Rev. Evan Jones, Missionary to the Cherokee

Adopted by the Cherokee

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https://www.jstor.org/stable/40582017 https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/ncpi/view/21281
https://www.bcgv.org/evan-jones-jessy-bushyhead-the-valley-town-mis...
https://slate.com/culture/2019/02/trail-of-tears-eyewitness-evan-jo...
https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=JO019
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Evan Jones (1788-1872) was born in Wales, where he worked as a draper and followed the Methodist religion. He married Elizabeth Lanigan and emigrated to the United States in 1821, arriving at Philadelphia.[1] Jones became a Baptist missionary and spent over fifty years as a missionary to the Cherokee people. The Baptist Foreign Mission Board initially sent him and his family to work among the Cherokees living in North Carolina, where he learned to speak and write in the Cherokee language, taught school at the Valley Town Baptist Mission, and became an itinerant preacher.[2] Jones volunteered to lead one group of Cherokees to Indian Territory, when they were expelled from their ancestral homeland by the U.S. government. When they finally arrived, he reestablished the Baptist Mission and school and resumed his missionary activities. With the help of his son, John Buttrick Jones, he continued his work preaching, translating religious books, and serving as an advocate for the Cherokees. One author claims that Evan and his son "...converted more American Indians to Christianity than any other Protestant missionaries in America".[

Life in North Carolina Jones had been an adherent of Methodism in Wales, but converted to the Baptist church soon after he arrived in Philadelphia. He became a Baptist missionary and was sent to Valley Town, North Carolina, where he taught at the Baptist mission school. Among his pupils were the future Cherokee missionary, Jesse Bushyhead and a future chief of the Cherokee tribe, Lewis Downing. Jones' wife died at Valley Town on February 5, 1831. Their son, John Buttrick Jones, was born December 24, 1824.[1] He also had a daughter, Mary Lincoln Jones, who was born in 1835 in the Eastern Cherokee Nation, North Carolina.[3]

Evan married Pauline Cunningham after Elizabeth's death.[1] According to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma, Jones was accused of committing adultery with her. He was also accused of murdering his sister-in-law, Cynthia Cunningham, and her baby, thus granting him the dubious distinction of being the first clergyman to be tried for murder in the United States.[4] He was tried by a civil court and a church council and was acquitted in both.[2]

Jones soon found that many of the older Cherokees, especially those who lived in the mountains, clung tenaciously to their old ways and culture. He wrote in his journal that people he called "conjurers" (actually, they were the adoniskee or medicine men[5]%29 would spread rumors that the Europeans had furnished the Bible to lead the Cherokees astray from their old religion. They collected the prayer books and hymnals that Jones had given out and returned them to the mission. Sometimes they even threatened Jones with bodily harm. Jones persisted and, over time, these same people came to develop a tolerance for him and his work, while he exhibited a tolerance for their old ways.[6] Jones and Bushyhead developed a close working relationship as missionaries, with Jones often preaching in English and Bushyhead translating the sermon into Cherokee.[7] In 1832, Reverend Jones recommended to the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions that Bushyhead be appointed as an assistant missionary. The appointment was made, and Bushyhead served in this role for the next eleven years. He is said to have been the first Cherokee to have been ordained as a Baptist minister. He continued to work closely with Jones, not only preaching to the Cherokees, but translating the Book of Genesis and other religious books into the Cherokee language, using the Cherokee Syllabary.[8]

Cherokee removal Jones vehemently opposed the removal of the Cherokees from their ancestral lands in the Southeastern United States to the Indian Territory. Unable to prevent their expulsion, he volunteered to lead one group of the tribe on the Trail of Tears. His group comprised 1,033 people, who left Valley Town on February 2, 1838, just ahead of another group led by Jesse Bushyhead. Jones' group experienced 71 deaths and five births en route. After their arrival in Indian Territory, Jones set about reconstituting the Baptist Mission school near the present town of Westville, Oklahoma. Jones named the site Pleasant Hill. The Cherokees called it "Breadtown", because the Army issued food rations there after the trek.[9]

Life in Indian Territory Jesse Bushyhead died in 1844, but Evan Jones kept the Pleasant Hill mission going until the Civil War. John Buttrick Jones joined his father in this work in 1855. John had graduated from the University of Rochester and married there earlier that year. The mission had acquired a printing press and the Joneses began publishing a monthly newspaper called the Cherokee Messenger. The paper was printed partly in Cherokee and partly in English.[10] In 1856, the Joneses helped organize a secret anti-slavery organization, the Keetoowah Society, among the full-blood Cherokees, to counter the influence of a secret pro-slavery group. The members vowed to elect anti-slavery candidates to tribal office and to keep the Cherokee Nation neutral in case war broke out between the American states over the slavery issue. Although their meetings were held in the woods with traditional dances and debates, they always opened with prayers by Cherokee Baptist preachers.[11] The pro-slavery faction on the Cherokee Council tried to pass a law in 1857, threatening missionaries with expulsion from the Cherokee Nation if they opposed slavery. The law did not pass, but the full-bloods' anger against the pro-slavery mixed bloods only grew. Evan Jones faced new competition when the Southern Baptist Convention began sending pro-slavery missionaries into the Nation in 1857.[12]

When the Indian Agent Butler learned about the Keetoowah Society, he informed Alfred B. Greenwood, commissioner of Indian Affairs. Greenwood ordered that the Society be broken up and its leaders arrested. This order never succeeded.[11] In 1861, the U.S. Indian Agent forced John B. Evans to leave the territory, claiming that he was "an intemperate abolitionist." The younger Jones spent the Civil War in Illinois.[9] A year later, Evan Jones also fled from pro-slavery vigilantes who threatened his life.[13]

Evan and John Jones both returned to the Cherokee Nation shortly after the Civil War ended. They, like those of other denominations, began to work rebuilding their churches, reactivating former members and recruiting new members. Although they were instructed not to interfere in tribal politics, Evan became a supporter of Lewis Downing, who many full-bloods wanted as Principal Chief, instead of William P. Ross, who had been appointed by the Council.[14]

John B. Jones moved the mission to Tahlequah, which had become the Cherokee capital, in 1867.[9]

Death and legacy Evan Jones retired from all mission work in 1870.[2] He died August 18, 1872. Pauline died September 17, 1876. Both are buried in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.[1]

The American Baptist Magazine memorialized Evan Jones, saying:

He was a man of scholarly attainments and acquired the Cherokee language and spoke and wrote it freely. The confidence in which he was held among the Cherokees who venerated him as a father, was never impaired. Even in the hours of his last illness, they came from far and near to hear a few last words of comfort in their native tongue from their revered friend. For the last three years he resided at Chetopa, Kansas, at the home of a daughter, and was on a visit to his son at Tahlequah at the time of his death. He was sick only a few days. The previous Sabbath he attended church and heard his son preach.[9]

References

Meserve, John Bartlett. "Chief Lewis Downing and Chief Charles Thompson (Oochalata). In: Chronicles of Oklahoma. Volume 16, Number 3. September 1938. Archived October 29, 2013, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved July 19, 2013.

Jerry L. Faught, Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. "Evan Jones (1788-1872)." Retrieved July 19, 2013.

https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/154557571/person/4...

McLoughlin, William C. (1984-05-13). "Not "the First"". Letter to the editor. The New York Times. Retrieved 2005-05-07.

McLoughlin, The Cherokees and Christianity. p. 68

Minges, p. 44.

Foreman, Carolyn Ross. "Aunt Eliza of Tahlequah." Chronicles of Oklahoma. Vol. 9, No. 1 (March, 1931). Retrieved June 19, 2013.

Hirschfelder, Arlene, and Paulette Molin. "Bushyhead, Jesse." Encyclopedia of Native American Religions, Updated Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2000. American Indian History Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Routh, E. C. "Early Missionaries to the Cherokees." Chronicles of Oklahoma. Vol. 15, No. 4. Retrieved July 20, 2013.

First Baptist Church - Tahlequah, OK. History. Retrieved July 26, 2013.

McLoughlin, The Cherokees and Christianity. p. 82

McLoughlin, After the Trail of Tears, p. 147

The Cherokees and Christianity", p. 68

McLoughlin, After the Trail of Tears, pp. 243-246 Sources McLoughlin, William G. After the Trail of Tears: The Cherokees' Struggle for Sovereignty. 1993. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill. ISBN 978-0-8078-4433-5. McLoughlin, William Gerald. The Cherokees and Christianity: 1794-1870: Essays on Acculturation and Cultural Persistence. (1994) ISBN 0-8203-3138-4. Available on Google Books. Retrieved July 26, 2013. Minges, Patrick Neal, Slavery in the Cherokee Nation: The Keetoowah Society and the Defining of a People. 1855-1867. (2003). Taylor & Francis Group. New York. ISBN 0-203-60413-X (Adobe eReader Format). Available on Google Books. Retrieved July 26, 2013.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Jones_(missionary)

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Evan Jones Born 1788 Wales Died August 18, 1872 Talequah, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory Nationality Welsh Occupation Draper, Missionary Years active 1821-1870

Evan Jones (1788-1872) was born in Wales, where he worked as a draper and followed the Methodist religion. He married Elizabeth Lanigan and emigrated to the United States in 1821, arriving at Philadelphia.[1] Jones became a Baptist missionary and spent over fifty years as a missionary to the Cherokee people. The Baptist Foreign Mission Board initially sent him and his family to work among the Cherokees living in North Carolina, where he learned to speak and write in the Cherokee language, taught school at the Valley Town Baptist Mission, and became an itinerant preacher.[2] Jones volunteered to lead one group of Cherokees to Indian Territory, when they were expelled from their ancestral homeland by the U.S. government. When they finally arrived, he reestablished the Baptist Mission and school and resumed his missionary activities. With the help of his son, John Buttrick Jones, he continued his work preaching, translating religious books, and serving as an advocate for the Cherokees. One author claims that Evan and his son "...converted more American Indians to Christianity than any other Protestant missionaries in America".[2]

