On This Long Journey

by Joseph Bruchac

  In the “Golden Age” of the western Cherokee Nation between 1839 and 1861, Jesse Smoke and his two sisters continued their education in Tahlequah. Jesse attended and then taught at the Male Seminary. Jesse indeed married Elizabeth — proving once again that when a Cherokee woman makes up her mind, nothing can stand in her way. Their wedding did not take place, however, until Jesse had finally made a journey back to the lands of the old Cherokee Nation in Georgia and Tennessee in the summer of 1843. Two years before, Jesse had joined the Masons, and was warmly welcomed into the homes of brother Masons as he traveled. When Jesse returned to Tahlequah, he brought with him his grandfather’s gun and a package the size of a book wrapped in leather. Though few spoke of it openly to outsiders, in his later years Jesse was known as both an educator and a traditional healer.

  Both of Jesse’s sisters showed themselves to be as intelligent and resourceful as their mother. After finishing seminary, Ruthie started a dress shop and also hosted regular meetings of a Tahlequah Cherokee Women’s Improvement Society, at which, among other things they would discuss books and plan how to better their community. In 1847, Ruthie married one of Jesse’s old ball-playing friends, Snake Killer. They had four children, two boys and two girls.

  Emily turned out to be a talented writer and public speaker. The American Mission Board brought her first to Boston, and then, in the years that followed, sent her on speaking tours to England and Europe. She became fluent in French and Spanish. While in Washington, D.C., she met a young man, Thomas Blacksnake, from the Seneca Nation in New York State, who was in the capital with a delegation from his people regarding land claims. The two began to correspond, and married in 1850. The home they built together on the Cattaraugus Seneca Reservation became a place of refuge for the rest of Jesse’s family during the terrible days of the Civil War. Jesse’s mother, Preacher Tsan, Ruthie, and her two daughters spent two years at the Blacksnake home in New York until the war was over. Jesse himself traveled to Washington as part of delegations led by John Ross on several occasions during and after the war. However, unlike many pro-Ross Cherokees, he did not serve in the Union army. After seeing the terrible events of 1839, Jesse vowed that he would never shed the blood of another Cherokee, and he kept that vow all his life.

  Napoleyan, Jesse’s cussed stubborn mule, lived to the age of twenty-eight. Napoleyan’s last act was to kick the veterinarian who was trying to tend him, breaking two of the man’s ribs. The old red mule then expired with what Jesse swore was a smile on his face.

  White Will, Jesse’s friend from the camps, devoted several more years of his life to the military. Inspired by his brief friendship with Jesse, he learned to read and write, and rose eventually to the rank of sergeant. After his military service ended, Will took a job at the Qualla Principal Trading Store in North Carolina, next to what finally became the Eastern Cherokee Reservation. In 1843, Will married a Cherokee woman named Betsy Fence Maker. Adopted by her family, Will learned to speak Cherokee and lived among the Cherokees, urging their seven children to always respect both the Indian and the white sides of their families. He went on to work for the Western North Carolina Railroad and was quite prosperous at the time when the Civil War broke out in 1861. During the war, Will enlisted in the Thomas Legion, which included four companies of Cherokees who had all volunteered for the South. The Thomas Legion saw little action, mostly serving as a border guard for the Confederacy along the mountain region. Will escaped the war unscathed and lived to the age of seventy-three.

  After the Civil War, Tahlequah was rebuilt. Once again, Jesse and his family enjoyed many years of peace.

  What finally happened to Jesse Smoke? No one knows for certain. After the death of his wife, Elizabeth, from influenza in the winter of 1898, Jesse told his 7 children, 36 grandchildren, and 110 great-grandchildren that the time had come for him to finally go home and climb one last mountain. He bought a train ticket east. The last his family heard of him was a letter sent to them from Nashville, Tennessee, dated July 7, 1899. “Visited the grave of Andrew Jackson,” it read. “I am pleased to report he is still dead.” Nothing further was ever heard from Jesse.

