.

They lived in wooden huts at the time of the first European contact. Later many of them lived in the same kind of houses the European settlers lived in -- log cabins and wooden houses. Some of the wealthier Cherokees had plantations and owned slaves.

Other tribes in the east had also adopted European dress, houses and styles of living. These tribes were called the five civilized tribes. They were; the Cherokee, the Creek, the Choctaw, the Chickasaw and the Seminoles. One reason these tribes had adopted so much European culture is because they were in friendly contact with Europeans for much longer than other Indian tribes.

One custom all these tribes kept was the stick ball game. This game was played by the men and boys. They used sticks about the size of a hockey stick with a small cupped net on the end to catch, carry and throw a small ball. The goal was to hit a small target on top of a pole. This game was very rough and broken arms, legs, a serious injuries were common. In many ways it was a ritual form of war. Often entire tribes would play each other. The Cherokee and the other Southeastern tribes still play stickball. There is a modern non Indian form of the game called LaCrosse.

English and Scotch traders had set up trading posts in the Southeast United States as early as the 1650s. For 100 years these traders made no attempt to take the Indian's land. They just traded with them. This allowed these tribes to learn European ways and adopt European technology like metal tools. By the time larger numbers of settlers began to arrive these civilized tribes had already adopted European farms, tools, dress and many customs as well. The Cherokees had even invented a Cherokee alphabet and system of writing and were publishing newspapers in Cherokee. To the settlers they seemed very civilized and they were.

As the English settlers, and later the American settlers moved in all around them in the east the Cherokees had less and less land. They needed land to farm and hunt on. The Americans around them were hostile and made trouble for the Cherokees. There were battles and many fights. One of the tribes of the Cherokee decided they were tired of the fighting and decided to move west and look for new land where they would be left alone.

This was the part of the Cherokees led by Chief Duwali. Duwali is his Cherokee name. Duwali also used English versions of his name "John Bowls and Colonel Bowls. Chief Duwali first led his people west to what is now Arkansas. They lived there for a while. Later they moved to East Texas. After being cut off from the Eastern Cherokees who stayed behind, Chief Duwali's Cherokees became the Western band of the Cherokees.

They moved into the area of Texas the Caddo Indians lived in. By 1823 the Caddo had lost much of their former population to European diseases. By the time the Cherokee arrived, the Caddo were down to no more than two thousand. So, much of the land the Caddos had lived on was empty by 1823. Along with the Cherokee, several other tribes from the Southeastern United States also moved into this region of Texas. These were the Alabama, the Coushatta, the Shawnee, the Biloxi, some Creek Indians and a few other smaller groups.

They all arrived at a critical time in Texas history. Texas was part of Mexico in 1823. In the next 25 years there would be a revolution in Mexico, the Texas revolution, and Texas would become a part of the United States. During this same time period thousands of Americans and Europeans immigrated to Texas wanting land - including the land the Indians lived on.

In all these revolutions both sides wanted the Cherokees and the other tribes to take sides with them. This was dangerous for the Cherokees. If they chose sides with a loser, the winner would punish them afterwards and chase them off their land. They stayed neutral in these revolutions.

Even after Texas won the revolution, agents of the Mexican government came to the Cherokees and asked them to make war on the Texans. The Cherokees refused to do this.

In February of 1836 Sam Houston negotiated a treaty with the Cherokees on behalf of the Provisional Government of Texas. When Sam Houston became president of the Republic of Texas in September of 1836, he tried to get the 1836 treaty ratified by the new Texas Government. They did nothing about the treaty until 1837. In 1837 the Texas Senate rejected the treaty signed by Houston. Still, while Houston was president, things were all right for the Cherokee for several years. Then Texas elected a new President, Mirabeau Lamar. Lamar did not like the Cherokees, or any other Indians for that matter, and he said so. Lamar and other were also concerned because the Mexicans were trying to get the Cherokees and other Texas Indians to help them take back Texas.

Here is a part of letter Lamar sent to Chief Duwali. Lamar wanted the Cherokees out of Texas so American settlers could take their land, along with the land of the remaining Caddos and the many other tribes living in east Texas.

"… I therefore feel it to be my duty as Chief Magistrate of this Republic, to tell you, in the plain language of sincerity, that the Cherokee will never be permitted to establish a permanent and independent jurisdiction within the inhabited limits of this Government: that the political and fee-simple claims, which they set up to our territory now occupied by them, will never be allowed, and that they are permitted, at present, to remain where they are , only because this Government is looking forward to the time, when some peaceable arrangements can be made for their removal, without the shedding of blood, but that their final removal is contemplated, is certain: and that it will be affected, is equally so. Whether it be done by friendly negotiation or by violence of war, must depend on the Cherokee themselves . . .

