AUGUST 1:

August 1, 1866:  Today John Ross, Principal Cherokee Chief, dies in Washington, DC.

1615 Huronia Ontario Samuel de Champlain c1570-1635 arrives in Huronia with ten Indians and Etienne Brulé, to back Hurons against Iroquois; winters in Huronia; estimates population at 30,000.

1629 Tadoussac Quebec Samuel de Champlain c1570-1635 reprimands Etienne Brulé and Nicolas Marsolet de Saint-Aignan c1587-1677, who had gone over to the Iroquois.

1701 Montreal Quebec Death of Grand Chief Kondiaronk at Montreal.

1805 Ontario Mississauga Indians cede over 101,170 hectares in York County to the Crown.

1885 Regina Saskatchewan Louis Riel 1844-1885 found guilty of treason and sentenced to death; defense's plea of insanity not believed by Anglo-Saxon, Protestant jury.

1990 Chateauguay Quebec Group of 12,000 angry Chateauguay residents march on city hall to demand removal of the native blockade of the Mercier Bridge outside Montreal; Kanawake Iroquois protesting Oka standoff, now entering its second month.

August 1, 1836:  2700 Creeks, including the ones who fought for the whites, were forced to leave Alabama for the Indian Territory.  Their leader, Opothleyaholo, was with them.

BACKGROUND:
 

Chief John Ross

Ancestry:  William Shorey, interpreter for the garrison at Fort Loudoun married a Cherokee woman named Ghi-goo-ie, or "sweetheart". Their daughter Annie Shorey was the grandmother of John Ross. John McDonald, a Scot, married Annie then opened a store in Loudoun, and later a supply post in the Chickamauga Creek near what in 1838 would become Chattanooga. John and Annie had Mary, who married Daniel Ross.

John Ross was the son of Daniel Ross, a Scotsman from Sutherlandshire, making John Ross 1/8 Cherokee. Daniel Ross joined with his father-in-law, John McDonald, Deputy British Agent to the Chickamauga Indians, to operate a trading post that supplied the Chickamaugas with arms and ammunition for raiding the Americans at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. When peace was made between the Chickamaugas and the Americans, Daniel Ross returned with John McDonald to Rossville, Georgia and built Ross House in 1797.

Youth: Daniel Ross established his store on Chattanooga Creek near the foot of Lookout Mountain and operated there until about 1816. Wanting a good education for his nine children, Daniel built a small school and employed John Barbour Davis as the teacher. After attending Davis' school, John Ross went on to a school in Kingston, TN and later to the academy at Maryville, TN.

While very young, John's Grandmother dressed little John Ross all in white and sent him out to play. The Indian children taunted him by calling him names, "Unaka, Unaka" meaning "White Boy". The next day when she again tried to dress him in all white, he burst into tears. after discovering what had happened, she put him back in his buckskins and he went out happily. John Ross though only one-eighth Cherokee was purely Cherokee in his response.

In 1809, at age 19, John Ross was sent on an official mission to the Western Cherokees by Return J. Meigs, U.S. Indian Agent. John's quiet and reserved manner inspired confidence among both whites and Indians. The mission was such a success, John was immediately sent on another trip. John Ross proved his leadership and diplomacy at an early age.

Warrior:  John Ross fought with General Andrew Jackson and 1000 other Cherokee against a large group of Creek Indians. At Horseshoe Bend, 600 Creek warriors were killed and peace was restored on March 28, 1814. It was during this battle that John Ross swam the frigid waters of the Tallapoosa River to help steal the Creek's "getaway" canoes which were then used by the Cherokee in a rear attack on the Creek Indians. The diversion was all Jackson needed to successfully overcome the Creek defenses.

In the war of 1812, John Ross served as adjutant. Although Cherokees fought without payment for the war, they were never considered true Americans. Would the Cherokees have fought with such pride and courage if they had known the very government for which they fought would eventually throw them off their homeland?

