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Show 2 1 8 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE * [ CTH. IJW. 19 I language and alphabet. In this labor his inherited printer's instinct came into play, for he himself supervised the casting of the new types and the systematic arrangement of them in the case. In March, 1831, he was arrested by the Georgia authorities for refusing to take a special oath of allegiance to the state. He was released, but was rearrested soon afterward, confined in the state penitentiary, and forced to wear prison garb, until January, 1833, notwithstanding a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, nearly a year before, that his imprisonment was a violation of the law of the land. The Cherokee Phcenix having been suspended and the Cherokee Nation brought into disorder by the extension over it of the state laws, he then returned to Brainerd, which was beyond the limits of Georgia. In 1835 he removed to the Indian Territory, whither the Arkansas Cherokee had already gone, and after short sojourns at Dwight and Union missions took up his final residence at Park Hill in December, 1836. He had already set up his mission press at Union, printing both in the Cherokee and the Creek languages, and on establishing himself at Park Hill he began a regular series of publications in the Cherokee language. In 1843 he states that " at Park Hill, besides the preaching of the gospel, a leading object of attention is the preparation and publication of books in the Cherokee language" ( Letter in Report of Indian Commissioner, p. 356,1843). The list of his Cherokee publications ( first editions) under his own name in Pilling's Bibliography comprises about twenty titles, including the Bible, hymn books, tracts, and almanacs in addition to the Phoenix and large number of anonymous wTorks. Says Pilling: " It is very probable that he was the translator of a number of books for which he is not given credit here, especially those portions of the Scripture which are herein not assigned to any name. Indeed it is safe to say that during the thirty- four years of his connection with the Cherokee but little was done in the way of translating in which he had not a share." He also began a Cherokee geography and had both a grammar and a dictionary of the language under way when his * work was interrupted by his arrest. The manuscripts,- with all his personal effects, afterward went down with a sinking steamer on the Arkansas. His daughter, Mrs A. E. W. Robertson, became a missionary among the Creeks and has published a number of works in their language. A uthorilies: Pilling, Bibliography of the Iroquoian languages ( articles Worcester, Cherokee Phoenix, etc.), 1888; Drake, Indians, ed. 1880: Report of Indian Commissioner, 1843 ( Worcester letter). ( 39) DEATH PENALTY FOR SELLING LANDS ( p. 107): In 1820 the Cherokee Nation enacted a law making it treason punishable with death to enter into any negotiation for the sale of tribal lands without the consent of the national council. A similar law was enacted by the Creeks at about the same time. It was for violating these laws that Mcintosh and Ridge suffered death in their respective tribes. The principal parts of the Cherokee law, as reenacted by the united Nation in the West in 1842, appear as follows in the compilation authorized in 1866: " AN ACT AGAINST SALE OF LAND, ETC.: Whereas, The peace and prosperity of Indian nations are frequently sacrificed or placed in jeopardy by the unrestrained cupidity of their own individual citizens; and whereas, we ourselves are liable to suffer from the same cause, and be subjected to future removal and disturbances: Therefore, . . . " Be it further enacted. That any person or persons who shall, contrary to the will and consent of the legislative council of this nation, in general council convened, enter into a treaty with any commissioner or commissioners of the United States, or any officer or officers instructed for the purpose, and agree to cede, exchange, or dispose in any way any part or portion of the lands belonging to or claimed by the Cherokees, west of the Mississippi, he or they so offending, upon conviction before any judge of the circuit or supreme courts, shall suffer death, and any of the aforesaid judges are authorized to call a court for the trial of any person or persons so transgressing. |