Early Years in Indian Territory
In 1835, Watie, his family, and many other Cherokee emigrated to Indian Territory (eastern present-day Oklahoma). They joined some Cherokee who had relocated as early as the 1820s and were known as the "Old Settlers".
Those Cherokee who remained on tribal lands in the East were rounded up and forcibly removed by the U.S. government in 1838. Their journey, on which they took their slaves, became known as the "Trail of Tears," as 4,000 people died.
After removal, members of the National Party targeted Treaty Party men for assassination; their giving up tribal lands was considered a "blood" or capital offense. Stand Watie, his brother Elias Boudinot, their uncle Major Ridge and cousin John Ridge, along with several other Treaty Party men, were attacked. Those four men named were all attacked on 22 June 1839; only Stand Watie survived. He arranged for his brother Elias' children to be sent for their safety and education to their mother's family in Connecticut; their mother Harriet had died in 1836 before the migration.
In 1842 Watie encountered James Foreman, whom he recognized as one of his uncle's assassins, and shot him dead. This was part of the post-Removal violence within the tribe, which was close to civil war for years. Ross partisans killed Stand's brother Thomas Watie in 1845. At least 34 politically related murders were committed among the Cherokee in 1845 and 1846.
In the 1850s Stand Watie was tried in Arkansas for the murder of Foreman; he was acquitted on the grounds of self defense. His nephew Elias Cornelius Boudinot, who had returned to the West and become a lawyer, defended him.
Watie, a slave holder, developed a successful plantation on Spavinaw Creek in the Indian Territory. He served on the Cherokee Council from 1845 to 1861, and part of the time served as Speaker.
Read more about this topic: Stand Watie
Famous quotes containing the words early years, early, years, indian and/or territory:
“Even today . . . experts, usually male, tell women how to be mothers and warn them that they should not have children if they have any intention of leaving their side in their early years. . . . Children don’t need parents’ full-time attendance or attention at any stage of their development. Many people will help take care of their needs, depending on who their parents are and how they chose to fulfill their roles.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)
“I looked at my daughters, and my boyhood picture, and appreciated the gift of parenthood, at that moment, more than any other gift I have ever been given. For what person, except one’s own children, would want so deeply and sincerely to have shared your childhood? Who else would think your insignificant and petty life so precious in the living, so rich in its expressiveness, that it would be worth partaking of what you were, to understand what you are?”
—Gerald Early (20th century)
“Every constitution..., and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19 years [a generation]. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“The next forenoon we went to Oldtown.... The Indian is said to cultivate the vices rather than the virtues of the white man. Yet this village was cleaner than I expected, far cleaner than such Irish villages as I have seen.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Size is not grandeur, and territory does not make a nation.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)