150 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [kth.ann.19 



had l)een occupied ]>y their setthuiicnts wa.s distinguishsible from the 

 virgin priiirie oidy In' the scorclied uiid l)lackeiied chinineys and the 

 plowed l)iit now neglected fields."' 



After five years of desolation the Cherokee emerged from the war 

 M'ith their numbers reduced from 21,000 to 14,000," and their whole 

 country in ashes. On Juh^ 19, 1866, by a treaty concluded at Tahle- 

 quah, the nation was received back into the protection of the United 

 States, a general amnesty was proclaimed, and all confiscations on 

 account of the war prohibited; slavery was abolished without compen- 

 sation to former owners, and all negroes residing within the Nation 

 were admitted to full Cherokee citizenship. Bj- articles 15 and 16 

 permission was given the United States to settle friendly Indians 

 within the Cherokee home country or the Cherokee strip by consent 

 and )3urchase from the Nation. By article 17 the Cherokee sold the 

 800,000-acre tract in Kansas secured by the treaty of 1835, together 

 with a two-mile strip running along the southern ))order of Kansas, 

 and thereafter to be included within the limits of that state, thus leav- 

 ing the Cherokee country as it was before the recent cession of the 

 Cherokee stiip. Payment was promised for spoliations by United 

 States troops during the war; and $3.00() were to be paid out of the 

 Cherokee funds to the Reverend Evan Jones, then disabled and in 

 poverty, as a reward for forty years of faithful missionary labors. 

 By article 26 "the United States guarantee to the Cherokees the quiet 

 and peaceable possession of their country and protection against 

 domestic feuds and insurrection as well as hostilities of other tribes. 

 They shall also be protected from intrusion bj' all unauthorized citi- 

 zens of the United States attempting to settle on their lands or reside 

 in their territory."'' 



The missionary. Reverend Evan Jones, who had followed the Cher- 

 okee into exile, and his son. John B. Jones, had been admitted to 

 Cherokee citizenship the year ])efore by vote of the Nation. The act 

 conferring this recognition recites that "we do bear witness that they 

 have done their work well.''* 



John Ross, now an old man. had been unable to attend this treaty, 

 being present at the time in Washington on business for his people. 

 Before its ratification he died in that city on August 1, 1866, at the 

 age of seventy-seven years, fifty-seven of which had been given to 

 the service of his Nation. No finer panegyric was ever pronounced 

 than the memorial resolution passed by the Cherokee Nation on learn- 

 ing of his death." Notwithstanding repeated attempts to subvert his 

 authoritj', his people had remained steadfast in their fidelity to him, 



^ Royce. Cherokee Nation, op. cit.. p. 376. 



•- Ibid., p. 376. A censu.s of 1867 gives tiiem 13,566 (ibid., p. 351), 



■'See s.vnopsis and full diseus-sion in Royce, op. cit., pp. 334-340. 



■■Act of Citizensliip, November 7, 1.S|>.5, Laws of the Cherokee Niition. p. 119: St. Lo\iis, l.siK. 



'See Resolutions of Honor, ibid., pp, 137-140. 



