By D.I. Muhammad
Indigenous Marriage
As we travel to the America's, marriage was practiced differently. Where in Europe the Church now presided over marriage through priests, among these nations courtship and marriage were dealt with entirely by the clans. The two tribes I will reference , because their were so many tribes in the America's before the colonizers came, are the Chahta (Choctaw),and the Cherokee. The information I'm providing in this section deals with the Indigenous tribes before the colonizers arrived. I will also touch on how things changed after their arrival.
Both tribes were matrilineal, meaning the families descent, kinship, and inheritance were passed down through the mother's line. According to Mike Boucher,
For purposes of this article I will be using Chahta.
The Life of the Chahta
Among the Chahta courtships began with dances. The Chahta practiced biological exogamy meaning they did not marry within the clan, and marriage among males started ,
The Chahta tribes did not believe in marrying young.
The courtship would begin with the young man finding a girl he was interested in would build an alliance with her brother. Approaching the girl was not a consideration. The young man could test the young lady by one of two ways to see if she was interested. He could drop something near her such as a bracelet or other small object. If she picked it up and ran away with it, she was interested. If she picked it up and threw it or gazed at and walked away, well she wasn't.
The other test was being seated with her family having conversation, and then slyly picking up little sticks or pebbles , and when her attention was some where else, to toss these objects at her while not being discovered. When she did discover the direction it was coming from she would either get up looking at him annoyed as she left or slyly toss them back in his direction signaling she was interested.
That piece of cloth was cut and sent to the women in the family who the mother wanted to cook. Each providing a certain food for the Wedding Feast.
On the day of the wedding both the males family and the females family would gather together. But before eating the young man and woman, the young bride would initiate a signal in which the young groom would have to pursue her, and catch her. Both families being right behind them watch this game of chase unfold.
As we travel to the America's, marriage was practiced differently. Where in Europe the Church now presided over marriage through priests, among these nations courtship and marriage were dealt with entirely by the clans. The two tribes I will reference , because their were so many tribes in the America's before the colonizers came, are the Chahta (Choctaw),and the Cherokee. The information I'm providing in this section deals with the Indigenous tribes before the colonizers arrived. I will also touch on how things changed after their arrival.
Both tribes were matrilineal, meaning the families descent, kinship, and inheritance were passed down through the mother's line. According to Mike Boucher,
"Bishinik features tracing the origin legends and developing society of the people who called themselves “Okla” or “the people,” who would later become known as the Chahta, Tchata or Choctaw Indians."(Social Development, Bishinik November 1980 Page 6, 7 & 8, Origins of the Choctaw People Retold from Old Legends, By Len Green, https://mike-boucher.com/wordpress/?page_id=131) The Bishinik was a Chahta newspaper.
For purposes of this article I will be using Chahta.
The Life of the Chahta
"Women generally performed the drudge work, laboring in the fields, making clothing, and preparing and storing food. Men were responsible for providing game, building houses, manufacturing tools, carrying out governmental duties, and protecting the tribe during wars. Apparently the Choctaws were less warlike than many of their neighbors but defended themselves bravely against any attacks. They rarely carried out offensive campaigns unless in retaliation for aggression against them. In such cases, the campaign was preceded by a war dance that might last eight days. Women sometimes accompanied the men to the battlefield to encourage them and supply them with arrows. Stealth and cunning were primary factors in Choctaw war making, like that of most other Indians."(The Choctaw Indians: History, Culture, and Society, By: Jeffrey D. Carlisle,https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/choctaw-indians)
Among the Chahta courtships began with dances. The Chahta practiced biological exogamy meaning they did not marry within the clan, and marriage among males started ,
"between the ages of 25 and 30", and for females, " between the ages of 20 and 25." "It is also said they would not allow those related within four degrees to marry, and fifth cousins might marry only if they could prove there was nobody more distantly related who would make a suitable partner."(Courtship, Love and Marriage, Bishinik December 1980 page 6& 7, Origins of the Choctaw Peope Retold from Old Legands, By Len Green, https://mike-boucher.com/wordpress/?page_id=136)
The Chahta tribes did not believe in marrying young.
The courtship would begin with the young man finding a girl he was interested in would build an alliance with her brother. Approaching the girl was not a consideration. The young man could test the young lady by one of two ways to see if she was interested. He could drop something near her such as a bracelet or other small object. If she picked it up and ran away with it, she was interested. If she picked it up and threw it or gazed at and walked away, well she wasn't.
The other test was being seated with her family having conversation, and then slyly picking up little sticks or pebbles , and when her attention was some where else, to toss these objects at her while not being discovered. When she did discover the direction it was coming from she would either get up looking at him annoyed as she left or slyly toss them back in his direction signaling she was interested.
"If the youths advances were accepted, he informed his parents of his choice,and carried the products of the next hunt or other work to the girls mother, thus signifying that he was interested in marriage with her daughter. In the meantime, his father, having learned of his son's intended, would dispatch the lad's mother to visit with the mother of the girl to discuss the matter and obtain consent for the marriage. Once the consent of the bride's mother had been secured, the young man purchased or secured a piece of cloth, 75 to 80 feet long, which he presented to the girl's mother."(Courtship, Love and Marriage, Bishinik December 1980 page 6& 7, Origins of the Choctaw Peope Retold from Old Legands, By Len Green, https://mike-boucher.com/wordpress/?page_id=136)
That piece of cloth was cut and sent to the women in the family who the mother wanted to cook. Each providing a certain food for the Wedding Feast.
On the day of the wedding both the males family and the females family would gather together. But before eating the young man and woman, the young bride would initiate a signal in which the young groom would have to pursue her, and catch her. Both families being right behind them watch this game of chase unfold.
" ...and her intended husband pursued her, with she being assisted by her relatives and him by his. If the boy caught the girl too soon, she was considered weak and indifferent to the match and the wedding might be called off. On the other hand, if he were unable to catch her in a reasonable length of time, he might be considered weak and indifferent."(Courtship, Love and Marriage, Bishinik December 1980 page 6& 7, Origins of the Choctaw Peope Retold from Old Legands, By Len Green, https://mike-boucher.com/wordpress/?page_id=136)
Once she was caught gifts were given to the bride by the groom's female relatives as she was seated next to her groom. The gifts were either tossed at her or laid upon her head. These gifts weren't for her. They would be distributed to the women in her family. Gifts were brought out from the bride's family and placed near the father who would distribute this out to the groom's female relatives.
" After the gifts were distributed, the bride and groom were seated opposite each other, with their families seated in lines parallel to each other for the ceremony of " naming the relatives". For example, the bride would rise, touch her mother-in-law on the head and say " You are my mother, to the father " You are my father" and so until all of the seated relatives had been verbally recognized. Then the groom would do the same to members of the bride's family. Then they all gathered around to eat, but before the meal they received a long speech either from the highest ranking " Minko" ( chief or spokesman) present or from the father of the bride. Finally they were all allowed to enjoy the marriage feast. After which, dancing was held."(Courtship, Love and Marriage, Bishinik December 1980 page 6& 7, Origins of the Choctaw People Retold from Old Legends, By Len Green, https://mike-boucher.com/wordpress/?page_id=136 )
After the feast the couple would be escorted to their marriage house. The marriage house could be a home that was already built for them in the bride's Iksa (clan) area or "
if a house had not been built, the house of another of the bride's relatives was "borrowed." " Some Moieties (villages) had special " marriage houses", which were maintained and used only for this purposes. Once installed in their " marriage house", the couple was left alone for three days with food for them being left outside the door by relatives of the bride. After three days, the newly married couple took up residence in their house which was generally built by members of the wife's family. When a married woman went to visit her parents, her husband did not generally accompany her. "(Courtship, Love and Marriage, Bishinik December 1980 page 6& 7, Origins of the Choctaw Peope Retold from Old Legends, By Len Green, https://mike-boucher.com/wordpress/?page_id=136 )
After the daughter was married the mother could not look upon the son-in-laws face. It's said most would walk with their gaze lowered. The son-in-law would not speak to his wife's sisters, only the father and when the son-in-law did speak to the mother, " While he and his mother-in-law could not actually look directly at each other, it is said that he spoke more freely to his wife's mother than to any other member of her family. This is to be understood, as among the ancient Choctaws the mother or oldest female member was head of the family unit, although all public pronouncements were made by the male "Minko" or spokesman for the family."
Reproductive health was not an issue among the Chahta. They were a people who lived among the land. They were in tune with the natural practice bodily autonomy way before the Europeans came and claimed their women were going through bouts of hysteria, that vibratory were created, and then Comstock Laws were created to keep these devices from going through the postal system.
