Post by jones on Apr 19, 2016 22:24:34 GMT -5
The massacre in the autumn of 1817 at Claremore Mound was short lived, but circumstances that led up to it spanned 5 decades, so in order to shorten this saga I've used links to (and excerpts from) books that describe some of the key players and events.
In 1763, when Pierre Laclede and his stepson, August Chouteau, began platting their trading post near the mouth of the Missouri River they named it St. Louis, in honor of the legendary 13th century French King Saint Louis IX, but unknown to them, the Louisiana Territory had already been secretly ceded to Spain. That same year, a band of pro-French Cherokees headed westward to live north of the Arkansas River in what is now northwest Arkansas. They were joined by another Cherokee migration in 1782.
The Laclede-Chouteau dynasty had held an exclusive trading license with the Osage tribe until 1802 when they lost their license to Manuel Lisa, (the son of a Spanish bureaucrat) who was granted exclusive trading privileges with all the tribes living along the tributaries of the lower Missouri River, and that included the Big and Little Osage bands. In response to that loss, Pierre Chouteau enticed the best hunters of both Osage bands to build villages on the Verdigris River, a tributary of the Arkansas, that flows into the Mississippi. This third tribal division (the "Cheniers" or "Arkansas Osage") consisted of Chief Glahmo's village and Chief Black Dog's village. Eventually, Chief Glahmo adopted the the name Claremont, a variation of the name of the bluff were he resided, Claremore Mound.
After the US "Louisiana Purchase", Thomas Jefferson made attempts to bring the Chenier band back to their traditional homeland, but they refused, and then in 1808 the Osage tribe was forced to cede the bulk of their territory between the Missouri and Arkansas Rivers to the US or be declared enemies of the US government.
Meanwhile, the Cherokee migration westward had continued over the years and by 1808 the population of the "Western Cherokee" (aka Old Settlers) numbered roughly 2,000; by 1815, 3,000, and by 1817, 3,700. By 1816 a few groups of Cherokees moved as far west as present-day Dallas Texas. The growing Western Cherokee population and their hunting activities put additional pressures on the Osage, which resulted in Osage raids on the Cherokees who were then occupying the land that they had been forced to leave.
...........
books.google.com/books?id=iAxtAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA75&lpg=PA75#v=onepage&q&f=true
Arkansas, 1800–1860: Remote and Restless
By S. Charles Bolton
"William Lovejoy, an Indian agent who joined the Arkansas Cherokee in 1813, chronicled a series of small-scale aggressions on both sides (Cherokee & Osage) and added that renegade whites played an important role in the escalating violence."
............
This might be a good place to introduce John D. Chisholm, who participated in the Claremore Mound Massacre. (A side Note: John D. Chisholm was the grandfather of Jesse Chisholm of Chisholm Trail fame). John D. Chishom was born in Scotland, and after arriving in America, he became involved in many ambitious self-serving schemes, one of which was the Blount Conspiracy, a plot to attack Spanish forces in the Louisiana and Florida Territories, and hand the territories over to the British. As a reward for the planned military conquest he requested: "I should be employed as the British Superintendant of Indian affairs; that public money and personal property should be equally divided between the Crown and the Captors; — that each private Soldier should receive from the Crown a grant of a thousand acres of Land."
After that plot failed to materialize, Chisholm, in partnership with Cherokee Chief Doublehead, orchestrated a shady land swap between the Cherokee Nation and the US government.
.........
Jesse Chisholm: Ambassador of the Plains
By Stan Hoig
books.google.com/books?id=wrRTXeZlby0C&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9#v=onepage&q&f=true
"When word reached England that (John D.) Chisholm's plot had been made public, the British rejected his overtures out of hand."
page 10:
"The Cherokees of the Upper Towns were greatly incensed over this (land cessions by treaty), and they were further enraged by reports that Doublehead and Chisholm were selling Cherokee land to whites. . . Double head was brutally murdered. For some reason, either by good fortune or forewarning, Chisholm . . . escaped a similar fate."
page 11:
"On June 28, 1812 he (Chisholm) wrote from Arkansas: I have been constant with Tollantisky (Tahlonteskee, Doublehead’s nephew) and party since he left the Old Nation (1810) and doing their business and instructing in the best manner I know how."
.........
books.google.com/books?id=Rl0LnZsQy8cC&pg=PA101&lpg=PA101#v=onepage&q&f=true
The Taking of American Indian Lands in the Southeast: A History of Territorial Cessions and Forced Relocations, 1607-1840
By David W. Miller
" Those instrumental in the treaty, including Double Head's brother and Double Head's close associate John Chisholm, received tracts of land at Muscle Shoals. Secrete awards were also given. . . Double Head's gain was completely negated with his murder in June 1807 . . . Another possibly bribed, Tahlonteskee, fearing for his life, in 1809 led a group estimated at 300 to 1,130 Chickamaugans to land in the present state of Arkansas."
