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CHEROKEE  The Denison Herald Friday, December 30, 1921 pg.2 LOST CHEROKEES Dissastified Band Disappeared in Rockies Few have heard about the "Lost Cherokees", as they are called. In a somewhat recent legend of the old nation. Some writers have mentioned the Lost Cherokees, but failed to state in what particular they were lost. The older survivors of the Cherokees, who got their information from their grandparents, have given the details of this episode in their history as follows: When the first lands of the Cherokees were sold in 17221 [sic], a portion of the people of the Cherokees bitterly opposed the sale and the consummation of the treaty therewith connected. Those opposed asserted that if their people ever once consented to part with any of their lands to the men of pale countenance, the latter would want more and more, until finally the Cherokee people would not have sufficient soil to provide their own people with homes and farms. In spite of all opposition a treaty was made with the Cherokees whereby a sale of a portion of their land was had. Those who had looked with disfavor upon the proposition made ready to take their departure into the unknown lands of the west, as nearly as possible to that place where the sun went down at night, according to the legend. All the entreaties and importunities of their friends and relatives could not at all change their determination to leave, and leave they did, but a number of their countrymen went, with them as far as the Mississippi, known to them as the Great River, and assisted them in getting across. Having reached the opposide side, the travelers, led by their chief, passed on and were lost to view, their faces set toward the west. Never again were they seen, and no one ever heard of them again. Years rolled away, and finally the story of the lost Cherokees became as one of the old tales we heard in the long ago, well nigh forgotten. Members of the Cherokees knew very little concerning the story, but the day came when the prediction of the lost Cherokees, that the men of the pale countenance, would possess all the Indian land, proved true. The Cherokees were thrust out and made to take their departure for an unknown and distant land, and the majority of them went with great reluctance. Some were so dissatisfied that they decided to travel very far toward the wets, to see what manner of country it was, and if suitable, to make their homes far beyond the reach of those who more than all else wanted land. Therefore, the dissatisfied Cherokees rode for many days ever bearing westward until the Rockies, stretched a great barrier across their path. This migration was in 1838, 171 years after the lost Cherokees had vanished in the unbroken and untried wilds of the vast west. Making their way to the base of the great mountains, the now weary travelers found a settlement composed of people speaking the old Cherokee language, and living as did the Cherokees of ancient times. So the descendants of the lost Cherokees were found, but what became of them, not even the oldest of the old men, that perservers of the legends, would hazard a guess. This wandering nature is characteristic of the Cherokee today. When dissatisfied with conditions they will leave their homes and neve complain. Recently in Delaware County, Oklahoma, 21 wagons loaded with families and household supplies were seen to form a procession, leading to Cherokee county, where they might start life anew with an effort to restore their old form of government. - - - Tulsa World  Cherokee Research Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |