The Old Settlers

How did missionaries help preserve Native Americans?

Many Native Americans from the Five Civilized Tribes moved west of the Mississippi River to preserve their tribes from annihilation and assimilation.  Among the Cherokee those who went voluntarily to modern Arkansas were called the Old Settlers.

Their story was shaped by other nations

Some Osage were already as far west as Kansas when French explorers encountered them in 1673.  However most lived east of the Mississippi River in the Ohio River valley.

The French claimed a large amount of land west of the Mississippi River in 1680 as New France.  They primarily were interested in trade with the Native Americans and built future settlements near navigable rivers that facilitated that trade.

In 1690, most of the Osage were pushed out of their eastern homeland by the Iroquois Confederacy as a result of the Beaver Wars.  So, they moved from the Ohio River valley into New France – west of the Mississippi River.

The Osage and their allies then began pushing other tribes out of the area or subjugating them until they effectively controlled most of the land between the Missouri River to the north and the Red River to the south.  This was effectively the southern half of the Missouri, almost all of Arkansas, the northern half of the Louisiana along with the eastern half of Kansas and Oklahoma.

The Osage lived in the woodlands in the eastern part of this land most of the year but would go into the Great Plains to the west to hunt buffalo each year.  The French did nothing to prevent the Osage from continuing their hostile takeover as long as they remained reliable trading partners with the French.

The Cherokee joined a coalition of other tribes to fight against the British in 1715.  They lost the Yamasee War in 1717 and signed a peace treaty, but many of the British colonists of South Carolina still wanted revenge.

So, in 1721, a group of Cherokee moved west of the Mississippi River to be out of the land claimed by the British.  When they entered New France they found the French to be only interested in trade, but they soon had trouble with the Osage.

So, they moved west until they were out of the territory controlled by the Osage.  They finally settled at the base of the Rocky Mountains where they could hunt buffalo part of the year and forest game at other times.  This set the pattern that would be adopted by the Old Settlers.

The Spanish were unable to stop the Osage from oppressing other tribes after France ceded New France (Louisiana) to them in 1762 when it became known as Spanish Louisiana.  They had to continue trading with the Osage - who had effectively gained control of the entire fur trade.

In 1776, the entire Cherokee Nation led by Chief Attakullakulla and War Chief Oconostota began fighting against the Americans as allies with the British.  They mostly attacked frontier towns in the Overmountain region in the First Cherokee-American War.

After the Americans destroyed many of the Cherokee towns, Chief Attakullakulla and Chief Oconostota sued for peace.  However, the son of Chief Attakullakulla, Chief Dragging Canoe, wanted to continue to fight the Americans.

So, Chief Dragging Canoe led the other Cherokee who wanted to continue fighting the Americans in moving away from the main group of Cherokee to form eleven new towns.  This group became known as the Chickamauga Cherokee due to the location of these towns. 

Chief Dragging Canoe became the first Principal Chief of the Chickamauga Cherokee.  Chief Doublehead, Chief Tahlonteeskee, Chief Di’wali (John Watts Bowles aka The Bowl), and Chief Young Tassel (John Watts) were also among his followers.

The Chickamauga Cherokee and British armies were unexpectedly beaten by a much smaller force of Americans at the battle of Kings Mountain in South Carolina on October 7, 1780.  This caused some of the Chickamauga Cherokee to realize that the Americans might win the Revolutionary War.

This led to the arrival of first of the Old Settlers.

These Chickamauga Cherokee feared that the Americans might seek to destroy them after the war for continuing to ally with the British when the rest of the Cherokee had made peace.  They decided to move outside the land that would be controlled by the Americans.

So, they crossed the Mississippi River into the area claimed by the Spanish between the Arkansas River on the south and the White River on the north.  They were the first of the Old Settlers.  The Spanish officially accepted their arrival as a means to help curtail Osage dominance of the fur trade in 1782.

Also in 1782, the Americans destroyed most of the Chickamauga Cherokee towns – which had continued their war against the Americans.  Chief Dragging Canoe led the remaining Chickamauga Cherokee in establishing five new towns further downstream – making them even more isolated from the rest of the Cherokee.

When the Americans won the Revolutionary War in 1783, the First Cherokee-American War ended as well.  Most in the Cherokee Nation could see the futility in going to war with the Americans and followed the advice of Chief Old Tassel.

However, Chief Dragging Canoe met with the Spanish in Pensacola in Spanish Florida to ask for arms to resume fighting against the Americans.  The Spanish were all too glad to let the Cherokee act as their proxies and gave him the supplies.

However, Chief Dragging Canoe could only get the five remaining Chickamauga Cherokee towns to join him when he began the Second Cherokee-American War that year.  These towns then moved even further away from the rest of the Cherokee Nation.  (These were also called the Lower Towns due to being lower in elevation than the rest of the Cherokee towns.)

Chief Dragging Canoe was joined by Chief Doublehead, Chief Di’wali, Chief Tahlonteeskee, Chief Takatoka, and Chief Tsulawi (Fox).  Soon, other Cherokee from the main group that favored war joined him as well.

In 1788, Cherokee who had been allied with the British contacted the governor of Spanish Louisiana to request permission to settle in Spanish territory west of the Mississippi River.  Permission was granted and more Cherokee moved to form towns near the earliest Old Settlers.

That same year, Chief Old Tassel was killed in an act of treachery by an American Army officer.  So Chief Young Tassel joined Chief Dragging Canoe in fighting the Second Cherokee-American War.