Life in North Carolina Jones had been an adherent of Methodism in Wales, but converted to the Baptist church soon after he arrived in Philadelphia. He became a Baptist missionary and was sent to Valley Town, North Carolina, where he taught at the Baptist mission school. Among his pupils were the future Cherokee missionary, Jesse Bushyhead and a future chief of the Cherokee tribe, Lewis Downing. Jones' wife died at Valley Town on February 5, 1831. Their son, John Buttrick Jones, was born December 24, 1824.[1] There were apparently four other children who died at an early age, though there is little specific information available about them.[2]

Evan married Pauline Cunningham after Elizabeth's death.[1] According to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma, Jones was accused of committing adultery with her. He was also accused of murdering his sister-in-law, Cynthia Cunningham, and her baby, thus granting him the dubious distinction of being the first clergyman to be tried for murder in the United States.[3] He was tried by a civil court and a church council and was acquitted in both.[2]

Jones soon found that many of the older Cherokees, especially those who lived in the mountains, clung tenaciously to their old ways and culture. He wrote in his journal that people he called "conjurers" (actually, they were the adoniskee or medicine men[4]%29 would spread rumors that the Europeans had furnished the Bible to lead the Cherokees astray from their old religion. They collected the prayer books and hymnals that Jones had given out and returned them to the mission. Sometimes they even threatened Jones with bodily harm. Jones persisted and, over time, these same people came to develop a tolerance for him and his work, while he exhibited a tolerance for their old ways.[5] Jones and Bushyhead developed a close working relationship as missionaries, with Jones often preaching in English and Bushyhead translating the sermon into Cherokee.[6] In 1832, Reverend Jones recommended to the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions that Bushyhead be appointed as an assistant missionary. The appointment was made, and Bushyhead served in this role for the next eleven years. He is said to have been the first Cherokee to have been ordained as a Baptist minister. He continued to work closely with Jones, not only preaching to the Cherokees, but translating the Book of Genesis and other religious books into the Cherokee language, using the Cherokee Syllabary.[7]

Cherokee removal Jones vehemently opposed the removal of the Cherokees from their ancestral lands in the Southeastern United States to the Indian Territory. Unable to prevent their expulsion, he volunteered to lead one group of the tribe on the Trail of Tears. His group comprised 1,033 people, who left Valley Town on February 2, 1838, just ahead of another group led by Jesse Bushyhead. Jones' group experienced 71 deaths and five births en route. After their arrival in Indian Territory, Jones set about reconstituting the Baptist Mission school near the present town of Westville, Oklahoma. Jones named the site Pleasant Hill. The Cherokees called it "Breadtown", because the Army issued food rations there after the trek.[8]

Life in Indian Territory Jesse Bushyhead died in 1844, but Evan Jones kept the Pleasant Hill mission going until the Civil War. John Buttrick Jones joined his father in this work in 1855. John had graduated from the University of Rochester and married there earlier that year. The mission had acquired a printing press and the Joneses began publishing a monthly newspaper called the Cherokee Messenger. The paper was printed partly in Cherokee and partly in English.[9] In 1856, the Joneses helped organize a secret anti-slavery organization, the Keetoowah Society, among the full-blood Cherokees, to counter the influence of a secret pro-slavery group. The members vowed to elect anti-slavery candidates to tribal office and to keep the Cherokee Nation neutral in case war broke out between the American states over the slavery issue. Although their meetings were held in the woods with traditional dances and debates, they always opened with prayers by Cherokee Baptist preachers.[10] The pro-slavery faction on the Cherokee Council tried to pass a law in 1857, threatening missionaries with expulsion from the Cherokee Nation if they opposed slavery. The law did not pass, but the full-bloods' anger against the pro-slavery mixed bloods only grew. Evan Jones faced new competition when the Southern Baptist Convention began sending pro-slavery missionaries into the Nation in 1857.[11]

When the Indian Agent Butler learned about the Keetoowah Society, he informed Alfred B. Greenwood, commissioner of Indian Affairs. Greenwood ordered that the Society be broken up and its leaders arrested. This order never succeeded.[10] In 1861, the U.S. Indian Agent forced John B. Evans to leave the territory, claiming that he was "an intemperate abolitionist." The younger Jones spent the Civil War in Illinois.[8] A year later, Evan Jones also fled from pro-slavery vigilantes who threatened his life.[12]

Evan and John Jones both returned to the Cherokee Nation shortly after the Civil War ended. They, like those of other denominations, began to work rebuilding their churches, reactivating former members and recruiting new members. Although they were instructed not to interfere in tribal politics, Evan became a supporter of Lewis Downing, who many full-bloods wanted as Principal Chief, instead of William P. Ross, who had been appointed by the Council.[13] John B. Jones moved the mission to Tahlequah, which had become the Cherokee capital, in 1867.[8]

Death and legacy Evan Jones retired from all mission work in 1870.[2] He died August 18, 1872. Pauline died September 17, 1876. Both are buried in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.[1]

The American Baptist Magazine memorialized Evan Jones, saying:

He was a man of scholarly attainments and acquired the Cherokee language and spoke and wrote it freely. The confidence in which he was held among the Cherokees who venerated him as a father, was never impaired. Even in the hours of his last illness, they came from far and near to hear a few last words of comfort in their native tongue from their revered friend. For the last three years he resided at Chetopa, Kansas, at the home of a daughter, and was on a visit to his son at Tahlequah at the time of his death. He was sick only a few days. The previous Sabbath he attended church and heard his son preach.[8]

References

Meserve, John Bartlett. "Chief Lewis Downing and Chief Charles Thompson (Oochalata). In: Chronicles of Oklahoma. Volume 16, Number 3. September 1938. Archived October 29, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved July 19, 2013.

Jerry L. Faught, Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. "Evan Jones (1788-1872)." Retrieved July 19, 2013.

McLoughlin, William C. (1984-05-13). "Not "the First"". Letter to the editor. The New York Times. Retrieved 2005-05-07.

McLoughlin, The Cherokees and Christianity. p. 68

Minges, p. 44.

Foreman, Carolyn Ross. "Aunt Eliza of Tahlequah." Chronicles of Oklahoma. Vol. 9, No. 1 (March, 1931). Retrieved June 19, 2013.

Hirschfelder, Arlene, and Paulette Molin. "Bushyhead, Jesse." Encyclopedia of Native American Religions, Updated Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2000. American Indian History Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Routh, E. C. "Early Missionaries to the Cherokees." Chronicles of Oklahoma. Vol. 15, No. 4. Retrieved July 20, 2013.

First Baptist Church - Tahlequah, OK. History. Retrieved July 26, 2013.

McLoughlin, The Cherokees and Christianity. p. 82

McLoughlin, After the Trail of Tears, p. 147

The Cherokees and Christianity", p. 68

McLoughlin, After the Trail of Tears, pp. 243-246 Sources McLoughlin, William G. After the Trail of Tears: The Cherokees' Struggle for Sovereignty. 1993. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill. ISBN 978-0-8078-4433-5. McLoughlin, William Gerald. The Cherokees and Christianity: 1794-1870: Essays on Acculturation and Cultural Persistence. (1994) ISBN 0-8203-3138-4. Available on Google Books. Retrieved July 26, 2013. Minges, Patrick Neal, Slavery in the Cherokee Nation: The Keetoowah Society and the Defining of a People. 1855-1867. (2003). Taylor & Francis Group. New York. ISBN 0-203-60413-X (Adobe eReader Format). Available on Google Books. Retrieved July 26, 2013. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The white missionary Evan Jones was so loved by the Cherokee Nation that he and all his family living with him were adopted by the tribe. One of these was the orphan son of his daughter Pauline.  Though this orphaned child eventually had eight children, none ever applied for enrollment with the tribe through the Dawes commission. Yet even today all the many descendants would be eligible for tribal citizenship if they registered.  The son´s name was Richard Byrd.

We encourage you to believe in and investigate family stories. The Cherokee are the best documented tribe in history, yet even with today´s internet resources the truth is often obscured. We provide free research assistance and we launch a new site to preserve the stories, memories, and family history of our members on September 1, 2016. You´re invited to join us. http://cherokeeregistry.com/blog/2016/08/20/why-you-may-still-become-a -tribal-member-even-though-your-cherokee-grandmother-is-missing-from-t he-rolls/ (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

Translated the Bible into the Cherokee Language Volume and Issue Data: Cherokee Gospel Tidings (Vol. 1, No. 1, January, 1898-Vol. 6, No. 9, September, 1903) In 1868, Jones and his son John B. Jones and his family were admitted to full Cherokee citizenship. The elder Jones died on August 18, 1872. John Bartlett Meserve,

The Cherokee Messenger was a small religious magazine published at Baptist Mission (or Bread Town), Cherokee Nation. It appeared irregularly and went through only twelve issues from August, 1844, to May, 1846. Each issue con- tained sixteen pages with two columns of print each; the pages were numbered consecutively through the twelve issues. The magazine was edited by the Reverend Evan Jones, a white Baptist mis- sionary to the Cherokees. Born in Wales on May 14, 1788, Jones had come to America in 1821 and in the fall of that year had become a missionary to the Cherokees at Wills Town, North Carolina. There he taught a mission school and trained several young Cherokees for the Baptist ministry, among whom were Jesse Bushyhead and Lewis Downing. Jones removed with Bushyhead's party of Cherokees in 1839 and upon arrival in the West established Baptist Mission, north of present-day Westville, Oklahoma. (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( ((((((((((((((((((((((((( Oklahoma Historical Society - Encyclopeida of Oklahoma History & Culture http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=JO019

He marched with the Cherokee Nation on their Trail of Tears and assisted them in settling in what is now northeastern Oklahoma. There his mission work included publishing the Cherokee Messenger, a religious and social newspaper written in Cherokee and English that covered issues of interest to Cherokees. The first edition appeared in August 1844, and for the next few years the newspaper appeared every two months. Some historians believe this to be Oklahoma's first newspaper.

