NOVEMBER 12:

Agnes Nanogak 1925- artist, printmaker, was born on this day at Baillie Island, NWT, in 1925. Nanogak started publishing prints with the Holman artists' co-operative in 1967; has illustrated 2 books of Inuit stories, Tales from the Igloo (1972), and More Tales from the Igloo (1986).

1992 Iqaluit NWT - 69% of 9,648 eligible Inuit vote Yes to land settlement and creation of Nunavut Territory; Inuit to get clear title to land, hunting and fishing rights.

1979 Norman Wells, NWT - Metis Association of the NWT offers $160 million for Ottawa's 1/3 share of Norman Wells operation.

November 12, 1825:  On this date, the Cherokee Legislative Council will vote to establish a new capital at the confluence of the Coosawattee and Conasauga rivers. The new town would be called New Echota, Georgia. The town was located roughly in the center of the Nation, making it easier for all members to come to the capitol if the need, or desire, arose.
 

BACKGROUND:
 

Information from http://www.ngeorgia.com/history/cherokee.html
 

New Echota's Beginning

The early 19th century was a new era for the Cherokee. Discarding a traditional clan system of rule, they adopt a government similar to that of the United States.  The nation was divided into eight districts, and a legislature established to make laws and approve treaties. Four delegates from each district were elected to the lower house, called the National Council. This body chose the twelve members of the upper house, called the National Committee. In turn, the National Committee selected the top level officers: principal chief, assistant principal chief and treasurer.

During the fall of 1819, the Council began holding annual meetings in Newtown, a small community located at the junction of the Coosawattee and Conasauga rivers in present-day Gordon County. On November 12, 1825, the council adopted a resolution making Newtown the Cherokee Nation's capital. They changed the town's name to New Echota in honor of Chota, a beloved town located in present-day Tennessee.

New Echota was a planned community laid out by Cherokee surveyors. By 1830 the town had 50 residents, a main street 60 feet wide, and a two- acre town square. The government buildings, including the Council House, Supreme Court and printing office, dominated the center of town. Private homes, stores, a ferry and a mission station were in the outlying area. The town is quiet most of the year, but council meetings provided the opportunity for great social gatherings. During these meetings, several hundred Cherokees filled the town, arriving by foot, on horseback or in stylish carriages.
 

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An extract from one of Lee Sultzman's superb tribal histories at: http://www.tolatsga.org/Cherokee2.html
 

The Turkey Town treaty (1817) was the first formal recognition of the Western Cherokee by the United States. Under its terms, 4,000 Cherokee ceded their lands in Tennessee in exchange for a reservation with the Western Cherokee in northwest Arkansas. With this new immigration during 1818-19, the number of Western Cherokee swelled to over 6,000. However, the Osage continued to object to the Cherokee presence, and the Americans were forced to build Fort Smith (1817) and Fort Gibson (1824) to maintain peace. White settlers of the Arkansas territory were soon demanding the removal of both the Cherokee and Osage. In 1828 the Western Cherokee agreed to exchange their Arkansas lands for a new location in Oklahoma. The boundaries were finally determined in 1833, although it took until 1835 to get the Osage to agree.

Meanwhile, the Cherokee homeland in the east was rapidly being whittled away by American settlement reflected by a series of treaties: Hopewell 1785; Holston 1791; Philadelphia 1794; Tellico 1798, 1804, 1805, and 1806. The final cession of ten million acres in 1806 by Doublehead (Chuquilatague) outraged many of the Cherokee and resulted in his assassination as a traitor by the faction led by Major Ridge (Kahnungdatlageh -"the man who walks the mountain top"). A new, mixed-blood leadership of Ridge and John Ross (Guwisguwi - blue eyes and 1/8 Cherokee) seized control determined not to yield any more of the Cherokee homeland while introducing major cultural changes. With a unity made possible by the departure of the more traditional Cherokee to Arkansas, in less than 30 years the Cherokee underwent the most remarkable adaptation to white culture of any Native American people.

By 1817 the clan system of government had been replaced by an elected tribal council. A new capital was established at New Echota in 1825, and a written constitution modeled after that of the United States was added two years later.

Many Cherokee became prosperous farmers with comfortable houses, beautiful cultivated fields, and large herds of livestock. Christian missionaries arrived by invitation, and Sequoia invented an alphabet that gave them a written language and overnight made most of the Cherokee literate. They published a newspaper, established a court system, and built schools.

An inventory of Cherokee property in 1826 revealed: 1,560 black slaves. 22,000 cattle, 7,600 horses, 46,000 swine, 2,500 sheep, 762 looms, 2,488 spinning wheels, 172 wagons, 2,942 plows, 10 sawmills, 31 grist mills, 62 blacksmith shops, 8 cotton machines, 18 schools, and 18 ferries. Although the poor Cherokee still lived in simple log cabins, Chief John Ross had a $10,000 house designed by a Philadelphia architect. In fact, many Cherokee were more prosperous and 'civilized' than their increasingly envious white neighbors.