In 1792, Chief Dragging Canoe suddenly died - perhaps of a heart attack.  Chief Young Tassel became the second Principal Chief of the Chickamauga Cherokee.

1n 1794, the Second Cherokee-American war came to an end with the Treaty of Tellico Blockhouse.  At this point, Chief Doublehead began advocating that the Cherokee acculturate into American society to be able to compete with European-Americans.

Chief Doublehead then began organizing the Cherokee into a nation with a government similar to the British - with a hereditary king and house of hereditary lords.  He became the first Speaker of the Cherokee National Council.  Chief Little Turkey became the first Principal Chief of the Cherokee.

That same year, another group of Cherokee led by Chief Di’wali fled up the Saint Francis River after some of them had killed six European-Americans.  Among them was Dutch Williams (Tatsi aka Tachee) the young son of Chief Shyugo.  The main body of the Cherokee condemned their actions while negotiating a peace treaty with the United States.

They were later acquitted of committing any crime by the United States because they were acting in self-defense. Still, they were angry over being condemned previously by their own tribe and refused to return to the main body of the Cherokee.  This grew the number of Old Settlers.

In 1800, Spain sold Spanish Louisiana back to France. The French took over trade with the Old Settlers. They did nothing to stop the Osage from their oppression of other tribes.

In 1801, Little Turkey was killed in an act of treachery by Americans and Chief Black Fox (Enola) became the next Principal Chief of the Cherokee.

The next year, President Jefferson had made a deal with the state of Georgia to remove all Native Americans out of it -which were mostly Cherokee.  Chief Young Tassel died that year, and Chief Doublehead became the next Principal Chief of the Chickamauga Cherokee.

France then sold the Louisiana Purchase to the United States in 1803.

The Old Settlers were no longer outside the boundaries claimed by the Americans.  Also the Americans had never acknowledged the right of the Osage to control the area that they had taken over.

After learning that they were now in land claimed by the United States, the Cherokee that had settled near the Rocky Mountains moved south into Spanish Texas near the hill country of Texas.  This allowed them to continue to live in the manner that the Cherokee had lived in for many years.

There were about 5,500 Osage in the main Osage homeland located in the northern half of the land they controlled when Louis & Clark encountered them in 1804.  Shortly afterwards 2,000 of those died from a smallpox epidemic.

That year, President Jefferson got Congress to begin efforts to move all Native Americans west of the Mississippi River.  Major Return J. Meigs Jr. was sent as the agent of the US to negotiate deals to get the Cherokee to cede land east of the Mississippi River to the US.

In 1805, Chief Doublehead negotiated a treaty to cede large tracts of Cherokee lands to the United States - without the consent of the rest of Cherokee National Council.  The treaty had provisions to give him and Chief Tahlonteeskee private land of great value.

The Cherokee National Council were outraged that the deal had been made without their approval and declared Chief Doublehead a traitor.  However Principle Chief Black Fox confirmed it after accepting a sizable bribe.

In 1806 the United States sent a delegation to negotiate a treaty with the Osage that Lewis & Clark had encountered.  The Osage had been raiding other tribes for years and were doing the same to the European-American settlements inside the territory they had controlled for over a hundred years.

The United States did not have the military presence there to stop these raids, so they supplied the tribes that were being raided by the Osage with supplies and weapons in 1807.  The Osage soon found that they no longer could effectively raid formerly defenseless tribes, who were now seeking revenge for past raids using their newly acquired firearms.

Also that year, Chief Doublehead was assassinated.  He had not appointed a successor, so the Chickamauga Cherokee had no Principal Chief to unite them.

Some of his Chickamauga Cherokee supporters decided to make peace with the main group of Cherokee east of the Mississippi River and be part of it.  Others began moving across the Mississippi River to modern Northeast Arkansas.

Soon after that, some of them moved from there to the northern banks of the Red River in modern Southwest Arkansas to be even farther from the reach of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River.  They were concerned about being assassinated like Chief Doublehead.

In 1808, the Osage Treaty was signed where those Osage gave up their claim to rule over the land between the Missouri River on the north, the Arkansas River on the south and everything east of the Fort Clark Line on the west (an invisible line that ran north to south between the rivers though Fort Clark).  In exchange, the US government would stop supplying the tribes that wanted to retaliate against the Osage with weapons.

Many of the Osage and their allies lived far away from the main part of the Osage tribe as renegades. They had not personally agreed to give up their control over other tribes in this region and did not consider themselves bound by the terms of the treaty. 

Other tribes in the area did not hunt anywhere without the permission of the Osage during this time and these renegades wanted this to continue. However, the Old Settlers simply hunted wherever they wanted.  When these renegade Osage complained about Cherokee hunting along the White River later that year, it did not cause any concern to the US government due to the Osage Treaty.

So later in 1808, the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River were offered all of the land bound by the Arkansas River on the south, the Mississippi River on the east, the White River on the north, in exchange for their lands east of the Mississippi River.  However, the western boundary was undefined.

So, a delegation of Cherokee went to scout out the land and found it very favorable for their way of life.  They could see that it was inevitable that the Cherokee would be forced across the Mississippi River and wanted to obtain the best land possible.

Also that year, fifteen-year-old Sam Houston ran away to live with Chief John Jolly (Ahuludegi) in Tennessee after the death of his father.  Chief John Jolly adopted him under the laws of the Cherokee as his son and gave him the name “Ka’lanu” (The Raven).

