162 BOSTON INDIAN CITIZENSHIP COMMITTEE BOUDINOT [b. a. e. 



the Creek confederacy to war against the 

 English. She seems to have been of high 

 standing among her own people, being 

 closely related to leading chiefs both erf 

 the Upper and Lower Creeks, possessed 

 of unusual intelligence and knowledge of 

 English, for which reason, and to secure 

 her good will, Oglethorpe, the founder of 

 the colony, made her his interpreter and 

 negotiator with the Indians at a salary 

 of $500 per year. About 1749 she mar- 

 ried her third white husl^and, the Rev. 

 Thomas Bosom worth, who, by reason of 

 his Indian marriage, was given a com- 

 mission from the colony of South Caro- 

 lina as agent among the Creeks, and 

 within a few months had nearly pre- 

 cipitated civil war among the Indians 

 and rebellion among the Hcensed traders. 

 Being deeply in del)t, he instigated his 

 wife to assume the title of "Empress of 

 the Creek Nation," and to make personal 

 claim, first to the islands of Ossabaw, St 

 Catharine, and Sapelo, on the Georgia 

 coast, and afterward to a large territory 

 on the mainland. Notifying Gov. Ogle- 

 thorpe that she was coming to claim her 

 own, she raised a large body of armed 

 Creeks and marched against Savannah. 

 The town was put in position for defense 

 and a troop of cavalry met the Indians 

 outside and obliged them to lay down 

 their arms before entering. The proces- 

 sion was headed by Bosomworth in full 

 canonical robes, with his "queen" by his 

 side, followed by the chiefs in order of 

 rank, with their warriors. They were 

 received with a military salute and a 

 council followed, lasting several days, 

 during which the Indians managed to 

 regain possession of their arms, and a 

 massacre seemed imminent, which was 

 averted by the seizure of Mary and her 

 husband, who were held in prison until 

 they made suitable apologies and promises 

 of good behavior, the troops and citizens 

 remaining under arms until the danger 

 was over, when the Indians were dis- 

 missed with presents. Nothing is re- 

 corded of her later career. See Appleton' s 

 Cyclopaedia of Am. Biog. ; various histo- 

 ries of Georgia; Bosom worth's MS. Jour., 

 1752, in archives B. A. E. (.). m. ) 



Boston Indian Citizenship Committee. 

 An association for the protection of the 

 rights of Indians; organized in 1879 on 

 the occasion of the forcible removal of 

 the Ponca. The tribe returned to their 

 old home in South Dakota from the 

 reservation in Indian Territory. Chief 

 Standing Bear, released on a writ of ha- 

 beas corpus, went to Boston, and, on 

 the plea that most of the signatures in 

 favor of removal were fraudulent, enlisted 

 the sympathy of Hon. John D. Long, then 

 governor of Massachusetts, and other or- 

 ganizers of this committee, who finally 



secured the rescission of the edict and the 

 restoration of the Dakota reservation. The 

 committee undertook next to secure citi- 

 zenship for Indians on tlie basis of the 

 payment of taxes, a jirinciple that was 

 finally denied by the United States Su- 

 preme Court. When the Dawes bill 

 granting land in severalty and citizenship 

 was enacted, the committee devoted its 

 attention to securing honest allotment. 

 Since the organization of the Indian 

 Rights Association in Philadelphia the 

 Boston committee has confined itself to 

 securing fair allotments of fertile lands, 

 with adequate water supply, protecting 

 homesteads, and especially to defending 

 and generally promoting the interests of 

 the more progressive bands of tribes that 

 were backward in taking allotments. To 

 safeguard the rights of such and prevent 

 the sale or lease of the best Indian lands 

 to whites at nominal prices, the com- 

 mittee has sought to obtain the dismissal 

 of corrupt Government agents and in- 

 spectors whenever such were detected. 

 Joshua W. Davis is chairman and J. S. 

 Lockwood secretary (P. O. Box 131, 

 Boston, Mass.). 



Bottles. See Pottery, Receptacles. 



Boucfonca. A former Choctaw town 

 on the headwaters of Pearl r.. Miss. 

 Bouc-fouca. — Jefferys, French Dom. Am., I, 135, 

 map, 1701. Bouc-fuca.— Lattre, map U. S., 1784. 

 Bouk-fuka.— SchookTaft, Ind. Tribes, IV, 562, 1854. 



Boudinot, Ellas (native name Gixld- 

 gViKi, 'male deer' or 'turkey'). ACher- 

 okee Indian, educated in the foreign mis- 

 sion school at Corn well, Conn., founded 

 by the American Board of Commissioners 

 for Foreign Missions, which he entered 

 with two other Cherokee youths in 1818 

 at the instance of the philanthropist 

 whose name he was allowed to adopt. 

 In 1827 the Cherokee council formally 

 resolved to establish a national paper, and 

 the following year the Cherokee Fha'nix 

 appeared under Boudinot's editorship. 

 After a precarious existence of 6 years, 

 however, the paper was discontinued, and 

 not resumed until after the removal of 

 the Cherokee to Indian Ter., when its 

 place was finally taken by the Cherokee 

 Advocate, established in 1844. In 1833 

 Boudinot. wrote "Poor Sarah; or, the 

 Indian Woman," in Cherokee characters, 

 published at New Echota by the United 

 Brethren's Missionary Society, another 

 edition of which was printed at Park 

 Hill in 1843; and from 1823 to the time 

 of his death he was joint translator with 

 Rev. S. A. Worcester of a number of the 

 Gospels, S(mie of which passed through 

 several editions. Boudinot joined an 

 insignificant minority of his people in 

 sui)port of the Ridge treaty and the sub- 

 sequent treaty of New Echota, by the 

 terms of which the Cherokee Nation sur- 



