Deep Ruts the Wagons Made

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One The Cherokee

Chapter Two Poncas

Chapter Three Other Tribes Including Chief Seattle’s Speech

Chapter Four Nez Perce (Nee-Me-Poo)

Chapter Five Powhatan

Chapter Six Navaho

Chapter Seven Apache

Chapter Eight Southern Cheyenne

Chapter Nine Northern Cheyenne

Chapter Ten Sioux

Epilogue

American Indian Tribes (Some Now Extinct)

Casualties A T The Little Big Horn

Bibliography

The Indians are gone the land left dry

To a reservation they were sent to die

Forlorn faces snatched from their lands

Spirit broken as greed took hold

And their birthplace lost for the sake of gold.

Hugging trees, crying in the earth

The sound of wailing all around could be heard

Beautiful people beautiful souls

Ripped from the heart of mother earth

For what reason was this sanity caused.

Cheyenne, Cherokee, Apache and Creek

Poncas, Nez Perce, Seminole many more to see

Sent on a trail starved and abused

Bayonets pointed if an Indian refused

To leave his land, his home, his soul.

The land of the free this American soil

Was founded on blood of Indian tribes

Many forgotten as numbers reduced

By countless wars, treaties broken

As they tried to make their peace

Broken hearts and broken dreams

On Reservations they still live

But in their hearts they hold a dream

One day they’ll walk again their lands Free.

Barbara Le-Fevre-Author

In memory of my father Gwilym Joseph Smith (1915-1986) who shared with me his love of history.

For the happy memories I shared with my husband Warren Dale Smith who was part Cherokee.

September 1954-August2003

Prologue

There were numerous tribes scattered all across the United States long before they were discovered by foreigners "The white man. The period of the Indians was long when they lived within the confinement of the lands they called home. These lands that they cherished, their beliefs they cherished. They were one with the almighty one and free for hundreds of years but in a blink of an eye, they lost it all. They were hunted and annihilated ridiculed and persecuted. They were a race indifferent to us but they were a race the foreigners on their lands didn’t want and by what ever means possible they meant to disperse these people from their homes and take from them everything they owned and they did just that.

When Christopher Columbus born 1451 the son of Domenio Columbus stepped ashore on American soil on the 12th October 1492 everything changed for the Indians. By the time De Sota and Ponce De Leon arrived searching for gold and slaves many an Indian had died at their hands. At this time there were supposedly some 10 million Indians inhabiting the land but after three centuries this number was reduced by 90%. The English arrived then the French and the Dutch every Sovereign wanted a piece of the land to claim as their own and the Indians succumbed to diseases imported by the whites.

Famine and warfare were directed at them as the white people pushed them further and further away from their own lands so they could claim and prosper by them.

Before 1600 there were about one million Indians who lived north of the Rio Grande speaking some 2,000 languages but most of these languages are dead now. These people lived mainly of the land growing maize, fishing and hunting to feed their people. When the Europeans arrived that all changed and destruction quickly followed as these intruders wanting what the Indians had and what was on their lands.

In New England the tribes were hit by diseases brought by the white men which wiped out thousands. The Indian people were cheated by the Quakers, disgraced by the Iroquois and defeated by the Dutch in the Esopus wars of 1660. They never stood a chance against these people and hundred’s of years later they still didn’t stand a chance.

By 1840 all the Eastern tribes, those that had survived annihilation were forcibly removed to Indian territory west of the Mississippi.

There are no words which could compensate for the suffering over the years of these people, the Native Americans, the Indians. These people who were pushed and shoved all over the United States, starved and murdered, beaten and humiliated but they are growing stronger. They are reclaiming their heritage and people are listening. To many lies were told, to many treaties broken. Many of the tribes who lived in the United States before their exodus to Indian Lands or their extinction can be found at the back of this book. This list may not fully represent all the tribes which inhabited the land over the period. There are many long forgotten names of tribes who were completely obliterated over the years when peace was hard to come by. The tribes listed though do represent a vast majority of the Indians living in the United States during the period before the white man caused some of them to be extinct.