Business Man:  In 1815, John Ross and Timothy Meigs opened a trading post on the Tennessee River in Chattanooga. A ferry was used to port people and merchandise across the river about where the present day Market Street crosses the river. This soon became known as Ross's Landing.

Congregationalists, descendants of the Puritans, founded in Massachusetts an interdenominational missionary organization named the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions sent missionaries to the Cherokee. The mission was named the Brainerd Mission at Ross's Landing. Unlike some of the other missions, the Brainerd Mission school came with a genuine desire to educate as well as baptize the Cherokee. Recognizing the value of a good education, and himself being well educated, John Ross did everything he could to help the missionaries. It was Ross's work to introduce schools and mechanical training which set Ross apart.

Diplomat: In 1817 the U.S. government asked the Cherokee to cede all lands north of the Hiwassee River and to move West. All this was done despite the treaty of March 30, 1802 guaranteeing the cherokee perpetual rights to their land and recognizing their right to self-government. This same year John Ross was elected to the Cherokee National Council for which he would serve as president of the National Committee from 1819-1826. The Republican Constitution written by John Ross, modeled after the U.S. Constitution, was adopted by the Cherokee in 1827.

John Ross was elected Principal Chief of this first Indian republic in 1828, and took the oath of office at New Echota where he stated, "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Cherokee Nation."

The State of Georgia considered it a threat having a sovereign Cherokee nation so close. They too had a treaty with the U.S. government saying the U.S. would "peaceably" acquire the title to Indian land in exchange for Western lands. Georgia enlisted the aide of Andrew Jackson, who, as an emerging candidate for the presidency, promised to remove the Cherokee if elected.

Gold Rush: 10,000 white men invaded Cherokee land in Dahlonega (Da-lon-e-ga), Georgia in 1828 with gold fever. The momentum of this wave of whites would wash the Cherokee off their land. No amount of persuasion would hold back the tide of greed for riches.

When Jackson was elected president in 1828, his first act was to get the Indian Removal bill passed. Georgia, confident in presidential support, passed laws that Cherokees could not dig gold even on their own land. Cherokee law was declared null and void and Georgia law was established as the supreme law of the land. Whites had to take an oath of loyalty to Georgia.

Cherokee land was unlawfully usurped by Georgia and sold by lottery where no Cherokee could participate.

The Cherokee were split between the Treaty Party, those willing to take what the government offered, and those like John Ross, who were against.John Ross hope to have a star on the U.S. flag for the State of Cherokee was in vain. His dream was denied by Andrew Jackson, for despite the Supreme Court's ruling that Georgia's acts were unlawful, Jackson refused to enforce the law.

On December 29, 1935, Major Ridge, leader of the Treaty Party, signed a treaty in New Echota by which the Cherokee ceded all lands east of the Mississippi river in return for western lands and other considerations.

The treaty was without authority of the Cherokee Nation, but all who signed received payment and land. John Ross carried a petition to Washington with 15,000 signatures, 90 percent of all Cherokee, in protest. Davy Crockett lost his seat in Congress for opposing Jackson's views on Indian Removal. When he returned home, his property had been drawn by lottery and granted to a Georgian. Dispossessed, John Ross shared the fate of his fellow tribesmen. He built a one-room cabin at "Red Hill" or Flint Springs, TN, near the Red Clay Council Grounds, which served as the last capital of the Cherokee Nation in the east.

It is somewhat ironic, that the Federal government also declared in 1835 that anyone with one-quarter Indian blood was considered to be an Indian. John Ross, although having only 1/8 Indian blood, identified himself as Indian and aligned with the Cherokee. The seizure of his land and property were not only immoral, they were illegal.

The Trail of Tears: The Cherokee never ceded title to their land, but were forced off. This was the Trail of Tears or in Cherokee "Nunna-da-ul-tsun-yi," Trail where they cried.

