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The Treaty
[edit]Having married into the Cherokee tribe and having a long-standing relationship with Chief Bowl, Sam Houston sought an alliance with Cherokees while he served as President of Texas. Seeking to give the tribe what the Mexican government had refused them and empowered under authority of the new government, General Houston, with fellow commissoners John Forbes and John Cameron, negotiated a treaty with the Cherokee and other associated groups wherein they would be granted certain east Texas lands north of the San Antonio Road and between the Angelina and Neches Rivers. Essentially, this would have amounted to the greater part of present-day Cherokee County, all of Smith County and parts of Gregg, Rusk and Van Zandt Counties. It was somewhat less than the Cherokee had hoped to received from the Mexicans, but given the prospect of having, finally, a secure homeland, they agreed.
The Senate of the Republic of Texas, however, tabled and refused to ratify the treaty. Then, over Houston's objections, they formally nullified it. [1] Almost immediately, the Land Office began issuing settlers patents to land within the Cherokee Nation.
The Cherokee, who already thought they had conceded enough, became extremely agitated, and the immediate and increasing influx of Anglo settlers into lands thought to have been theirs did little to calm resentment. [2]
The Cordova Rebellion
[edit]There was also residual bitterness among some Tejanos still loyal to Mexico and others who felt mistreated by, as they saw it, the new Anglo ruling class. The atmosphere in the Nacogdoches district became tense in early 1838. Complicating matters was the fact that some militant Cherokee were also still loyal to Mexico. [3]
By the summer of that year, there were rumblings of coming insurrection from either or both of those factions, and a contingent of Tejanos led by Vicenti Cordova (a former alcalde of Nacogdoches) gathered under arms and, in an affair known as the "Cordova Rebellion," began harassing raids against Anglo settlers. Some Cherokee were believed to have joined Cordova. Worse for the Cherokee, in the summer of 1838, evidence was discovered of an active Mexican intrigue to incite the east Texas tribes against the Republic. [4]
From that point on the Cherokee were under intense scrutiny, and following the Killough Massacre, when at the end of 1838 President Houston was succeeded by Mirabeau B. Lamar, a hardliner in Indian matters[5] , their fate became almost certain. [6]
Killough Massacre
[edit]Responding to this growing unrest, Isaac Killough and his extended family, who had settled in Cherokee lands southeast of the Neches Saline, fled to Nacogdoches for refuge.[7]
On condition they would they would return simply to harvest their crops and leave the area after doing so, the Cherokee leadership sent word to the Killough party that they would not be molested. They did return. Nevertheless, on October 5, 1838, a band of Cherokee who had not been party to the agreement attacked the settlement. Most of the Killough group -- a total of eighteen -- were killed or abducted as they worked their fields. Those who survived fled for a time to Lacy's Fort on the San Antonio Road, just west of present-day Alto, Texas. [8]
Whether or not Chief Bowl or the larger Cherokee community the had been complicit in this slaughter, and notwithstanding denials otherwise, this affair was seized upon by Houston's successor. Mirabeau Lamar, as grounds to either expunge the Cherokee from Texas or destroy them. In an address to the Texas Congress on December 20, 1838, Lamar said in part:
If the wild cannibals of the woods will not desist from their massacres, if they will continue to war upon us with the ferocity of tigers an hienas, it is time that we should retaliate their warfare. Not in the murder of their women and children, but in the prosecution of an exterminating war upon their warriors; which will admit of no compromise and have no termination except in their total extinction or their total expulsion.
In a manner of reply, Chief Bowl, leader of the Cherokee, said to the commissioners sent by Lamar in June of 1839 to conduct "peace talks:"
If I fight, the whites will kill me. If I refuse to fight, my own people will kill me.
Before the year was over, the Cherokee would be forcibly removed from their Texas lands in the Cherokee War of 1839. Almost 600 Cherokees, mostly women and children, led by Chief Bowl, fought the Texans in two separate battles on July 15 and 16, 1839. They were defeated and Chief Bowl was killed in the battle of the 16th. Seriously wounded by a shot to the back and then shot point-blank in the face as he sat incapacitated, the body of the 83-year-old chief was left to rot on the battlefield, his bones on open display for years afterward. [10]
Most of the remaining Texas Cherokees were driven north into Indian Territory. Houston once again was elected President of Texas and negotiated peace treaties with the remaining Texas Cherokees in 1843 and 1844.