There were many tales of greed throughout the period. Many of the tribes included in this book suffered harshly at the hands of soldiers. The same soldiers the Government had sent to protect them, when in fact, all they did was abuse them for their own ends and for greed and in some cases glory.

The subject of the Native American Indian has always been a touchy one. At times they have been overlooked. At times they have been portrayed as the savages, We have found out over the years that this was not so in many cases. A large injustice was dealt to these people. The real history of these people like many other events has been swept under the American carpet so it is easier to forget whose lands you now live on. Whose blood lies dried in the earth. Whose bones are scattered, some not in peace as even in death some archeologist is looking for artifact’s, they do not care if the ground is sacred or not. The Indians paid their price to live upon this earth, let their spirits go free.

Hard to believe, not really considering the record of the white settlers and the forcible removal of the Indians from their lands especially when Gold was found. Eyes lit up, greed set in and murder began.

Yes their story has been written before and it probably will be again for there is a never ending quest for truth and justice for these people, the real first Americans who we seem to overlook at times, for they are the indigenous people.

Barbara Le-Fevre-Author

Chapter One

THE CHEROKEE

It is believed the first Cherokee village in Georgia was established in the vicinity of Travelers Rest, Tugaloo Old Town around 1450.

In 1540 when Desoto and his men came across the Cherokee people on the Tennessee River they were supposedly the first whites ever seen by these Indians although the Spanish Pardo and Moyana wrote there was a wide range of colors in the tribe of black and fair skin people. In the southeastern United States the European epidemics which were introduced to the Indians by the expedition led by Desoto, killed an estimated 75% of them at that time.

By the year 1629 English traders had come into contact with the Cherokee people in the Appalachians. Before they arrived the Cherokee people were called Tsalagi from their own name for the Cherokee nation (Tsalagihi Ayili). The name Cherokee deriving from a Creek word Chelokee which meant, people of a different speech. The Cherokee originally called themselves Aniyunwiya (or Anniyaya) principal people or the Keetoowah (or Anikituaghi, Anikituhwagi) people of Kituhwa.

There were so many different names for the Cherokee’s by other tribes. Allegheny or Allegewi, Talligewi (Delaware). Baniatho (Arapaho), Caaxi or Cayaki (Osage and Kansa), Chalaque (Spanish), Chilukki, dog people (Choctaw and Chickasaw). Entarironnen, mountain people, (Huron), Gotohua’ (Creek), Kittuwa or Katowa (Algonquins), Matera or Manteran, coming out of the ground (Catawba), Nation du Chien (French), Ochietarironnon (Wyandot), Oyatageronon or Oyaudah, Uwatayoronon, cave people (Iroquois), Shanaki (Caddo), Shannakiak (Fox) Tcaike (Tonkawa) and Tcerokieco (Wichita). The primary language of the Cherokee was Iroquoian but it differs from any other Iroquoian language. The Cherokee’s were the only Iroquoian speaking members of the Five Civilized Tribes of the Southeast United States.

By 1674 their population was estimated at about 50,000 but when the smallpox epidemics raged through the territory in the years 1729, 1738, and 1753 the numbers were reduced again. Between 1689 and 1763 the Cherokee’s were allies (also the Chickasaw’s) with the British in their war against the French and Spanish. When the South Carolina army was fighting the Tuscarora’s in 1713 some 300 Cherokee warriors aided Colonel James Moore in this battle. Some of the lower Cherokee’s joined the Yamasee in the uprising against the Carolinas in 1715.

When a treaty was signed In 1721 it is thought to be the first land cession by the Cherokee allowing them to trade and establish a boundary between the Cherokee people and the British settlements. The British valued their friendship with the Cherokee people even though at times they doubted their loyalty.