In the summer of 1838, 7000 U.S. soldiers went to remove the Indians. Two parties were loaded into boats under military guard. Nearly half died from the heat and unsanitary conditions. Ross petitioned the government for permission to remove his people over land in cooler weather and under their own leadership. The request was granted.

Of the 13,000 refugees, over 1000 escaped to the Great Smoky Mountainsrather than leave their homelands. 4000 died, including John's wife "Quatie", during the winter march of 1838-1839 from Rattlesnake Springs, TNto Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Once in Oklahoma, John Ross was re-elected Principal Chief. Major Ridge was killed the same day for violating the law forbidding unauthorized sale of property.

In Tahlequah, Oklahoma land was set aside for schools, a newspaper and a new Cherokee capital.

October 7, 1861 during the Civil War, the Cherokee aligned with the Confederacy. A declaration repudiating all treaties with the Federal Government was ratified. The treaty with the Confederacy, signed by Ross and Albert Pike, was violated when the Cherokee, led by Pike, were asked to fight outside their own territory at Pea Ridge, Arkansas. At the time, it looked to Confederate General Earl Van Dorn like an easy victory for the confederates because the Union forces were strung out from Springfield, Missouri to Fayetteville, Arkansas. But when General Sam Curtis heard from scout "Wild Bill" Hickok that the confederates were advancing, Curtis consolidated with Davis and Carr to form 11,200 Federal troupes on the high ground at Pea Ridge, just south of Fort Smith, Arkansas. The 17,000 Confederate forces achieved some initial victories on March 7, 1862, in the end they were unable to take Pea Ridge.

The death of his second wife Mary did not deter Ross from attending theGrand Council of Southern Indians at Fort Smith in September 1865 where new treaties between Cherokee and the Federal government were prepared. His own failing health did not prevent him from accompanying the delegation to Washington where the treaty was signed, July 19, 1866.

John Ross died August 1, 1866 at Medes Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Ross's dominant ambition was to see the Cherokee become the most civilized and most educated Indians in the country. John Ross continued his whole lifetrying to improve the lot of the Cherokee, his people. It is for this he should be remembered.

Bibliography: Trail of Tears by John Ehle, The Rise and Fall of the CherokeeNation, Ancher Press, Doubleday 1988

From:  http://members.tripod.com/DidahnediGakanehoi

*****

Chief John Ross:

Thank you, I am pleased to be here today. On behalf of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees, I want to thank the University of Arkansas for allowing this first Annual Native American Symposium. I also want to thank Dr. Frank Scheide who is responsible for organizing this event. I hope this event will become one of the main attractions on the campus in the future.

My presentation is about the Keetowah history, pre-Columbian, the arrival of the Europeans, the western migration, the legend of the Keetoowahs, the prophesy and the move back to east. I hope you enjoy my presentation and learn about my people.

During pre-Columbian: The Keetowah people preferred to live in the mountains and along streams in harmony with nature . The Keetowah people led simple lives.  Searching for food occupied most of their time. They obtained food, shelter, clothing and other needs from nature's bounty by hunting, gathering and farming.

The men were first and foremost warriors and hunters. They provided meat for their families, protected their households and their communities. They made war against their enemy tribes. They also performed tribal, political and religious duties.

The women managed household duties, provided meals, gathered food and tended to the crops and made their family's clothing.

Agriculture matched hunting and gathering in importance to their economy. Economic life was enriched by commerce with other neighboring tribes. They traded deerskins, pots, war implements and copper.

At this time the Indian tribes lacked several items compared to the Europeans. They depended on their own physical power. They had no large domesticated animals such as horses or cows. Indian tribes had domesticated dogs to guard their settlements, to hunt and pull sleds to move goods over land.

The Keetoowah people believed religion and law were the same; the priest was the legal figure and the people were governed by the laws of the spirits.