- The Chahta (Choctaw): Chahta women and healers utilized Black Haw (Viburnum prunifolium) and specific species of Milkweed (Asclepias). Black Haw acts as a powerful uterine tonic and relaxant; taken in concentrated doses immediately after intercourse, it prevents a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterine wall—the exact same mechanism of action as modern emergency contraception.
- Long term preventative care was used by the Chahta and the Cherokee. These were their methods long before the birth control pill.
- The Chahta "Daily Tea": The Choctaw utilized Northern Bedstraw (Galium boreale), brewing it into a routine tea that suppressed ovulation and reduced fertility for as long as the woman chose to drink it.
Polygamy was an accept form of practice among them. It was usually the woman's choice and more than likely it would be the wife's sister.
When it comes to divorce, just as the Sumerian's, it ended with a announcement.
"Choctaw marriages lasted as long as both parties were satisfied. Separation or divorce was not disparaged, although all children were kept by the wife. Both monogamy and polygamy were accepted. In cases of polygamy, wives were usually sisters or at least close relatives. In rare cases where wives were unrelated, the husband was required to set up two or more residences."
(The Choctaw Indians: History, Culture, and Society, By: Jeffrey D. Carlisle,https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/choctaw-indians)
With the Chahta when the husband died,
"the wife lays aside her jewelry or ornaments, and suffers her hair to fall disheveled over her shoulders. Some six months after the cry for the dead is over, the husband's mother tie-up and dresses the widow's hair, and she is at liberty to marry again. If she marries prior to this ceremony, or dances or flirts, she is discarded by the family of the deceased."(Courtship, Love and Marriage, Bishinik December 1980 page 6& 7, Origins of the Choctaw People Retold from Old Legends, By Len Green, https://mike-boucher.com/wordpress/?page_id=136 )
The Civilization Plan and the Chahta
In 1790, a plan was formed under George Washington called, The Civilization Plan, which would later in 1819 be fully adopted and enforced as the, The Civilization Fund Act, under President James Monroe, which encouraged tribes to adopt Euro-American culture, legally and socially. In 1819, it would be codified and funded.
The Act dealt with Farming, Patriarchy, and Education. In farming the switch from women dealing with the agriculture of the land would shift to the men, while the women would now learn the new skill of weaving. Patriarchy would come in replacing the matrilineal system. Education would now involve missionary schools that would come in and teach English, math, and vocational skills.
"The stated purpose of the plan of civilization was to train Indian men and women in ranching, farming, and cottage industries such as cloth making. The public face of the plan suggested that through such training Indians would become self-sufficient farmers, selling small surpluses on the market. The underlying goal of the plan, however, was to settle Indians on small farms and thus force them to give up hunting on their vast territories."
(Encyclopedia of Alabama. https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/plan-of-civilization/)
The Chahta adopted these reforms as a means to show the newly formed government that they could exist along side them, in hopes that could hold on to their land. The Chahta transitioned to commercial farming, spinning, and weaving.
"These efforts coincided with the federal government’s coercive “Civilization Plan” for Native Americans, which included the adoption of sedentary farming practices, centralized government, Christianity, and slave-owning."
(Slavery, Labor, and the Resistance in the Choctaw Nation, Nokia Parker, https://pcusa.org/news-storytelling/blogs/historical-society-blog/slavery-labor-and-resistance-choctaw-nation)
Before the European arrived. Before the missionaries stepped foot on the land, the Chacta had a sophisticated way of learning.
"Throughout daily life infants would be watched by their mothers, aunts, and grandmothers until they reached an age where they could begin to help the community. Once able to walk, young girls would interact with their mothers and aunts while young boys would interact with their maternal uncles to learn the skills and knowledge necessary for everyChoctaw man. Oral education through storytelling was common within the family and in the community. At the beginning of each community meeting an elder man would recite the full history of that individual community. Education on Choctaw life was done through immersion, allowing students to learn interactively throughout each day. At night, elders would gather the youth and tell them stories and metaphors to explain the Choctaw world view. Society began to change as Choctaws interacted with European nations. Trade with these nations brought new ideas and materials into the community. Choctaws quickly adapted to new clothing materials like cloth and wool, metal for tools and knives, and guns for hunting. In return, European nations began trading for our pottery, basketry, spices, horses, animal products, and most importantly food. Near the end of the 1700's after the civil war between Britain and the American Colonies, the United States replaced the French and Spanish as our primary trade partner. As American expansion grew, so did the relationship between Choctaws and the United States."
(Chahta Nan Ikhvana Choctaw Education, https://choctownationculture.com)
Later the missionary schools were welcomed to come in and set up. "
Some prominent slave-owning Indian leaders, such as Peter Pitchlynn in the Choctaw Nation and James Colbert in the Chickasaw Nation, gave large amounts of money to the mission schools, in part because they desired their children to have an education." Peter Pitchlynn, was a "mix blood" Chief, "A prominent Choctaw leader during the removal period, Peter Pitchlynn played a major role in building the national tribal government in the nineteenth century. He was the son of John Pitchlynn, a white trader, and Sophia Folsom, a mixed-blood Choctaw."
(Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture: Peter Pitchlynn, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=PI013)
"missionaries were an important resource for Choctaws to learn English and the European ways of life to give them an advantage. Choctaw leaders like Pushmataha sent their children to missionary schools where they were educated in English and Euro-American ways. When Choctaws first arrived in Indian Territory, they had to recreate Choctaw society in a new land that they knew little about. Among the first things Choctaws built were schools. We built the first schools in Indian Territory, using the missionaries to ensure that Choctaw children would have an education. These schools helped Choctaws raise the next generation of leaders to govern and sustain us in our new lands."
(Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, https://www.choctawnation.com/news/iti-fabvssa/strategic-development-strengthens-the-future-of-the-tribe/)
The Arrival of Christianity Among the Chahta.
The first missionary arrival among the Chahta was in 1818 by a Presbyterian missionary representing the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), by Rev. Kingsbury, who would later set up the first institutional station for the Chahta, Eliot Mission.
(Chactaw Nation Oklahoma, https://www.choctawnation.com/news/iti-fabvssa/the-choctaw-methodist-mission/)
It was under Rev. Alexander Talley, that a higher number would convert. The first conversion under Chief Greenwood LeFlore. Because of LeFlore’s conversion more Chahta joined.
The Chahta tribe were big on education, and this was the only reason the missionaries were let to walk on the land. They wanted the children to learn English and math, so they could learn to speak and understand what was spoken.
In order to survive they had the learn the ways of this American government. In 1818, they invited in a missionary to help them learn the ways of the legal and economic system.
The first missionary arrival among the Chahta was in 1818 by a Presbyterian missionary representing the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), by Rev. Kingsbury, who would later set up the first institutional station for the Chahta, Eliot Mission.
"In 1820 Cyrus Bynum would arrive, Byington famously began deep immersion into the Chahta language, eventually creating the first written Choctaw dictionary and translating the Bible." Byington was a linguist who unlike other preachers studied the language of the Chahta, and created a dictionary and rewrote the Bible in the language of the Chacta. Because of doing this Byington was able to preach in the language of the Chacta. During his preaching in their language he won a convert by the name of Tunnapinchuffa, in 1827."In 1827 Methodist Missions arrived, "led by Rev. Alexander Talley, arrived after receiving an appointment from the Mississippi Conference, initiating a period of widespread tribal conversions."
(Chactaw Nation Oklahoma, https://www.choctawnation.com/news/iti-fabvssa/the-choctaw-methodist-mission/)
It was under Rev. Alexander Talley, that a higher number would convert. The first conversion under Chief Greenwood LeFlore. Because of LeFlore’s conversion more Chahta joined.
The Chahta tribe were big on education, and this was the only reason the missionaries were let to walk on the land. They wanted the children to learn English and math, so they could learn to speak and understand what was spoken.
In order to survive they had the learn the ways of this American government. In 1818, they invited in a missionary to help them learn the ways of the legal and economic system.
"Choctaw leaders understood that pressures would continue with the United States. Planning for the future, Choctaw chiefs wanted to educate upcoming generations of Choctaw youth.In 1818, Choctaw leaders invited a Protestant missionary, Cyrus Kingsbury, into the Choctaw Nation to build schools using funds they had acquired through the 1816 Treaty of Choctaw Trading House.Elliot Mission was quickly constructed near the Yalobusha River. The school required Choctaw students to move there to attend.Securing more funding in the Treaty of Doak’s Stand, Choctaw leadership asks for more schools to be constructed throughout the nation. By 1824, there were eight schools within the Choctaw Nation and in 1825, the Choctaw Academy in Kentucky was opened as a school for higher learning (Kidwell, 1995). By 1830, four more schools were built within the Choctaw Nation."
(Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, https://www.choctawnation.com/news/iti-fabvssa/strategic-development-strengthens-the-future-of-the-tribe/)
It was under Rev. Alexander Talley, that a higher number would convert. The first conversion under Chief Greenwood LeFlore. Because of LeFlore’s conversion more Chahta joined.
The Chahta tribe were big on education, and this was the only reason the missionaries were let to walk on the land. They wanted the children to learn English and math, so they could learn to speak and understand what was spoken.
The Chahta tribe were big on education, and this was the only reason the missionaries were let to walk on the land. They wanted the children to learn English and math, so they could learn to speak and understand what was spoken.
Treaties the Chahta Signed
There were many treaties signed between the Chacta and the U.S. government. The ones I will concentrate on are: Treaty of Fort Adams 1801, Treaty of Doak's Stand 1820, and the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek 1830.
The Treaty of Fort Adams was signed under Thomas Jefferson. It was a Treaty that began the land grabs, and the start of pushing the Natives West of the Mississippi.
"
The Choctaw Nation ceded 2.6 million acres of land for $2,000 in the southwestern corner of the nation, allowing the US. the right to construct a road through the Choctaw Nation from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee."
(Initial Choctaw Political US Relations, https://www.mowachoctawindians.com/initial-choctaw-us-political-relationships)
The Treaty stated in part in Article two,
The Treaty stated in part in Article two,
"The Mingos principal men and warriors of the Chactaw nation of Indians, do hereby give their free consent, that a convenient and durable wagon way may be explored, marked, opened and made under the orders and instructions of the President of the United States through their lands to commence at the northern extremity of the settlements of the Mississippi Territory, and to be extended from thence, by such route as may be selected and surveyed under the authority of the President of the United States, until it shall strike the lands claimed by the Chickasaw nation; and the same shall be and continue for ever, a high-way for the citizens of the United States and the Chactaws..."
(Treaty with the Choctaw 1801,https://treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-choctaw-1801-0056)
Then in Article 3,
"...The two contracting parties covenant and agree that the old line of demarkation heretofore established by and between the officers of his Britannic Majesty and the Chactaw nation, which runs in a parallel direction with the Mississippi river and eastward thereof, shall be retraced and plainly marked, in such way and manner as the President may direct, in the presence of two persons to be appointed by the said nation; and that the said line shall be the boundary between the settlements of the Mississippi Territory and the Chactaw nation. And the said nation does by these presents relinquish to the United States and quit claim for ever, all their right, title and pretension to the land lying between the said line and the Mississippi river, bounded south by the thirty-first degree of north latitude, and north by the Yazoo river, where the said line shall strike the same; and on the part of the commissioners it is agreed, that all persons who may be settled beyond this line, shall be removed within it, on the side towards the Mississippi, together with their slaves, household furniture, tools, materials and stock, and that the cabins or houses erected by such persons shall be demolished."
(Treaty with the Choctaw 1801,https://treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-choctaw-1801-0056)
Article 4, States that when the U.S. government was ready to begin the remarking of the land that they would give the Chahta notice.
Article 4, States that when the U.S. government was ready to begin the remarking of the land that they would give the Chahta notice.
Article 5, the US government gave the Mingos, Chiefs, and Warriors two thousand dollars, and a set of blacksmith tools for the land the was just ceded.
Article 6, tells when the Treaty would go into effect.
"This treaty shall take effect and be obligatory on the contracting parties, so soon as the same shall be ratified by the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof."
(Treaty with the Choctaw 1801,https://treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-choctaw-1801-0056)
The Treaty actually took more land, granted the US to make a way for transportation, and when the US was good and ready push the Chahta to the West of the Mississippi. All they received for it was two-thousand dollars and blacksmith tools.
In the Treaty of Doak’s Stand 1820 was negotiated by Andrew Jackson in 1820 with the Chahta.
The Treaty actually took more land, granted the US to make a way for transportation, and when the US was good and ready push the Chahta to the West of the Mississippi. All they received for it was two-thousand dollars and blacksmith tools.
In the Treaty of Doak’s Stand 1820 was negotiated by Andrew Jackson in 1820 with the Chahta.
"Based on the terms of the accord, the Choctaw were forced to give up approximately 5 million acres or roughly one-third of their remaining Choctaw homeland in the east in exchange for 13 million westward acres in the Canadian Kiamichi, Arkansas, and Red River watersheds. The Choctaw reluctantly signed the agreement in an effort to maintain peace as they were threatened by the US commissioners that if they did not agree to move west, they would perish."
(Treaty of Doak's Stand, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Doak%27s_Stand)
In 1820 Andrew Jackson and General Thomas Hind were sent to meet "chiefs Pushmataha, Mushulatubbee, and Apuckshunubbee, who represented the three major regional divisions of the Choctaw. Chiefs of the towns and other prominent men accompanied them, such as Colonel Silas Dinsmore...Dinsmore was a former US Indian agent to the Choctaw; his passport ruling in 1812 had stirred a brief controversy with General Andrew Jackson. Dinsmore was at the negotiations to settle a land claim; he believed the policy of the American government toward the Indian tribes was too harsh. His attitude suggested a potential confrontation, but Jackson paid no attention to him."
(Treaty of Doak's Stand, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Doak%27s_Stand)
The Treaty was to negotiate and write a treaty to surrender a large portion of Choctaw country in Mississippi. 500 men were in attendance on October 8, 1820. Pushmataha raised concerns about the Arkansas area, and so did the white settlers who were already living on the land.
The Treaty was to negotiate and write a treaty to surrender a large portion of Choctaw country in Mississippi. 500 men were in attendance on October 8, 1820. Pushmataha raised concerns about the Arkansas area, and so did the white settlers who were already living on the land.
"
The white Arkansan settlers believed that their life, liberty, and happiness had been threatened by the US Government because the Choctaw would also settle on the same land. The white settlers also thought the Choctaw received a windfall from the treaty. “Indignant Arkansans felt as though their future had been annihilated by their government in favor of the Choctaws, who now controlled land on both sides of the Mississippi River.” The Mississippi Gazette, in 1821, referred to the treaty as a “death blow” to Arkansas Territory. From the moment the Treaty was ratified, both white settlers in Arkansas and the Choctaw argued for changes and amendments. The Treaty of Doak's Stand would later influence the 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit, which forced the ceding of additional Choctaw lands as part of the Indian Removal Act signed by then-President Andrew Jackson."
(Treaty of Doak's Stand, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Doak%27s_Stand)
The white settlers felt threatened, and the Chahta, I'm sure started to feel not only deceived, but as a people being moved out of there home. One they have been in for eons. This treaty would lead the way into the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
Treaty of Dancing Rabbit 1830
The Chahta gave up the last of the 11 million acres that was east of the Mississippi for land that was given to them in Oklahoma, 15 million acres, along with financial support for the journey.
Chief producing Pushmataha died in 1829, Andrew Jackson was fixated on getting the Chahta off the land. There was arguing among the Chacta on who the Chief would be.
The white settlers felt threatened, and the Chahta, I'm sure started to feel not only deceived, but as a people being moved out of there home. One they have been in for eons. This treaty would lead the way into the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
Treaty of Dancing Rabbit 1830
The Chahta gave up the last of the 11 million acres that was east of the Mississippi for land that was given to them in Oklahoma, 15 million acres, along with financial support for the journey.
Chief producing Pushmataha died in 1829, Andrew Jackson was fixated on getting the Chahta off the land. There was arguing among the Chacta on who the Chief would be.
"early October of 1829, a general council was held which wiped out the efforts of LeFlore and Folsom, with Moshulatubbee named to lead Ahi Apet Okla, Nitakechi (a nephew of Pushmataha) named chief of Okla Hannali, and George W. Harkins (another nephew of Apukshunnubbee) head of Okla Falaya."
(Choctaw Treaties, Bishinik, October, 1978. Pages 6-8, How to Lose a Nation in Seven Not-So-Easy Treaties by Len Green, https://mike-boucher.com/wordpress/?page_id=179)
The Chahta were now recognized by the US government as a separate entity who was now having laws made on them and being forced to leave, and threatened with punishment if they did not.
Greenwood was apart of the chief Okhla Falaya district while Chief Pushmataha was still alive.
"though deposed as chief, Greenwood LeFlore apparently assumed the role of “double agent” working both with the Choctaws and Jackson. He drew up a compromise treaty, forwarding copies to all of the Choctaw chiefs as well as to president Jackson. On April 8, 1830, speaking before a Choctaw general council, LeFlore convinced the tribal leaders that if his proposed treaty for removal could be approved, it would be the best thing for the tribe. He must have been convincing, because on the following morning, the chiefs and sub-chiefs come forward, endorsed Greenwood LeFlore’s actions and named him as “chief spokesman” for all three Choctaw districts."