In 1809, a large portion of the Cherokee agreed to move to the Cherokee Reserve that included about two-thirds of the northern half of modern Arkansas and a small portion of southern Missouri.  Chief Tahlonteeskee came as well to escape assassination.

Chief Tahlonteeskee soon began organizing The Old Settlers near the Mississippi River into a government more like the one that Chief Doublehead had envisioned with elected leaders.  Chief Di’wali was elected as the first Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation (West) that governed these Old Settlers.

By 1810, other groups led by Chief Tsulawi also relocated to the area of New Madrid in the bootheel of modern Missouri and built new towns there that had the same names as their old towns east of the Mississippi River.  They also built farms similar to those of European-Americans in line with the plan of acculturation that Chief Doublehead had advocated.

They soon became part of the Old Settlers as well.  So, the Old Settlers were mostly composed of former Chickamauga Cherokee.

This led to Chief Black Fox becoming Principal Chief only of the Cherokee Nation (East).  Hoping to keep the Cherokee from destroying each other, he had the Cherokee National Council passed a law to end the Cherokee tradition of clan revenge that had brought about the death of Chief Doublehead.  It had also led to many of the Chickamauga Cherokee becoming Old Settlers.

Chief Black Fox died the next year.  Chief Pathkiller became the next Principal Chief of The Cherokee Nation (East).

Then the New Madrid earthquakes began in December 1811.

In 1812 Sam Houston returned home and became a school master to pay off his debts while being further educated by a Presbyterian minister.  This marked his return to religion of his mother and his Presbyterian Reverend uncle that he was named after.

The New Madrid earthquakes continued until November 1812 destroying the Cherokee towns near the White River and Saint Francis River in modern Northeast Arkansas and the bootheel of modern Missouri.  The Cherokee prophet Skawuaw (The Swan) told the Cherokee there that this was punishment for adopting European customs and interacting with Europeans.

As a result, most of the Old Settlers moved west to isolate themselves from the Europeans.  Some established new settlements along the Arkansas River valley between present day Little Rock and Lee Creek.  They soon began moving upstream along Lee Creek to hunt deer and beavers for the fur trade.

Those that settled along Lee Creek soon settled northward in the area of Natural Dam.  Others soon proceeded to settle all the way to the source of Lee Creek near modern West Fork.  After that Cherokee settled along the banks of the White River near modern Fayetteville.

This led to the Osage - Cherokee War.

So, by 1813 the Cherokee were farming and hunting in modern Northwest Arkansas (NWA).  Within a few years, some of them moved to the northernmost of the southern banks of the White River - barely across the southern border of modern Missouri.  At this time, Chief Takatoka became the next Principal Chief of the Cherokee West.

However, the western boundary of the Cherokee Reserve had never been established.  It could not go west of the Fort Osage Line, but that had not been surveyed in modern Arkansas at this time.  It also could not go east of the westernmost point of the White River.

So, neither the Osage nor the Cherokee knew where the invisible line separating their territories was located.  So, when the Cherokee followed Lee Creek upstream, they crossed the Fort Osage Line into modern Oklahoma before crossing it again to the area around Natural Dam. In like manner, the Osage crossed over this invisible line into the Cherokee Reserve.

So that year the Osage began attacking the Cherokee in modern Northwest Arkansas and the Cherokee were soon retaliating.  During these attacks, the Osage wife of Dutch Williams was killed, and he spent most of the rest of his life avenging her by killing every Osage that he could find according to his obituary.

According to the US agent to the Cherokee William Lovely these conflicts were being stoked by European-Americans of the worst character that had illegally moved into the area.  After promising to remove the squatters, Major Lovely was able to negotiate a truce between the Osage and the Cherokee.

However, it did not last long and soon the two tribes were back to fighting.  The situation was made worse by Chief Di’wali who had moved to join other Old Settlers along the Red River – well outside of the Cherokee Reserve.

This was also land outside of that defined by the Osage Treaty and inside the territory that the Osage had dominated between the Arkansas River and Red River.  Soon after, the Osage there were at war with the Cherokee there as well.

By this time, Charles Renatus (“born again”) Hicks, who was second chief under his half-brother Chief Pathkiller, became the de facto head of the Cherokee Nation (East) due to his education.  He had recently come into the House of Truth and began advocating for missionaries to start schools to educate the Cherokee while telling them about the Man of Truth (Yah'shau aka Yeshua HaMashiach aka Jesus).  He knew that they needed the Light of the Five Civilized Tribes in order to survive.

That same year Sam Houston joined the United States army as a Sergeant.  He soon moved up in the ranks and became the protégé of General Andrew Jackson.

In 1814, Chief John Jolly and Sam Houston were among the Cherokee who fought under General Andrew Jackson against the British and their allies the Muskogee (Creek) nation at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.  Chief John Rogers also led a battalion of Cherokee under General Jackson with the rank of Captain.

Sam Houston was badly wounded from an arrow that went into his thigh and returned home to see his mother before he died.  However, he recovered completely – contrary to every expectation of the doctors.

Also, among the Cherokee that fought under General Andrew Jackson was Chief John Looney – the nephew of Chief Black Fox.  He was wounded by a gunshot to his left shoulder blade in the Battle of Emuckfaw and discharged from the army.

In 1815, Chief John Looney made agreement with the US government to start a reservation near Creek Path where his uncle Chief Black Fox was buried in modern northeast Alabama.  The boundaries of the Looney Reservation were never clearly defined nor surveyed.