The Clan Law or Blood Law was the social structure for the Keetoowahs and practiced in a matrilineal arrangement, passing from the mother to the children. If a tribal member committed a crime such as murder, the Clan of the victim would avenge the death under the supervision of the oldest family member. If the slayer could not be found, a brother of the perpetrator could be substituted as a sacrifice to the law of retaliation. If this was not done, the spirit of the victim would not pass into the spirit world and would haunt the family. The Keetoowahs practiced a mixed system of private and public punishment.

The Keetoowahs had different Chiefs during certain times. During times of war their leaders were called Red Chiefs and in times of peace they were called White Chiefs.

Anglo Contact: When Hernando DeSoto discovered the Keetoowah people in 1540, there were sixty different and independent villages with each having a separate government and leaders. The whole tribe came together only in times of war and ceremonies. The tribal life was unchanged as late as 1710. When the White man's influence arrived it was slow at first but then spread rapidly. This created major changes with the tribal leadership shifting from priest to warrior. The Whites brought diseases and many Keetoowah people died of mainly smallpox.

Fur trading was the most instrumental in creating change. The warriors became hunters and served as agents for fur trading. The tribal members pursued material possessions and wealth. They began purchasing farm animals, and equipment. Tribal members understandably were quickly drawn to trade goods. They had always relied on stone, wood, and other essentials. European goods of metal, glass and cloth were truly revolutionary innovations to the Keetoowah people. They saw the advantage of European goods and quickly came to value and demand the new materials.

With the tribe dependent on the European existence, the economic base greatly changed the structure of the Keetoowah life. The people became literate in the English language, attended schools in the east, then returned to assume leadership positions in the tribe, and this created additional changes. The U.S. Government began negotiating with only the mixed-bloods, which formulated the United Cherokee Nation in 1777.

The westward migration: Opposition to the rapid changes in the tribal governmental structure resulted in the migration of many traditional groups. Chief Dragging Canoe and one thousand of his full-blood followers migrated to the western part of Tennessee and later to the State of Arkansas. The Keetoowah life was so structured that an opposing political faction was permitted to physically remove themselves from the main tribal government. Such removal occurred several times in the Keetoowah/Cherokee history.

The majority of those who voluntarily moved to Arkansas were the conservative hunter element who desired to maintain the old traditional culture. The main tribe back east was rapidly drifting away from the traditional way of life through the influence of schools and the educated tribal leadership.

The Arkansas lands where the Keetoowahs settled belonged to the Osage tribe, whose claims had not yet been extinguished by the United States. The Osage objected to the Keetoowah presence, and the Keetowahs were compelled to fight to maintain the land. For the first 20 years or more the Keetoowahs were in constant threat by the Osage.

The treaty of 1817 with the United States exchanged the lands in Tennessee for the lands in Arkansas. This gained the Keetoowahs a definite title to a territory. The treaty of 1819 established the boundaries.

In the Spring of 1819 Thomas Nuttall, a Naturalist, came up the Arkansas River, and gave his account of the Keetoowahs as he found them at that time. Quoting Nuttall "In going up the stream there were houses and farms on both banks of the River. The houses were decently furnished, and their farms were well fenced and stocked with cattle. They had everything they needed: food, clothes, water and good land." end of quote. At this time the Keetoowahs numbered 4 to 5 thousand members.

In 1820 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission established Dwight Mission, at the mouth of Illinois Creek, on the bank of the Arkansas River in what is now Pope County Arkansas. The name Dwight Mission was given in remembrance of Timothy Dwight, a Yale President and pioneer Organizer of the American Board.

In 1822 Sequoyah visited the Keetoowah people to teach them the knowledge of his great invention. The invention of the alphabet or (commonly known as the Syllabaries) it had an immediate and wonderful effect on the Keetoowah people's development. Sequoyah is the only man in history to invent a written language single-handed. This remarkable man never attended school and in all his life never earned to speak, read, or write the English language. On account of the remarkable adaptation of the Syllabary to the Keetoowah/Cherokee language, it was only necessary to learn the characters to be able to read at once. There were no schoolhouses or teachers, however the whole tribe were able to read and write in their own language. Sequoyah took up permanent residence with the Keetoowah people living somewhere in the area between present-day Scottsville and Russellville.

