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Show MOONBY] TROUBLES WITH OSAGE- 1817- 22 137 had removed from his old home at the mouth of Hiwassee, in Tennessee, in 1818. * In the spring of 1819 Thomas Nuttall, the naturalist, ascended the Arkansas, and he gives an interesting account of the western Cherokee as he found them at the time. In going up the stream, ik both banks of the river, as we proceeded, were lined with the houses and farms of the Cherokee, and though their dress was a mixture of indigenous and European taste, yet in their houses, which are decently furnished, and in their farms, which were well fenced and stocked with cattle, we perceive a happy approach toward civilization. Their numerous families, also, well fed and clothed, argue a propitious progress in their population. Their superior industry either as hunters or farmers proves the value of property among them, and they are no longer strangers to avarice and the distinctions created by wealth. Some of them are possessed of property to the amount of many thousands of dollars, have houses handsomely and conveniently furnished, and their tables spread with our dainties and luxuries." He mentions an engagement some time before between them and the Osage, in which the Cherokee had killed nearly one hundred of the Osage, besides taking a number of prisoners. He estimates them at about fifteen hundred, being about half the number estimated by the eastern Nation as having emigrated to the West, and only one- fourth of the official estimate. A few Delawares were living with them. 8 The Osage troubles continued in spite of a treaty of peace between the two tribes made at a council held under the direction of Governor Clark at St. Louis, in October, 1818.8 Warriors from the eastern Cherokee were accustomed to make the long journey to the Arkansas to assist their western brethren, and returned with scalps and captives.* In the summer of 1820 a secondetfort for peace was made by Governor Miller of Arkansas territory. In reply to his talk the Osage complained that the Cherokee had failed to deliver their Osage captives as stipulated in the previous agreement at St. Louis. This, it appears, was due in part to the fact that some of these captives had been carried to the eastern Cherokee, and a messenger was accordingly dispatched to secure and bring them back. Another peace conference was held soon afterward at Fort Smith, but to very little purpose, as hostilities were soon resumed and continued until the United States actively interposed in the fall of 1822.6 In this year also Sequoya visited the western Cherokee to introduce 1 Nuttall, Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory, etc., p. 129; Philadelphia. 1821. 8 Ibid., pp. 12&- 136. The battle mentioned seems to be the same noted somewhat differently by Washburn, Reminiscences, p. 120, 1869. * Royce. Cherokee Nation, op. cit.. p. 222. « Washburn, op. cit., p. 160, and personal information from J. D. Wafford. 6Royce, op. cit., pp. 242, 243; Washburn, op. cit., pp. 112- 122 et passim; see also sketches of Tahchei and Tooantuh or 8pring- frog, in McKenney and Hall, Indian Tribes, i and n, 1858. |