By 1816, the Osage-Cherokee War got much worse in modern Northwest Arkansas and spread into modern Northeast Oklahoma.  The Cherokee began invading Osage territory in retaliation for the Osage invading the Cherokee Reserve.

So, Major Lovely met with the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation -West, Chief Tahlonteeskee, and the Osage chief to put an end to the conflict.  Major Lovely offered to pay the Osage for the land between the White River in modern Northwest Arkansas and the Verdigris River in modern Northeast Oklahoma in what became known as Lovely’s Purchase – without authorization from the US government.

(Major Lovely called modern Northwest Arkansas “the garden of the world” due to how beautiful and fertile it was.  It is still evident today that this was not just something he said to convince the Cherokee to live there.)

The Osage would live west of it, and the Cherokee would live east of it, but could hunt there, until the boundaries were clearly marked.  The Osage were in bad need of money to pay off debts they had accumulated in fighting the Cherokee, so they agreed to the sale.

Both tribes agreed to end their hostilities as part of the treaty, but peace was short lived.  This was due to the boundary of the area south of the Arkansas River inside the purchase being invisible lines that were not marked in any way.

The Cherokee and the Osage both accused each other of invading their territory.  Soon, the Osage were back to raiding the Cherokee and their allies.

So, the some of the Old Settlers moved across the Red River to be outside of the territory that the Osage claimed.  Some of them then moved west across the invisible line that separated Spanish Texas from the United States.

In 1817, Major Lovely died.

Major Lovely had no friends among the European- American squatters at his death but was friends with Chief Tahlonteeskee.  President Monroe granted the request of his widow to live among the Cherokee in Lovely’s Purchase so she could be far away from the European-American squatters.

Soon the Cherokee launched an attack on an Osage village at Claremore Mound along with their allies the Shawnee and the Delaware, while the Osage warriors were far away on a buffalo hunt during the Strawberry Moon.  They sought revenge by treating the Osage as the Osage had treated them.

The Cherokees and their allies killed the eighty men who were there with the loss of only one Delaware warrior.  They took about a hundred women and children captive back to the Cherokee Reserve.

To force the Cherokee into another truce with the Osage, the US government refused to give the annual payment to the Cherokee that it had been part of the deal for moving across the Mississippi River.  The reason given was that even though as many as 5,500 had moved from the East, none of the land claimed by the Cherokee in the East had been ceded to the US.

(However. the Cherokee Nation -West counted only about 3,500 Cherokee that had moved.  This discrepancy was caused by the US government counting how many had agreed to move to the Cherokee Reserve and Chief Tahlontiskee counting those who actually were part of the Cherokee Nation (West) that lived there.  The rest lived outside of the Cherokee Reserve.)

So, the Old Settlers were offered land where they lived in modern Northwest Arkansas in exchange for two large tracts in Tennessee and Georgia that they had already vacated.  However the Cherokee Nation (East) was opposed to the Jackson & McMinn treaty and demanded that the US government force the Old Settlers to move back to their vacated lands.

The Old Settlers feared retaliation if they moved back, so they signed the treaty for the land swap that Summer.  This gave them clear title to all of modern Northwest Arkansas.

The Cherokee Nation (West) had asked to be recognized as a separate and distinct nation from the Cherokee Nation (East) during the treaty negotiations.  However, they only got the United States to agree to have two separate censuses so that the Cherokee Nation (East) would have no control over the annual annuity payments to the Cherokee Nation (West).

On December 25, 1817, the US government began establishing Fort Smith in order to use the US military to enforce peace between the two tribes. The military also forced out the European-Americans who had settled illegally in the lands promised to Native Americans.

Also in 1817, Sergeant Sam Houston was promoted to Lieutenant and appointed by General Andrew Jackson as his sub-agent to help persuade the Cherokee to move to the Cherokee Reserve west of the Mississippi River.  He met with Chief John Jolly, and it took little effort to convince his adopted father that this was the wisest thing to do.

So Chief John Jolly, Chief John Rogers, and a number of other Cherokee east of the Mississippi River agreed to a land swap if they were given equal size plots of land in the Cherokee Reserve.  They were also given sixteen riverboats, seventy days of supplies plus rifles as part of the deal.

When they arrived, his brother Chief Tahlonteeskee had just been elected as the third Principle Chief of the Cherokee Nation (West).  The government of the Cherokee Nation (West) was reorganized to better deal with fighting the Osage and Chief Takatoka became the War Chief responsible for conducting the war.

That same year, the Unified Foreign Missionary Society was formed in New York City to bring the Gospel to Native Americans west of the Mississippi River.

In 1818, a truce was signed by the Osage and Cherokee Nation (West) in Saint Louis, Missouri, that gave official recognition of Lovely’s Purchase.  The Cherokee also had to return their Osage captives.  However, it was not long before retaliatory raids resumed.

So, Chief Di’wali moved the rest of the Cherokee in Osage territory across the Red River to join the Old Settlers who had remained in the Arkansas District south of the Red River.  He then led the Old Settlers there in moving to modern Northeast Texas to be inside Spanish Texas – with the permission of the Spanish – so they would be outside the jurisdiction of the US government.

Also that year, Lieutenant Sam Houston was reprimanded for wearing Cherokee clothing while negotiating with Cherokee to move west of the Mississippi River by Secretary of War John C. Calhoun.  Sam Houston was so angry over the incident that he resigned from the US Army.