Although Jones can rightly be considered a missionary hero, he faced many hardships along the way. He lost his wife, Elizabeth, and four of his children. Some accused him of adultery after his remarriage to a younger woman, Pauline Cunningham. He endured trial by a civil court and by a church council after being indicted for the murder of his sister-in-law, Cynthia Cunningham, and her infant child. Although he was acquitted in both trials, this episode haunted him the remainder of his life. Jones retired from all mission work in 1870. He died in Tahlequah, Oklahoma on August 18, 1872, at the age of eighty-four. He is buried there at the National Cemetery. (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( (((((((((( The Murder Trial of Reverend Evan Jones https://www.jstor.org/stable/23518715?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((' From: NdnDreamin@@aol.com &ltmailto:NdnDreamin@@aol.com&gt Subject: [MIXED-BLOODS] Chapter 2, pg. 6 Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2001 19:31:38 EST

The Keetoowah Mission to other Nations

There were deep bonds between the conservative members of the CherokeeNation and the conservative members of the Muscogean Nations that lived justacross the East Shawnee Trail in the Creek Nation and the Seminole Nation.The cultural bonds that linked the Creek and Cherokee Nations followingremoval transcended the historic animosity between the two nations. Eachcoming from the temple mound culture, they shared very many traditional beliefs.In addition, the Natchez people, which settled among the Creek andCherokee following their decimation at the hands of the French, provided yetanother link of commonality among the peoples. The Natchez were known fortheir knowledge of the "old way," and served to promote traditionalism amongthe conservative members of the Southeastern Indians.189

Not only were there traditional ties between the peoples relocated toIndian Territory, there were denominational ones as well. From their veryinception, the Baptist Missions in the Cherokee Nation had established anoutreach to the Creek Nation to their immediate west. In the early days of theCreek Nation in the West, law forbade an Indian or Negro to lead Christianworship services. Yet, according to Angie Debo, it was done anyway: "Smallearnest groups met secretly, sang negro spirituals and portions of the CreekHymns they could remember, and listened to the instructions of ignorantslaves."190 When the hostility towards missionaries ended in the early eighteenforties, several missionaries from the Cherokee station visited the CreekBaptist mission:

The church among the Creeks has been visited by the Cherokeemissionaries and found to be in a prosperous condition, under the care of coloredpreachers. Several have been added to the church. No white missionary labors withthe Creeks at present, but Mr. Jones of the Cherokee Mission has beenrequested to ascertain the practicability of stationing a mission family amongthem.191 The Baptist Mission in the Creek Nation was situated as an outpost ofthe Ebenezer Baptist Church founded in 1832 by "three blacks, two whitepeople, and one Indian in its six charter members."192 Native preacher JohnDavis, the first Baptist preacher licensed and ordained in Indian Territory,led it.193 When Davis died in 1839, he left the church in very able hands:

Mr. Jones reports the state of the people to be highly encouraging.The members of the church appear well, and the religious meetings arethronged, many of the congregation attending from a distance of twenty or moremiles... "Religious meetings are conducted by two black men, both slaves. Theoldest, Jacob, is ordained; the other called Jack, a blacksmith, acts asinterpreter. They are allowed one day in the week to support themselves and theirfamilies in food and clothing; and these days they devote to the service of the church, hiring the working of their little corn and potatopatches."194 By 1845, Baptist and Methodist ministers were openly working in theCreek territory and by the end of the following year, the ban againstAfrican preaching had been lifted. In the area where the Arkansas River andVerdigris River met between Fort Gibson and the Creek Agency, a number ofchurches had sprung up led by Native preachers.195 On April 12, 1845, the Cherokee Baptist Mission Society had beenfounded by Minister Evan Jones. Because of the poverty of the conservatives andslaves who supported the Baptist mission, the society was dissolved after afew years.196 However, in late 1848, a great camp meeting was held in theCreek Nation, led by Baptist missionaries from the Cherokee Nation under the auspices of Evan Jones. Fourteen Creek, including Chilly McIntosh andseveral other prominent chiefs, united with the Baptist Church: 197

The Congregation was made up chiefly of Creeks and blacks, with a fewwhites and Cherokees. I became acquainted with two very interesting andintelligent young men, one the son of the late principal chief of the Creeknation, and the other of the present chief ... They both appear well, and promisegreat usefulness to their people, as the speak the English and Creeklanguages fluently.198 A Baptist missionary (probably Jones) was even invited to address the council. At the time, the Creek Baptists had eight preachers -- onewhite, four Native Americans, and three African-Americans. They had sevenchurches with more than 550 members. 199 In 1850, Evan Jones reconstituted the Cherokee Baptist Mission Societyand "the preachers and others entered very cordially into the spirit ofthe missionary enterprise, and are determined to urge the subject on the attention of the people."200 In a following paragraph, Jones mentionsthat the missionaries "are decidedly and steadfastly opposed to slavery;and the direct tendency of their influence is to extend their own sentimentsand views. [Their] sincere desire and earnest prayer is, that it may bespeedily brought to an end."201 As one of the leading missionaries to the Creek Nation, Brother Lewis Downing made no distinctions among hisparishioners:

After the services of the morning, the congregation repaired to thewater, a stream about a mile distant, and in the presence of a large company,br. Downing with deep solemnity baptized, on the profession of their faithin a dying savior, two Cherokees and three black men.202 In the years between 1850 and 1860, Lewis Downing led numerousmissions to the Creek Nation, "where they had very large congregations and solemn attention."203 Downing traveled as far as Missouri, where he attendeda great camp meeting of the Cumberland Presbyterians and met with a colporteurfrom the American Tract Society. When several of Downing's nativeassistants in the missionary movement died, John B. Jones, the son of Evan Jones,filled their positions and worked their circuits.

A year later, in 1853, Smith Christie, "a Cherokee of decided pietyand promise," was licensed for the ministry, and was ordained thefollowing year. In the years following 1858, missionaries Lewis Downing, John B.Jones, and Smith Christie traveled exclusively throughout the Cherokee and Creek Nations, conducting camp-meetings, organizing, and structuring theBaptist missions. By 1860, the Cherokee Baptist Missionary Society had growninto a self-supporting institution that held annual meetings and gave yearly contributions to the American Baptist Missionary Union.204

In addition to conducting a missionary effort among the Creek withCherokee missionaries, the "Jones Baptists" took it one step further. On onevisit to the Creek Nation in 1857, Evan Jones and Pastor Lewis Downing of thePeavine Baptist Church ordained a free black by the name of "Old Billy." In1860, Cherokee Henry Davise was ordained to the Baptist ministry at PeavineBaptist Church to help "Old Billy" spread the message of the gospel among theCreek Nation.205 Though it is never explicitly stated, it seems that Davisewas a member of the Keetoowah Society and that he was sent forth into theCreek Nation to pursue the interests of the Keetoowah Society.206

Little is known about the spread of the Keetoowah Society among theCreek Nation, except much later in a footnote on the history of the CreekNation, Angie Debo, in her The Road to Disappearance describes "a secretsociety of full bloods known as the Pins... The origins of this society isunknown, but it exerted a strong hidden influence throughout the Nation."207 ThePins of the Creek Nation are associated with Samuel Checote, a full bloodMethodist minister from Alabama and one-time chief of the Creek Nation. Checotewas a graduate of the Asbury Mission and pastor of Eufaula Methodist Churchin the Creek Nation.208 He was also a member of Muscogee Lodge #93.209

There is no evidence of "Pin" activity among the Seminole Nation.However, it is likely that the Baptist message spread among the Seminole along thesame routes as it did among the traditional Creek and Cherokee. James S.Murrow, Baptist missionary and future "father of Oklahoma Freemasonry,"settled among the Seminole at the North Folk Town near Eufala in the CreekNation.210 Murrow immediately began his missionary work:

He secured a Negro interpreter, and promptly began his life's work.December 25, [1857] Brother Murrow baptized an Indian girl. Since that time hehas baptized more than a thousand Indians and almost as many whites and Blacks.211 The North Fork Baptist Church had became "a sort of Jerusalem'"212 inthe Indian Territory; the church was founded in 1854 by Black BaptistMonday Durant and was also ministered by Black Baptist evangelist "OldBilly."213 The North Fork Baptist Church was also the center of the KeetoowahSociety within the Creek Nation. It was to the North Fork Baptist Church thatHenry Davise, ordained at Peavine Church within the Cherokee Nation, wassent as a missionary from the Cherokee Baptist Missionary Association. Thechurch was later to become the center of a strong evangelical revival under the leadership of Black Baptist Harry Islands.214

James Factor, an interpreter and "beloved man" among the Seminole,made the North Fork Church a center of a controversy when he became the first prominent Seminole to convert to Christianity. Factor, a descendant ofBlack Factor and member of one of the oldest families of "black muscolges,"215 was friends with Chief John Jumper of the Seminole Nation. Chief Jumperbelonged to the "Moon Order," a secret society among the Seminole that dated tothe pre-removal period,216 but converted to the Baptist faith in Septemberof 1860. Rev. Murrow, upon hearing of Chief Jumper's conversion,established a Baptist mission at Ash Creek Baptist Church with Jumper as its firstmember. He was, within a few years, to become pastor of the church.217 ChiefJumper was also a Freemason.218

Freemasonic lodges had also spread from the Cherokee Nation into theCreek Nation and probably into the Seminole Nation through Seminoleresidents of the Creek Nation. From the very first lodge formed among the Cherokeein Tahlequah, the brotherhood had spread among missionaries, merchants,and Native Americans throughout Indian Territory. Reverend John Bertholf,member of Cherokee Lodge #21, relocated to the Creek Nation and was appointed Superintendent of the Asbury Mission in Eufaula in 1859. GeorgeButler, government agent and junior warden of Cherokee Lodge #21, became oneof the charter members of the military base lodge at Fort Gibson Lodge #35. Doaksville Lodge #52 was organized in the Choctaw Nation and led byChief Peter Pitchlyn, Sam Garvin, Basil Laflore, plantation owner RobertJones, and also American Board missionary Cyrus Kingsbury. Walter Scott Adair, Worshipful Master of Cherokee Lodge #21, left Lodge #21 to organizeFlint Lodge #74 near the Baptist Mission deep in Keetoowah country in the southeastern corner of the Cherokee Nation.

