New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1844-06-17
THE TRIBUNE
The CheroLces.

The CherOI>ees.
Few. white men but these who have Travelled
among or been doineslcated with the Cherokccs
and other Indians in the South West, know any
thing Of their real condition; and those who have
lived among them are not generally of class to
impart information TO others. Long before the
Cherokecs and Chactas and Chlckasas had Lett
their homes in Georgia and Mississippi, they
had made great advances in civilization, and no
longer merited the opprobrlurn of being clEsscd
among savage races. They had collected IN VII
lagos, laid aside their savage orgies, and formed
polity at least well arranged as that OF their
neighbors--bullt large lalm-houses and barns,
placed their fields under good enclosures and as
sumed, or attempted to assume, all the rules and
regulations of weordcrcd society. John How
ard Payne, who certainly had seen something OF
the world, considered it libel to compare the
Cherokees with the backwoodS Georgians; and
all who have known Push.meta.ha, whom the T.
States thought worthy of monument in the Ma
tonal Cemetery, must esteem him no common
man. AS much may be said the Colberts, Pitch
lin, and others of the Chacta race. Ross, Adair,
Guess, Williams. Coody, and others OF the Cher
okee people, are evidently men of genius, and
may safely challenge comparison between their
countrymen and the mass Of the people in their
neighborhood in Arkansas.
The Chcrokees occupy region extending
northward from the Arkansas River, with the in
terruption of tract Of land few miles in length,
occupied by the Quapaws and Scnccas, TO the
Usage River, and West to the Neosho and
Vcrdigrs Rivers from the line Of Arkansas-ot
most diversified character, containing portions
Of primcval forest, the rank luxurious cane brake
the glorious prairie, the pleasant glaze, the barren
desert, and the wild and romantic mountain ridge.
The Ozark range, which bcstows tins last feature,
though It's name almost be unknown, presents
series of bare peaks and deep valleys, altcrnated
with wooded hills terminating in precpces, then
unduating away into waving praires, whose
equal for the mingling of the grand and the beau.
tiful neither this nor the other Continent pro-
ducc Winding at its base and through its gorges
is the Illinois OF the South now scarcely able To
force its way over the pebbles of flint and cornc-
lian and now stealing almost impcrccptibly along
in deep, shady pools filled with the Bass and the
Buffalo fish while on the hills above, the Pines
grow in thick clusters, frnged around with the
Ficus Indicus and Cotton Wood-a!l contributing
to make it pleasant us an Arcadia. The country
is filled with game-Deer abound in the prairie
and the mountains are filled with Bear, Just dan.
gerous enough to give zest 10 the Hunters life
and afford fit text for the old Cherokee 10 begin
a doscant of his achievements in a wilder and
more beloved land.
Such is the land the Cherokecs are placed in;
and, could they but have forgotten their homes
and the manner of their removal, they might Il;
once have been contened. But, III the nature Of
his feelings 20 the land of his BIRTH the English
man has always been strange. lie has always
been wanderer and from tho day that Hengist
and Horse unlurled the flag Of the Black Raven
upon the shores of England, their descendants
have been ever ready TO peril life and salvation
for the land they lived in, or to abandon it, with
out aprctcncaof sentiment, upon the promise OF Il
milder climate and moro sunny home The In
dian does not think so the land where his fathers
lie buried is holy to him, and the council fire Of
his nation hallows the soil upon which ii has
burned; and were there permitted TO him in tins
life the truition of the happy hunting grounds he
dreams of, he would renouncc it for his native
land. This feeling is not TO be eradicatcd but is
vivid in the breast of him in whose veins there is
one drop of Indian blood, it was in the heart OF
the Powhatan or Montezuma. The Cherokee
therefore moved into tho country he now occupies
not as an emigrant, bat in the guise of an exile.
The streams were bright and beautiful, but he
longed for the wild torrents of the Alleghanics;
and the prairie could not atone to him for the ab.
sence Of the hickory groves of Dahloncga. But
he is philosopher, and nerved himself immc-
datcly for the task before him. Fifty years since
the first demonstration of his existence would
have been foray upon the settlement around
him, and an indiscriminate massacre to have
been atoncd for, perhaps, by such fight as that
of the Horseshoe, in which it would have been
official. 10 determine which side received the
most injury; leaving behind it feelings vet more
aggravated and farther addition to the long roll
OF wrongs which he ever treasures up. But his
nature WAS changed in degree by the contac.
OF civilization, and he set to work to regain the
position in worldly wealth which had been wrest.
ed from him. Houses ere long began to arise by
The side OF the streams which empty into the Nc
osho and Southern Illinois, and large farms were
opened where the plow had never before been
ofi'eh. Nls one OF the boons bestowed upon the
cart" by Labor generally and especially by Agri.
culture that 1t soi'ens the heart and renders less
bitter the feelings OF HIM who devo,es himself IN it
nc deer were replaced by large herds of cattle.
and the winding paths Of the osares and Della.
wares gave way 10 beaten roads. His poytv ~
knowledge of the science of Government, which
was in his old country in advance of that of ,nv
oil his brethren, was yet farther improved, and he
afforded the greatest encouragement to the Phi.
lanh'opist and believer in the perfecdbility of bu
man nature. His policy has assumed form no,