(Choctaw Treaties, Bishinik, October, 1978. Pages 6-8, How to Lose a Nation in Seven Not-So-Easy Treaties by Len Green, https://mike-boucher.com/wordpress/?page_id=179)
Jackson receiving the proposal was surprised the Chacta would be willing to leave their land. Jackson noticed the proposal leaned more towards the Chacta made sure that Congress rejected it. Jackson then arranges Secretary of War Eaton and John Coffee to meet with the Chacta's. It was to be held at Noxubbee County near Dancing Rabbit Creek.
Jackson receiving the proposal was surprised the Chacta would be willing to leave their land. Jackson noticed the proposal leaned more towards the Chacta made sure that Congress rejected it. Jackson then arranges Secretary of War Eaton and John Coffee to meet with the Chacta's. It was to be held at Noxubbee County near Dancing Rabbit Creek.
"Eaton and Coffee unveiled their treaty terms, along with an ill-concealed threat that failure to negotiate would result on open war between Choctaw and white. The Choctaws were promised all of the provisions of the Treaty of Doaks Stand (kettle, blanket, rifle, ammunition and year’s supply of corn) plus provisions for the first three years in the new land and an annuity of $10 per family for a period of 10 years if they would accept removal. The government also agreed to stand all the expense of the removal, offered education to the Choctaws for the next 20 years, and waiting in the new land, a gift of 2,100 blankets, 1,000 axes, 400 cloth weaving looms and additional rifles, powder, ammunition and hand tools for building new homes. The Choctaws were warned that if they chose to remain in Mississippi, they would have to give up their birthright, become citizens of the state and subject to Mississippi laws and each would be allotted an acreage of land commensurate with age or station in life. Faced with no choice, the Choctaw leaders reluctantly signed the seventh treaty… the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek… on Sept. 27, 1830, thus writing a finish to the old Choctaw Nation in Mississippi."
(Choctaw Treaties, Bishinik, October, 1978. Pages 6-8, How to Lose a Nation in Seven Not-So-Easy Treaties by Len Green, https://mike-boucher.com/wordpress/?page_id=179)
The Chahta and Removal
The Treaty ultimately was being renege on. The U.D. government wanted nothing more than the land, and the Natives were in the way. The U.S. government was going to make the Chacta the example, so they wouldn't have so much trouble later when they went for the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Muskogee (Creek), and Seminole.
The Chacta didn't want to leave. They went to Ward and tried to register to stay, only to be met with threats of physical violence, refusal to take the applications. It's said at times he hid. Out of all the thousands of people coming to apply only 148 applications were taking. Those were the ones he didn't burn.
Land hungry Anglo-Americans came in, to those Chahta who were still there, taking what they could. The U.S. government at times selling the land right from under them while they were still there. This was land fraud, and a denial of the Treaty for food, which when arrived , arrived rotten or not at all. Safe travel, which had some of the Chahta walking through swamps, through the cold, with inappropriate clothing for the conditions they faced.
Those who walked took the bait on the offer of being guided, along with $10 in gold, and ammunition. 300 signed up. Others were transported by steamboat. There were five used,
The Chahta and Removal
The Treaty ultimately was being renege on. The U.D. government wanted nothing more than the land, and the Natives were in the way. The U.S. government was going to make the Chacta the example, so they wouldn't have so much trouble later when they went for the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Muskogee (Creek), and Seminole.
"Article 14 of the treaty, however, guaranteed land allotments in Mississippi to Choctaws who wished to remain in the state so long as they registered within six months. The fraudulent tactics of the Indian Agent in charge of this procedure provoked several government investigations over the years. This unique 1835 broadside was directed at Choctaws who might wish to register Mississippi land claims denied them five years earlier."
(University of Mississippi Libraries- Special Collections, https://olemiss.edu/depts/general_library/archives/exhibits/past/25years/antebellum.html)
The Chacta didn't want to leave. They went to Ward and tried to register to stay, only to be met with threats of physical violence, refusal to take the applications. It's said at times he hid. Out of all the thousands of people coming to apply only 148 applications were taking. Those were the ones he didn't burn.
Land hungry Anglo-Americans came in, to those Chahta who were still there, taking what they could. The U.S. government at times selling the land right from under them while they were still there. This was land fraud, and a denial of the Treaty for food, which when arrived , arrived rotten or not at all. Safe travel, which had some of the Chahta walking through swamps, through the cold, with inappropriate clothing for the conditions they faced.
Those who walked took the bait on the offer of being guided, along with $10 in gold, and ammunition. 300 signed up. Others were transported by steamboat. There were five used,
"the Walter Scott, the Brandywine, the Reindeer, the Talma and the Cleopatra, the latter three being smaller steamers with less passenger capacity."(Trail of Tears, Bishinik November, 1978. Page 8-9,
Choctaw Removal Was Really a “Trail of Tears”, reprinted in Mar. 1995 Bishinik, p. 4 as Trail of Tears from Mississippi walked by our Choctaw ancestors, By Len Green, https://mike-boucher.com/wordpress/?page_id=221)
"In 1845, as a partial result of investigation, Congress granted some of the Choctaws who remained in Mississippi script for the amount of land they were entitled to under the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek However, the full amount of script was redeemable only in Indian Territory (Oklahoma).Some Anglo-Americans quickly found ways of defrauding Choctaw people out of this script. Businesses were even set up for that sole purpose Some Anglo-Americans used increasingly brutal tactics. Choctaws who remained in Mississippi had their houses burned down, fences destroyed, and cattle sent in to graze down their growing gardens. They were physically abused, chained, and even beaten to death, Under such treatment, perhaps 4,000 Choctaws removed from Mississippi to Indian Territory during the government-sponsored Removals of the 1840s. Still 2,000 Choctaw people simply refused to remove from their homeland."
(Choctaw Resistance to Removal From Ancient Homeland, Iti Fabvssa, https://www.choctawnation.com/news/iti-fabvssa/choctaw-resistance-to-removal-from-ancient-homeland-part-3/)
The second and third removals of Chahta's experienced Cholera that came through the Mississippi River valley. There were hundreds who died. No one knows how many. There bodies were heaped on top of other deceased bodies, and set on fire.
This Trail of Tears started in 1830 and ended in 1833. 15,000 were forced West with around 6,000 who died.
The Chahta went through treaties, only to have them reneged. These were a people who lived, and honored the land on which they resided for eons. Had their system of matriarchy reduced to a system of Patriarchy, that destroyed and dismantled everything that was harmonious within their system.
Men and women were a union. They worked together as one. They lived and loved together as one. Then slowly there harmony deconstructed into a hell. They didn't understand, so they made peace the best way they could. Without violence, which only lead to them being deceived, lied to, massive land grabs, and pushed to the West of the Mississippi only for a lot to die in the quest.
Life of the Cherokee's
Just as the Chahta were a matrilineal society, so were the Cherokee. But the part that really separates these two tribes is that the Cherokee were Matrilineal and Matrilocal. Matrilocal meaning, "a marriage or housing custom where a newlywed couple lives with or near the wife's family or tribe." (Collins Dictionary., http://www.collinsdictionary.com)
They were comprised of seven other tribes, the Wolf (Ani-Wa-Ya): The largest clan, associated with war chiefs and protection. Blue (Ani-Sa-Ho-Ni): Associated with medicine and children's medicinal remedies. Long Hair (Ani-Gi-Lo-Hi): Known as peacemakers, often providing peace chiefs. Paint (Ani-Wo-Di): Traditionally produced healers and medicine people. Deer (Ani-A-Wi): Known for their speed, hunting skills, and care for animals. Bird (Ani-Tsi-S-Qua): Known as messengers. Wild Potato (Ani-Go-Te-Ge-Wi): Keepers of the land and agriculturalists.
"The Cherokee lived by a clan system that forged their relational, political, social, and religious structure. There were seven clans – each headed by a clan mother and served as an extended family. Clan membership passed through the mother’s lineage. Clans were in charge of the law and order of their members. In 1808, however, the Cherokee National Council changed that responsibility and shifted property ownership, and the nation as a whole, to a patrilineal society."
(Of the Land: A Glimpse at Georgia’s Early Indigenous Peoples, http://dekalbhistory.com)
The women were in charge of farming and gardening and the men, hunting. The women were equal to the men, but more so because the society was matrilineal. The children stayed with the mother after a divorce and upon marrying, it was the man who moved in with the woman in her house.