In 1725 they sent envoy Colonel George Chicken to regulate their trading and to ascertain that the Cherokee were not thinking of becoming allies with the French. When Sir Alexander Cumming visited the major Cherokee towns he convinced them to select one chief to represent themselves with the British. Oconostata was the chief warrior but Attacullukulla after his visit to England in 1730 had great power in the tribe. When the 1743 treaty was signed at Charleston SC, the Cherokee made peace with their enemy the Catawba and promised to trade only with the British. Two years later the Cherokee also made peace with the Wyandot tribe.

In 1754 the Cherokee’s signed another treaty with the British allowing forts to be built to defend the colonies. They also confirmed their alliance to the British even though the British still were not sure if they were sympathetic towards the French. The Battle of Taliwa in 1755 between the Creeks and the Cherokee’s led to the death of Cherokee leader Kingfisher. His wife Nancy Nany Hi picked up her dead husbands weapon and chanting a Cherokee war song she led her people to victory against the Creeks. She was honored with the title Beloved Woman of Chota for bravery shown against the Creeks. She was also a spokesperson for the Cherokee Nation.

Congress couldn’t stop no more than the British, the frontiersmen from entering Indian lands for the white’s despised the Indian people and wanted their lands, she said.

Nancy’s mother was Tame Dover the sister of principal chief Attakullakulla. Nancy was born in 1738. After her husbands death she married Indian trader Bryant Brian Ward". She died in 1822 in Tennessee.

By 1758 the Cherokee and white settlers were at loggerhead and again another treaty was drawn up. As one hundred Cherokee’s accompanied an expedition against the Ohio Shawnee they lost their provisions whilst crossing a river and then found themselves abandoned by their white allies. Angry at the treatment shown them they took some horses belonging to the Virginians and were immediately set upon. Some twenty Cherokee’s were killed and the Virginians scalped and mutilated their bodies. Later they collected bounties for the scalps taken from the Cherokee’s.

Governor Lyttleton blamed the French rather that the Virginians for the murder and raised an army of 1,000 and marched to the lower settlements of the Cherokee’s and peace was settled. When Littleton left the Cherokee’s were furious and thus began the lead up to the Cherokee war (1760-1762).

By this time warriors of the Cherokee nation carried out retaliating raids against settlements.

Attacullakulla and Oconostota tried to talk with Governor William Lyttleton which resulted in some 30 chiefs from the Cherokee Nation being locked up in Fort George and the price of their freedom Attacullakulla was told was 24 of his warriors to be executed by the British. The Cherokee’s then attacked Fort Prince George in February 1760 trying to free the hostages and killed the forts Commander. Attacullakulla managed to free Oconostata but the others he couldn’t. When a new Commander was elected his first order was to execute the hostages and the war then expanded. The Indians then rose up and attacked the fort with the British retaliating as they burnt towns and cut down the corn and trees as they marched across Cherokee lands. Settlers were massacred at Long Canes and a military unit was attacked near Broad River. For Attacullakulla it was an eye for an eye not only for the destruction of his lands but for the massacre of his people under a flag of truce at Fort George.

Lyttleton urged Lord Jeffrey Am hurst, the British commander in North America (who despised the Indians) to bring in reinforcements. With the French now defeated the whole of the British army was available for the war against the Cherokee’s.

In May Amherst sent 1,200 highlanders and Royals under the command of Colonel Montgomery and stated no male prisoners just spare the women and children. They burnt several abandoned lower Cherokee towns and Montgomery pushing further into Cherokee territory was ambushed and defeated.

Fort Loudin in Eastern Tennessee fell during August after a long siege and the garrison massacred. In 1761 Colonel Montgomery was replaced by Colonel James Grant because of his incompetence.

The Cherokee’s wanted peace even after all that had befallen them but Lord Jeffrey Amhurst who was no friend to the Indians just wanted blood. He condemned the Cherokee’s as vile. All Attacullakulla pleas were ignored. Colonel James Grant said enough rage had been shown against the Indians, this war had gone on long enough but no amount of negotiations by Attacullakulla helped resolve the impending wars which beheld him and his people over the years. With the help of Catawba scouts in June of that year and with an army of 2,600 men Grant captured 15 middle Cherokee towns destroyed the food needed by them for the coming winter months and drove some 5,000 refugees, half the Cherokee Nation into the mountains. Faced now with starvation the Cherokee’s signed a treaty with South Carolina in September which ceded their eastern lands in the Carolina’s.

