100 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.an.v.19 



aftcrwui-d a runior rame from the west that they were still lixiiig- near 

 the base of the Rocky luouiitaiiis.' In 1782 the Cherokee, who had 

 fought faithfully on the British side throughout the long Kevolution- 

 arj^ struggle, applied to the Spanish governor at New Orleans for 

 permission to settle on the west side of the Mississippi, within Spanish 

 territory. Permission was granted, and it is probable that some of 

 them lemoved to the Arkansas country, although there seems to be no 

 definite record of the matter.- We learn incidentally, however, that 

 about this peried the ho.stile Cherokee, like the Shawano and other 

 northern tribes, were in the habit of making friendly visits to the 

 Spanish settlements in that ([uarter. 



According to Reverend Cephas Washburn, the pioneer misssionary 

 of the western Cherokee, the first permanent Cherokee settlement 

 beyond the Mississippi was the direct result of the massacre, in 1794, 

 of the Scott party at Muscle shoals, on Tennessee river, bj' the hostile 

 warriors of the Chickamauga towns, in the summer. As told by the 

 missionary, the story differs considerably from that given by Haywood 

 and other Tennessee historians, narrated in another place. ^ According 

 to Washburn, the whites were the aggressors, having first made the 

 Indians drunk and then swindled them out of the annuity mon(\v with 

 whicli they were just returning from the agencj' at Tellico. ^Vilen 

 the Indians became sober enough to demand the return of their money 

 the whites attacked and killed two of them, whereupon the others 

 boarded the boat and killed everj' white man. They spared the women 

 and children, however, with their negro slaves and all their personal 

 belongings, and permitted them to continue on their way, the chief 

 and his party personally escorting them down Tennessee, Ohio, and 

 Mississippi rivers as far as the mouth of the St. Francis, whence the 

 emigi'ants descended in safety to New Orleans, while their captors, 

 under their chief. The Bowl, went up St. Francis river — then a part of 

 Spanish territory — to await the outcome of the event. As soon as 

 the news came to the Cherokee Nation the chiefs formally repudiated 

 the action of the Bowl party and volunteered to assist in ari'csting 

 those concerned. Bowl and his men were finally exonerated, but had 

 conceived such Ijitteriiess at the conduct of their former friends, and, 

 moreover, had found the soil so rich and the game so al)undant where 

 they were, that they refused to return to their tribe and decided to 

 remain permanently in the West. Others joined them from time to 

 time, attracted ))y the hunting prospect, until they were in sufficient 

 number to obtain recognition from the Government.* 



iSee number 107. "The Lost Cherokee." 



-See letter of Governor Estevan Miro to Robertson, April 20. ITSU, in Roosevelt. Winning of the 

 West, II, p. 407. 1S89, 



3 See pp. 76-77. 



< Washburn, Reminiseeliees, pp. 76-79, 1S69; see al.so Royce, Cheroliee Nation. Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau 

 of Etlinology, p. 2W, 188S. 