The women were in charge of farming and gardening and the men, hunting. The women were equal to the men, but more so because the society was matrilineal. The children stayed with the mother after a divorce and upon marrying, it was the man who moved in with the woman in her house.
"The Cherokee nation was composed of a confederacy of symbolically red (war) and white (peace) towns. The chiefs of individual red towns were subordinated to a supreme war chief, while the officials of individual white towns were under the supreme peace chief. The peace towns provided sanctuary for wrongdoers; war ceremonies were conducted in red towns."
(Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cherokee-people)
The Cherokee in the 1600's had,
"... possessed a variety of stone implements, including knives, axes, and chisels. They wove baskets, made pottery, and cultivated corn (maize), beans, and squash. Deer, bear, and elk furnished meat and clothing. Cherokee dwellings were bark-roofed windowless log cabins, with one door and a smoke hole in the roof. A typical Cherokee town had between 30 and 60 such houses and a council house, where general meetings were held and a sacred fire burned. An important religious observance was the Busk, or Green Corn, festival, a firstfruits and new-fires celebration."
(https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cherokee-people
Cherokee Marriages
Marriages were both individual and between clans. It was forbidden to marry in your own clan or your father or mother. There was a death penalty attached if it occurred. First degree , brother or sister, marriages were considered incestuous.
Consent was much earlier for the Cherokee than it was for the Chahta. For boys it began at 17 and for girls 15. "It was only permitted to court one woman at a time, though there are examples of polygamist marriage and same sex co-habitation in the ancient culture.Marriages were carefully negotiated and the courtship required the approval of both of the clans, by a Clan Grandmother.*Interesting note: In cases of polygamy, you often see a husband marry a sister, niece, or cousin of his wife, typically related on his wife's mothers side."
I didn't find out much about marriage with the Cherokee tribe, but what I did find was enough. According to Shari Armstrong who wrote a small piece on marriage between the Cherokee in the Facebook group, The Trail of No More Tears"
"
Because the woman holds the family clan, she is represented at the ceremony by her mother ( or clan mother) and oldest brother. The brother stands with her as his vow to take the responsibility of teaching the children in spiritual and religious matters, as that is the tradirole of the uncle (e-du-tsi). In Ancient times, they would met at the center of the townhouse, and the groom gave the bride a ham of venison while she gave an ear of corn to him, then the wedding party danced and feasted for hours on end. Venison symbolized his intention to keep meat in the household and her corn symbolized her willing to be a good Cherokee housewife. The groom is accompanied by his mother."
(The Cherokee Wedding Ceremony, Shari Armstrong, https://www.facebook.com/groups/1627487000825176/posts/3786471284926726/)
The spot for marriage would be blessed for seven straight days, and then the ceremony could commense. It is said that a priest or priestess blessed the bride and groom as they approached a sacred fire. The guest were blessed as well.
The spot for marriage would be blessed for seven straight days, and then the ceremony could commense. It is said that a priest or priestess blessed the bride and groom as they approached a sacred fire. The guest were blessed as well.
"Songs are sung in Cherokee, and those conducting the ceremony bless the couple. Both the Bride and Groom are covered in a blue blanket. At the right point of the ceremony, the priest or priestess removes each blue blanket. Instead of exchanging rings, in the old times the couple exchanged food......The couple drank together from a Cherokee Wedding Vase. The vessel held one drink, but had two openings for the couple to drink from at the same time. For the ceremony, the town, community or clans provided a wedding feast, and the dancing and celebrating often times continued all night."
(The Cherokee Wedding Ceremony, Shari Armstrong, https://www.facebook.com/groups/1627487000825176/posts/3786471284926726/)
"men and women were sexually liberated, and unions were typically based on mutual attraction. The concept of being ashamed of one’s body or physical desires was foreign to the Cherokee mind-set. Even though married men and women were expected to be faithful to one another, adultery was not considered a grand crime, and divorce based on loss of attraction was not uncommon: “Sometimes they will live together till they have five or six children and then part as unconcernedly as if they had never known one another, the men taking the male children and the women the female and so each marry with contrary parties.”
(The Power of Cherokee Women, https://ictnews.org/archive/the-power-of-cherokee-women/)
Reproductive Health
Cherokee women have been tied to the land. They knew what grew. What was nutritious and what would kill you. They had knowledge of the herbs on the land, and it's what they used for their reproductive health. When a woman needed to prevent a pregnancy immediately after intercourse, she turned to specific, highly potent herbal concoctions that acted as post-coital contraceptives or abortifacients.
- The Cherokee: Cherokee women frequently utilized Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense) or a highly concentrated tea made from the roots of Spotted Cowbane/Water Hemlock. Chewed or brewed right after sex, these plants effectively triggered a sudden menstrual period, ensuring pregnancy could not take hold. Because Water Hemlock is naturally highly toxic, Cherokee medicine people held precise, specialized knowledge regarding the exact dosages required to ensure safety.
- For long term preventative care they used a method of herbs just as the Chahta did.
- The Cherokee "Four-Day" Routine: To achieve temporary sterility, Cherokee women would chew the roots of specific plants (like cowbane) for four consecutive days. They also utilized Wild Carrot blossoms (Queen Anne’s Lace), which acts as a natural "morning-after" barrier when ingested daily.
Authors Side Note: Don't try any of these methods if you don't have a knowledge of herbs. I don't want anyone dying.
Divorce Among the Cherokee
Divorce among the Cherokee was simple. There were no lawyers, court fees or squabbling over who got what. Remember their system was Matrilineal which means everything returned to the woman. Even children. The clans mother was consulted before the act of putting the man out occurred.
"Because of the equality of the Cherokee society (different from the prevailing European society of the time), the early Europeans were often confused by the apparent inability of the Cherokee man to make quick decisions in counsel and trade meetings. It was later learned that the men were required to return home and discuss matters with the Clan Grandmother(s) and obtain their approval.If a woman's husband failed to provide, was unfaithful, or disgraced her clan, she could divorce him by placing his belongings (such as his hunting gear and tools)outside the opening of their dwelling, but was not allowed to divorce him for frivolous reasons and typically required clan approval.The man, being divorced, was expected to go back to live with his clan and may not have been able to marry again (depending on the reason for divorce and rather a clan would deem him acceptable).In a traditional Cherokee household, the mother owned the dwelling, furnishings, and any children of such a union therefore they would continue to live with their mother and her clan."
(Historical Cherokee Marriage, https://www.northerncherokeenation.com/historical-cherokee-marriage.html)
"Cherokee couples going through divorce did not seem to experience the same level of emotional or financial trauma that is almost expected for modern day Euro-American couples dealing with separation and divorce. According to Johnston, traditional Cherokee “singles’ mixers” were charged with sexual energy, although they were strictly regulated through ceremony. The ritual dance performed publicly by young Cherokees at such events culminated in moves that imitated a sexual act—something that appalled the prudish white."
(The Power of CherokeeWomen, https://ictnews.org/archive/the-power-of-cherokee-women/)
What the Chahta and Cherokee record shows us is that marriage on this North American continent, long before any European set foot on its shores, was already a sophisticated, structured, and deeply communal institution. It required no government document, no church official, and no outside authority to make it valid. The clan presided. The family gathered. Gifts were exchanged. Vows were witnessed by the community. Consent was central. And when a union ended, it ended with dignity, the children staying with their mother, the man returning to his own clan, and life continuing without the intervention of a court or a filing fee.
What the Chahta and Cherokee record shows us is that marriage on this North American continent, long before any European set foot on its shores, was already a sophisticated, structured, and deeply communal institution. It required no government document, no church official, and no outside authority to make it valid. The clan presided. The family gathered. Gifts were exchanged. Vows were witnessed by the community. Consent was central. And when a union ended, it ended with dignity, the children staying with their mother, the man returning to his own clan, and life continuing without the intervention of a court or a filing fee.
From the Annunaki record to the banks of the Nile, from the hills of Rome to the forests and plains of this continent, the pattern is the same. Structured union is ancient. The marriage license is not. Keep that in mind as we move forward into what happened when outside forces began reshaping what these people had always known.
European Contact: The Legislature that Uprooted a People
The Chacta were the first to have a recorded history with Hernando De Soto, but both tribes would have contact in 1540.
