NOVEMBER 18:

1994 Quebec government officially shelves Hydro Quebec's $13.3-billion Great Whale powerdam project after lobbying by Quebec Crees and a softening of the US power market.

In 1978, California congressman Leo J. Ryan and four other people were killed in Jonestown, Guyana, by members of the People's Temple; the killings were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide by 912 cult members.

Standard time, invented by Sir Sandford Fleming, was adopted in Canada 118 years ago today, in 1883. The rest of the world adopted Fleming's system at an international conference in Washington in 1884

November 18, 1785:  Today Principal Cherokee Chief Old Tassel, and many other Cherokee arrived at Hopewell to discuss a treaty with the United States.

November 18, 1805:  Clark meets Chinook Indians.

November 18, 864: The Great Ballcourt at Chichen Itza is dedicated by the Maya.
 

BACKGROUND:

Words Spoken:  Old Tassel, Cherokee

"Many proposals have been made to us to adopt your laws, your religion, your manners and your customs. We would be better pleased with beholding the good effects of these doctrines in your own practices, than with hearing you talk about them".

"You say, for example, "Why do not the Indians till the ground and live as we do?" May we not ask with equal propriety, "Why do not the white people hunt and live as we do?"
 
 

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>From http://www.cherokeehistory.com/
 

The end of the Revolutionary War brought an end to British aid, however, a new European power was anxious to expand its claims in North American -- the Spanish. With France and England out of the way, Spain began to encourage the Chickamaugas to continue their raids on the colonists. Not much encouragement was needed, however, because settlers were continuing to flood across treaty boundaries onto Cherokee land.

Old Tassel had assumed responsibilities of chief upon the deaths of Attacullakulla in 1780 and Oconostota in 1782. A new era was beginning for the Cherokee. The Cherokee had a new nation to contend with -- the United States.  Old Tassel's first order of business was another futile attempt to stop the intrusions onto Cherokee land.
 

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Note:  This meeting on November 18, 1785 led up to the The Treaty Of New Echota, which was the first  first treaty between the United States and the Cherokee and which was signed at Hopewell on November 28, 1785.  It has been said that this was considered less a "treaty" than a concession by the Cherokee, whose protests about white settlers on land that was supposedly under their ownership were basically ignored.

(See http://gamma.rwu.edu/users/wbm/educ365/mdm/text/govtactions.html)