During these negotiations, Chief Tahlonteeskee visited the recently opened Brainerd Mission near modern Chattanooga, Tennessee where he met Cephas Washburn.  He asked Cyrus Kingsbury to send a request to the American Board of Foreign Missions to open a similar mission with a school in the Cherokee Reserve to aid the Cherokee Nation (West) in their acculturation efforts.

Then in 1819 Missouri Territory was split and Arkansas Territory was established .

The Arkansaw District of Missouri Territory became Arkansas Territory.  It included all of modern Arkansas plus all of modern Oklahoma except for the panhandle.  This included all of the Cherokee Reserve, Lovely’s Purchase, and all of the Osage controlled land west of the Verdigris River.

Soon, European-American settlers began moving into Arkansas Territory.  Like those driven out by the military before, they had no respect for the rule of law and began settling illegally in the Cherokee Reserve.

A few settled there legally like William Larrimore - who encountered Natural Dam on the Mountain Fork of Lee Creek while hunting.  He soon built a small gristmill there with the permission of the Cherokee Nation (West) since they needed a gristmill in the area.

William Larrimore then started a church camp in that area.  Soon, families from as much as fifty miles away came to attend weeklong meetings with services that lasted well into the night while waiting for their grain to be ground into flour.

Many of the Cherokee who came there to have their grain ground into flour came to the church camp as well.  Soon, a small town called Natural Dam consisting of Cherokee and European-Americans sprung up there.  The tradition of intermarriage between the two groups continued there as well.

In the Spring of 1819, Chief Tahlonteeskee died and his brother Chief John Jolly was elected as the next principal chief of the Cherokee Nation (West).  Chief John Jolly then continued the efforts of his brother to have a mission with a school created for the Old Settlers.

Also that year, the Unified Foreign Missionary Society sent Epaphras Chapman and Job Vinall into Arkansas Territory to find a suitable location to establish a mission to the Osage.  Job Vinall died during the arduous journey.  However,  Epaphras Chapman gained permission from the Osage to build the mission on the Neosho (Grand) River twenty-five miles upstream from where it emptied into the Arkansas River.

In 1820, Cephas Washburn was sent to establish the mission and school that Chief John Jolly had requested.  It was name Dwight Presbyterian Mission after Reverend Timothy Dwight – President of Yale – who convinced the American Board of Foreign Missions to grant the request of Chief Tahlonteeskee and Chief John Jolly.

It was built on the Illinois Bayou near modern Russellville, Arkansas on the site selected by Chief John Jolly.  It began as a single double-room cabin – where Cephas Washburn lived in one room and taught classes in the other.

Also that year, Epaphras Chapman and a number of other missionary families arrived in Arkansas Territory.  The women and children remained in Little Rock while the men proceeded to the chosen site for the mission to the Osage that they named Union Mission.

In 1821, women and children sent by Unified Foreign Missionary Society arrived at the site to help in completing Union Mission.  The mission and its school were opened that fall, but the Osage had little interest in the education that the mission offered.

In 1822, General Edmund Gaines negotiated a treaty with the Cherokee and Osage to end the war.  Both of them would share hunting rights south of the Arkansas River and west of Fort Smith.  If any member of either tribe committed an act of war against the other, then they were to be handed over to the US army for a military trial.

William Dutch was outraged by the treaty that the Cherokee Nation (West) had signed .  He almost immediately resumed the war by killing the first Osage that he found despite the presence of a US Army peace keeping force.  Chief John Jolly declared him an outlaw as a result and the US Army placed a $500 bounty on his head.

However, Chief Takatoka was also unhappy with treaty and soon led some of the Old Settlers in joining William Dutch.  William Dutch and his followers created a town where the Kiamichi River flowed into the Red River.  They continued to raid the Osage from there.

Chief John Jolly and the rest of the Cherokee Nation (West) passed a law to end the Cherokee tradition of clan revenge.  He had been convinced by his close friend Cephas Washburn that this tradition would cause the Cherokee Nation (West) to become divided just as it had caused the Cherokee Nation to become divided into two different nations.

In 1823, Chief John Looney moved with his family to join the Old Settlers as part of the Cherokee Nation (West).  Soon, European-American squatters forced out the Cherokee from the Looney Reservation and took it over.

When Chief John Looney appealed to have the squatters removed, the US government refused.  The agreement he had made required him to remain on the Looney Reservation to oversee it, but he had violated that agreement when he left.

In 1824, Arkansas Territory was reduced in size.

All of the land in modern Oklahoma that was west of an invisible line was removed from it to make way for Indian Territory.  This invisible line was 40 miles west of the southwest corner of Missouri and ran north to south from the border of modern Kansas to the Red River

By this time, Dwight Presbyterian Mission campus had grown into a small town with at least twenty-four buildings.  This included a post office and a pharmacy.

Union Mission finally had a few Osage move near it that wanted their children to be educated by this time.  They taught these first Osage students skills necessary to thrive in a rapidly changing world as well as the teachings of the Man of Truth.

That year, the United States built Fort Gibson at the confluence of the Grand River and the Arkansas River to keep the Osage from launching attacks against the Cherokee and other tribes.  It also built Fort Towson at the settlement that William Dutch had established.  Fort Smith was abandoned with those stationed there being transferred to these newer forts.

William Dutch showed his defiance by killing and scalping an Osage within sight of the Fort Towson.  However, Chief Takatoka could see that instigating a war with the US would be disastrous.

