138 MYTHS OF THE CHEKOKKK [eth.anx.19 



to them the knowledge of his great invention, which was at once taken 

 up through the influence of Takatoka (Degatii'ga), a proaiincMit chief 

 who had hitherto opposed ever}' effort of the missionaries to intro- 

 duce their own schools and religion. In consequence perhaps of this 

 encouragement Sequoya removed permanently to the West in the fol- 

 lowing year and became henceforth a member of the western Nation.' 



Like other Indians, the western Cherokee held a firm belief in witch- 

 craft, which led to frequent tragedies of punishment or retaliation. 

 In 1824 a step forward was marked by the enactment of a law making 

 it murder to kill any one for wit('hcraft, and an offense punishable 

 with whipping to accuse another of witchcraft.' This law may have 

 been the result of the silent working 6f missionary influence, sup- 

 ported by such enlightened men as Secjuoya. 



The treaty which assigned the Arkansas lands to the western Cher- 

 okee had stipulated that a census should be made of the eastern and 

 western divisions of the Nation, sepai'ately . and an apportionment of the 

 national ainiuity forthwith made on that basis. The western line of 

 the Arkansas tract had also been left open, luitil according to another 

 stipulation of the same treaty, the whole amount of land ceded through it 

 to the Ignited States by the Cherokee Nation in the East could be ascer- 

 tained in order that an equal quantity might be included within the 

 boundaries of the western tract.^ These promises had not yet been 

 fullilled, partly because of the efforts of the Government to bring- 

 about a larger emigration or a further cession, partly on account of 

 delay in the state surveys, and partly also because the Osage objected 

 to the running of a line which should make the Cherokee their next 

 door neighbors.' With their boundaries unadjusted and their annui- 

 ties withheld, distress and dissatisfaction overcame the western Cher- 

 okee, many of whom, feeling themselves al)solved from territorial 

 restrictions, spread over the country on the southern side of Arkansas 

 river,'' while others, under the lead of a chief named The Bowl 

 (Diwa''li), crossed Red river into Texas — then a portion of Mexico — in 

 a vain attempt to escape American jurisdiction." 



A provisional western boundary having been run. which proved 

 unsatisfactory both to the western Cherokee and to the people of 

 Arkansas, an effort was made to settle the difficulty by arranging an 

 exchange of the Arkansas tract for a new country west of the Arkansas 

 line. So strongly opposed, however, were the western Cherokee to 

 this project that their council, in 1825, passed a law, as the eastern 

 Cherokee and the Creeks had alreadj^ done, fixing the death penalty 



1 Washburn. Reminiscences, p. 178, 1S69; see also ante p. 206. 



2 Ibid, p. 138. 



3 gee Treaty of 1817. Indian Treaties, 1837. 



•I Royce. Cherokee Nation, Fifth Report Biin.-aii of Ethnology, pp. 243, 244, 188.8. 



6 Ibid, p. 243. 



6.\uthor's personal information; see p. 143. 