  However, his great-granddaughter, Amelia Smoke Starr, who inherited his journal, says that she has heard a story from the North Carolina Cherokees about an elderly Cherokee man in very good health who turned up in Cherokee, North Carolina, about that time. The man, who was tall and strong despite his age, knew a good deal about the old healing ways and said only that his name was Gogisgi. That man may not have been Jesse, since it is reported that he lived there for fifty more years — which would have made him over 130 years of age. Gogisgi’s death was not recorded. He simply vanished one day into the woods, following the tracks of a bear up toward Clingman’s Dome.

  In 1817, President James Monroe made a promise to the Cherokees, the largest tribe east of the Mississippi River. “As long as water flows,” Monroe said, “or grass grows upon the earth, or the sun rises to show your pathway, or you kindle your camp fires, so long shall you be protected by this Government, and never again removed from your present habitations.”

  Despite that solemn promise, only thirteen years later, Indian Removal to the western territories was in full force. The Seminoles of Florida resisted by waging guerrilla warfare. Others, including several thousand Cherokees, moved peaceably, feeling they had no choice. The bulk of the Cherokee Nation, united behind the leadership of John Ross, carried their case into the courts, as far as the U.S. Supreme Court, where a historic judgment was made favoring the Cherokees. In the end, however, the vast majority of American Indians were removed from the southeast. In addition to the 17,000 Cherokees, as many as 65,000 other Indians were forced to leave. They were sent west on the bitter road the Cherokees call Nunda’utsun’yi, “the Place Where the People Cried,” or “the Trail of Tears.” Today the tearing of nations from their homelands would be called ethnic cleansing, a crime against humanity. In 1830 it was called Indian Removal.

  What led to this? Why did the United States break its word with these Native nations? To understand, we must look back in history.

  The Cherokees, by the nineteenth century, had long been acquainted with white men. Their first European contact was in 1540 with the Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto, who found the Cherokee living in large, well-organized towns. They called themselves Ani-yunwiya, “the Principal People.” Cherokee, the name Europeans gave them, probably comes from the Creek word jilagi, which means, “Those of a Different Speech.” The Cherokees, respected as the largest and most powerful of the southern tribes, controlled much of present-day Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, northeastern Alabama, western North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Virginia. Europeans settled around their lands and traded with them.

  The growth of English settlements eventually brought them into conflict with the Cherokees, who kept out most white settlers until the mid-1750s. The French and Indian War, from 1756 to 1763, deeply impacted the Cherokees. At first, they supported the English against the French. Then the murder of several Cherokee chiefs by the English led to a war with the British. Cherokee towns in South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia were wiped out. At least 5,000 Cherokees died. Much of their territory was ceded to the English. By 1775, the Cherokees had lost all of Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

  During the American Revolution, most Cherokees sided with the British. Fifty Cherokee towns were destroyed, and more land was taken. In October 1794, the Peace Treaty of Tellico Blockhouse, signed by Chief Bloody Fellow, ended all warfare between the Cherokees and the United States. Cherokee lands were less than one quarter their former size.

  During the War of 1812, many Cherokees fought on the side of the United States against the British. In 1814, Cherokee volunteers led by General Andrew Jackson were the deciding factor in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend against the Red Stick Creeks, saving Jackson’s army and reputation. Among the Cherokee fighters were three men whose names woul
d become famous: Sequoyah, John Ross, and Major Ridge.

  By 1800, two choices lay before the Cherokees. One was to migrate west. Some favored that choice and moved to Missouri. The second option was to remain Indian at heart and maintain tribal governments and languages, but outwardly adopt European culture. The Cherokees and their neighbors did this so well that they became known as “the Five Civilized Tribes.” Their clothing, their homes and plantations, and even the ability of many Indians to speak and write in English matched their white neighbors. Because many whites had been adopted and married Cherokees, some “mixed-blood” Cherokees were now physically indistinguishable from non-Indians. Wealthier Cherokees even owned African slaves to work their large plantations. The Cherokee Nation changed its government from loosely allied towns to a National Council with eight electoral districts. New Echota in Georgia became the capital of the Cherokee Nation.