So, Chief Takatoka met with the chiefs of other tribes that the Osage were still raiding with a proposal to form an alliance to force the Osage to cease their raids - or be destroyed.  He got the approval for the plan from William Clark (half of Lewis & Clark) but died on the way to Washington D. C. to get support for his plan.

At the same time, William Dutch led his followers into what was by then Mexican Texas - where the US Army could not go - to join Chief Di’wali.  He then continued to make raids against the Osage near the Red River and crossing back into Mexican Texas - before the US Army could capture or kill his warriors.

In order to deal with these changes, the Cherokee Nation (West) reorganized its government in 1824.  Chief John Jolly became President of the Cherokee Nation (West) instead of Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation (West).

That year Piney was founded near the Barren Fork of the Illinois River about two miles from modern Arkansas.  It became the new capital of the Cherokee Nation (West) in Arkansas Territory.

Also that year, Sequoyah moved to Mount Sequoia near modern Fayetteville, Arkansas to join the Old Settlers.  He brought his Cherokee writing system with him and began teaching it to the Cherokee Nation (West).

The Cherokee-Osage war came to an official end in 1825.

The war had been very costly for the Osage in terms of both finances and people.  There was continual Cherokee immigration into the Cherokee Reserve and Lovely’s Purchase while the war had greatly diminished the Osage population.

The Osage had also become heavily indebted to both other Native American tribes and European-Americans who had sold them weapons and other supplies.  Their creditors were no longer willing to sell them the supplies needed to continue their war until they paid off their debts.

The Osage could see that continuation of the war with the Cherokee would eventually destroy their tribe.  So, the Osage leaders signed the Osage Treaty of 1825.

The Osage ceded all of the remaining land that they had controlled to the United States except for the Osage Diminished Reserve in modern southern Kansas.  This strip of land started 25 miles west of the modern Missouri border and continued westward for another 150 miles.  It went from the southern border of modern Kansas to fifty miles north of the border.

In exchange, the United States paid off all of their debts and gave an annual per person annuity to the tribe.  The Osage no longer would be in contact with the Cherokee and would be able to rebuild their tribe.  This brought an official end to the Cherokee-Osage war.

However, Osage renegades continued to attack other tribes in the western land that had been removed from Arkansas Territory.  William Dutch continued leading raids across the Red River to kill these Osage.

Also some Osage simply did not move with the rest of the tribe to the Diminished Osage Reserve, so Epaphras Chapman built a satellite school named Hopefield four miles upstream to reach even more of the Osage.  He died of a fever there, but the school managed to remain open.

The official end of the Osage-Cherokee War brought about more changes.

In 1826, the rest of the land in modern Oklahoma was removed from Arkansas Territory.  This was done to ensure a place where Native Americans could live apart from European-Americans in most of Lovely’s Purchase.

There were still many Osage that had settled close to Union Mission.  The school enrollment had reached thirty students by this time.

However, the American Board of Foreign Missions absorbed the Unified Foreign Missionary Society in 1826.  It then took control of the missions to the Osage that the Unified Foreign Missionary Society had started.

In 1827, the Arkansas Territory legislature made all of Lovely’s Purchase into Lovely County – without approval of the federal government.  This was an attempt to force the Cherokee out of it and to move European-Americans into it, so it would be part of the future state of Arkansas.

Also that year, Chief Pathkiller died as the last hereditary Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation (East) and his half-brother Charles Renatus Hicks replaced him.  However, he died two weeks later, and his brother William Hicks was named interim Principal Chief while the Cherokee Nation (East) reorganized into a three-part republic modeled after the United States government.

In 1828, the Treaty of Washington was signed by a delegation sent by the Cherokee Nation (West).  In it, they agreed to trade the eastern part of Lovely’s Purchase in Arkansas Territory for the Cherokee Outlet that would give them access to buffalo hunting in the Great Plains.

The signers, including Sequoyah and John Rogers, were given bribes as well.  They did not return to their homes in Arkansas Territory but relocated to Indian Territory.

They had been instructed to not sell any of the land in Arkansas Territory.  The Cherokee Nation (West) planned on beheading them when they returned home for making the land trade.

As a result, Lovely County was broken into smaller counties in Arkansas Territory and all of Lovely’s Purchase in modern Oklahoma remained in the hands of the Cherokee Nation (West).

All of the European-American squatters in the western part of Lovely’s Purchase were given land in the eastern part that remained as part of Arkansas Territory.  All of the Native Americans in the eastern part of Lovely’s Purchase (modern Northwest Arkansas) were required to move into the western part in Indian Territory (modern Northeast Oklahoma) and were given some basic supplies to make the move.

However, Osage renegades were still attacking the Cherokee in the western part of Lovely’s Purchase in violation of the peace treaty that had officially ended the war.  Also, it was evident that the Cherokee Nation (East) would be forced to move there as well – who also sought to kill the Cherokee Nation (West) for their land sales to the US government.

So, many members of the Cherokee Nation (West) simply did not move to Indian Territory.  Many had intermarried with European-Americans whose families hid them.  Others moved deeper into the rugged Boston Mountains that made their capture very difficult.

For example, the area of Natural Dam had become mostly populated by families with children that had both Cherokee and European-American ancestry.  They were not cooperating with the efforts of the federal government to split and scatter their families.

(It was not just the Cherokee but also other Native American tribes in the area as well.  For example, the man who used to rent canoes to me in Ponca, Arkansas was a full blood Native American of the Ponca tribe whose ancestors had never moved to Indian Territory.)