"The first recorded European contact with the Choctaws was by members of Hernando De Soto's expedition in 1540. The Spaniards encountered Tuscaloosa, a mingo, from whom they demanded servants, canoes, and women. Tuscaloosa supplied carriers and rafts but delayed delivering women until De Soto and his army reached the town of Mabila. Upon reaching the town, Tuscaloosa, who had been a hostage, escaped and refused to grant any further concessions. A battle ensued in which Mabila was burned and hundreds or perhaps thousands of Choctaws and eighteen to twenty-two Spaniards were killed. The Spaniards, recovering from battle, remained in the area for another month and then moved on. Scattered incidental contacts with Europeans occurred in the following years, but not until 1700 did significant contact occur between Choctaws and Europeans."
(The Choctaw Indians: History, Culture, and Society, By: Jeffrey D. Carlisle,https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/choctaw-indians)
"Choctaw marriage customs underwent considerable legal modifications during the early years of removal. A law of 1835 provided for a brief marriage ceremony consisting of a mutual admission of intention before a captain or preacher, and in 1849 all couples living together were required to conform to this custom. In 1836 the most fundamental of all the primitive taboos was abolished, when it was made lawful to marry within the iksa, or immediate clan. Polygamy still existed as late as 1845, but was not approved of, and was made illegal in 1849. Family life was pure, and the laws regarding property and marriage gave the wife complete equality with her husband.The Choctaws also began to regulate the intermarriage of white men within their tribe. A law passed in 1849 provided that any white man living with a Choctaw woman should enter into a legal marriage with her or be expelled from the country, and that no white man of bad character would be permitted to marry a Choctaw woman “under any circumstances whatever.”At the time of the removal, a large number of the Choctaws wore their native dress, but by the close of the period they dressed much like the frontier white people of their day. They had begun to adopt European names before they left Mississippi, and the custom was rapidly extended after education became more general; their white teachers found it more convenient to rechristen their pupils in honor of some “pious friend of the Mission,” or some prominent historical character, than to stumble through the complicated syllables that made up the average Choctaw name.Taken as a whole, the generation from 1833 to 1861 presents a record of orderly development almost unprecedented in the history of any people".
(Marriage Customs 1, Mike Boucher, https://mike-boucher.com/wordpress/?page_id=169)
First Contact with the Cherokee Nation
Hernando de Soto died in 1542. It wouldn't be until the 1800's that the Cherokee had full contact with Europeans. This is when things changed.
(Encyclopedia.com, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/united-states-and-canada/north-american-indigenous-peoples/cherokees)
The Cherokee would soon align themselves in two wars. The first with the British and the French in 1755 to 1763, and then in the Revolutionary War helping the Americans free themselves from the British. Fighting on these wars, the Cherokee's didn't realize how much land they were losing.
In 1790 and 1817, a few groups began moving toward the West in an attempt to hold the culture together, with a majority staying in their homeland. Those who stayed behind dealt with diseases.
First Contact with the Cherokee Nation
Before the Cherokee's had contact with Hernado de Soto, the tribe was spread across vast amounts of land, to what we know now as Alabama. North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia. The Cherokee Tribe did have contact with Hernado de Soto, but his intent was on finding gold. In the brief time he was there, " De Soto’s entrada was purely destructive. While he did not enforce Spanish marriage customs or laws, his army destabilized the towns they raided by:Abducting and Enslaving Women: Conquistadors routinely kidnapped Native women to serve as concubines, forced laborers, or hostages. This directly tore families apart and violated the highly respected status of Cherokee women."
(Hernando De Soto, http://www.nps.gov)
Decimating the Population: The diseases left behind by the Spanish sparked centuries of epidemics. Massive population loss strained the traditional seven-clan system, making it harder to follow strict rules that banned marrying within one's own clan.
(https://tennesseehistory.org/de-soto-east-tennessee-may-june-1540/)
Hernando de Soto died in 1542. It wouldn't be until the 1800's that the Cherokee had full contact with Europeans. This is when things changed.
During the 1600's the Cherokee began trade with Europeans that would shift the culture. "Cherokee had very little contact with outsiders until the 1600s, when white traders moved into the region. The tribe traded with them for manufactured goods such as metal tools, glass, cloth, and firearms. In exchange they supplied the whites with deerskins, which became an important source of leather in Europe."
The Cherokee would soon align themselves in two wars. The first with the British and the French in 1755 to 1763, and then in the Revolutionary War helping the Americans free themselves from the British. Fighting on these wars, the Cherokee's didn't realize how much land they were losing.
In 1790 and 1817, a few groups began moving toward the West in an attempt to hold the culture together, with a majority staying in their homeland. Those who stayed behind dealt with diseases.
"By 1820 this group had five thousand members. But the majority of the Cherokee people stayed in their southeastern homeland. Terrible smallpox epidemics raged in the mid-1700s, killing nearly half the Cherokee population."
(Encyclopedia.com, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/united-states-and-canada/north-american-indigenous-peoples/cherokees)
Between the plagues of diseases that killed off many Cherokee, and the wars they sided in to fight, it left vacancies for white settlers to intermarry with the Cherokee women.
Between the plagues of diseases that killed off many Cherokee, and the wars they sided in to fight, it left vacancies for white settlers to intermarry with the Cherokee women.
"The marriages served two purposes. For the male traders, who had no rights as non-Cherokees in Cherokee country, they brought legal protection and economic advantage. For Cherokee women, the white men filled places that had been left vacant by disease and violence. Martin Schneider, a German missionary of the Protestant Moravian movement, wrote that all the white traders he encountered in his travels during the early 1780s were married to Cherokee women."
(CheNarion Adopted Racism From Europeans. It's Time To Reject It, https://www.hcn.org/articles/indigenous-affairs-race-and-racism-cherokee-nation-adopted-racism-from-europeans-its-time-to-reject-it/)
In 1699 John Beamer married a Cherokee woman. (https://dnaconsultants.com/the-invention-of-the-cherokee-people/)
Alexander Dougherty and John Cooper, who were fur traders are documented as marrying Cherokee women. (https://dnaconsultants.com/the-invention-of-the-cherokee-people/)
In 1699 John Beamer married a Cherokee woman. (https://dnaconsultants.com/the-invention-of-the-cherokee-people/)
Alexander Dougherty and John Cooper, who were fur traders are documented as marrying Cherokee women. (https://dnaconsultants.com/the-invention-of-the-cherokee-people/)
"In order to prevent white men from marrying Indian women for profit–as the Cherokee land was coveted by white colonists–the husband’s Cherokee citizenship was revoked if he decided to leave. “Should a white man abandon his Cherokee wife without good reason, he forfeited Cherokee citizenship and paid a settlement determined by the Cherokee Committee and Council for breach of marriage”
(The Power of Cherokee Women, https://ictnews.org/archive/the-power-of-cherokee-women/)
Marriages to white women by Cherokee men did not happen until the 1820's. Cherokee tribes were still matrilineal. They already viewed marriages to white settlers men as being outside of them. For a Cherokee man the view would be the same, but the child would be without a clan. The child to white settlers had no rights.
A matrilineal system was in place for thousands of years. Between 1808 to 1827, those rights that women had would slowly crumble being replaced by Patriarchy.
During the 1600"s there were other ethnicities that mixed with Native Americans according to Aziza Braithwaite Bey, Ph.D.
Marriages to white women by Cherokee men did not happen until the 1820's. Cherokee tribes were still matrilineal. They already viewed marriages to white settlers men as being outside of them. For a Cherokee man the view would be the same, but the child would be without a clan. The child to white settlers had no rights.
A matrilineal system was in place for thousands of years. Between 1808 to 1827, those rights that women had would slowly crumble being replaced by Patriarchy.
During the 1600"s there were other ethnicities that mixed with Native Americans according to Aziza Braithwaite Bey, Ph.D.
"three racial ancestries such as the Melungeon, some of Moorish Spanish, Armenian or Portuguese and Native American descent. The intermarriages of the three so called racial groups began at least two centuries before Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 by one vote. Authors such as William Loren Katz, James Mooney, and William D. Piersen say race (a socially constructed term) mixing began in the early 1600’s. We see on census records many different descriptions for these early intermarriages such as Black Dutch, “mixed bloods” of European and N.A. descent. In the early 1700’s the Yuchi had stolen and enslaved the English, which David H. Corkran discusses in his book Creek Frontier, 1540 – 1783. Immigration rolls of the 1800’s list many English surnames. Those who could pass for European American often did so because of Jim Crow Laws 1877 – 1950s; those of African and Native American (N.A.) descent were often classified as European & N.A. "
(Intermarriages of the Tsalagi before and after the Removal, https://sunray.org/2019/intermarriages-of-the-tsalagi-before-and-after-the-removal/)
Patriarchy
In the late 1700's the U.S. government started to implement a plan among the Cherokee and other Native tribes called, The Civilization Plan. The Civilization Plan was designed to pull back the hunting of deer and to decrease their desire for self-protection that would force them into positions of livihoods such as, farming, like the white settlers among them. Using this tactic was also a way for the U.S. government to grab the land that the Natives would no longer have a need for. Women during this time were into agriculture. The U.S. wanted to steer that position from the woman, now into the hands of men.