Joseph Coodey, nephew of John Ross and Junior Warden of Cherokee Lodge#21, resettled in the Creek Nation at North Fork Town near Eufala.219 Inthe Creek Nation, Benjamin Marshall, George Stidham, and Samuel Checote, allaffiliates of the Asbury Mission, formed Muscogee Lodge #93 at the Creek Agencynear the border of the Cherokee Nation. One of the early members of MuscogeeLodge #93 was a prominent traditional leader and relative of Asi Yahola(Osceola) 220 by the name of Opothle Yahola.221

The Keetoowah message of community, patriotism, and sovereignty spread throughout the nations through the several organizations that mostclearly reflected these ideals. The Baptist Church, with its sense of the"beloved community," its affiliation with political idealism, its conservative religious traditionalism, and the very nature of its ecclesiastical structure, resonated with the highest tenets of the "Kituwah Spirit."In nearly every way, the structure and function of Freemasonry in theIndian Territory paralleled both the Baptist churches and the "old ways" ofthe Cherokee Nation. The Nations would split, the churches would split,and the lodges would split, but the "Kituwah Spirit" would persevere in thehearts of the people. 189 Janey B. Hendrix, Redbird Smith and the Nighthawk Keetoowahs (ParkHill, Oklahoma: Cross-Cultural Education Center, Inc., 1983), 8. For further information on the role of the Natchez in Southeastern Native American culture, see John R. Swanton, Early History of the Creek Indians andtheir Neighbors (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1922); HoratioBardwell Cushman, History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians, Editedand with a foreword by Angie Debo, (New York: Russell & Russell, 1972);Edward L. Berthoud, A Sketch of the Natchez Indians, (Golden Colorado:Transcript Book and Job Print, 1886). 190 Angie Debo, The Road to Disappearance (Norman: University ofOklahoma Press, 1941), 118. 191 American Baptist Missionary Union, Annual Report 1842, AmericanBaptist Historical Society, Rochester, N.Y. 192 J. M. Gaskins, Black Baptists in Oklahoma (Oklahoma City:Messenger Press, 1992), 91. See also Jesse Marvin Gaskin, Trail Blazers ofSooner Baptists (Shawnee: Oklahoma Baptist University Press, 1953); C. W.West, Missions and Missionaries of Indian Territory (Muscogee: MuscogeePublishing Company, 1990); E.C. Routh, The Story of Oklahoma Baptists (Shawnee,Oklahoma Baptist University Press, 1932). 193 J. M. Gaskins, Black Baptists in Oklahoma (Oklahoma City:Messenger Press, 1992), 547; Walter Wyeth, Isaac McCoy: Early Indian Missions (Philadelphia: W.N. Wyeth Publishers, 1895), 192-193; C. W. West,Missions and Missionaries of Indian Territory (Muscogee: Muscogee PublishingCompany, 1990), 21. 194 American Baptist Missionary Union, Annual Report 1843, AmericanBaptist Historical Society, Rochester, N.Y., 141. 195 Debo, 117. 196 McLoughlin, Champions of the Cherokees, 307. 197 Chilly was the son of William McIntosh, a member of the TreatyParty among the Creek Nation. William McIntosh was executed bytraditionalist (Red Stick) Creeks in a manner similar to members of the Cherokee TreatyParty. Following the death of McIntosh, the Creek delegation to Washingtonwas led by Opothle Yahola. The delegation led by Opothle Yahola resistedremoval but were ultimately undone by intrigue. 198 Letter of Evan Jones, American Baptist Missionary Union, AnnualReport 1849, American Baptist Historical Society, Rochester, N.Y., 145. 199 Debo, 120; American Baptist Missionary Union, Annual Report 1848, American Baptist Historical Society, Rochester, N.Y., 271. 200 American Baptist Missionary Union, Annual Report 1850, AmericanBaptist Historical Society, Rochester, N.Y., 97. 201 ibid. 202 Letter of Evan Jones, American Baptist Missionary Union, AnnualReport 1848, American Baptist Historical Society, Rochester, N.Y., 62. 203 Letter of Evan Jones, American Baptist Missionary Union, AnnualReport 1851, American Baptist Historical Society, Rochester, N.Y., 336. 204 American Baptist Missionary Union, Annual Report 1860, AmericanBaptist Historical Society, Rochester, N.Y. 205 ibid. 206 William McLoughlin, The Cherokees and Christianity, 233; JamesMooney, Myths of the Cherokees (Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, D.C., 1900), 225; D. J. MacGowan, "IndianSecret Societies" in Historical Magazine (X, 1866). 207 Debo, 203. 208 West, 36 - 37. 209 Denslow, 75. 210 The Seminoles were settled among the Creeks when the wererelocated from their homelands in Florida. The Creeks and the Seminoles are related culturally; the Seminoles were once part of the Creek Nation. TheMuscogean speaking peoples had split in the latter half of the eighteenthcentury. See also Edwin C. McReynolds, The Seminoles (Norman: University ofOklahoma Press, 1957); J. Leitch Wright, Jr., Creeks & Seminoles : theDestruction and Regeneration of the Muscogulge People (Lincoln : University ofNebraska Press, 1986); Jane F. Lancaster, Removal Aftershock : the Seminoles' Struggles to Survive in the West, 1836-1866 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1994); Kenneth W. Porter, The Black Seminoles:History of a Freedom-Seeking People; revised and edited by Alcione M. Amos andThomas P. Senter, (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996). 211 Gaskin, 92. Murrow was from Jefferson County, Georgia but hisfamily were originally from Charleston, S.C. For further information on Murrow,see Raymond L. Holcomb, Father Murrow: the Life and Times of Joseph Samuel Murrow, Baptist Missionary, Confederate Indian Agent, Indian Educator,and the Father of Freemasonry in Indian Territory (Atoka, OK: Atoka County Historical Society, 1994); C. W. West, Missions and Missionaries ofIndian Territory (Muscogee: Muscogee Publishing Company, 1990); OklahomaGrand Chapter Royal Arch Masons, History of Freemasonry in Oklahoma(Muskogee, OK: Muskogee Print Shop, 1935). 212 Gaskin, 93. 213 ibid. 214 Gaskin, 107-108; McLoughlin, The Cherokees and Christianity, 233. 215 Wright, Creeks and Seminoles, 76. Their "ownership of largenumbers of cattle and slaves" evidences that the Factors were an old andimportant family among the Seminole Nation. (99) However, understanding them asslave owners is increasing complicated by the fact that many of them weremarried to the "slaves" that they owned. James Factor, himself, was married toa black woman. Another member of the Factor family emancipated his wifeand children in 1843. (99) 216 Denslow, 67. 217 West, 108. 218 Denslow, 75. 219 G.W. Grayson, A Creek Warrior for the Confederacy: TheAutobiography of Chief G.W. Grayson, W. David Biard, ed. (Norman: University ofOklahoma Press, 1988), 127. 220 Asi Yahola (Osceola) was a prominent leader of the AfricanAmerican/ Seminole resistance movement in Florida. He was married to an African American runaway slave. Some reporters state the cause of the SecondSeminole War was the seizure of Osceola's African wife by merchants who soughtto sell her back into slavery. Osceola was finally murdered followingtreachery by federal authorities. In a practice that has become common amongFlorida authorities, his brain was "donated to science" and kept on a shelffor many years. 221 Denslow, 70-75. For information on Opothle Yahola, see JohnBartlett Meserve, "Chief Opothleyahola" Chronicles of Oklahoma 10 (Winter,1931): 439-452; Clee Woods, "Oklahoma's Great Opothle Yahola" North SouthTrader 4, (January-February): 22-36; Mrs. Clement Clay, "Recollections of Opothleyahola" Arrow Points 4 (February 1922): 35-36. http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/MIXED-BLOODS/2001-11/100 5352298 2 1 Birth: 14 MAY 1789 in Llanigon, Brecon, Wales 2 1 Event: established a mission school and station NOTE: BET 1820 AND 1838 _SDATE: 1 JUL 1820 Valley Towns, Cherokee Nation - North Carolina 1 Event: established a mission school Note 2 1821 _SDATE: 1 JUL 1821 Tunsewattu, Cherokee Nation East 1 Event: appointed missonary preacher among the Cherokee Mission 24 JUL 1821 Cherokee Nation - East 1 ORDN: 1825 _SDATE: 1 JUL 1825 Tinsawattie Church was recived - Tennessee 1 Event: "Trail of Tears" Note 3 1838 _SDATE: 1 JUL 1838 Cherokee MNation, East &gt West 1 Event: establish a mission school Note 4 NOV 1838 _SDATE: 15 NOV 1838 Westvukke, Oklahoma 1 Adopted: 1865 _SDATE: 1 JUL 1865 Cherokee Nation - West 1 Event: Baptist mission moved from Westville, OK NOTE: 1867 _SDATE: 1 JUL 1867 Tahlequah, Cherokee Nation West, Oklahoma 1 Death: 18 AUG 1872 in Tahlequah, Cherokee Nation West, Oklahoma 2 1 Event: Fam Note 10 MAY 2012 1 Event: source/online history Biography 10 MAY 2012 Cherokee Nation - West Note: visit these websites for details about several generations of the JONES family:

1) http://archive.org/stream/historyofcheroke00lcstar/historyofcheroke00l cstar_djvu.txt

2) http://patrickminges.info/kituwah/Chapter%206-04.htm

added: 10may2012

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1 Event: Fam Note 2012 _SDATE: 1 JUL 2012 Cherokee Nation East/West (NC &gt Illinois) Note: USGenNet, Inc.

U.S. Data Repository

The Keetoowah Society and the Avocation of Religious Nationalism in the Cherokee Nation, 1855-1867 Chapter Five A New Nation

We boldly claim that we have done our duty, to the full extent of our power, as the friends and allies of the Federal Government. More than three fourths of the able bodied men of the loyal Cherokee, fought in the Federal army, which is a vastly larger proportion of men than any state in the Union has furnished for the war. We fought to the end of the war, and when the last rebel was whipped, we were honorably mustered out of the service. The graves of eight hundred Cherokee warriors, fallen by our side in your service, testify that we have done our duty. Now, having done our whole duty to the Government, all we ask is that the Government do its duty to us -- that it fulfill its treaty obligations to us -- that it fulfill its solemn, reiterated pledges. We ask no gifts, no charities, but simply our rights for which we have fought and bled in your armies, and for which so many of our noblest men have died.