  In 1821, Sequoyah, after twenty-two years of work, presented to the Council a syllabary, an alphabet of eightysix symbols. Cherokees quickly learned to read and write their own language. By 1828, they had their own printing press and were publishing books and their own newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix, in English and in Cherokee. In 1822, a Cherokee Supreme Court was established. In 1827, the Cherokees adopted a constitution modeled on that of the United States Constitution. John Ross, a brilliant politician deeply loyal to his people, though only one-eighth Cherokee, was elected Principal Chief.

  Despite their advances in civilization, powerful forces still opposed the Cherokees. The loudest voice demanding Cherokee Removal was the state of Georgia. In 1802, Georgia gave up its western territories (which became Alabama) in exchange for the promise that all Indians in Georgia would be removed. After gold was discovered on Cherokee lands in Georgia in 1829, Georgia threatened to secede from the Union if the Indians were not removed.

  Another powerful enemy of the Cherokees was the very general under whom they had served in 1814. In 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States on a platform of Indian Removal. In 1830, Jackson’s Indian Removal Bill was passed by one vote in Congress.

  Cherokee Removal divided opinion in the United States. Many spoke against it, including former President John Quincy Adams. The Cherokees themselves had made a law that any Cherokee selling land would be punished by death. In 1807, Chief Doublehead was executed for leasing land to white settlers. Led by John Ross, the Cherokees refused to accept a cash settlement for their land or agree to their removal. Such Christian ministers as Evan Jones, Daniel Butrick, Elizur Butler, and Samuel A. Worcester, who had established Cherokee Mission Schools, campaigned on behalf of their Indian friends. The Cherokees stayed on their own lands for another eight years, the last of the southeastern tribes to remain.

  Two voices against Removal were Major Ridge and a Cherokee once known as Gallegina Watie, who changed his name to Elias Boudinot to honor a New England theologian. Major Ridge, the old warrior of Horseshoe Bend, was among those who executed Chief Doublehead. Elias Boudinot had spent many years in Mission Schools in New England. As editor of the Cherokee Phoenix, he wrote ringing editorials defending Cherokee sovereignty.

  Then, on December 29, 1835, a tragic event occurred. Though not legally empowered, Major Ridge, Elias Boudinot, and eighteen other Cherokee men signed a paper agreeing to Cherokee Removal — the infamous Treaty of New Echota. Some said they were bribed. Others say they saw no hope of getting a better deal. John Ross and the elected representatives were too stubborn to give in. Someone had to act for the good of the people. Whatever their reasons, these twenty had no right to do what they did. The result was the Trail of Tears.

  The Cherokees and their many friends protested. They presented a petition signed by 15,665 Cherokees opposing the Treaty of New Echota. General John E. Wool, assigned to supervise Cherokee Removal, was so disturbed by the injustice that he resigned his commission in 1837.

  General Winfield Scott, the man who followed Wool, admired the Cherokees but followed his orders. The final roundup of those who refused removal came on May 26, 1838, when 7,380 troops swept out of the night to roust the Cherokees from their homes. There was little resistance. Within three weeks, 15,000 Cherokees were crowded into thirty-one stockades in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina. From there they were concentrated into eleven concentration camps in Alabama and Tennessee. Conditions in these camps were terrible. Inadequate sanitation, poor shelter, meager food, and illtreatment took their toll. Thousands died there.

  Not only Cherokees were imprisoned. The camps also held white men and women married to Cherokees and any African-American slaves held by the Indians. The Cherokees, represented eloquently by John Ross, petitioned General Scott to delay removal until the fall. There was a terrible drought that spring and summer. Three parties sent west in June by boat had great difficulty. The rivers were too low for boats to pass. There was no drinking water along the route. Many became sick and died.