May 26th 1839, signed by Mirabeau Lamar"

In July of 1839 Texas sent troops to remove the Cherokees. On July 15 there was a skirmish near Duwali's village. Duwali tried to lead his people north along the Neches River to escape, but the Texas militia pursued them There was a battle on July 17th near the headwaters of the Neches River in what is now Van Zandt county. Chief Bowles was 83 years old by this time, but he still lead his braves into the battle. According to eye witness accounts he stayed at the front of his men during the entire battle. The fighting was fierce and there were many casualties. After the Cherokee began to lose, and when most of the Cherokees had retreated, Chief Bowles stayed on the battle field with the last of his men to help the others retreat safely. He was shot and fell down. As he lay dying a Texas Militia man came up and shot him in the head at close range. Chief Duwali was dead along with 100 other Cherokees.

The Texas Cherokees moved to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. There, they were reunited with the eastern Cherokees. The eastern Cherokees had also been forced to move from their lands. The government of the United States and the State of Georgia forced the eastern Cherokees off their land and forced them to move to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. The United States Supreme Court ruled that this was an illegal act and broke treaties.

The Cherokees, men, women, children and babies, the elderly and sick were all marched at gun point by army troops from Georgia to Indian Territory during the winter of 1839. Many of them died along the way from the cold and from starvation because the army would not feed them properly. This march is remembered as "The Trail of Tears" because so many women and children died during this forced march. A few of them ran away into the hills and stayed.

They lived on a reservation in the Indian Territory in the eastern part of what is now the state of Oklahoma. In 1889 the United States Government began pressuring the Cherokee to sell their land. They did sell a large area of northwest Oklahoma called the Cherokee Strip to the government in 1893. That same year the Dawes Commission was set up to get the 5 civilized tribes to give up their reservations and tribal governments. White settlers wanted the Indian land.

The Cherokee refused to even talk to the Dawes commission at first. Finally they were forced into an agreement. In 1902 every Cherokee was given 110 acres of reservation land. This was called allotment. Allotment means dividing something up and allotting (giving) the parts to individuals. An allotment is like a share. This is when tribal members were officially enrolled (listed) as members of the tribe. This was done by the United States Government. You had to be an enrolled tribal member to get an allotment of land. Many Cherokees who did not want land or who refused to participate in an American Government controlled program did not enroll. People still argue today about who is and who is not a Cherokee because of the Cherokees who did not enroll. All the land that was not allotted, and there was a lot of it, was taken by the United States Government and sold to the railroads and to white settlers.

The tribal government was supposed to be dissolved too, but it went on anyway. In 1914 the US Congress passed a new law allowing the tribal government to operate again.

The whole purpose of the Dawes commission was to destroy the tribes. Dissolving the reservations and tribal governments was supposed to force the Indians to forget their past culture and heritage and live like Whites. Of course back then there were laws that made them second class citizens because of their race. Indians were discriminated against and treated much the same as black people were treated, even worse in many cases. Many Cherokees were passing as white persons back then and this is one reason many of them did not enroll.

For you younger readers, there were many laws and customs in 1906 that discriminated against what were called "persons of color" or colored persons. Persons of color were Africans, Mexicans, Chinese and of course Indians. Of course the term colored means their skin was not white. There were laws back then called Jim Crow laws that banned colored persons from sitting in or eating in white only restaurants. Persons of color were not allowed in the city limits of many towns after dark. Businesses could refuse to do business with them and did so. In some places Jim Crow laws required persons of color to always be employed or be sent to prison to work on convict labor gangs. Persons of color or "coloreds", as they were called by whites, were not allowed to vote, not allowed hold elected office, and were not allowed to sue or use the court system. Their children had to go to substandard colored schools and often had no schools after the sixth grade. Many jobs and professions were forbidden to coloreds. Most colleges in the south refused colored students by law. In most towns they had to live in colored sections of town and could not buy or live in white only parts of town. So, if an Indian could pass as being white they did. Many did not want to enroll and come under the Jim Crow laws.

The allotted land the Indians were supposed to own was not really theirs. The land was held in trust for each Indian by the United States Government. This means the government could sell the land without the permission of the Indian who was supposed to own the land. The government also held onto the money from any such sale, in trust. The Indian could not sell the land without the permission of the Government. The Government had full management of the allotted land. In many cases Indian land was sold to railroads and whites against the wishes of the Indian owner.

The Burke Act of of 1906 ended the holding in trust of Indian lands, but added a new twist. The Burke Act declared all Indians incompetent to manage their affairs. An Indian had to get a certificate of competency to manage his or her land. Until an Indian was declared competent the government managed his or her land and financial affairs, just like the old trust system. Many Cherokees were doctors and lawyers and educated professionals by this time. Even these persons were held to be incompetent till the applied for and passed the tests to be certified competent.

Many of the Cherokees still live in Oklahoma. They have a large tribal center in the town of Tahlequah. The Cherokee who ran away and stayed behind also have a reservation back east in the Carolinas.