We make our earnest appeal to the President of the United States and to Congress. We entreat you to regard sacredly your past treaties with us, and to enact no law that shall sweep out of existence those most sacred rights which you have guaranteed to us forever. 1866 Cherokee Delegation: Smith Christie, James McDaniel, Thomas Pegg, White Catcher, Daniel Ross, John B. Jones, Samuel Benge [1]

Introduction

I hope the war will close soon, and we will get time to sit down in peace...This war -- it will ruin a great many good people. They will not only lose all their property but a great many will lose their character, which is of more value than all their property...I am almost ashamed of my tribe...I want to see the end of this war and then I will be willing to give up the ghost. [2]

On June 23, 1865, Brigadier General Stand Watie of the Confederate States of America, in the presence of Master Mason Robert M. Jones, surrendered his sword to Lieutenant Colonel Asa Matthews of the United States Army at Doaksville Lodge No. 52 in the Choctaw Nation. [3] Watie's surrender came more than two months after the surrender of General Lee at Appomatox and more than a month after the surrender of E. Kirby Smith, Commander of troops west of the Mississippi. [4] Brigadier General Watie was one of the last Confederate Generals to surrender and abandon what by now had clearly become the ?lost cause.? [5]

Less than a month before the surrender of Watie, a Grand Council of the Southern Indians had been held at Armstrong Academy in the western portion of the Indian Territory for the purposes of establishing a ?United Nations of the Indian Territory.? [6] The ?United Nations? was presided over by the leaders of the Five Nations as well as Plains Indians who had fought on the side of the Confederacy; present at the meeting were freemasons Stand Watie, William Penn Adair, John Jumper, Samuel Checote, George Stidham, Robert Jones, Peter Pitchlyn, Chilly McIntosh, D.N. McIntosh, and Reverend J.S. Murrow. Originally planned to present a united front in dealing with an impending surrender to the Federal Government, the council quickly took on other meaning. [7]

Uniting under the principle that ?An Indian shall not spill an Indian's blood,? [8] the council authorized the Chiefs of the various Nations to ?extend in the name of this confederation the hand of fellowship to all Nations of Indians.? The delegates were further authorized to ?communicate with the proper military authorities of the United States for the purposes of effecting a cessation of hostilities? [9] and to encourage the Union Indians to ?cooperate with this council in its efforts to renew friendly relations with the U.S. Government.? [10] Bloodied yet unbowed, the Confederate Indians made no mention of defeat, wrongdoing, or mistakes in judgment. They also required that any permanent treaty, i.e. terms of surrender, be ratified by the national councils of each tribe. [11]

On June 15, 1865, a second meeting of the ?United Nations of the Indian Territory? ratified the positions put forward at the earlier meeting and Stand Watie appointed a commission of six delegates that would ?forward the great work of establishing thorough harmony among all Indian tribes.? [12] Shortly after the council disbanded, Major General Francis Herron (Iowa Mosaic Lodge #125) sent Lieutenant Colonel Matthews as Federal peace commissioner to Doaksville, Choctaw Nation to come to terms with members of the council. When he surrendered on June 19, Chief Peter Pitchlyn (Knights Templar Washington Commandery #1) expressed the sentiments of many of the Southern Indians:

Our late allies in war, the Confederate armies, have long since ceased to resist the national authorities; they have all been either captured or surrendered to the forces of the United States. It therefore becomes us as brave people to forget and lay aside our prejudices and prove ourselves equal to the occasion. Let reason obtain now that the sway of our passions and let us meet in council with the proper spirit and resume our former relations with the United States. [13]

On June 28, Stand Watie sent Knights of the Golden Circle William P. Adair and James Bell to meet with General Francis Herron to negotiate terms of surrender for the Confederate Cherokee. [14] Though the war was now over with the surrender of Watie, a new era had begun in the Cherokee Nation. A once beautiful and prosperous Nation had been reduced to charred ashes and barren fields. A once proud people who had reunited following the disarray of removal were once again shattered by a violence that made their previous passion pale in consideration. Yet from the ashes came a hope of a new day and a new way. At the center of the reconstruction of the Cherokee Nation would be the Keetoowah Society.

His Terrible Swift Sword

He went with the Indians down around Fort Gibson where they fought the Indians who stayed with the South. Uncle Jacob say he killed many a man during the war, and showed me the musket and sword he used to fight with; said he didn't shoot the women and children -- just whack their heads off with the sword, and I could almost see the blood dripping from the point. It made me scared at his stories. [15]

The Civil War in the Cherokee Nation began as it did throughout the United States, proud armies arrayed against each other in magnificent pageants which so quickly become but fearsome reminders that ideals once so noble fall quickly before the brutal reality of war. The Civil War within the Cherokee Nation even more quickly disintegrated into an internecine conflict in which the lines between civilian and combatant were conveniently blurred and the ferocity of war struck the innocent and the guilty alike. The Nation, once so proud, was reduced to ruins:

The events of the war brought to them more of the desolation and ruin than perhaps to any other community. Raided and sacked alternately, not only by Confederate and Union forces, but by the vindictive ferocity and hate of their own factional divisions, their country became a blackened and desolate waste. Driven from comfortable homes, exposed to want, misery, and the elements, they perished like sheep in a snowstorm. Their houses, fences, and other improvements were burned, their orchards destroyed, their flocks and herds were slaughtered or driven off, their schools broken up, their schoolhouses given to the flames, and their churches and public buildings subjected to a similar fate; and that entire portion of their country which had been occupied by their settlements was distinguishable from the virgin prairie only by the scorched and blackened chimneys and the plowed but now neglected fields. [16]

Their houses, barns, fences and orchards, after two years of partial or total abandonment, look as hopeless as can be conceived. From being once so proud, intelligent, and wealthy tribe of Indians, the Cherokees are now stripped of nearly all...This is a sad picture, not overdrawn, and which no good man can see and not feel real sorry for their condition. [17]

The Civil War had disastrous consequences for the people of the Cherokee Nation. James Mooney, early ethnologist and historian of the Nation, summarized the Cherokee experience, ?After five years of desolation the Cherokee emerged from the war with their numbers reduced from 21,000 to 14,000, and their whole country in ashes.? [18] Some 2,200 Cherokee fought on the Union side; as many as eight hundred lost their lives. [19] Even as early as 1863, one-third of the adult women in the Nation were widows and one-fourth of the children were orphans. A total of 3,530 men from the Indian Territory served in the Union Army, and 1018 died during their enlistment. No state suffered greater losses than did the Indian Territory in the Civil War. [20]

These numbers, horrific as they may be, do little to detail the personal agony of the people caught in the winds of a bitter war. On August 21, 1863, Confederate renegade William Quantrill entered an unprotected Lawrence, Kansas with four hundred men and proceeded to burn the town to the ground. As it burned, Quantrill's men went from door to door killing every male citizen they found; within eight hours the town was destroyed and 187 persons were killed. [21] In a letter to the Board, Reverend Evan Jones told of his personal losses, ?My family also has been made to drink the cup of sorrow. In that sad and savage tragedy at Lawrence on the 21st of August, my eldest son fell victim. It was indeed a bitter affliction.? [22]

A month later Jones was to report, ?In addition to the loss of our son by the ruffian band at Lawrence, we have been called to mourn a daughter whose death was hastened by the shock of the carnage at Lawrence and intensified by finding her own brother among the victims.? [23] During the coming winter, two more of Evan Jones daughters died in Lawrence, ?Our family afflictions, stroke after stroke, each entering deeply into our heart, have been repeated in rapid succession. But we would not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when rebuked by him. But I forbear at present to dwell on home sorrows and take the liberty of troubling you with a word of the bitter distresses which have come upon the poor Cherokee.? [24]

Watie's soldiers moved throughout the Nation with ferocity and operated a campaign of terror without impunity. Though never accustomed to the cowardly acts of Quantrill, Watie's men were often ruthless, ?One day just as Daniel, Lewis, and Jim and others were making their way up from Gibson when a party of Watie's men followed on a couple of horses behind, found a Drew man sitting by the road, killed him, and then placing a rope around his neck hauled him about as children would a sleigh.? [25] Watie even wrote to his wife of their exploits,

Killed few pins in Tahlequah. They had been holding council. I had the old council house set on fire and burned down. Also John Ross's house. Poor Andy Nave [relative of Ross] was killed when he refused to surrender and was shot by Dick Fields. I felt sorry as he used to be quite friendly toward me before the war...They found some negro soldiers at Park Hill killed two and two white men. They brought in some of Ross's negroes... [26]

Though Stand Watie and his men were often cited for guerrilla campaigns, neither the ?Pins? nor the Federal troops were not without recognition for their assaults upon civilians and Confederate supporters. [27] Morris Sheppard, from Webber's Falls, recalled the Pins, ?Pretty soon all de young Cherokee Menfolks all gone off to de war, and de Pins was riding round all de time, and it ain't safe to be in dat part around Webber's Falls.? [28] Patsy Perryman, a slave in the Flint district, recalls her encounter with the ?Pins:?