The Sack of Linnville
[edit]
On August 7, 1840, the Indians surrounded the small port of Linnville, Texas, which was the second largest port in the Republic of Texas at the time, and began pillaging the stores and houses. Linnville, which is now a ghost town, was located 3.5 miles northeast of present day Port Lavaca.[11] The Comanches reportedly killed three whites, including customs officer Hugh Oran Watts, who had delayed his escape to retrieve a gold watch at his home (reportedly a family heirloom). After killing Watts, the Comanche captured his wife of only three weeks, the former Juliet Constance, and a black woman and child.
Realizing that the plains Indians would have no experience on water, the townspeople fled prudently from the Comanche raiders to the safety of the water. They were saved by remaining aboard small boats and a schooner captained by William G. Marshall, which was at anchor in the bay. While safe in the water, the refugees witnessed the destruction and looting of their town, unable to do a thing except curse impotently.[12]
For that entire day the Comanches plundered and burned buildings, draping themselves grandly in top hats and stolen linens. They tied feather beds and bolts of cloth to their horses, and dragged them. They herded large numbers of cattle into pens and slaughtered them. One outraged citizen, Judge John Hays, grabbed a gun and waded ashore through the shallow water, and roared at the bemused warriors, but the Indians chose to spare him, believing him mad. He later found that he had waded ashore to face nearly a thousand Indians with an unloaded pistol, as if that one weapon could have made a difference.[13]
At the time of the Great Raid, many trade goods were en route from overseas to New Orleans, Louisiana to San Antonio, Texas and Austin, Texas; a total inventory valued at over $300,000 was reported to be at Linnville at that moment, including an undisclosed amount of silver bullion. Linn noted that in addition to the cloth and other trade goods usually present in his warehouse at that time were several cases of hats and umbrellas belonging to James Robinson, a San Antonio merchant. "These the Indians made free with, and went dashing about the blazing village, amid their screeching squaws and `little Injuns,' like demons in a drunken saturnalia, with Robinson's hats on their heads and Robinson's umbrellas bobbing about on every side like tipsy young balloons."[14] After loading loot onto pack mules, the raiders, grandly attired in their booty, finally began their retreat on the afternoon on August 8, 1840.
Gil y Barbo
[edit]A situation is often considered to be ironic (situational irony) if there is an "incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result."
Trade and contraband
[edit]Under the unusually stringent mercantilism of the Spanish Monarchy, life at such a remote outpost as Los Adaes could be difficult. It was a feature of colonial mercantilism that colonies existed for the benefit of the colonial power. Colonies could provide raw material for the mother country but were captive markets for any manufactured goods produced there.[2] Spain was not alone in this, but in the Spanish case, it was required not only that goods be purchased from Spanish sources, but that products shipped from those sources be delivered first to Mexico City and then transported overland to points north, first to Bexar and then another 300 miles up the El Camino Real to Los Adaes and the missions it nominally supported. Legally, colonists were thus dependent on the government for basic goods like soap, sugar, seeds and clothing as well as farm equipment, weapons, and gunpowder. Because of these bizarre routing requirements, supplies were slow and erratic at best; because competition, certainly competition from the French, was illegal, goods came at significantly higher prices than they might be obtained elsewhere. The Adaesenos attempted to supplement their needs with farming and ranching, and their ranching efforts were generally successful. Gil y Barbo's ranch, El Lobanillo, was only one of many established in the area. Farming was another matter. Due to the erratic precipitation of the region, with periods of excessive rain and periodic drought, they were often without maize and other staples.[15] Given that the French outpost of Natchitoches was a mere 13 miles to the east, incentive to ignore the law—and for local officials to look the other way—was overwhelming. Much of the trade that made life bearable at Los Adaes was illegal.
Also illegal from the Spanish perspective was individual trade with the Indians of the area. Although their policy may be seen as ambiguous at times and in flux depending changing provincial administrations, of particular concern was the problem of weapons trafficking. Official Spanish intransigence in this was driven partly by their experience with the Apache and the extremely hostile Comanche to the southwest. At the eastern frontier, the French, having been active in the area and having a more flexible policy with regard to Indian trade, had established not only a solid trade relationship but an alliance with the Caddo groups north of Nachitoches, including the Adais, who lived around present day Spanish Lake (then known as Laguna de los Adaes).
