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The first Constitution of the Cherokee Nation, was formed by a Convention of Delegates from the several districts, at New Echota, July, 1827.

1827, Cherokee Constitution

The Treaty of New Echota was a treaty signed on December 29, 1835, in New Echota, Georgia by officials of the United States government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction, the Treaty Party. The treaty established terms under which the entire Cherokee Nation ceded its territory in the southeast and agreed to move west to the Indian Territory. Although the treaty was not approved by the Cherokee National Council nor signed by Principal Chief John Ross, it was amended and ratified by the U.S. Senate in March 1836, and became the legal basis for the forcible removal known as the Trail of Tears.

1835, Treaty Of New Echota

October 1839, a new constitution for the Cherokee nation was drafted and adopted. John Ross was elected principal chief, and a convention of Old Settlers meeting at Fort Gibson in 1840 approved the constitution.

1839, Act Of Union

No tribe has the right to sell, even to each other, much less to strangers. Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth! Didn’t the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children? Tecumseh, Shawnee

About The Land

In World War I, the Cherokee “code talkers” were the first known use of Native Americans in the American military to transmit messages under fire, and they continued to serve in this unique capacity for the rest of the war. Historians say it is impossible to know how many Allies’ lives were saved thanks to the Cherokee and other native code talkers in both Word War I and World War II. According to research conducted by the Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian, more than 12,000 American Indians served in World War I– about 25 percent of the male American Indian population at that time.

Cherokee Code Talkers

Rumors throughout the Carolina backcountry during the frontier war of the American Revolution, claim British Indian agent Alexander Cameron is inciting Cherokee warriors to attack frontier settlers as a way of restoring British rule. Cameron had sent letters warning settlers of impending Cherokee attacks, but the letters backfire. Torn between his responsibility as a father, honor to his king, loyalty to the Cherokees and duty to his conscience, Cameron sinks deeper into turmoil, as he realizes his noble attempts to save innocent women and children have become his undoing. Cameron, on the run from militiamen hell-bent on his capture, fled his plantation near present Abbeville, S.C., moved deeper into the Indian country, and took up residence with his ally Dragging Canoe who also struggled to overcome repression in his quest for freedom.

Cherokee War Of 1776, Allies

The treaty of 1835 established terms under which the entire Cherokee Nation ceded its territory in the southeast and agreed to move west to the Indian Territory. Although the treaty was not approved by the Cherokee National Council nor signed by Principal Chief John Ross, it was amended and ratified by the U.S. Senate in March 1836, and became the legal basis for the forcible removal known as the Trail of Tears.

Deed For Lost Lands

In 1861, Principal Chief John Ross tried desperately to keep the Cherokee Nation out of the white man's war. By the end of the summer a treaty was negotiated with the Confederacy. In spite of the alliance with the Confederacy, many Cherokee had no affection for the Southern States who had forced them from their homeland in the East. Ross traveled to Washington to try to convince President Lincoln that the Confederate Treaty was signed under duress and the majority of Cherokee were loyal to the Union. The National Council rescinded the Confederate Treaty and emancipated slaves in the Cherokee Nation. However, it was another year before Federal Troops effectively controlled the Cherokee Nation. The Nation was essentially a no-man's land. While thousands of Loyal Cherokee refugees were starving in Kansas, the families of the Southern Cherokee were refugees in Texas and Arkansas.

Emancipation

Native American diets and food practices have possibly changed more than any other ethnic group in the United States. Although the current diet of Native Americans may vary by tribe, and by personal traits such as age (e.g., young versus old), it closely resembles that of the U.S. white population. Their diet, however, is poorer in quality than that of the general U.S. population.

Fast Food, Then And Now

In the beginning there was no fire, and the world was cold, until the Thunders sent their lightning and put fire into the bottom of a hollow sycamore tree which grew on an island. The animals knew it was there, because they could see the smoke coming out at the top, but they could not get to it on account of the water, so they held a council to decide what to do. This was a long time ago. Every animal that could fly or swim tried to go after the fire, but they all failed. The birds, snakes, and four-footed animals, all had some excuse for not going, because they were all afraid of the fire. At last the Water Spider said she would go. So she spun a thread from her body and wove it into a tusti bowl, which she fastened on her back. Then she crossed over to the island where the fire was still burning. She put one little coal of fire into her bowl, and came back with it, and ever since we have had fire, and the Water Spider still keeps her tusti bowl.

