70 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.asn.19 



cij)iil raiders on the Tennessee frontier, the new name may have been 

 syuibolic of his change of heart at the prospeet of a return of peace. 



The treaty seems to have had little eti'ect in preventing Indian hos- 

 tilities, probaljly because the intruders still remained upon the Indian 

 lands, and raiding still continued. The Creeks were known to be 

 responsible for some of the mischief, and the hostile Chickamaugas 

 were supposed to be the chief authors of the rest.' Even while the 

 Cherokee delegates were negotiating the treat}' in Philadelphia a boat 

 which had accidentally run aground on the Muscle shoals was attacked 

 by a party of Indians under the pretense of offering assistance, one 

 man being killed and another severely wounded with a hatchet.'^ 



While these negotiations had been pending at Philadelphia a young 

 man named Leonard D. Shaw, a student at Princeton college, had 

 expressed to the Secretary of War an earnest desire for a commission 

 which would enable him to accompany the returning Cherokee dele- 

 gates to their southern home, there to study Indian life and charac- 

 teristics. As the purpose seemed a useful one, and he appeared well 

 qualified for such a work, he was accordingly commissioned as deputy 

 agent to reside among the Cherokee to observe and report upon their 

 movements, to aid in the annuity distributions, and to render other 

 assistance to Governor Blount, superintendent for the southern tribes, 

 to study their language and home life, and to collect materials for an 

 Indian history. An extract from the official instructions under which 

 this first United States ethnologist began his work will be of interest. 

 After defining his executive duties in connection with the annuity 

 distributions, the keeping of accounts and the compiling of olEcial 

 reports, Secretary Knox continues — 



A due performance of your duty will probably require the exercise of all your 

 patience and fortitude and all your knowledge of the human character. The school 

 will be a severe but interesting one. If you should succeed in acquiring the affections 

 and a knowledge of the characters of the southern Indians, you may be at once use- 

 ful to the United States and advance your own interest. 



You will endeavor to learn their languages; this is essential to your conmiunica- 

 tions. You will collect materials for a history of all the southern tribes and all 

 things thereunto belonging. -You will endeavor to ascertain their respective limits, 

 make a vocaliulary of their respective languages, teach them agriculture and such 

 useful arts as you may know or can acquire. You will correspond regularly with 

 Governor Blount, who is superintendent for Indian affairs, and inform him of all 

 occurrences. You will also cultivate a correspondence with Brigadier-General 

 McGillivray [the Creek chief], and you will also keep a journal of your proceedings 

 and transmit them to the War Office. . . . You are to exhibit to Governor 

 Blount the Cherokee book and all the writings therein, the messages to the several 

 tribes of Indians, and these instructions. 



Your route will be hence to Reading: thence Harris's ferry [Harrisburg, Penn- 

 sylvania] to Carlisle; to ferry on the Potomac; to Winchester; to Staunton; to 



1 Ramsey, Tennessee, p. 557, 1853. 



'Abel deposition, April 16, 1792, American State Papers: Indian Affairs, i, p. 274, 1832. 