By the Treaty of 1828 the Keetooway people were forced to exchange their lands in Arkansas for lands in Oklahoma. The Keetoowahs moved to Indian Territory in Oklahoma ten years prior to the forced removal (commonly known as the "Trail of Tears") of the Cherokee Nation.

The Keetoowah people had a great part in shaping this western part of Arkansas.

The Keetoowahs went on to adopted a written constitution in 1828.  During the Civil War the Keetoowahs sided with the Union. They fought against the mixed blood Cherokees who sided with the confederates.

The word "Keetowah" is the name which my people have always called themselves. The word "Cherokee" has no meaning in the language of my people. It is derived from a Muscogan Language and its meaning is the "inhabitant of the cave country." The word "Keetoowah" means "principal people."

The Legend and The Prophesy. The following legend of the Keetowah people, which dates back to the beginning of time, has been passed orally by each generation.

Upon the creation of the Keetoowah people, the Creator gave them mysterious powers and placed them in large settlement on an island located in the Atlantic Ocean. There were other tribes on the island which attacked the Keetoowah people, and the Keetoowahs were victorious. Another tribe watched the fierce fighting from a mountain top. The leader of the tribe watched the valley ascend toward the Heaven. The smoke divided into three paths midway in the ascension an eagle was seen holding three arrows in its claws. The leader asked his warriors if the smoke and eagle were visible to them and they replied they were. The tribal leader then told his warriors not to attack the Keetoowah people because they were the Creator's people and they were very powerful. The tribe came down from the mountain and made friends with the Keetoowah people.

In later years, some of the medicine men of the tribe became selfish and used their powers to harm their own people. The Creator gave the powers to the medicine men to be used in the best interest of all the people. Other tribal members prayed to the Creator for direction and the Creator heard their prayers. The instruction was to move their fire away from the island and the medicine men. After the departure, the island sank into the ocean.

The people migrated north and settled in the southeastern part of what is now the United States. Many years later, again the medicine men became selfish and committed crimes against their own tribal members. The people gathered to discuss the solution to this problem and it was decided that seven medicine men, one from each of the seven clans, would travel to a mountain top and pray The seven medicine men went up to the mountain top and prayed. Soon a messenger from the Creator appeared and told them the Creator had heard their prayers and had great sympathy for them. The messenger told the medicine men their tribe would be called "Keetoowah" from that day forward.

The messenger revealed to them that a "white ball" would arrive from the east which would be an enemy to the people. The grandchildren of the Keetoowahs would point their feet to the west and great hardship would be placed upon them at the edge of the prairie. Their blood and families would be divided and the enemy would not respect the Keetoowah people. The messenger revealed that a young leader would lead the Keetoowah people back to the east. However, if the Keetoowah people chose not to follow the Creator 's direction, they would continue further west to a sea of water and disappear forever. The Creator said, "If the Keetoowah people are destroyed or become extinct, then the end of the world will follow."

The move back to east: The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees are the only landless tribe in this country. This recognition is based on Congressional legislation, Bureau of Indian Affairs policies and the Federal Courts rulings made over the past several years. They have all ruled the Keetoowahs do not have a land base or a jurisdictions area.

The only alternative the Keetoowahs had was to move away from Oklahoma. This is what prompted the Keetoowahs to request the BIA to approve the UKB to establish a land base outside of Oklahoma and back to the east in Arkansas. The BIA central office in Washington DC gave approval on June 23, 1994 to establish a land base outside of Oklahoma into Arkansas. The Keetoowahs now have established a land base and also an office in Waldron, Arkansas.

Now, based on what you have heard, is the move back to the east purely by accident, or is this according to the prophecy?

That concludes my presentation.  I want to thank everyone for being here today and giving me the honor of speaking to you. Thank you.
 

From:  United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees website at
http://www.uark.edu/depts/comminfo/UKB/khp.html