Page 102:
" The agent, William L. Lovejoy, described his situation to President Madison in 1815: I am . . . surrounded on all sides by Indians and the Worst of White setters . . . against whom there are no possible means of enforcing any laws "
...........
It was not until the Turkey Town Treaty of July 8, 1817 that the "Western Cherokee" settlement gained official US recognition as a separate entity within the Cherokee Nation. After ceding more than two-million acres of land in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama, a massive westward migration swelled the Western Cherokee population to well over 6,000 (roughly one-third of the entire Cherokee Nation). Predictably, the Osage responded with rage, and skirmishes between the tribes became more frequent.
The 1817 western Cherokee migration included such notable figures as Sam Houston (who escorted the migration, and was the adopted son of Chief "John Jolly"); Chief Oolooteka "John Jolly" (who became the principle chief of the Western Cherokees after his brother Tahlonteskee died in the spring of 1819 ) and John Rogers (great uncle of "Will" Rogers). It isn't clear how many of the estimated 4,000 Cherokees who migrated west in 1817 were involved in the Battle of Claremore Mound. Many hadn't arrived yet, but the Western Cherokees did seek assistance from the Eastern Cherokees. The attack had been planned months in advance, and once finalized, the Cherokee war party of 600 to 700 included a confederacy of Shawnee, Delaware, Choctaws, Caddos and various other tribes, plus eleven white men, one of whom was John D. Chisholm. Thus it was, in October of 1817 the war party mounted their cruel attack on Claremont's defenseless village.
...........
books.google.com/books?id=X5vxa4dtDJUC&pg=PA194&lpg=PA194#v=onepage&q&f=true
A History of the Osage People
by Louis F. Burns
". . . Osage force consisted of very aged men, women and young children, amounting to less than a fourth of the number in the attacking force. . .The invaders knew full well all able-bodied men, women and children were out on the Plains on the fall hunt. . . A runner was sent to the Osage village to tell the Osage that ten or fifteen Cherokees were waiting to discuss their differences. An old chief returned with the runner to tell the Cherokees that Claremore was away . . . the old chief accepted the Cherokee offer of food and drink. As he sat down, the Cherokees murdered him. . . among the Plains Indians, an offer and acceptance of food and drink was a guarantee of friendship. . . To our knowledge, this is the only example recorded west of the Mississippi of a violation of this pledge of friendship. . . Fourteen old Osage men were killed. Sixty-nine old women, boys and children were killed. Slightly more than one hundred young children were taken captive."
.........
books.google.com/books?id=6lIVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA136&lpg=PA136#v=onepage&q&f=true
A Journal of Travels Into the Arkansas Territory: During the Year 1819.
By Thomas Nuttall (published 1821)
"A white man who accompanied them (named Chisholm), with a diabolical cruelty that ought to have been punished with death, dashed out the brains of a helpless infant, torn from the arms of its butchered mother! . . .It appears, to me, to have been the duty of the superintendent of Indian affairs to have apprehended that white man, and delivered him over to the government for trial and punishment.
.................
Nuttall's journal with footnotes about Chisholm
books.google.com/books?id=iXZGzZG2aqwC&pg=PA150&lpg=PA150#v=onepage&q&f=true
..............
One of the survivors of the massacre who escaped captivity was interviewed seven decades later. He was ten years old when: "Cherokees rushed into camp, and began immediately to kill Osages . . . pick up little children by the heals and dash their brains out against the ground."
His mother told him to "go to the river, get a chunk or log and cross to the other side."
He pulled a small tree trunk to the river, which was bankful, jumped in and clung to the log for several hours. He was carried downstream about 10 miles before he was found in a fatigued condition by his people several hours later. After telling them what had happened he was named Ho-Ne-Kah-Sea, which means "Pretty Nearly Drowned".
........
The Western Cherokee Nation's boundary lines were surveyed in the spring of 1819.
Map of the Arkansas Territory (1822)
www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~74~10136
......
A History of the Texas Cherokees
In 1829, Sam Houston was granted a legal document giving him permission to live with the Cherokees and share the same rights as native-born members of the tribe.
On January 29th, 1855, General Sam Houston reflected back: "The Cherokees had ever been friendly, and when Texas was in consternation, and the men and women were fugitives from the myrmidons of Santa Anna, who were sweeping over Texas like a simoon, they had aided our people, and given them succor—and this was the recompense. They were driven from their homes and were left desolate."
digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v001/v001p179.html
THE LAST OF THE CHEROKEES IN TEXAS, AND THE LIFE AND DEATH OF CHIEF BOWLES.
