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Black Freedmen and the Cherokee Nation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2009

Tim Gammon
Tim Gammon
Affiliation:
Oklahoma City University
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Blacks were a significant minority of the Cherokee Nation throughout the nineteenth century, first as slaves and later as freedmen. An 1830s census shows that the Cherokee Nation at that time consisted of: 13,536 Indians; 147 intermarried white males; 73 intermarried white females; and 1,277 slaves. In 1860 there were approximately 23,000 Cherokees and 2,500 blacks in the Cherokee Territory. And according to the United States Census of 1890 the total population of the Cherokee Nation was 56,309, including 5,127 persons of Negro descent.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , December 1977 , pp. 357 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

References

1 Royce, Charles C., The Cherokee Nation of Indians, Fifth Annual Report, Bureau of Ethology, 1883–84 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1887), p. 240Google Scholar; Knight, Oliver, “History of the Cherokees, 1830–1846,” Chronicles of Oklahoma, 34 (1956), 159Google Scholar.

2 Tolson, Arthur L., The Black Oklahomans, A History: 1541–1972 (New Orleans, Louisiana: Edwards Printing Company, 1966), pp. 26–27Google Scholar.

3 Department of the Interior, Census office, Report on Indians Taxed and Indians Not Taxed in the United States at the 11th Census 1870 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1894), pp. 254–55Google Scholar.

4 Teall, Kaye M., Black History in Oklahoma (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: Impress Inc., 1971), p. 19Google Scholar.

5 1839 Constitution of the Cherokee Nation; Art. III, s. 5, in Constitution and Laws of the Cherokee Nation (St. Louis, Missouri: R. & T. A. Ennis, 1875), p. 11Google Scholar. This provision, which was subsequently deleted from the Cherokee constitution, may not have been solely a product of racial prejudice. It may have been influenced in part by the clan organization of Indian tribes, in which descent was reckoned from maternal ascendants.

6 Treaty with the Cherokee Nation, Arts. IX, XV, 19 07 1866, 14 Stat. 799 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1866)Google Scholar; Gregory, Jack and Strickland, Rennard, eds., Starr's History of the Cherokee Indians (Tahlequah, Oklahoma: Webb Offset Printers, Inc., 1967), pp. 167–77Google Scholar. The treaty was signed 19 July 1866, ratified 27 July 1866, and proclaimed 11 Aug. 1866. This recognition of freedmen was required to provide for the equal treatment of the Cherokee freedmen, but it was also necessary from a jurisdictional standpoint since these blacks would have to be made citizens of some nation.

7 The Constitution and Laws of the Cherokee Nation (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: Oklahoma Publishing Co., 1969), p. 263Google Scholar.

8 The Cherokee Constitution and the Laws and Rules Bearing on the Autonomy of the Cherokee Nation (Muskogee, Indian territory: Phoenix Printing Co., 1894), p. 46Google Scholar; Dale, and Wardell, , Stand from Under (Washington, D.C.: R. A. Walters & Sons, 1885)Google Scholar; Watts, W. J., Cherokee Citizenship and a Brief History of Internal Affairs in the Cherokee Nation (Muldrow, Indian territory: Register Print, 1893)Google Scholar.

9 United States Laws, 22 Statutes at Large 623 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1883).

10 Committee on Indian Affairs, Cherokee Freedmen and Others, United States House of Representatives, Report Number 844, 50th Congress, 1st Session (1888), hereinafter cited as Rep No. 844.

11 Ibid.

12 For further information on Turner see: Bardolph, Richard, The Negro Vanguard (New York, New York: Random House, 1961), pp. 96–97Google Scholar; Teall, pp. 95–97; Dilliard, Irving, “James Milton Turner,” Dictionary of American Biography, 19 (1934), 66–67Google Scholar; Dilliard, Irving, “James Milton Turner, A Little Known Benefactor of His People,” Journal of Negro History, 19 (1934), 372CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dilliard, Irving, “James Milton Turner,” Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 15 (1935)Google Scholar; Moore, N. Webster, “James Milton Turner. Diplomat Educator, and Defender of Rights, 1840–1915,” Missouri Historical Society Bulletin, 23 (1971) 194–201Google Scholar.

13 Dilliard, , Journal of Negro History, 19 (1934), 372CrossRefGoogle Scholar, mentions a suit but no references are cited.

14 Rep. No. 844, p. 6.

15 Rep. No. 844, p. 11.

16 Rep. No. 844, pp. 3–4.

17 Ibid.

18 United States Senate Executive Document Number 82, 49th Congress, 1st Session (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1886).

19 Teall, p. 97.

20 Rep. No. 844, n. 13.

21 Senate Bill Number 1494, 50th Congress, 1st Session (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1888); The United States Congressional Record, 19 (1888) 2562Google Scholar (the bill was read for the third time, as required by law, and passed without debate).

22 The United States Congressional Record, 19 (1888), 7493Google Scholar.

23 Ibid., pp. 9337–38 (remarks of Representative Phelan).

24 United States Laws, 25 Statutes at Large 609 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1888).

25 Ibid.

26 United States Laws, 25 Statutes at Large 994 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1888). The necessity and justice of this act was explained to the Cherokees by their principal chief, Joel B. Mayes. “It is very important that the Cherokees should know who of these classes of people are our bonafide citizens according to said treaty stipulations. There seems to arise no difficulty in regard to the Shawnees and Delawares. It is the status or citizenship of the colored people, that will be the most difficult to settle.… It is but fair, to our colored citizens and the Cherokees that the bonafide colored citizens should be definitely known.” Mayes, Joel B., Third Annual Message of J. B. Mayes, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation; (Talequah, Indian territory: Cherokee Nation, 1889), p. 8Google Scholar.

27 Bushyhead, Dennis W., Sixth Annual Message of D. W. Bushyhead, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation to the Senate and Council (Talequah, Indian territory: Cherokee Nation, 1885), p. 9Google Scholar.

28 Ibid.