First Fire

Dragging Canoe was a great Cherokee War Chief of the 1700’s. He defide the U.S. for over 50 years . . . and he predicted the Trail of Tears. “We had hoped that the white men would not be willing to travel beyond the mountains. Finely the whole country, which the Cherokees and their fathers have so long occupied; will be demanded, and the remnant of the Real People, once so great and formidable, will be compelled to seek refuge in some distant wilderness.”

Flight To A Distant Wilderness

Stereotypes are absorbed from popular literature, folklore, and misinformation. For instance, many children (and adults) incorrectly believe that fierce native warriors were universally fond of scalping early white settlers and soldiers. In fact, when it came to the bizarre practice of scalping, Europeans were the ones who encouraged and carried out much of the scalping that went on in the history of white/native relations in America.

French Orders For Bounty

Since the arrival of Columbus and the Europeans, the lifestyles, the cultures, the very existence, of Cherokee people have been under siege. One such Cherokee was Mary Golda Ross, the great-great granddaughter of Chief John Ross, who led the Cherokee Nation during the Trail of Tears, the tribe's forced removal from its homelands in the southeastern U.S. She worked as a teacher in Oklahoma before earning a master’s degree from Colorado State College of Education. Her love of science eventually led her to the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, a unit of the company now known as Lockheed Martin. According to Oklahoma Today, she wasn't just the first Native engineer there, she was the only woman on a team that developed important aircraft and spacecraft for the federal government.

From The Sacred Fire, To Where No Man Has Gone Before

No tribe has the right to sell, even to each other, much less to strangers. Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth! Didn’t the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?

Indian Land For Sale

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. The battle, which resulted in the defeat of US forces, was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876. It took place on June 25–26, 1876, along the Little Big Horn River in southeastern Montana Territory.

Injun' Trouble For Dummies

Like the beautiful, lone bird which lived in ancient times in the Arabian desert for 500 to 600 years and then set itself on fire, rising renewed from the ashes to start antoher long life; the Cherokee Nation and the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper arose from the ashes of the TRAIL OF TEARS, to rebuild in Indian Territory, present day Oklahoma.

Leaving New Echota

Like the beautiful, lone bird which lived in ancient times in the Arabian desert for 500 to 600 years and then set itself on fire, rising renewed from the ashes to start antoher long life; the Cherokee Nation arose from the darkest period in time , (known today as the TRAIL OF TEARS), to rebuild a great nation in Oklahoma.

Out Of The Darkness

 

 

In Cherokee mythology, Selu was the First Woman and goddess of the corn. (Her name literally means "maize" or "corn" in the Cherokee language.) Selu was killed by her twin sons, who feared her power; but with her dying instructions she taught them to plant and farm corn, so that her spirit was resurrected with each harvest.

Selu

 

Cherokees! The President of the United States has sent me, with a powerful army, to cause you, in obedience to the Treaty of 1835, to join that part of your people who are already established in prosperity, on the other side of the Mississippi. Unhappily, the two years which were allowed for the purpose, you have suffered to pass away without following, and without making any preparation to follow, and now, or by the time that this solemn address shall reach your distant settlements, the emigration must be commenced in haste, but, I hope, without disorder. I have no power, by granting a farther delay, to correct the error that you have committed. The full moon of May is already on the wane, and before another shall have passed away, every Cherokee man, woman and child, in those States, must be in motion to join their brethren in the far West. General Winfield Scott

Time Of The Trail Walkers

Much of the U.S. Constitution came to reflect the First Americans ideas, but did not include them until the 20th. Century, resulting in the loss of lives and removal of many tribes from their homelands.

We The People (May 2016)

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Ordering And Contact Information

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2019 - Designed by John G Matthews in cooperation with Ron Mitchell