  Scott agreed to suspend emigrations until fall. Then he did something that raised a howl of protest from former President Jackson. General Scott gave the Cherokees permission to direct their own Removal. Funds were allotted from the reimbursement monies provided in the Treaty of New Echota. Lewis Ross, John Ross’s brother, bought horses and wagons and provided supplies at depots along the way. On August 23, 1838, the first of thirteen Cherokee detachments set out. They traveled north through Tennessee and Kentucky, crossed the Ohio River into Illinois, ferried the Mississippi River into Missouri, then passed through Arkansas to Fort Gibson, in presentday northeastern Oklahoma. The distance, depending on the route, was between 800 and 1,200 miles. It had been estimated to take only eighty days.

  But heavy rains and a hard winter came early. Roads were muddy; people were weakened from the camps. In some detachments the Christian ministers, including such Cherokees as Reverend Jesse Bushyhead, refused to allow their parties to travel on Sunday. The Ohio and Mississippi filled with ice floes. Ferries could not cross. After almost four months, the first detachment reached Fort Gibson on January 4. The last arrived on March 24.

  No one knows how many perished during the journey. Official records list 447 deaths. Everyone agrees that is a very low figure. Many perished while being captured and in the camps — perhaps 2,000 or more. About 800 Cherokees, weakened by their trials, died soon after reaching the west. At least 4,000 Cherokees (and perhaps twice that many) died between 1838 and 1839 as a result of the Trail of Tears — one quarter of their nation.

  The first year in the new Cherokee Nation was one of rapid rebuilding. Reverend Jesse Bushyhead put up his church by using the beams brought all the way from Georgia and Tennessee. That church still stands to this day, a few miles outside of the present town of Westville, Oklahoma. The sign above the door reads “Old Baptist Mission Church, Brought from Georgia on the Trail of Tears in 1838.”

  The site for a new capital was chosen. Two commissioners of the Cherokee Nation met beneath a huge elm tree and declared, “Tah-le-quah,” meaning “This Place Will Do.” To this day, Tahlequah remains the capital of the Western Cherokee Nation.

  Things were not easy. The “Old Settlers,” about 4,000 Cherokees, had been there for years with their own government. The “Treaty Party” Cherokees were at odds with the “Ross Party.” Although John Ross urged his people to not carry out the death penalty for selling Cherokee land (added to their written laws in 1829), a secret meeting with representatives of all seven Cherokee clans was held behind Ross’s back. On July 22, 1839, assassins sought out the principal signers of the Treaty of New Echota. Major Ridge and his son John Ridge were the first to be killed. Then, Elias Boudinot, who had been placed in charge of dispensing medicines for the Cherokee Nation, was approached by two men, asking for medicine. As he turned to walk to the Mission station, one stabbed him with a knife, and the other struck him in the head with a tomahawk. Reverend Worcester and Elias Boudinot’s wife, Delight, heard his cries for help but arri
ved too late. Worcester immediately sent a rider to the home of Boudinot’s brother, Stand Watie, to warn him. To the later sorrow of the Cherokee Nation, Stand Watie escaped his assassins.

  Other deaths followed. Eventually, peace was restored. One of those who spoke for reunification was Sequoyah, who had moved west in 1824. A new Cherokee government was accepted with John Ross as Principal Chief. Tahlequah became a place of commerce and culture, with schools, stores, a courthouse, and seminaries for Cherokee men and women. The Cherokee Nation enjoyed three decades of peace and prosperity before the Civil War again split their nation into two warring camps. John Ross and his supporters eventually declared for the Union. Stand Watie became a Confederate general, and his troops burned Tahlequah to the ground.

  On August 1, 1866, Chief John Ross died in Washington. The Civil War was over. He was seventy-five years old and in failing health, yet he had been trying to negotiate a treaty to keep the Cherokee Nation intact. Though he did not live to see it, Ross’s final efforts were not in vain: the Western Cherokee Nation remained united.

  Not all Cherokees were taken west. In North Carolina, around 1,000 “citizen Cherokees” were allowed to remain. Refugees from other parts of the southeast joined them at what would eventually become the Eastern Cherokee Reservation in Cherokee, North Carolina. Today the Eastern Cherokees and Western Cherokees communicate regularly with each other, sharing pride in their common survival. The 208,000 people of the Western Cherokee Nation are the second largest Indian tribe in the United States.