Mammy said the patrollers and ?Pin? Indians caused a lot of trouble after the war started. The master went to war and left my mistress to look after the place. The ?Pins? came to the farm one day and broke down the doors, cut feather beds open and sent the feathers flying in the wind, stole the horses, killed the sheep and done lots of mean things. [29]

Hannah Hicks, daughter of Samuel Worcester whose husband was murdered in the Civil War, also described the activities of the Pins, ?We hear today that the Pins are committing outrages on hungry mountain and in Flint, robbing destroying property and killing. It is so dreadful...Alas, alas, for this miserable people, destroying each other as fast as they can.? [30] Rev. Stephen Foreman reported Cherokee losses to the Pins, ?The Pins are robbing the people of their negroes, horse, guns, etc.... Major Murrell, it was said, lost seven blacks and a number of horses and mules.? [31] Foreman, himself, was deprived of his ?property? by the Pins, ?They first took from before my eyes, my two black men, Joe and Charles, and one horse and a mule.? [32]

William McLoughlin, in his After the Trail of Tears, (though offering no evidence to support his position) states that ?whenever the Pins stole' slaves, they claimed to be liberating them, but they may have sold some to slave traders from southern states? [33] However, the historical record speaks otherwise. The slaves that were ?stolen? from the Southern Cherokee were incorporated into the Indian Home Guards or sent back to the refugee camp at Neosho and then on to Kansas:

When he got away into Cherokee country some of them called the ?Pins? helped to smuggle him on up into Missouri (Neosho) and over into Kansas, but he soon found that he couldn't get along and stay safe unless he went with the Army. He went with them until the war was over, and was around Fort Gibson a lot. [34]

Throughout the duration of the war, Reverend John Jones of the Third Indian Home Guard maintained a mission for the refugees who had clustered in and around Fort Gibson for protection from the ravages of war. [35] They attended to the sick and destitute and regularly held religious services for nearly two hundred worshipers in a makeshift church erected on the campgrounds. In addition to services from Jones, the native ministers performed ?religious services? as well. The mission also operated a school for freedmen, the first in Indian Territory. The school taught nearly eighty students, most of them refugees from the Indian Territory. [36]

Large numbers of African-Americans had returned to the Nation on the heels of Colonel Phillips, Colonel Williams, and the assembled forces of the First Kansas Colored Volunteers and the Indian Home Guard. As many as six to eight thousand of the refugees clustered around Fort Gibson; many African Americans stayed with their families in the Federal army while others occupied abandoned property in and around the Fort. In late October, Thomas Pegg and the Cherokee Council granted the Freedmen independent status within the Cherokee Nation. Though not yet citizens of the Nation, laws were passed annulling prohibitions against teaching blacks to read and write, inhibiting them from engaging in labor or commerce, or preventing them from carrying firearms. Though the act was not liberation, it provided for the relief of the Freedmen and enabled the Baptist missionaries to open the Freedmen's schools [37]

Late in the war, there was second battle at Cabin Creek involving the First Kansas Colored Volunteers; this battle was to be the last significant battle in the Indian Territory. On September 16, 1864, General Richard Gano's Texas troops and Stand Watie's Confederate Indians came upon African-Americans cutting hay for the Federal cavalry at nearby Fort Gibson, less than twelve miles away. Lightly defended by the Federal troops, the haycutters were easy prey for the Confederate forces who operated under the ?black flag?:

Gano and Watie galloped their line to within rifle range, then unlimbered their cannon. A few grape shots scattered the Federal guard, and the exultant victors rode unopposed into the hay-cutters camp. With guns across their saddles, the ragged Confederate Indians jogged up and down through the uncut hay and tall weed patches, shooting hidden Negroes like jackrabbits. Some black men rose from the weeds calling, ?O! Good master, save and spare me,? but all were shot down. Some were found submerged in the water under the creek banks, only their noses above the surface. These were killed like the others and their bodies dragged out onto the pebble bars. [38]

When the larger battle was over, the First Kansas Colored Volunteers lost 117 men killed and 65 wounded; as the rebel forces shot and bayoneted wounded Federal troops, they called out to each other, ?Where is the First Kansas Nigger now?? [39]

Stand Watie's actions in the Second Battle of Cabin Creek earned him universal accolades throughout the Confederacy. General Douglas issued a proclamation highlighting his valor and courage:

The brilliancy and completeness of this expedition has not been excelled in the history of the war. Firm, brave and confident, the officers had but to order and the men cheerfully executed. The whole having been conducted with perfect harmony between the war-torn veteran Stand Watie, the chivalrous Gano, and their respective commands. [40]

Yet, as Sarah Watie had pointed out so poignantly not so long ago, ?a great many will lose their character, which is of more value than all their property.? General Watie continuously reflected upon his actions, which many then and have since likened to Quantrill, but his resolve was firm:

Although these things have been heaped upon me, and it would be supposed that I have become hardened...it still hurts my feelings. I am not a murderer. Sometimes I examine myself thoroughly and I will always come to the conclusion that I am not such a bad man as I am looked upon. God will give me justice if I am to be punished for the opinions of other people. If I commit an error, I do it without bad intention....I call upon my God to judge me; he knows that I love my friends and above all others, my wife and children. [41]

The Cherokee Nation in 1865 was in ashes. Having been built anew following the disastrous consequences of removal, it stood now as if it had never been. Yet, even greater than the desolation of the land was the pain within the hearts of a people who had once again been divided by the forces which reigned terror throughout their recent history. If the Nation were to be rebuilt, then the hearts of the people must be healed. If the hearts were to be healed, then ?the great work of establishing thorough harmony? must go forward. If it were to go forward, it must be done together as one people, ?as if they had been raised from one family.?

Thorough Harmony

When the Keetoowah heard that Watie and the Knights of the Golden Circle sought a ?thorough harmony? within the Cherokee people, it seemed that peace was truly at hand. However, when the Watie delegation arrived at Fort Gibson to present themselves to the government, they were bearing arms, bristling with defiance, and walked and talked not like a people who sought conciliation. [42] The delegation presented John Garrett, the commander of Fort Gibson, with a copy of Watie's surrender treaty which allowed for an unprecedented surrender ?without demanding their paroles or their arms.? [43] Garrett found the Southern delegation so troublesome and problematic that he ordered them to the other side of the Arkansas River and only allowed them in the Fort Gibson with the accompaniment of the loyal Cherokee. [44]

The Government that had been seated in Cowskin Prairie in January, 1863 was now the legitimate government of the Cherokee Nation; it was incumbent upon the official government to take action and determine how the Nation would be reunited. Acting Principal Chief Lewis Downing called the National Council into session and on July 13, 1865, an act was passed whose purposes were to reunite the Cherokee Nation and provide for a lasting peace. [45] The act concluded with the following statement:

Now, therefore, be it known, that I, Lewis Downing, Assistant and Acting Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, do hereby offer amnesty and pardon to all citizens of the Cherokee Nation who participated in the Rebellion in the United States, and against the existing Government of the Cherokee Nation, upon the conditions set forth in the foregoing act, and earnestly invite all such citizens to return to the Cherokee Nation, comply with the requirements of said act, and henceforth lend their support to law and order in the Cherokee Nation. [46]

In addition to passing the Amnesty Act, the Council also appointed a committee of delegates to meet with Watie delegation, ?to assure them of amicable feelings? and ?their desire for peace.? The Cherokee delegation consisted of William P. Ross, Smith Christie, Budd Gritts, Thomas Pegg, Jones C.C. Daniel, White Catcher, James Vann, and Houston Benge. [47]

The Cherokee delegations met but there were some serious problems with the negotiations which mitigated against the success even before they started. The first was a provision in the Amnesty Act which supported the previous confiscation act and prohibited the ?right to possess and recover any improvements? owned by ?persons declared to be disloyal to the Cherokee Nation.? [48] The second was the charge of the Cherokee negotiating committee which made sure that Watie's committee did not receive recognition: ?the Cherokee Nation is not to be understood by their present action as recognising the said Cherokees in any other capacity than as private persons.? [49] Given these serious sticking points, as well as the general animosity between the two parties, there was little success afforded the negotiations through the summer. [50]

In order to accommodate a satisfactory resolution to problematic issues, a peace conference was called for to be held at Fort Smith, Arkansas in early September. Notifications were sent to the officers of the various nations. [51] Andrew Johnson, the new President of the United States, appointed a commission of representatives led by Dennis H. Cooley, the new Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Prominent among the commission was Ely S. Parker, the former adjutant to General Grant who had composed the letter of surrender at Appomattox. Parker was a Seneca and grandnephew of the great Chief Red Jacket. Parker, Knights Templar of Monroe Commandery #12 (N.Y.) and Past Worshipful Master Miners Lodge #273 (Galena, Ill. -- home of U.S. Grant), would go on to become the first Native American Commissioner of Indian Affairs under President Grant. [52]

When the delegates from the Cherokee Nation arrived at Fort Smith, they found large delegations from both the Plains Indians as well as the Five Nations: from the Creeks -- Micco Hutke, Cotchoche, and Lochar Harjo [53]; from the Seminole -- John Chupco, Pascofar, Chocote Harjo as well as African-Americans Robert Johnson and Caesar Bruner; [54] from the Cherokee -- Lewis Downing, Smith Christie, Thomas Pegg, and William P. Ross. [55] Upon arriving at the peace conference, the Cherokee delegation was pleased to learn that ?simple minded full-bloods? [56] of the Creek Nation had passed a law recognizing African-Americans members of their community as citizens of the Creek Nation. [57] Noticeably absent from the opening ceremonies were the Southern delegates who had decided to meet first at Armstrong Academy and come to the assembly after the proceedings had begun. [58]

Reverend Lewis Downing, Cherokee Chief and leader of the Keetoowah Society, opened the peace conference with an invocation delivered in the Cherokee tongue. What happened next astonished the assembled delegates from the loyal Indians. Cooley noted that the assembled multitude had signed treaties with the Confederacy and were thus traitors to the United States of America:

By these nations having entered into treaties with the so-called Confederate States, and the rebellion being now ended, they are left without any treaty whatever, or treaty obligations for protection by the United States.

Under the terms of the treaties with the United States, and the laws of Congress of July 5, 1862, all these nations and tribes forfeited and lost all their rights to annuities and lands. The President, however, does not desire to take advantage of or enforce the penalties for the unwise actions of these nations. [59]

The real purposes of the meeting had been expressed in a letter from a Kansas constituent to his representative in Washington, ?white men from here and Kansas City will go along. Treaties will be made -- railroad grants fixed up and things done generally...& we should have a hand in it.? [60]

The Union Indians were shocked beyond belief. They had given up their lands, their lives, and their future for the preservation of their sacred relationship with the United States of America. Instead of appreciating their losses or offering reparations for the terrible catastrophe which had become the Nation, the Federal authorities lumped the loyal Indians with the disloyal Indians and set forth a series of demands upon the all. [61] Chief Armstrong of the Wyandot declared the council to be a farce and wondered why the Federal authorities had not reserved their ?talk? for the real enemies -- the disloyal Indians due to arrive shortly. [62]

The Keetoowah delegation rose to their defense; they insisted that they had come to the peace council to renew peaceful alliances with their Cherokee brethren and to begin fruitful relations with the United States as a united people. They asserted that though the Nation had formed a contingent relationship with the Confederacy in October 1861, the Keetoowah Council had, in early February 1863, abrogated the treaty and reestablished relations with the United States. [63] Smith Christie asserted equally, ?We beg leave respectfully to say that we have not the proper authority to make a treaty, or to enter into any agreement of any kind with the United States.? [64] The Keetoowah delegations assured Cooley that Chief Ross was at hand and should be alerted of the Federal policy and be allowed to negotiate for the Nation.