Patriarchy
In the late 1700's the U.S. government started to implement a plan among the Cherokee and other Native tribes called, The Civilization Plan. The Civilization Plan was designed to pull back the hunting of deer and to decrease their desire for self-protection that would force them into positions of livihoods such as, farming, like the white settlers among them. Using this tactic was also a way for the U.S. government to grab the land that the Natives would no longer have a need for. Women during this time were into agriculture. The U.S. wanted to steer that position from the woman, now into the hands of men.
"After the American Revolution, the new United States government created a “civilization” policy that it promoted among Indian groups. The goal of “civilization” was to force Cherokees and other Indians away from their traditional occupations of hunting and warfare into livelihoods that resembled those of white citizens and settlers, such as farming. “Civilization” constrained Cherokee men who once derived their status through hunting and gift-giving. The government’s desire to make Cherokee men farmers proved culturally problematic. The Cherokees did not need to learn how to farm, as the prime occupation of a Cherokee woman was indeed agriculture. To avoid a loss of manhood associated with doing women’s work, some Cherokees farmed with slaves on plantations. Others raised livestock on smaller farmsteads. Either way, Cherokees that embraced “civilization” resided in dwellings that resembled those of white settlers, and their occupants engaged in similar duties."
(The U.S. Imposes a "Civilization " Plan, https://www.nps.gov/articles/imposing-civilization.htm)
The Cherokee would join the Creeks in the Creek War, which left the elderly, children, and women open to possible white settler invaders. The invader wasn't white settlers but militiamen returning from fighting under Andrew Jackson. The Cherokee endured this attack on their homestead in hopes that it showed they could be loyal to the United States. In the end, the United States did not reimburse them for damages to their homestead, and the role of women as agriculturalists went to the men, and the women learned a need skill. Spinning yarn on a wheel.
The Cherokee would join the Creeks in the Creek War, which left the elderly, children, and women open to possible white settler invaders. The invader wasn't white settlers but militiamen returning from fighting under Andrew Jackson. The Cherokee endured this attack on their homestead in hopes that it showed they could be loyal to the United States. In the end, the United States did not reimburse them for damages to their homestead, and the role of women as agriculturalists went to the men, and the women learned a need skill. Spinning yarn on a wheel.
"When Cherokee warriors went to participate in the Creek War, they left their homesteads and families vulnerable to intrusions by white squatters. The greatest source of destruction, however, came in the form of an East Tennessee militiamen returning home from the Creek War. These men demolished fencing, burned homes, stole slaves and horses, and destroyed livestock and other foodstuffs, such as corn...The Cherokees endured these offenses in hopes of demonstrating their fidelity to the United States government. Cherokees believed that a violent response to the attacks on their home front would only result in greater destruction for their Nation.Yet, this did not come to pass, as the federal government refused to compensate the tribe for the tens of thousands of dollars of damage inflicted by marauding militiamen....The destruction of the Cherokee home front during the Creek War proved one of the strongest indications that adherence to, and even success within, the government’s “civilization” policy would not matter. Cherokee men farmed with and without slaves, raised livestock, and engaged in other commercial endeavors. Cherokee women learned to spin. In both cases, the Cherokee embrace of “civilization” proved of little importance in the face of continued and mounting pressure for land by white, western settlers."
(The U.S. Imposes a "Civilization " Plan, https://www.nps.gov/articles/imposing-civilization.htm)
This was the beginning of Patriarchy, and the change of gender roles among the Cherokee.
Things switched for women dealing with lineage, voting rights, citizenship, property ownership, textile production and manufacturing.
Treaties / Trail of Tears
Many treaties were signed by Cherokee. In 1777, the Cherokee would sign a new treaty with the newly founded United States government, only to realize in 1817 that they had lost most of their land.
This was the beginning of Patriarchy, and the change of gender roles among the Cherokee.
Things switched for women dealing with lineage, voting rights, citizenship, property ownership, textile production and manufacturing.
Lineage- The line was matrilineal. Everything flowed through the line of the mother. Even giving the child the mother’s last name. Things switched in patriarchy by the child now taking on the father's last name, and inheritance going to the man.
Voting Rights- Women participated in political councils, debated war and peace, and had veto power. Under patriarchy the Constitution of 1827, created by the Cherokees, excluded women from voting and participating in the new national government.
Citizenship- Everyone born in the Cherokee mother's clan was a citizen. Under patriarchy citizenship shifted towards male centered descent as well as tribal membership being tied to male heads of households.
Property Ownership- Women communally owning the land. They were natural and skilled agriculturalists. They exclusively owned family homes, tools, and crops. Under patriarchy the land shifted to men. 106 parcels of land being granted to male head of households.
Textile Production and Manufacturing- Women holding economic power making pottery, tanning skins, weaving baskets, and leading community agriculture. Under the U.S. Civilization Act forced women out of agriculture into domestic roles, spinning and weaving textiles.
Arrival of the Church for the Cherokee
In 1736 a Frenchman by the name of Christian Priber established himself among the Cherokee's. Primer learned the ways of the Cherokee and started to promote his Christian belief. Priber vision was for a utopian society. There were other missionaries who came that Priber worked with. There were some conversion among the Cherokee that lead them from their practiced ceremonilism to the religious ways of Christianity. In 1773, the first known conversion to Christianity happened.
The Moravian Mission would be the first permanent mission to arrive in 1801, establishing education along with religious training in Springplace.
Methodist and Baptist missionaries would soon arrive between 1810-1822.
(Dwight mission and the Cherokees, https://www.bc4gc.org/blog/2024/07/05/dwight-mission-and-the-cherokees)
and the offer was taken, so that the next generation could speak the language. But they didn't fully understand at what price they would be paying for being so accommodating to a traveler, who was setting up permanent residency.
Voting Rights- Women participated in political councils, debated war and peace, and had veto power. Under patriarchy the Constitution of 1827, created by the Cherokees, excluded women from voting and participating in the new national government.
Citizenship- Everyone born in the Cherokee mother's clan was a citizen. Under patriarchy citizenship shifted towards male centered descent as well as tribal membership being tied to male heads of households.
Property Ownership- Women communally owning the land. They were natural and skilled agriculturalists. They exclusively owned family homes, tools, and crops. Under patriarchy the land shifted to men. 106 parcels of land being granted to male head of households.
Textile Production and Manufacturing- Women holding economic power making pottery, tanning skins, weaving baskets, and leading community agriculture. Under the U.S. Civilization Act forced women out of agriculture into domestic roles, spinning and weaving textiles.
Arrival of the Church for the Cherokee
In 1736 a Frenchman by the name of Christian Priber established himself among the Cherokee's. Primer learned the ways of the Cherokee and started to promote his Christian belief. Priber vision was for a utopian society. There were other missionaries who came that Priber worked with. There were some conversion among the Cherokee that lead them from their practiced ceremonilism to the religious ways of Christianity. In 1773, the first known conversion to Christianity happened.
The Moravian Mission would be the first permanent mission to arrive in 1801, establishing education along with religious training in Springplace.
Methodist and Baptist missionaries would soon arrive between 1810-1822.
"In the history of Christian missions, those intending to share the gospel have taken several approaches in doing so. Early on, during the Catholic European expansion period, missionaries were regularly sent out with explorers. They sometimes exploited indigenous peoples as they claimed lands and resources, forced baptisms, and eradicated original cultures and languages. Later, some Colonialists strategized similarly, importing Western music, forms of worship, and liturgy. Still later, some missionaries defended indigenous peoples from enslavers, governmental encroachments, and inhumane treatment of indigenous peoples around the world. This is a story, however, of missionaries of a different kind, closer to home in place and time, who loved the people and became "family."At the turn of the 19th century, there was no formal denominational mission-sending agency among American Protestants. But in 1810, Congregationalists in America, due to the work of Adoniram and Ann Judson, Timothy Dwight, and several others, established the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). Four years later, the Judsons were instrumental in the formation of the Baptist Triennial Convention that sent out missionaries to other lands. Congregationalist Timothy Dwight, president of Yale University and grandson of Jonathan Edwards, became a significant figure in the Second Great Awakening (1810-40)."
