Good morning! As previously stated, my name is Defender Smith. Finger is the birthright portion of my surname from an ancestor who was a mid-18th-century German immigrant. Smith is the birthright portion of my husband’s surname, who is an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokees. I have a business license through the title. I do not speak on their behalf, nor do I speak for them. I am an independent researcher and present as such.
Before I begin, I want to offer a couple of disclaimers. First, due to the historic nature of this talk, some parts might seem offensive in today’s world, but I am speaking in the context of the time. Second, if you use or share any of the graphics from the handout or screenshots, please include appropriate credits to the person who did the math or the credit. We want to always give credit where it’s due. Lastly, I’ve been given a finite amount of time to talk, so I will stick to my points with only a few sidebars. Those of you who know me can attest that I can quickly veer off-subject and go down the rabbit hole, so I’ll try not to do that today.
We’ll have some time for Q&A at the end, so if you have a question, please jot it down. Unless you can remember it longer than I can, then I will try to answer those.
The statement that the Eastern Band of Cherokee are the descendants of those who fled to the mountains and eluded federal troops in 1838 is a distortion and oversimplification of a very complex episode in Cherokee history. During this talk, I will cover five circumstances during the early 19th century that contributed to the nucleus of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Hopefully, this talk will clear up some misconceptions about why some Cherokee in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama remained in the east after the forced removal of others to lands west of the Mississippi.
But first, I want to give you a brief background of the historical periods assigned by the federal government as they relate to the North Carolina Cherokee. Keeping in mind that the North Carolina Cherokee periods are fairly well aligned with the Cherokee Nation as a whole.
During the Colonial Period, the Cherokee formed a relatively egalitarian, communalistic society. They lived in communities aiming for equal means for all by growing, hunting, and gathering. Towns were defined by the presence of a townhouse, a public building that was the focal point of civil, political, and religious activity.
When Europeans arrived, they brought significant changes, most notably diseases that decimated the Native American population. Demographers agree that the Native American population declined by at least 90% after 1500. This depopulation wreaked havoc on the social and political structures of the Southeast. By the middle of the 18th century, a few prominent tribes, including the Cherokee, had emerged.
By the dawn of the 18th century, these tribes had laid territorial claims throughout the southeastern region of the continent. The Cherokee claimed parts of what are now North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee.
This map shows the original Cherokee claims overlaid onto current-day county and state maps. The areas in Kentucky and Virginia were primarily for hunting, with scattered shelters, while towns were further south.
Unfortunately, there are few records of the Cherokee people prior to their relationship with the United States, with most accounts from this period coming from diaries and journals of non-Indian explorers.
During the Colonial Period, town clusters within the Cherokee Nation were described mainly by river drainage systems. The lower towns were along the upper Savannah River, the Overhill towns along the upper Tennessee and lower Little Tennessee rivers, and the North Carolina Cherokee settlements as three different town groups: the Valley Towns, the Middle Towns, and the Out Towns.
In 1721, Francis Bernard, a foreign missionary, enumerated 53 Cherokee towns totaling 10,379 individuals. This census, titled “A True and Exact Account of the Number and Names of All Towns Belonging to the Cherokee Nation and the Number of Men, Women, and Children Inhabiting Them,” gives us some insight into the population and distribution of the Cherokee at the time.
By 1808, George Barber Davis recorded a census of the Cherokee Nation, noting that the North Carolina Cherokee were at least 20 years behind the rest of the nation. Beginning in 1816, many Cherokees voluntarily enrolled themselves to move west, and by 1820, several thousand had relocated to Arkansas.
Moving forward, I will primarily refer to North Carolina as it is where most of the Eastern Cherokee remained and where the Eastern Band of Cherokee was established. The settlement pattern of the North Carolina Cherokee was about to change drastically.
In 1817 and 1819, treaties were signed between the United States and the Cherokee, compensating for large areas of land ceded by the Cherokee. These treaties allowed for a reservation of 640 acres to each head of a family who elected to become a citizen of the United States. The region around the Middle Towns and Out Towns was included in this land cession.
The 1819 treaty stated that the United States would pay for all valuable improvements on land within the country ceded by the Cherokee and allow a reservation of 640 acres to each head of a family who elected to become a citizen. As a result, 91 heads of Cherokee households in the Middle and Out Towns filed claims for these reservations.
By June 1820, records showed 80 families totaling 487 individuals remaining on these treaty lands, now being surveyed for landscape sales. North Carolina law permitted white settlers to forcefully remove the citizen Cherokee from their reservations.
One account of such an incident was documented in the 1842 testimony of Gideon Morris, who described how his house was attacked and burned, forcing his family to drift in cold weather. Many citizen Cherokees moved into the Valley Towns within the Cherokee Nation or settled elsewhere at a site known as Koala Town, outside of the Cherokee Nation.
The Nationalist Period from 1820 to 1835 saw the Cherokee of Koala Town living quietly among their few white neighbors, abiding by North Carolina laws outside of the Cherokee Nation. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson pushed through the Indian Removal Act, giving the president power to negotiate removal treaties with Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi.
A prelude to the removal was the 1835 Cherokee census, authorized by the federal government. According to this census, 364 Cherokees lived in North Carolina, including those in Koala Town. Nathaniel Smith, the official census taker for North Carolina, noted that 233 individuals had settled among the whites, referring to the citizen Cherokees living outside of the Cherokee Nation.
The removal period began with the signing of the infamous Treaty of New Echota in December 1835. Article 12 of this treaty allowed those averse to removal to become citizens of the states where they resided, provided they acquired their own land and otherwise fended for themselves. This loophole aided the North Carolina Cherokee in their opposition and resistance to removal.
Now, let’s delve into the five circumstances that contributed to the ethnogenesis of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
The first circumstance is a direct result of the Treaty of 1817 and 1819. These treaties allowed for reservations of 640 acres to each head of a family who elected to become a citizen of the United States. The North Carolina Cherokee, who chose to stay and protect ancient mounds and towns, were known as the citizen Cherokee. By 1836, attorney William Holland Thomas represented the citizen Cherokee of Koala Town, informing federal authorities of their intention to stay, obtaining their share of treaty benefits, and purchasing land in his name for their benefit.
The second circumstance is the North Carolina Cherokee who possessed proper certificates exempting them from removal. These certificates, or permits, were issued to the old and the sick, as well as to families with white members who held dual citizenship in North Carolina and the Cherokee Nation. These exempted individuals became known as the Cherokee Countrymen or intermarried whites.
The third circumstance is the North Carolina Cherokee who were members of Utsala’s band. When federal troops and state militia came to the mountains of North Carolina in June 1838, the Nantahala Cherokee, located in the lower Nantahala River Valley, fled to the remote mountains rather than submit to removal. Utsala’s band evaded troops for months. In September 1838, the military intensified their efforts to capture the band, eventually granting amnesty to Utsala’s group, allowing them to remain in North Carolina.
The fourth circumstance is the North Carolina Cherokee who resisted removal. By the end of 1838, most Cherokees were already in the West. However, those who avoided removal by evading soldiers in their mountainous hideouts were dismissed by the War Department as not worth the trouble and expense to remove. Approximately 800 Cherokees resided in and around Koala, with another 300 or so scattered along the Cheoah, Valley, and Hiwassee River Valleys. In total, about 1,400
Good morning! As previously stated, my name is Defender Smith. Finger is the birthright portion of my surname from an ancestor who was a mid-18th-century German immigrant. Smith is the birthright portion of my husband’s surname, who is an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokees. I have a
