In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Chapter 8 The Prophesy Less than a half century before the abandonment of their beloved [Little] Tennessee Valley, the revered chief Oconostota prophesized that: “the country which the Cherokee and their fathers had so long occupied, would be called for, and the small remnant which may exist of this nation, once so great and so formidable, will be compelled to seek a retreat in some far-off wilderness ” (Ramsey 1853:118). By the end of the eighteenth century, the Cherokee realized that to continue to survive in the white man’s world they had to turn to effective subsistence agriculture, receive a formal education including learning English, and emulate the American governmental system. All this was to be accomplished without losing their native identity; no mean task as they confronted local, state, and federal pressures to assimilate. By 1799, the Moravian missionaries observed in their travels through the Overhill country: “that in the course of the last summer 300 plows . . . [and] a mill at government expense” (Williams, ed. 1928). When the federal road was built through the Cherokee Nation in Georgia in 1804, they asked the U.S. government to provide the Nation with blacksmiths and wheelwrights, gristmills and sawmills, and cotton gins (McLoughlin 1984:24). By the third decade of the nineteenth century, most mixed bloods or metis42 lifeways much more resembled that of the whites than their full-blood tribal brethren. Although they still considered themselves as Cherokee and were accepted as such, many lived on plantations worked by black slaves and became businessmen and traders, and were wealthier than most of their white neighbors. In the 1820s, Major Ridge who rode with John Watts on the Knoxville raid of 1793, now lived in a mansion described as an elegantly white painted, two story, eight room house with 30 glass windows sitting on 42. A French term preferable to the terms “half-breed” or “mixed blood.” 142 The Prophesy 280 cleared acres where he grew cotton, tobacco, and wheat; raised cattle, hogs, and sheep; and tended a large orchard of peach, apple, cherry, and plum trees. In the vicinity was a prosperous trading post in which Ridge was a silent partner (Wilkins 1970:186–188). In 1801, the Moravians established Spring Place Mission in northwest Georgia where Cherokee youth learned the “arts of civilization”: reading and writing in English, the Christian religion, the mechanical arts and farming for boys, and household skills such as spinning and weaving for girls (Schwarze 1923). The largest mission school was Brainerd Mission, established by Congregational and Presbyterian missionaries on Chickamauga Creek near presentday Chattanooga. Brainerd Mission was a Christian School where the Indian children began their day with prayer and hymns, memorized Biblical tracts, said grace before meals, and ended their day with more prayers and hymns (McLoughlin 1984:138). The academic curriculum included Bible study; vocational training for boys such as stock raising, smithing, and carpentry; and domestic skills for girls as well as the “three Rs” (Nichols 2010). One early observer remarked that the Indian children at these schools “all gave flattering evidence of promising geniuses” (Blackburn 1807:85). In 1803, the Reverend Gideon Blackburn, a young Presbyterian minister from Maryville, Tennessee, established a mission school for the Overhill children near Tellico. His curriculum included the “three Rs,” but he emphasized personal cleanliness, the use of cutlery while eating, and keeping a strict schedule (Woodward 1963:124–125). At a council on the Hiwassee River in 1805, Blackburn had his students read English books, sing hymns in English, and demonstrate their ability to spell and cipher. In the audience was none other than Gov. John Sevier. After the performance of the Cherokee children, the grizzled old warhorse reportedly shook Blackburn’s hand, and with tears streaming down his cheeks proclaimed “I have often stood unmoved amidst showers of bullets from the Indian rifles, but this effectually unmans me. I see civilization taking the ground of barbarism, and the praises of Jesus succeeding the war whoop of the savage” (Woodward 1963:124–125; Blackburn 1808:417). During this period, the Cherokee themselves were taught to read and write in their own language. In 1825, the Nation officially adopted the writing system invented by the legendary Sequoyah a few years before. The system, with its 86 characters for the syllables in the Cherokee language, spread rapidly through the tribe, and from 1828–1834 writers used Sequoyah’s syllabary to print the Cherokee Phoenix, the official newspaper of the Cherokee Nation. A major...

Share