In 1763, when Pierre Laclede and his stepson, August Chouteau, began platting their trading post near the mouth of the Missouri River they named it St. Louis, in honor of the legendary 13th century French King Saint Louis IX, but unknown to them, the Louisiana Territory had already been secretly ceded to Spain. That same year, a band of pro-French Cherokees headed westward to live north of the Arkansas River in what is now northwest Arkansas. They were joined by another Cherokee migration in 1782.
The Laclede-Chouteau dynasty had held an exclusive trading license with the Osage tribe until 1802 when they lost their license to Manuel Lisa, (the son of a Spanish bureaucrat) who was granted exclusive trading privileges with all the tribes living along the tributaries of the lower Missouri River, and that included the Big and Little Osage bands. In response to that loss, Pierre Chouteau enticed the best hunters of both Osage bands to build villages on the Verdigris River, a tributary of the Arkansas, that flows into the Mississippi. This third tribal division (the "Cheniers" or "Arkansas Osage") consisted of Chief Glahmo's village and Chief Black Dog's village. Eventually, Chief Glahmo adopted the the name Claremont, a variation of the name of the bluff were he resided, Claremore Mound.
After the US "Louisiana Purchase", Thomas Jefferson made attempts to bring the Chenier band back to their traditional homeland, but they refused, and then in 1808 the Osage tribe was forced to cede the bulk of their territory between the Missouri and Arkansas Rivers to the US or be declared enemies of the US government.
Meanwhile, the Cherokee migration westward had continued over the years and by 1808 the population of the "Western Cherokee" (aka Old Settlers) numbered roughly 2,000; by 1815, 3,000, and by 1817, 3,700. By 1816 a few groups of Cherokees moved as far west as present-day Dallas Texas. The growing Western Cherokee population and their hunting activities put additional pressures on the Osage, which resulted in Osage raids on the Cherokees who were then occupying the land that they had been forced to leave.
...........
books.google.com/books?id=iAxtAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA75&lpg=PA75#v=onepage&q&f=true
Arkansas, 1800–1860: Remote and Restless
By S. Charles Bolton
"William Lovejoy, an Indian agent who joined the Arkansas Cherokee in 1813, chronicled a series of small-scale aggressions on both sides (Cherokee & Osage) and added that renegade whites played an important role in the escalating violence."
............
This might be a good place to introduce John D. Chisholm, who participated in the Claremore Mound Massacre. (A side Note: John D. Chisholm was the grandfather of Jesse Chisholm of Chisholm Trail fame). John D. Chishom was born in Scotland, and after arriving in America, he became involved in many ambitious self-serving schemes, one of which was the Blount Conspiracy, a plot to attack Spanish forces in the Louisiana and Florida Territories, and hand the territories over to the British. As a reward for the planned military conquest he requested: "I should be employed as the British Superintendant of Indian affairs; that public money and personal property should be equally divided between the Crown and the Captors; — that each private Soldier should receive from the Crown a grant of a thousand acres of Land."
After that plot failed to materialize, Chisholm, in partnership with Cherokee Chief Doublehead, orchestrated a shady land swap between the Cherokee Nation and the US government.
.........
Jesse Chisholm: Ambassador of the Plains
By Stan Hoig
books.google.com/books?id=wrRTXeZlby0C&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9#v=onepage&q&f=true
"When word reached England that (John D.) Chisholm's plot had been made public, the British rejected his overtures out of hand."
page 10:
"The Cherokees of the Upper Towns were greatly incensed over this (land cessions by treaty), and they were further enraged by reports that Doublehead and Chisholm were selling Cherokee land to whites. . . Double head was brutally murdered. For some reason, either by good fortune or forewarning, Chisholm . . . escaped a similar fate."
page 11:
"On June 28, 1812 he (Chisholm) wrote from Arkansas: I have been constant with Tollantisky (Tahlonteskee, Doublehead’s nephew) and party since he left the Old Nation (1810) and doing their business and instructing in the best manner I know how."
.........
books.google.com/books?id=Rl0LnZsQy8cC&pg=PA101&lpg=PA101#v=onepage&q&f=true
The Taking of American Indian Lands in the Southeast: A History of Territorial Cessions and Forced Relocations, 1607-1840
By David W. Miller
" Those instrumental in the treaty, including Double Head's brother and Double Head's close associate John Chisholm, received tracts of land at Muscle Shoals. Secrete awards were also given. . . Double Head's gain was completely negated with his murder in June 1807 . . . Another possibly bribed, Tahlonteskee, fearing for his life, in 1809 led a group estimated at 300 to 1,130 Chickamaugans to land in the present state of Arkansas."