(Dwight mission and the Cherokees, https://www.bc4gc.org/blog/2024/07/05/dwight-mission-and-the-cherokees)
"The first work of the Methodist Church among the Cherokees began in 1822 with the preaching of Rev. Richard Neeley of the Tennessee Conference in the house of Richard Rile, a Cherokee. In 1823 Rev. A.J. Crawford was appointed missionary to the Cherokees and he opened a school in 1824. Upon the request of the Indians, Richard Neely returned as missionary in 1824 to the Lower Cherokee Mission and continued to serve there until his death in 1828. In 1824 John Fletcher Boot, a Cherokee, was licensed to preach. He was simple and an orator, described as unaffected, unstudied, graceful and powerful. Turtle Fields and Blackbird were also noted native preachers. In 1835 there were 17 local preachers reported in the Cherokee Mission."
(Cherokee United Methodist Church, https://cherokeemission.wordpress.com/about-2/)The acceptance of the missionaries was about education to learn the Europeans language so that they could understand what was being spoken to them. Missionaries were offering schools, and Education, and the offer was taken,
and the offer was taken, so that the next generation could speak the language. But they didn't fully understand at what price they would be paying for being so accommodating to a traveler, who was setting up permanent residency.
Treaties / Trail of Tears
Many treaties were signed by Cherokee. In 1777, the Cherokee would sign a new treaty with the newly founded United States government, only to realize in 1817 that they had lost most of their land.
"The Long Island Treaty, signed in July 1777, kept the majority of the Cherokee out of the American Revolution. By the terms of the Treaty of Hopewell, in 1785, the Cherokee recognized the supreme authority of the new government of the United States, which in turn promised to protect the rights of the Cherokee to the twenty million acres of land that they still possessed. In spite of this promise, by 1817 Cherokee lands had been reduced to about seven million acres in southwest North Carolina, southeast Tennessee, a large portion of north Georgia, and the northwest corner of Alabama. The reduction in the size of Cherokee land led to major changes in their lifestyle. The basic means of support shifted from hunting to agriculture. Many Cherokee continued to supplement their income by trading with their White neighbors, who constantly moved closer and closer to the Cherokee towns.Soon after the American Revolution, the Cherokee began adopting European standards of civilization. They hoped that by so doing they would be able to remain in their homelands. The first step in civilization was the acceptance of Christianity. The evangelization of the Cherokee was begun by the Moravians in 1802. The most effective attempt was by the Brainerd Mission, beginning in 1817 in present-day Chattanooga; this was also the major source of education for young Cherokee men and women. Later Cherokee leaders such as Elias Boudinot and John Ridge began their formal education at Brainerd.During the War of 1812, the Cherokee were given the chance to prove their loyalty to the United States. One of their traditional tribal enemies, the Creek, were fighting in Alabama. The Cherokee joined the volunteers of Andrew Jackson to defeat the Creek at Horseshoe Bend in 1814, a battle in which Yonaguska, a future Cherokee chief, saved the life of Jackson, a future American president."
(EBSCO, Cherokee, https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/cherokee)
Trail of Tears-Indian Removal Act 1830
Just as the Chacta were seen as unequal to the Europeans, so was the Cherokee, no matter how much they tried to prove their loyalty. The Cherokee wanted to stay on their land. To be seen as Sovereign, but the request was denied by the state of Georgia.
(Cherokee Trail of Tears, Timeline, Summary & History, "https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-cherokee-the-trail-of-tears-history-timeline-summary.html#section---CherokeeTrailOfTearsDatesAndTimeline)
Two-thousand volunteered to walk, the ones that stayed behind would be forced off the land. 13,000 Cherokee walked the 1,000 mile trek in the harshest weather. When the tribe reached Berry Ferry to cross the Ohio River on the steam boat that cost twelve cents, they were charged a dollar. They huddled together until they would be let to cross. A solider stated, he fought in wars and had seen men slaughtered,but the,
Trail of Tears-Indian Removal Act 1830
Just as the Chacta were seen as unequal to the Europeans, so was the Cherokee, no matter how much they tried to prove their loyalty. The Cherokee wanted to stay on their land. To be seen as Sovereign, but the request was denied by the state of Georgia.
"The Cherokee wanted to retain their lands and exist as a sovereign, or independent, nation. They mounted a non-violent campaign to resist displacement, but the state of Georgia did not see them as sovereign and refused their request in 1827. State laws in Georgia led to confiscated lands, the prohibition of Cherokee meetings, and many other restrictions on the Native people."
(Cherokee Trail of Tears, Timeline, Summary & History, "https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-cherokee-the-trail-of-tears-history-timeline-summary.html#section---CherokeeTrailOfTearsDatesAndTimeline)
Two-thousand volunteered to walk, the ones that stayed behind would be forced off the land. 13,000 Cherokee walked the 1,000 mile trek in the harshest weather. When the tribe reached Berry Ferry to cross the Ohio River on the steam boat that cost twelve cents, they were charged a dollar. They huddled together until they would be let to cross. A solider stated, he fought in wars and had seen men slaughtered,but the,
" Indian Removal was some of the cruelest work I ever knew."
(The Trail of Tears: The Tragic Start of Forced Displacement of the Five Civilized Tribes, https://welcomenativespirit.com/blogs/news/the-trail-of-tears-the-tragic-story-of-the-forced-displacement-of-the-five-civilized-tribes?srsltid=AfmBOoplA5gNHzFnHnlHsI21RLoS-huk55hgk2pwuc9i_CGC9NBl37su)
4,000 Cherokee lost their lives.
CONCLUSION
The Cherokee did everything that was asked of them. Everything.
When the Moravian missionaries arrived in 1802 they didn't resist. They opened their doors to Christianity, adopted it, and made it their own. They weren't forced into it at gunpoint at first. They chose it because they believed that if they worshipped like their neighbors, spoke like their neighbors, and lived like their neighbors, maybe their neighbors would finally leave them in peace.
Sequoyah gave his people a written language in 1821. Not because anyone asked him to. Because he understood that literacy was power and he wanted his people to have it. By 1827 the Cherokee had drafted their own Constitution, modeled after the United States Constitution, with their own government, their own laws, and their own newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix. They were saying clearly and without ambiguity — we are here. We are civilized by your own definition. We have met every standard you set. We deserve to stay on the land our ancestors are buried in.
The United States government's response was the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
Andrew Jackson signed it anyway.
The land was always the goal. Civilization was never the real requirement. It was a moving target. A test designed to be failed regardless of the score. Because no matter how many treaties were signed, no matter how many churches were built, no matter how many constitutions were drafted, the settlers wanted the land and the government was going to get it for them.
What did the Cherokee receive in return for surrendering their language, their clan system, their matrilineal structure, their women's authority, their marriage customs, and ultimately their homeland?
They were named one of the Five Civilized Tribes.
A title that was never a compliment. It was an insult dressed in praise. It was the United States government saying, you bent far enough. You gave up enough of yourselves. You were civilized enough to be manageable.
And then they removed them anyway.
The Trail of Tears began in 1838. Thousands died. And the marriage customs, the clan authority, the rights that Cherokee women had held for centuries, were buried somewhere along that trail along with everything else they were forced to leave behind.
4,000 Cherokee lost their lives.
CONCLUSION
The Cherokee did everything that was asked of them. Everything.
When the Moravian missionaries arrived in 1802 they didn't resist. They opened their doors to Christianity, adopted it, and made it their own. They weren't forced into it at gunpoint at first. They chose it because they believed that if they worshipped like their neighbors, spoke like their neighbors, and lived like their neighbors, maybe their neighbors would finally leave them in peace.
Sequoyah gave his people a written language in 1821. Not because anyone asked him to. Because he understood that literacy was power and he wanted his people to have it. By 1827 the Cherokee had drafted their own Constitution, modeled after the United States Constitution, with their own government, their own laws, and their own newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix. They were saying clearly and without ambiguity — we are here. We are civilized by your own definition. We have met every standard you set. We deserve to stay on the land our ancestors are buried in.
The United States government's response was the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
Andrew Jackson signed it anyway.
The land was always the goal. Civilization was never the real requirement. It was a moving target. A test designed to be failed regardless of the score. Because no matter how many treaties were signed, no matter how many churches were built, no matter how many constitutions were drafted, the settlers wanted the land and the government was going to get it for them.
What did the Cherokee receive in return for surrendering their language, their clan system, their matrilineal structure, their women's authority, their marriage customs, and ultimately their homeland?
They were named one of the Five Civilized Tribes.
A title that was never a compliment. It was an insult dressed in praise. It was the United States government saying, you bent far enough. You gave up enough of yourselves. You were civilized enough to be manageable.
And then they removed them anyway.
The Trail of Tears began in 1838. Thousands died. And the marriage customs, the clan authority, the rights that Cherokee women had held for centuries, were buried somewhere along that trail along with everything else they were forced to leave behind.
