The influence of Civial Unrest in the Cherokee Nation West on East Texas

In 1830 the Indian Removal Act squeezed through Congress. This act applied to the Five Southeastern tribes composed of Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole peoples. Following the American Revolution and War of 1812, white encroachments on tribal lands in the Southeast had resulted in gradual voluntary migrations of some native peoples west of the Mississippi. Yet the 1830 legislation required the separate tribes to begin treaty preparations for forced removal. And even though Texas was still a province of Mexico, repercussions over removal would soon be seen in Texas, particularly East and Northeast Texas. This brief essay focuses on Cherokee involvement.

From 1830 through 1842 the above tribes moved separately to what was originally known as Arkansas Territory. Formed in 1819, Arkansas Territory encompassed the present state of Arkansas. And it also extended to the western boundary of Oklahoma, with the exception of the Oklahoma Panhandle. But prior to 1830 some tribal bands had settled in present western Arkansas. Soon government treaties negotiated land exchanges for them in modern Oklahoma. Thus, those living in Arkansas relocated farther west. This included some Cherokees.

But not all Cherokees east of the Mississippi favored removal from ancestral homelands. In fact, the great majority sought legal and other means to thwart removal. Yet by 1835 it had become apparent that removal likely was inevitable. In early 1835 John Ross, principal chief of the Cherokees east of the Mississippi wrote to Joaquin Maria del Castillo y Lanzas, a high-ranking Mexican diplomat posted to the United States, concerning the possible settlement of up to 20,000 Cherokees in Texas. Moreover, Ross suggested that once Cherokee immigration to Texas had become a reality, it was likely that Creeks, Chickasaws, and Choctaws would follow. Of course, this poses a question. Had circumstances delayed the Texas Revolution for several years, would there have been a much more sizable population of Native Americans in East Texas? And if so, would that population have been large enough to prevent removal from Texas? Yet this remains only a “what if possibility. Although Ross and those opposing removal sought to delay and/or ameliorate removal, it proved largely unsuccessful. On 29 December 1835 a minority of Cherokees signed the Treaty of New Echota. This agreement ceded all Cherokee lands in the East in return for lands in northeastern Oklahoma. Delegates bearing the document rushed from the Cherokee capital at New Echota, Georgia to Washington in order to obtain ratification by the Senate. And on 1 March 1836 the Senate ratified the treaty by a one-vote margin.

Following ratification, events moved quickly toward removal. Cherokees reported, at times by force, to holding camps in Tennessee. And in the fall of 1838, thirteen overland and one river boat detachments departed Tennessee. The detachments numbered approximately 10,000 Cherokees. They arrived in the Cherokee Nation West (present northeastern Oklahoma) in late winter and early spring of 1839.

However, there already were some Cherokees in East Texas. In fact, in February, 1836 as war brewed between the Provisional Government of Texas and Mexico, General Sam Houston and Chief Bowles signed a treaty of friendship. Bowles was the leader of a small band of Cherokees in East Texas. According to the treaty, certain Cherokee claims to East Texas received recognition in exchange for a Cherokee alliance against Mexico. It seemed vital to secure Cherokee friendship. For if Native Americans sided with Mexico, different tribes could act as a fifth column. In that case, the defense of Texas could prove tenuous. Yet in the early stages of the Texas Revolution, positive reports confirming the peaceful intentions of the Cherokees reached eastern sources. On 16 November 1838 the Missouri Argus reported Native Americans had attacked set Settlers, had been living in the Cherokee Nation West for several years before 1837- 1838. As an attempt at forming a unified tribal government was being hammered out, difficulties appeared. One major stumbling block concerned the payment of United States annuities. For the faction holding most of the elected offices could dispense favors and also control a substantial sum of government money. Fearing that select leaders of the Removal Party would roadblock efforts at a unified government, the Ross faction acted. On Saturday, 22 June 1839 three teams of assassins, acting separately at three locations, murdered three leading supporters of the New Echota treaty. This sparked a civil war among the Cherokees. It also alarmed United States authorities. And it presented another dilemma. If Cherokees could not govern themselves, the federal government might have to intervene and abolish tribal sovereignty.

Moreover, the internal tribal political disturbance occurred in concert with border incidents between whites in western Arkansas and some Cherokees. The arrival of over 10,000 Cherokees had stoked fear among some Arkansans along the western border. As small outbreaks of lawlessness occurred just over the border, some Arkansans began to strengthen militia units. Although the national press exaggerated the fears, the reality of thinly garrisoned United States posts along the frontier did not help dispel anxieties. On 15 July 1839 Major-General Edmund Pendleton Gaines, commander of United States forces along the southwestern frontier, received unconfirmed reports of numerous Cherokees encamped along the Sabine River. In response, Gaines alerted commanders at Fort Towson, near modern Hugo, Oklahoma, and Fort Jesup, twenty-two miles southwest of Natchitoches, Louisiana. Such reports also had disturbed Texas authorities. Wary of potential Mexican intrigues among Texas Native American bands, President Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar of the Republic of Texas put his concerns into action. On 16 July 1839 Texas militia defeated Cherokee warriors in eastern Van Zandt County, Texas. In a running engagement, some Cherokees fled north across the Red River. Others migrated to Mexico or the United States.

There exists, however, several interesting scenarios. Fortunately, the rumors of a unified Indian attack on frontier settlements proved untrue. But had it occurred, armed conflict would have included northeastern Texas, southwestern Arkansas, and western Louisiana. And back to the “what if mentioned above. Delayed independence for Texas may have encouraged more Cherokees and other bands of Southeastern Tribes to relocate in Texas rather than Oklahoma. Yet would they have remained? There are some negative considerations. First, would the United States have approved payment of tribal annuities to bands living outside its borders, even in the Republic of Texas? And second, as more settlers from the United States began entering Texas, the issues of land ownership and tribal sovereignty likely would have resurfaced. This, in turn, may have resulted in more violence and/or tribal retreats south of the Rio Grande or other parts of the Southwest, at that time under the flag of Mexico.

–Dan B. Wimberly, Ph.D.

Sources: Robert a. Calvert and Arnoldo De Leon, The History of Texas. Arlington Heights IL: Harland Davidson, 1990.

Dan B. Wimberly, Cherokee in Controversy: The Life of Jesse Bushy head. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2017.