Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/386

378 CHEROKEES county of Kansas, bounded E. by Missouri and S. by the Indian territory ; area, 604 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 11,038. The Neosho river skirts the S. W. boundary, and it is watered by Spring river, Lightning creek, and other affluents of the Neosho. The Missouri River, Fort Scott, and Gulf railroad passes through it. The chief productions in 1870 were 54,792 bushels of wheat, 291,916 of Indian corn, 68,059 of oats, 25,603 of potatoes, and 18,883 tons of hay. There were 3,561 horses, 3,002 milch cows, 8,078 other cattle, 2,064 sheep, and 5,791 swine. Capital, Columbus. CHEROKEES, a tribe of North American In- dians, called by themselves Tsaraghee, who when first known by the whites, and down to 1830, occupied the upper valley of the Tennes- see river, the mountains and valleys of the Alleghany range, and the head waters of the Savannah and Flint. They form a family by themselves, connected perhaps remotely with the Iroquois. According to their own tradi- tions, they came from the west earlier than the Muskogees, and dispossessed a moon-eyed people unable to see by day. They were reached by De Soto in 1540, but from their in- terior position came very slightly into contact with the Spanish, English, or French for many years after the settlements began. They con- sist of seven families or clans, and, as among the Iroquois, no man can marry in his own clan. From their position they were also di- vided into two sections separated by the Great Unaka or Smoky mountains, viz. : Otari, the mountain, and Erati, below. They lived in small villages scattered along the streams. The western portion were often at war with tribes at the north, as the middle and lower towns were with the Muskogees. The Carolinians who shipped Indian slaves to the West Indies encouraged the tribes near them to attack those more remote, and in 1693 twenty Cherokees complained to Gov. Smith, and asked protection against the Esaus, Congarees, and Savannahs, who had destroyed many of their towns and carried off numbers of their people. Gov. Archdale stopped the practice entirely. In 1716 a party of the western Cherokees killed several French officers near the mouth of the Ohio, after which Louisiana endeavored ear- nestly to win their friendship; but they ad- hered to the English, serving against the Tus- caroras under Capt. Barnewall in 1712. A chief named Wousatasate received formal in- vestiture from Gov. Nicholson in 1721. They formally submitted to the English king in 1730, when Sir Alexander Cuming was sent to them, and subsequently took six chiefs to England. A few years after a French agent among them named Preber compiled a dictionary and en- deavored to win them to Frant,V but he was seized and carried to Georgia. n^Two years afterward the Cherokees lost nearry half their population by smallpox. This and wars so di- minished their numbers that many of their 64 towns were abandoned. In 1755 they ceded lands to Gov. Glen, and allowed the erection of English forts on their lands. In 1757 their warriors volunteered to protect the frontiers, and they joined the expedition against the French on the Ohio. On their home march, unprovided by the authorities with rations, and with no harvest in their own fields, they took provisions from the settlers. This led to skir- mishes, in which a number of Cherokees were killed. They retaliated, and Gov. Lyttleton marched into their country and imposed terms of peace. But hostilities having been renewed, Montgomery and Grant plundered and de- stroyed many towns, and the Cherokees took Fort London with its garrison. A second ex- pedition under Grant in 1761 completed their overthrow, and peace was made at Long island in the Holston. The Cherokees had made con- A Cherokee. siderable progress previous to this war, which left them without houses, cattle, horses, or im- plements. During the wars slaves had fallen into their hands, who introduced better culti- vation," and thus led to their progress in civil- ization. Their great chief Oganasdoda soon after visited England. In 1773 Georgia ob- tained from them the cession of a large tract, the proceeds to be applied to the payment of debts due to traders. At the commence- ment of the revolution, being under the in- fluence of royal agents, they joined the Eng- lish, and with the tories ravaged the frontiers till their country was invaded and laid waste by two columns under Col. Williamson and Gen. Rutherford, when they made peace, sur- rendering a large tract of land. In 1780 they again took the field and served at Augusta, but were reduced by Gen. Pickens, when Georgia forced them to give up the lands south of the Savannah and east of the Chattahoochee.