Cooley's response even future astonished the Keetoowah. He viciously attacked Chief Ross, accused him of being an enemy of the United States of America, and intimated that he considered Ross not even worthy of a Presidential pardon. [65] The Keetoowah immediately called upon Ross to come to the council. By the time John Ross made it to the convention later in the week, the Southern delegation had arrived as well. When Ross asked to address the convention, agent Cooley read a declaration from James Harlan, Secretary of the Interior: [66]

Whereas, we believe him still at heart an enemy of the United States and disposed to breed discord among his people, represent the will and wishes of the loyal Cherokees, and is not the choice of any considerable portion of the Cherokee nation for the office which he claims, but which by their law we believe he does not in fact hold....we the undersigned Commissioners sent by the President of the United States...refuse as commissioners to recognize said Ross as chief of the Cherokee nation. [67]

Commissioner Cooley then turned to the Southern Delegation, which included Freemasons John Jumper, Winchester Colbert, Stand Watie, Samuel Checote, and Peter Pitchlyn, and asked them if they had any comment on the declaration. Before they would answer, Brother Ross rose to his defense:

I claim to be as loyal a man as any citizen of the United States...I have been forty odd years Chief of the Cherokees, elected time after time. They re-elected me in my absence and I came on to the council at my advanced age, after burying my wife and burying my son I had three sons in your army, also three grandsons and three nephews. If I had been disloyal I would not have shrunk from going where the enemies of the United States were. I came on with the hope that I might be useful to my people, to those of my people who had separated from the Nation, and to the Government of the United States. I came here not for the purpose of resisting the policy of the United States...I have never been charged with being an enemy of the United States...Far from a desire to use influence to prejudice any against the interests of the U.S., I resisted to the last moment the policy of disunion that was set out by a portion of the border states of Arkansas and Texas. [68]

No sooner had Ross issued up his defense that Elias C. Boudinot rose to challenge his character:

But, Sir, there are serious charges which I will make against him...The fact is the Cherokee Nation has long been rent in twin by dissensions & I here charge these upon the same John Ross. I charge him with it here today & I will do it tomorrow. I will show that the treaty made with the Confederate States was made at his instigation. I will show the deep duplicity & falsity that have followed him from his childhood to the present day, when the winters of 65 or 70 years have silvered his head with sin, what can you expect of him now. [69]

With that declaration, even Cooley had had enough, ?The purpose of this council is not to stir up old feelings...I trust that no one may come into this council and attempt to stir up bad feelings which ought to have been buried years ago.? With that admonition, the Council was closed for the day. [70]

Though Cooley had admonished Boudinot publicly, the two became fast friends at the conference and spent the rest of time engaged in correspondences and communications. The effect of which sealed the Keetoowah from establishing any positive relations with any members of the committee. The Keetoowah demanded that a statement of their position be included in the preliminary accord and that the charges against Ross be dropped. The Council agreed to the first provision, but steadfastly refused to drop any of the charges made against Ross nor would they acknowledge any position of responsibility held by Ross. [71]

Although the provisional treaty was signed by Southern members of the Cherokee delegation, it meant nothing until it was to be agreed upon in a formal council to be held in Washington D.C. [72] The conference committee accomplished nothing; the Keetoowah rejected all concessions and all suggestions of compromise. Members from the Creek Nation had steadfastly even refused to sign any accord settled at Fort Smith. Cooley, having accomplished nothing but exactly that which he had set out to do at the bidding of James Harlan, adjourned the Fort Smith council, sine die. [73]

The conference had accomplished its purposes. John Ross, Chief of the Cherokee and leader of the Keetoowah, had been broken. Following the council, he collapsed and was confined to his bed for nearly a week. Ross, the once proud leader of a grand and glorious people, had been dragged through the mud by politicians whose only goal was to decimate an opponent of the Harlan Bill. The Harlan Bill, whose sole purpose was to destroy the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation, was applauded by Elias Boudinot at the council as ?one of the grandest schemes ever devised for the red man and entitles the author the lasting gratitude of every Indian.? [74] Chief Ross was disturbed but not yet destroyed; from his bed in the Cherokee Nation, he wrote to his sister of the incident:

And, let not your hearts be troubled by the extraordinary proceedings of the Hon. Commsrs. at Fort Smith. I regret that such groundless stigma upon my character should be fabricated, and published under official sanction -- and feel mortified on acct. of my friends and family in the East. God is just and truth is mighty, when the facts and charges alleged shall be impartially investigated -- I bid defiance and fear not the result. [75]

A New Nation

Lane: On a point suggested by my colleague I should like to ask him a question. Does he not know that a large number of black persons have intermarried with the Indians of these nations and become members of the tribes? Does he object to the provision of the bill which permits black people to continue to go in and become members of the tribes?

Pomeroy: I understand that Negroes and Indians have intermarried. I do not object to it...

Lane: The finest specimens of manhood I have ever gazed upon in my life are half-breed Indians crossed with negroes. It is a fact...that while amalgamation with the white man deteriorates both races, the amalgamation of the Indian and the black man advances both races; and so far as I am concerned I should like to see these eighty thousand square miles, almost in the geographical center of the United States, opened up to the Indian and the black man, and let them amalgamate and build up a race that will be an improvement upon both. Senate Debate on the Harlan Bill February 23, 1865 [76]

In October 1865, the Cherokee Council met in its entirety for the first time since the beginning of hostilities in 1861. The Fort Smith ?treaties? were actually truces which provided a temporary settlement of affairs and a stable political arrangement until a more permanent treaty could be signed in Washington. However, the October Council was still dominated by the Keetoowah faction as many of the Knights of the Golden Circle were reticent to return to the active political affairs of the Nation until their security could be guaranteed. [77]

The first affair that the Council entertained was a response to the claims of the Federal Government that John Ross was not a legitimate representative of the Cherokee Nation; the Council released a statement demanding ?the United States to do full justice to John Ross Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation upon a fair and impartial investigation.? [78] The Keetoowah Society, with John Ross as its unofficial leader, recognized that their credibility as agents of the Cherokee Nation rested upon the status of Chief John Ross. If the Federal government refused to recognize Ross as their appointed leader of the Nation, the Society stood little chance in negotiations in Washington. [79]

The Cherokee National Council took another and unprecedented step. In a grant entitled an ?Act Granting Citizenship to Evan Jones and Son, J.B. Jones and their families,? the Cherokee Nation declared:

It is now more than forty years since the missionaries of that Missionary Society came into the Cherokee Nation. When the Cherokees were poor and covered with darkness, light with regard to the other world was brought to us by Evan Jones, and at a later date by his son, John B. Jones. And we do bear witness that they have done their work well, and that they have striven to discharge the duties incumbent upon them in doing good to the people and performing faithfully their duties to God. And we bear witness that their work was highly prosperous up to the time when they were driven from the country by the United States agent in 1861. And now, after the close of the war, we are informed that the Missionary Society have determined to resume their work of enlightening our land...Be it enacted by the National Council, That Evan Jones and his son John B. Jones be...admitted to citizenship in this nation, together with their families. [80]

Though citizenship had been granted to those who married into the Nation as was accustomed by tradition, this was the first, and perhaps only time, that residents origin in the Nation not of Cherokee were granted citizenship. The act was of immediate importance because it established the validity of John B. Jones as a representative of the Cherokee Nation in the upcoming negotiations in Washington. [81] Its lasting importance was to be confirmed a year later when the question citizenship for the Freedmen of the Cherokee Nation was addressed.

The status of the Freedmen within the Cherokee Nation was a critical issue and one that had proven to be a divisive one with respect to negotiations with the Knights of the Golden Circle and their eventual return to the Nation. [82] One thing that united all of the Five Nations, however, was a universal opposition to a provision in the s. 459, the Harlan Bill, which advocated opening up of the Indian Territory to colonization by all African-Americans as opposed to only those former residents of the Nation. Harlan and Lane cynically proposed to ?open up this country for him? (the former slave) [83] in order to solicit support for a bill whose real purpose was to open the Indian land to free colonization and land speculation by white settlers and railroad interests. [84]

There were four plans for the disposal of the tricky question of the Freedmen within the Five Nations. The Confederate Cherokee sought to remove the Freedmen from the Cherokee Nation, at the joint expense of the Nation and the Federal Government, and place them in colonies outside of the Cherokee Nation. A plan proposed by Chief Downing, as a means to compromise with the Southern Delegation, recommend providing an area of land within the Nation for the colonization of the Freedmen until that time when civil rights were established within the Nation. A third plan, and the one which was eventually to be adopted, was the incorporation of the Freedmen into the Nation, granting them citizenship, land, and annuities as members of the Nation. The last plan, opposed by all but Boudinot, was the Harlan plan which opened up the Indian Territory to colonization of African-Americans from throughout the United States. [85]

Lewis Downing's plan of a nation within a nation was similar to a common practice within the Upper Creeks, but was not acceptable to the African-American members of the Cherokee Nation who opposed segregation and desired to stay with their Cherokee families. Downing and his supporters were also relatively sure that the Federal government which had been less that forthright and charitable with the Cherokee would be even less so with a Freedmen government. [86] What was notable about the plan was that it was an attempt to provide a compromise between the Northern and Southern Cherokee and was an indication of what was to become a characteristic of Downing's leadership in the Nation. All discussions at this point were just preliminary exercises, whatever happened would be decided in Washington.

On January 18, 1866, the Keetoowah delegation consisting of John Ross, Smith Christie, Thomas Pegg, James McDaniel, White Catcher, Daniel H. Ross, John B. Jones, and Samuel Benge met in Jones and Christie's room at Joy's Hotel in Washington, D.C. [87] The delegation composed two documents which the believe would establish their positions on the issues: Memorial of the Delegates of the Cherokee Nation to the President of the United States and the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress and Communication of the Delegation of the Cherokee Nation to the President of the United States. The first document was a summation of the history of the Civil War in the Cherokee Nation detailing the courage and dedication of the loyal party; the second was a testimonial to Chief John Ross's honor and executive ability.