So, in 1828, the Cherokee Nation (West) was forced to move to Indian Territory.

So, the Dwight Presbyterian Mission in Arkansas was abandoned as the missionaries there led by Cephas Washburn moved with the Old Settlers.  It became known as the Old Dwight Presbyterian Mission.

Also, that year the Presbyterians started the Mulberry Mission in Arkansas Territory.  However, the treaty caused the larger part of its students to move to Indian Territory since they were part of the Cherokee Nation (West).

That same year, the Cherokee Nation (East) had finished reorganizing its new government.  It elected Chief John Ross as their new Principle Chief – who was very much against the Old Settlers.

Chief John Jolly then had the government of the Cherokee Nation (West) reorganized to be like that of the Cherokee Nation (East).  He was once again Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation (West) instead of President.

He then founded a new town in Indian Territory as the new capital of the Cherokee Nation (West).  He named it “Tahlonteeskee” after his brother Chief Tahlonteeskee.

In 1829, after a scandalous divorce that forced him to resign as the governor of Tennessee, Sam Houston made a calamitous journey to visit Chief John Jolly.  He was met with open arms like a prodigal son returning home.

Chief John Jolly gave thanks to the Father of Truth (YHVH aka God aka THE LORD), who he referred to as the Great Spirit, for bringing Sam Houston back to him at that time.  He told Sam Houston that the Old Settlers were in serious trouble and they needed his help.

Sam Houston was given papers that showed that he was formally a member of the Cherokee Nation (West).  He then left to negotiate better terms for the Cherokee Nation with President Andrew Jackson.

That same year the New Dwight Presbyterian Mission was built in Indian Territory near present Marble City, Oklahoma as once again a single double-room cabin.  Cephas Washburn was determined to continue to serve the Old Settlers in educating their children and teaching the teachings of the Man of Truth as Chief John Jolly had requested.

Cephas Washburn convinced Chief John Jolly that the delegation that had signed the Treaty of Washington the previous year had made a wise choice in trading land they were certain to lose in Arkansas Territory for a larger parcel of land in Indian Territory that would give the Cherokee Nation (West) access to buffalo hunting.  So, the Cherokee Nation (West) repealed the death sentence that had been passed on the delegation.

Sequoyah soon moved nearby as a result.  He sought to continue to contribute to the education of the Cherokee Nation (West).

A mission school that had just opened the previous year in Mulberry in Arkansas Territory also relocated to Fairfield in Indian Territory.  The Presbyterians were committed to serving their Cherokee Nation (West) congregation.

By this time, Fort Towson was no longer needed to curtail fighting between renegade Osage and renegade Cherokee.  So, it was closed and the troops were moved to Fort Jessup in Louisiana.

Then the Indian Removal Act was passed by a single vote in 1830.

By this time, the New Dwight Presbyterian Mission was once again boarding students.  The process of expansion to better serve the Cherokee Nation (West) continued until the campus was once again a small town complete with a post office and pharmacy.

Since many of the Old Settlers successfully avoided immigration to Indian Territory, there was still a need for a mission to serve them in Arkansas.  Cephas Washburn continued to make trips to preach to them in Northwest Arkansas.

The Presbyterians also started a new school at Forks of Illinois not far from the border of Arkansas Territory in 1830.  It provided a place to teach practical skills and the teachings of the Man of Truth to the Cherokee Nation (West) that had settled near there.  It also provided a place for sending teachers and preachers to the Old Settlers who had remained in Northwest Arkansas.

Also, Union Mission had grown to educating eighty Osage students by this time.  It set up a satellite school called Boudinot in the Diminished Osage Reserve at the request of the Osage in 1830.

Chief John Rogers also began operating a salts work near present Salina, Oklahoma that year.

Also, Sam Houston returned that year after identifying many corrupt Indian agents and pressing for valid land titles for the Cherokee Nation (West).  He then married Diana Rogers Allen – a Cherokee whose husband had been killed by the Osage.  They soon opened a trading post near Fort Gibson.

In 1831, Union Mission set up another satellite school among the Muskogee (Creek) Nation to the west at their request.  It was established by Abraham Redfield.

Also around this time, the United States army resumed a military presence in the town of Fort Smith that had grown up around the abandoned military post.  It became a place to mediate disputes between members of the Five Civilized Tribes that had began arriving in Indian Territory.

In 1832, Chief John Jolly negotiated a pardon for William Dutch.  William Dutch then accepted the offer to move to Indian Territory to help Chief John Jolly in future negotiations on behalf of the Cherokee Nation (West).

That same year, President Andrew Jackson sent Sam Houston to Mexican Texas to negotiate a treaty with the Commanche.  His wife remained in Indian Territory.

At the same time, Fort Gibson was enlarged and many more soldiers were sent there.  This was done in preparation of the Great Removal that would soon flood Indian Territory with Native Americans from many tribes.

That year, the boundary lines of Cherokee Outlet were finally surveyed, and it was discovered that both Union Mission and Hopefield were inside the territory of the Cherokee Nation (West).  The Cherokee Nation (West) allowed the Osage children to continue being educated there as long as Cherokee children were allowed to attend as well.

By this time, Union Mission had grown into a small town complete with a blacksmith shop, sawmill, and grist mill.  It served as a way station for travelers as well.

Also in 1832, a group of twenty-eight Cherokee in Tinsawattee, Georgia that saw that self-removal was better than the inevitable forced removal.  They took the incentive offered by the US government to move to the Cherokee lands in Indian Territory.

They settled in Piney – the former capital of the Cherokee Nation (West) capital.  They were accompanied by Pastor Duncan O’Bryant who opened New Hope Mission nearby to educate their children in necessary skills and the teachings of the Man of Truth.

In 1833, Sam Houston returned to Fort Gibson to get his wife.  She refused to leave the Cherokee Nation (West), so he moved to Mexican Texas to get a new start without her.

In 1834, Duncan O’Bryant went on a short mission trip to reach other Native Americans in Indian Territory further west.  He died of the same bilious fever that had killed so many European-Americans near the Great Plains.  (The Native Americans in the area were rarely affected by it – either they had built up immunity to it or had some sort of medicine to cure it quickly.)

In 1835, Samuel Worchester left Tennessee to help the Old Settlers prepare for the inevitable of arrival of the Cherokee Nation (East).  On the journey, he lost most of his household goods in a steamer accident and his wife almost died from a fever.

When Samuel Worchester arrived at the New Dwight Presbyterian Mission, he aided it in teaching and preaching to the Old Settlers.  He began working on printing the Book of Truth (The Bible) and other literature in the Cherokee language there just as he had aided Sequoyah previously among the Cherokee Nation (East).

That same year, Chief Stan Waite, one of the signers of the New Echota Treaty, joined the Old Settlers in Indian Territory.

In 1836 Arkansas Territory became the state of Arkansas.

That year Samuel Worchester moved to Union Mission to help with teaching the Cherokee there.  However, American Board of Foreign Missions decided that it was not successful enough, so they closed it.  Nonetheless, Osage and Cherokee Children of Truth continued to live there in peace and harmony.

The Presbyterian Mission school at Forks of Illinois was relocated to Park Hill that year as well. So Samuel Worchester moved to Park Hill to help with the mission school there.  He continued to prepare for the arrival of the Cherokee Nation (East) that he believed was inevitable by setting up his Cherokee printing operation again there.

Also, the New Hope Mission closed that year since there was no one left to run it effectively.  However, the school that Duncan O’Bryant had set up for the Cherokee in Piney remained open with his family teaching there.

In 1837, Chief Major Ridge and his family moved to Indian Territory and settled at Honey Creek near modern Grove, Oklahoma.  Six months later they were joined by his son John Ridge, and his cousin Eliot Boudinot. 

These signers of the New Echota Treaty allied themselves with the Cherokee Nation (West).  They could help with future negotiations with the Cherokee Nation (East) and US government.

Not long after that, Chief Joseph Vann led a group of several hundred Cherokee to Indian Territory instead of being forcibly removed by the US government.  He became second chief of the Cherokee Nation (West) under Chief John Jolly when Chief Black Coat died.

The Osage renegade raids came to an end with the smallpox pandemic of 1837-1838 that devastated Native Americans and European-Americans alike.  This forced the entire Osage tribe to permanently end their raids and live in the Osage Diminished Reserve.

Also in 1838, Chief John Jolly died.  Chief John Looney was elected as the next Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation (West).

The US Army strengthened and expanded the military post at Fort Smith to house a larger force than before in preparation for the arrival of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory.  It became the entry point to Indian Territory for the Cherokee Nation (East) when it walked the Trail of Tears.

The work of the Old Settlers was done.

The Old Settlers had prepared the land of the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory for the arrival of the Cherokee Nation (East).  The Osage were no longer a threat, and towns had been built there that had everything needed for the Cherokee Nation (East) to thrive.

The Old Settlers had paved the way for peace by bringing in missions that taught them the teachings of the Man of Truth.  They had worked with these missions to create an education system that would help the Cherokee compete better with European-Americans when the rest of the tribe arrived in Indian Territory.

The Children of Truth that operated these missions also had resumed the publishing of news and other literature in the Cherokee language in Indian Territory.  They had suffered many hardships to help the Old Settlers in preparing Indian Territory as a place to preserve the Cherokee as well as other tribes.

The Children of Truth did what they could to keep Native Americans from becoming extinct or disappearing as a distinct ethnic group through assimilation.  They knew that the Man of Truth is the Hope of the Almodadi.

The Man of Truth is your hope as well.

All who put their trust in the Man of Truth have reason to hope in the glory of the Father of Truth – no matter what hardship they are going through (Romans 5:1-5).  Our hope of glory is the Man of Truth living in us – just like it was for the Old Settlers that the Children of Truth preached to (Colossians 1:27-29).

Everyone needs to have their understanding enlightened so that they know the hope and the glory of coming into the House of Truth (Ephesians 1:17-18).  Like the Old Settlers, everyone is without hope and without the Father of Truth until they are brought near to Him by the blood of the Man of Truth (Ephesians 2:12-13).

Like missionaries who brought the Good News to the Old Settlers, someone has been sent to tell you that you can be saved (Romans 10:13-15).  You can also have the comfort and hope that is found in the Book of Truth (Romans 15:4).

The Word of Truth will save you if you make the Man of Truth king of your life because you believe the Father of Truth raised him from the dead (Romans 10:8-10).  That Word of Truth will cause you to have hope in the Father of Truth when the Spirit of Truth (Ruach HaQodesh aka The Holy Spirit aka The Holy Ghost) helps you to obey it after you have been born again like Chief Charles Renatus Hicks (1 Peter 1:21-23).

Come into the House of Truth!