The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1905-09-08

continual struggle for an enlargement
Of their borders along the sea coast
this has all been buried in oblivion
without a single syllable Of commemo
ration. 1t was not until they came
into contact with the English colonist'
that their history began to assume an
authentic form.
Although the words Of our Portu
guese journalist is anything but com
plimentary to the state Of society
among the ancient Catalogues, they
90 far enough to disclose the fact that
these Indians, while they drew their
resources largely from the chase, they
were also intelligently engaged in ag-
riculture, their productions being
chiefly maize, yams, and other escu-
lent vegetables.
In 1893, when the relationship Of
the Cherokees with Europeans became
a matter Of fact. the territory domi-
mated by the former, and called their
hunting grounds, was truly inn
mense. 1t not only covered the mag
nificent space lying between the sea
coast and the Alleghanies, from Vir-
ginia to louisiana but swept on vest
ward over the summit of the Blue
Ridge and its associated ranges, to the
Ohio and Mississippi, taking in the
space now occupied by the states of
Kentucky and Tennessee, together
with the northern halfof Georgia and
Alabama. OF course. the lines of de-
markation which set off this vast ter
ritory was, at least to the apprehen-
sion Of the outlying tribes, exceedingly
indefinite, and by them but little re-
spected. 1t seems to have been only
a tract the integrity Of which was
maintained solely by Cherokee yalor,
and into which no enemy yentured to
intrude except as the opportunity fur
nished a guarantee OF safety. The
became at once actuated
by an inordinate desire to usurp to
the entire and exclusive
Of this magnificent herit-
age The expedients which they
adopted for the attainment of this
end were various and in general most
The initial scheme was
simply to clear the ground Of the In,
dams presence by force Of arms, at
the same time transporting the cap
lives to the West Indies and selling
them into slavery. (See Joyce's his
tory of the Cherokees, p. 1897.
Subsequently these hostile relations
the Cherokees and the white !
settlers were gradually substituted by /,
imicable treaty relations, a system
of intercourse with the natives which,
when the colonies ceased to exist, was
-aken upand perpetuated by theUnited |
States down to the present day. In
of this latter policy, annie
IDLY compulsory treaties rapidly accu-
between the Cherokees and |
lhe government, colonial and federal,
% that at the present time, there
stands of record more than half a hun
ired of them, not one Of which was
,yer violated by the former, and net
me ever faithfully observed by the
after Twenty-four Of these sc-called
.reaties we're designed simply to Sc
,ure from the Indians a reluctant con-
ent to relinquish their title to some
Tast scope Of their "hunting grounds"
which had been wrongfully overrun
Ind hopelessly monopolized by the
white settlers. These compulsory ces-
ions we're regularly exacted during
he two hundred years beginning at
he close Of the seventeenth century
nd ending with the nineteenth; it
ook just forty-seven Of them to ex-
AUST the entire body Of Cherokee
grounds" and send the her
ditary owners into exile beyond the ;
Be,shazzar took Palestine from the
ews and transported. them beyond
he Euphrates; he made no apology
for such conduct, and has
Iad consequently to bear centuries Of
eproach as an Hnscrupulous tyrant
Ie was foolish fellow. He should
ave worked out his purpose bv ssam-
cable negotiation. p
1t may be frankly admitted that
be Cherokees. prior to their contact
7ith European culture. were not what
ould be called, in a true sense, a civil Z
zed people: yet their condition was
astly above that Of the brutal saw
&c. De Soto found them engaged in
illing the soil for their bread: and i
Thy should they discard the chase for
leat when bounteOus nature had filed o