An officer in the army at that time wrote, Burning some of the Indians cabins the men seemed to enjoy. They laughed as the cruel flames licked the wood but to me it was a disgrace. We came according to orders to cut down fields of corn. I could scarcely refrain from tears, who wouldn’t show grief as the stately stalks with green leaves, the staff of life, sink now under our swords.

Little Carpenter (Attacullakulla) met with Governor William Bull in September of 1761 trying to negotiate for peace and it took him three months for the treaty to be signed. He spoke on behalf of the Cherokee people saying:

Before I came here last a great deal of blood was spilled but now it is wiped away. I leave these feathers as a token that no more blood will be spilt by us and I hope neither by you.

So ending another cruel and needless war. A treaty was signed between the Cherokee and Virginia in November and the Cherokee kept their part of the treaty.

So many great chiefs are long forgotten. Chief Cunne Shote (Standing Turkey) who paid a visit to England in 1762. Chief Ostenaco when he returned from England after visiting with King George 111 told his people the number of warriors and people of all one color far exceeds what we thought possible. Attacullakulla also visited England in 1730 with others chiefs, Onanconoa, Skalilosken, Ketagustah, Tathtowe, Clogoittah and Oukah Ulah to enter into the Articles of Friendship. King George signed a royal proclamation in 1763 setting a boundary line between the whites and the Indians along the Appalachian Mountain chain and it remains today the basis for the Indian reservations and land claims.

The Treaty of Hard Labor was negotiated between the British and the Cherokees for new boundaries in 1768. There were surprisingly many treaties made with the Cherokees. The Lochaber Treaty 1770. The Augusta Treaty of 1773 where 2 million acres of the Cherokee’s land was sold to pay for debts to white traders (some debts these must of been). The treaties were really about bribery and extortion from the Cherokee people. Watonga Treaty 1774 and the Sycamore Shoals Treaty 1775 were only a few of numerous treaties made with the Cherokee people over many years but the worse part was these two treaties above were about land not belonging to the Cherokee’s which they sold to the Transylvania Land Company (Henderson Purchase).

The Cherokee’s accepted the white men when they m arried i nto their Nation and their children became full members not half breeds. Wealth was not important to these people as long as they had the land and enough food they were satisfied but to the white man more wasn’t enough They always needed more. How different the white people were from the Indians. If only they had taken a leaf out of the Indians book they may have saved themselves some respect for the injustice shown towards these tribes.

The great being gave us this land but the white people seem to want to drive us from it. Attacullakulla-Cherokee Chief 1769.

In the late part of the 1700’s Onitositai, a great Cherokee spokesman gave a speech which was the greatest speech any Indian ever gave.

When we entered into treaties with our brothers the whites their whole cry was for more land. Indeed it seemed to be a matter of formality with them to see that their demands were made and we dare not refuse. Let us examine your present irruption into our country and we shall discover your pretension. What did you do? You came into our territories with a superior force than ours. You outnumbered us making us flee into the woods for protection against you so that our woman and children were safe. You killed defenseless people, spread fire and desolation whenever it pleased you and then returned to your own countries. Your law did not cover this country. Indeed many changes were made in what you termed Civilization amongst my people as so many proposals you made for us to adopt, your laws, your religion, your manners and customs. But we do not see the practicability of such a reformation against us. You said, Why do not the Indians till the grounds and live as the whites do? We may well ask you, Why do not the white man hunt and live as we do?"

We want peace with you, we do not quarrel with you for killing the buffalo, our bears or deer on our land when you need food but it is not enough for you. Your people hunt to gain a livelihood by it, they kill our game and our young warriors resent this so then war begins again against us.

The great God honored us with the animals on our lands and he did