Page 102:
" The agent, William L. Lovejoy, described his situation to President Madison in 1815: I am . . . surrounded on all sides by Indians and the Worst of White setters . . . against whom there are no possible means of enforcing any laws "
...........
It was not until the Turkey Town Treaty of July 8, 1817 that the "Western Cherokee" settlement gained official US recognition as a separate entity within the Cherokee Nation. After ceding more than two-million acres of land in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama, a massive westward migration swelled the Western Cherokee population to well over 6,000 (roughly one-third of the entire Cherokee Nation). Predictably, the Osage responded with rage, and skirmishes between the tribes became more frequent.
The 1817 western Cherokee migration included such notable figures as Sam Houston (who escorted the migration, and was the adopted son of Chief "John Jolly"); Chief Oolooteka "John Jolly" (who became the principle chief of the Western Cherokees after his brother Tahlonteskee died in the spring of 1819 ) and John Rogers (great uncle of "Will" Rogers). It isn't clear how many of the estimated 4,000 Cherokees who migrated west in 1817 were involved in the Battle of Claremore Mound. Many hadn't arrived yet, but the Western Cherokees did seek assistance from the Eastern Cherokees. The attack had been planned months in advance, and once finalized, the Cherokee war party of 600 to 700 included a confederacy of Shawnee, Delaware, Choctaws, Caddos and various other tribes, plus eleven white men, one of whom was John D. Chisholm. Thus it was, in October of 1817 the war party mounted their cruel attack on Claremont's defenseless village.
...........
books.google.com/books?id=X5vxa4dtDJUC&pg=PA194&lpg=PA194#v=onepage&q&f=true
A History of the Osage People
by Louis F. Burns
". . . Osage force consisted of very aged men, women and young children, amounting to less than a fourth of the number in the attacking force. . .The invaders knew full well all able-bodied men, women and children were out on the Plains on the fall hunt. . . A runner was sent to the Osage village to tell the Osage that ten or fifteen Cherokees were waiting to discuss their differences. An old chief returned with the runner to tell the Cherokees that Claremore was away . . . the old chief accepted the Cherokee offer of food and drink. As he sat down, the Cherokees murdered him. . . among the Plains Indians, an offer and acceptance of food and drink was a guarantee of friendship. . . To our knowledge, this is the only example recorded west of the Mississippi of a violation of this pledge of friendship. . . Fourteen old Osage men were killed. Sixty-nine old women, boys and children were killed. Slightly more than one hundred young children were taken captive."
.........
books.google.com/books?id=6lIVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA136&lpg=PA136#v=onepage&q&f=true
A Journal of Travels Into the Arkansas Territory: During the Year 1819.
By Thomas Nuttall (published 1821)
"A white man who accompanied them (named Chisholm), with a diabolical cruelty that ought to have been punished with death, dashed out the brains of a helpless infant, torn from the arms of its butchered mother! . . .It appears, to me, to have been the duty of the superintendent of Indian affairs to have apprehended that white man, and delivered him over to the government for trial and punishment.
.................
Nuttall's journal with footnotes about Chisholm
books.google.com/books?id=iXZGzZG2aqwC&pg=PA150&lpg=PA150#v=onepage&q&f=true
..............
One of the survivors of the massacre who escaped captivity was interviewed seven decades later. He was ten years old when: "Cherokees rushed into camp, and began immediately to kill Osages . . . pick up little children by the heals and dash their brains out against the ground."
His mother told him to "go to the river, get a chunk or log and cross to the other side."
He pulled a small tree trunk to the river, which was bankful, jumped in and clung to the log for several hours. He was carried downstream about 10 miles before he was found in a fatigued condition by his people several hours later. After telling them what had happened he was named Ho-Ne-Kah-Sea, which means "Pretty Nearly Drowned".
........
The Western Cherokee Nation's boundary lines were surveyed in the spring of 1819.
Map of the Arkansas Territory (1822)
www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~74~10136
......
A History of the Texas Cherokees
In 1829, Sam Houston was granted a legal document giving him permission to live with the Cherokees and share the same rights as native-born members of the tribe.
On January 29th, 1855, General Sam Houston reflected back: "The Cherokees had ever been friendly, and when Texas was in consternation, and the men and women were fugitives from the myrmidons of Santa Anna, who were sweeping over Texas like a simoon, they had aided our people, and given them succor—and this was the recompense. They were driven from their homes and were left desolate."
digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v001/v001p179.html
THE LAST OF THE CHEROKEES IN TEXAS, AND THE LIFE AND DEATH OF CHIEF BOWLES.