Shortly after arriving in Washington, the Keetoowah delegation received an audience with President Andrew Johnson, Secretary Harlan, and Commissioner Cooley in the President's office in the White House. Thomas Pegg addressed the President and his representatives and presented them with the Memorial of the Delegates of the Cherokee Nation to the President of the United States and the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress. The memorial began with a discussion of the Harlan Bill, but quickly moved to the critical issues:

When the rebellion broke out the Cherokees were divided into two parties. The loyal and the disloyal. Both had been thoroughly organized for two or three years -- and prepared for the struggle. Under the lead of Stand Watie, lately a General in the rebel army, the disloyal element, (small in numbers but backed by strong influences from the rebellious states) had been organized into ?Blue Lodges,? and Knights of the Golden Circle.? The loyal masses, by a general movement of the populace, had organized themselves into a Loyal League, known as the Keetoowah Society, but by the rebels it was called, in derision, ?The Pin Society.? The Loyal League embraced the great mass of the men of the Cherokee nation, especially the full-blooded Indians.

The object of this League was resistance to encroachments on Indian rights and Indian Territory and to preserve the integrity and peace of the Cherokee Nation, according to the stipulations of the treaty of A.D., 1846.

The Constitution of the Society bound its members by the most sacred obligations, to an unfielding fidelity to our treaties with the United States, and to an unfaltering support of our National Government, constituted under those treaties. Lodges of this society were formed in every part of our country, and the great majority of the voters of the Nation joined it. Secret meetings were held among the mountains, and in deep forests. The eternal fidelity to our treaty obligations was inculcated on young and old.

By these means, the great majority of the Cherokees were already grounded in their fidelity to the Federal Government. Their friendship with the ?North? was enthusiastic. Their opposition to the rebels was intense. While some members of the Society were pro-slavery in their sentiments, yet they loved their country better than slavery -- while the great majority of its members were positive and strong anti-slavery men. Many were Christians and were opposed to slavery, not only from patriotic motives, but from religious conviction also. [88]

The rest of the document went on to detail the four year history of the Civil War in the Cherokee Nation and to articulate that the Keetoowah, or Loyal League, had been the center of the resistance to the rebellion. It also stressed that as the majority of the Nation had been loyal to the United States, they should not be punished but protected and assured their rights as a sovereign ally of the United States. They concluded the Memorial:

Now that the unity of your own great Republic has been secured, and the blood and toil and suffering of patriotic Cherokees have helped to cement the Union, we ask that you preserve and protect both the integrity and the peace of our Nation, against the machinations of all those who would rend it to fragments.

Our people are already far advanced in civilization, and are all anxious for still further advancement in all that pertains to civilization and Christianity. With the blessing of God, all we want to make us a happy and prosperous people, is that the Government secure to us our rights, immovably. [89]

That the Cherokee Delegation would begin their defense of their national interests with a discussion of the Keetoowah Society speaks to the importance of the Society in national affairs and to the importance of such in the hearts of the Cherokee people. That it would speak of the Keetoowah Society as the loyal party, and that it consisted of ?great mass of the men of the Cherokee Nation? was a critical element in the Cherokee Delegations argument. By asserting that the ?Knights of the Golden Circle? were the ?disloyal element (small in numbers but backed by strong influences from the rebellious states),? [90] the delegation attempted to present the Keetoowah Society in terms synonymous with the Cherokee Nation. They also wanted to assert that the Southern forces were led by ?intruders,? ?the majority of the regiment were white men, and the majority of those white men were not citizens of the Cherokee Nation.? [91]

In the other document presented to the President and his delegation, entitled the Communication of the Delegation of the Cherokee Nation to the President of the United States, the Cherokee Delegates once again stressed the role of these secret societies. The Communication was testimonial to Chief Ross's status as legitimate representative of the Cherokee Nation, but it noted that a Southern delegation had now arrived in Washington and was attempting to undermine his credibility. The Communication stressed the relationship of this delegation to the Knights of the Golden Circle,

For several years before the outbreak of war, there was in our midsts an element inimical to our institutions...susceptible of becoming exceedingly dangerous when fondled and nursed by such spirits as Albert Pike and backed by the powerful army of General Ben McCulloch. This element was headed by Stand Watie...and stimulated by such sheets as the Arkansan, published by his nephew, E. C. Boudinot...This element in their midst, organized into Lodges of the Knights of the Golden Circle. [92]

To meet this challenge, Chief Ross proclaimed neutrality which ?nine-tenths of the whole nation supported:

In order to uphold the peaceable, friendly policy always inculcated by the Chief with the United States...and alarmed at the teachings of the party to whom we have alluded, the masses of the Nation had organized the Loyal League pledged to an unfaltering support of their principles, and to keep from office and power every man suspected of treasonable designs against the Nation and the Federal Government. [93]

When these statements were circulated around Washington, they naturally fell into the hands of the Southern delegation led by John Rollin Ridge and composed of Knights of the Golden Circle Stand Watie, Saladin Watie, Elias C. Boudinot, and William Penn Adair. They were assisted behind the scenes by the ever wily Albert Pike. Boudinot and Adair, responding in early February, noted that though the Civil War may have accentuated the divide between these two parties, their struggle went much further back in Cherokee history than the Civil War. Particularly responding to the opening section beginning ?when the rebellion broke out,? Boudinot and Adair described this section as:

a malicious misrepresentation from beginning to end...a miserable attempt to represent an infamous, secret inquisition, proscriptive in design and murderous in intention, as a commendable and praiseworthy association. The ?Pin Society? was organized five years before the war when the words ?loyal? and ?disloyal,? now so common, were unknown within the broad limits of the Republic and years before the idea of secession was thought of or dreamed of in Indian country...

The purpose of this secret society was to secure and perpetuate the power of Mr. Ross and his friends by arraying the great mass of full bloods against the half-bloods and white men of the Nation; to inflame and incite the innate prejudices of caste among the indians, and thus enable demagogues, peculators of public funds, and murderers to enjoy in security their ill-gotten gains.

It is well understood that at such [secret] meetings, the question of assassinating prominent citizens of the Nation, obnoxious to the order, was frequently discussed and voted upon; murders were committed in pursuance of their decisions. [94]

The series of petty assaults upon John Ross and the Keetoowah delegation had a single purpose; the Southern delegation sought to end the political dominance of the Keetoowah within the Cherokee Nation by quite simply dividing the Cherokee Nation into two nations. If they could argue well enough that they stood in danger of the Keetoowah faction, the Knights of the Golden Circle would have the Canadian District and another large district as their own enclave over which ?the old dominant party? would have no jurisdiction. [95] The Southern delegation, having no official recognition nor representing anything but the interests of the Knights of the Golden Circle, were permitted by the Government to launch a series of baseless charges against John Ross. [96] Agent Cooley and his associates treated the Knights as if they were legitimate representatives and they succeeded in ?hounding to the brink of the grave a trusted leader who, for nearly forty years, with distinction had served his tribe faithfully as chief, and who was responsible more than any other man for the advanced position to which the tribe had attained.? [97]

In the end they accomplished nothing but that which they had sought. In early March, the distinguished old leader of the Cherokee Nation went down; he became bedridden and spent the remainder of his short life operating the affairs of the Nation from his deathbed. The Southern delegation, advised by Albert Pike, and led by Elias C. Boudinot, William Penn Adair, and John Rollin Ridge soon enough fell subject to their own venom. In a dispute over some twenty-eight thousand dollars, Boudinot wrote to Stand Watie that he had been disgraced by the treachery of Ridge and Adair -- they had attempted to steal his share of the money. The Southern Delegation was eventually destroyed by the row...[end part 1]

source: http://www.us-data.org/us/minges/keetood5.html

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http://cherokeeregistry.com/blog/2016/08/20/why-you-may-still-becom...

The white missionary Evan Jones was so loved by the Cherokee Nation that he and all his family living with him were adopted by the tribe. One of these was the orphan son of his daughter Pauline. Though this orphaned child eventually had eight children, none ever applied for enrollment with the tribe through the Dawes commission. Yet even today all the many descendants would be eligible for tribal citizenship if they registered. The son’s name was Richard Byrd.

Rev Evan Jones
BIRTH
14 May 1788
Montgomery, Powys, Wales
DEATH
18 Aug 1872 (aged 84)
Tahlequah, Cherokee County, Oklahoma, USA
BURIAL
Tahlequah Cemetery
Tahlequah, Cherokee County, Oklahoma, USA Show Map
PLOT
Block 8
MEMORIAL ID
61781109 · View Source
MEMORIAL
PHOTOS 3
FLOWERS 4
Published in the Tahlequah Daily Press on Nov. 17, 2010
Evan Jones, was born in Wales in 1788. After coming to the United States, he became a valuable piece of history, unknown to most people. He became a Baptist missionary, he worked among the Cherokees in North Carolina and Georgia. He endured hardships alongside them on the Trail of Tears and first settled in Breadtown (now Westville).
To share the word of God in their own language, he learned Cherokee and eventually translated the Bible using Sequoyah's alphabet. He was responsible for publishing the bilingual newspaper, Cherokee Messenger. He continued working faithfully, preaching the word and helping the Cherokees in various ways, despite threats of expulsion from the Baptist mission.Jones and his family received Cherokee citizenship, the first instance of citizenship ever being offered to foreigners who were not married into the tribe. He loved the Cherokees and they loved him in return, He died in 1872 and is buried in Tahlequah City Cemetery.

Family Members
Spouses
Elizabeth Lanigan Jones
unknown–1831 (m. 1808)

Pauline Jones
Pauline Cunningham Jones
1802–1876

Children
Evan Jones
Evan Jones
unknown–1855

Priscilla Jones
Priscilla Jones
unknown–1863

Elizabeth Parks
Elizabeth Jones Parks
1813–1897

Samuel Jones
Samuel Jones
1814–1863

Anna Latta
Anna Jones Latta
1816–1868

Hannah Pierson
Hannah W. Jones Pierson
1820–1876

John Jones
John Butterick Jones
1824–1876

Mary Smith
Mary Lincoln Jones Smith
1835–1874

Joanna Hard
Joanna V Jones Hard
1839–1914

Miles Jones
Miles C. Jones
1844–1928

Ella McAllaster
Ella Parry Jones McAllaster
1846–1921

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/61781109/evan-jones