With these conditions and the interactions they fostered, the three societies who shared the borderland between Texas and Louisiana -- Spanish, French and Caddoan Native American -- had co-mingled to the point that, though legally attached to their roots, they were becoming a society apart from their respective origins. The links between them were several: commercial, social, political, and even military.
By the time Gil y Barbo had reached adulthood
Notes and References
[edit]- ^ Handbook of Texas Online. "Cherokee War". Retrieved December 07, 2012.
The treaty was tabled by the Texas Senate on December 29, 1836, and was declared null and void by that body on December 16, 1837, despite Houston's insistence that it be ratified.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ Whittington, Mitchel (1998). "A monument to the Killough Massacre". [|Texas Escapes Online Magazine ].
The Cherokee weren't all that happy with the treaty because it greatly reduced their lands – since they were led to believe that it would give them a permanent home, however, they accepted the terms. Some bitterness still existed among many tribe members, and the nullification of the treaty only exacerbated those feelings.
{{cite web}}: External link in|publisher= - ^ Lipscomb, Carol A. "Cherokee Indians". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
Although a majority of the Cherokees had agreed to peace with the Texans, a militant faction of the tribe remained pro-Mexican, a fact that greatly complicated Texan-Cherokee relations.
- ^ Herring, Rebecca J. ""Cordova Rebellion," Handbook of Texas Online". Retrieved December 07, 2012..
The capture of two Mexican agents after the rebellion produced new evidence pointing to an extensive Indian and Mexican conspiracy against Texas. On about August 20, 1838, Julián Pedro Miracle was killed near the Red River. On his body were found a diary and papers that indicated the existence of an official project of the Mexican government to incite East Texas Indians against the Republic of Texas.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ Clarke, Mary Whatley (1971). Chief Bowles and the Texas Cherokees. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 77. ISBN 0-8061-3436-4.
He had served ... the stern, proud Governor George M. Troup when Crfeek Indian lands were expropriated for the benefit of white settlers ...When he left for Texas [from Georgia] Lamar carried with him a hostility against the Indians and as strong faith in ... states rights.
- ^ Moore, Stephen L. Savage Frontier II. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press.
- ^ Baker, Lindsey T. (1986). Ghost Towns of Texas. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
Fearing hostilities as a result of unrest among the Cherokee who occupied the same general area, the Killough family retreated . . . to a vicinity nearer to Nacogdoches.
- ^ Whitington, Mitchel. "A Monument to the Killough Massacre".
The survivors, [who] included Issac's wife Urcey, began a harrowing journey to Lacy's Fort, forty miles south of the Killough settlement.
- ^ Moore, Stephen L. (2006). Savage Frontier II. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press.
- ^ Moore, Stephen L. Savage Frontier II. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press.
The body of Chief Bowles remained on the battlefield as a grisly testament to the loss of the Cherokees. His lonely skull and skeleton were reportedly still visible on the spot for years.
- ^ Roell, Craig. "Handbook of Texas Online". LINNVILLE, TEXAS. University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
- ^ Clark, Tom. Clark's Book. p. 23.
- ^ He was saved because of the Comanche reverence for the mad, a reverence shared by most Native American cultures.University of Texas Handbook
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
UTX HndBkwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Key Developments in the History of Los Adaes". Texas Beyond History. The University of Texas at Austin.
The Adaeseños have to provide for themselves by farming and ranching. Repeated attempts to grow maize are met with only modest and irregular success, owing to the area's propensity for periods of excessive rain as well as summer drought. They fare far better at raising livestock.
- ^ "Key Developments in the History of Los Adaes". Texas Beyond History. The University of Texas at Austin.
Under the lengthy governorship of Don Jacinto de Barrios y Jáuregui (1751-1759) trade with the French and Caddo-speaking groups becomes well developed, if mostly illicit. Hides (mainly deer) and tobacco become the accepted currency in the barter-exchange economy of the Louisiana-Texas frontier. The Spanish, French, and Caddo also become bonded by intermarriage and adopted kinship, such as compadrazco or co-parenthood. The commercial, political, military, and social links that the Spanish forged with their French and Caddo neighbors help maintain relative harmony, making Los Adaes the safest Spanish settlement in all of the Province of Texas.