yi8 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE (f.th.ann.19 



language and alphabet. In this labor his inherited printer's instinct came into play, 

 for he himself supervised the casting of the new types and the systematic arrangement 

 of them in the case. In March, 1831, he was arrested by the Georgia authorities for 

 refusing to take a special oath of allegiance to the state. He was released, but was rear- 

 rested soon afterward, confined in the state penitentiary, and forced to wear prison 

 garb, until January, 1833, notwithstanding a decision by the Supreme Court of the 

 United States, nearly a year before, that his imprisonment wa.« a violation of the law 

 of the land. The Cherokfi' Flidinr liaving been suspended and the Cherokee Xation 

 brought into disorder by the extension over it of the state laws, he then returned to 

 Brainertl, which was beyond the limits of ( jeorgia. In 1835 he removed to the Indian 

 Territory, whither the Arkansas Cherokee had already gone, and after short sojourns 

 at Dwight and Union missions took up his final residence at Park Hill in December, 

 1836. He had already set up his mission press at Union, printing botli in the Chero- 

 kee and the Creek languages, and on establishing himself at Park Hill he began a 

 regular series of puVjlications in the Cherokee language. In 1843 he states that "at 

 Park Hill, besides the preaching of the gospel, a leading object of attention is the prep- 

 aration and puV)lication of books in the Cherokee language" (Letter in Report of 

 Indian Commissioner, p. 356, 1843). The list of his Cherokee pulilications (first edi- 

 tions) under his own name in Pilling's Bibliography comprises about twenty titles, 

 including the Bible, hymn books, tracts, and almanacs in addition to the Phmiix 

 and large number of anonymous works. Says Pilling: "It is very probable that he 

 was the translator of a number of books for which he is not given credit here, espe- 

 cially those portions of the Scripture which are herein not assigned to any name. 

 Indeed it is safe to say that during the thirty-four years of his connection with the 

 Cherokee Ijut little was done in the way of translating in which he had not a share." 

 He also began a Cherokee geography and had both a grammar and a dictionary of 

 the language under way when his work was interrupted by his arrest. The manu- 

 scripts, with all his personal effects, afterward went down with a sinking steamer on 

 the Arkansas. His daughter, Mrs A. E. W. Robertson, Viecame a missionary among 

 the Creeks an<l has published a number of works in their language. AiilIioritte)i: 

 Pilling, Bibliography of the Iroijuoian languages (articles Worcester, Cherokee 

 Phoenix, etc.), 1888; Drake, Indians, ed. 1880: Report of Indian Commissioner, 1843 

 (Worcester letter). 



(39) De.\th penalty for sellini; lands (p. 107): In 1820 the Cherokee Xation 

 enacted a law making it treason punishable with death to enter into any negotiation 

 for the sale of tribal lands without the consent of the national council. A similar 

 law was enacted by the Creeks at about the same time. It was for violating these laws 

 that Mcintosh and Ridge suffered death in their respective tribes. The principal 

 parts of the Cherokee law, as reenacted by the united Xation in the West in 1842, 

 appear as follows in the compilation authorized in 1866: 



"x\n act against sale op land, etc.: Whereas, The peace and prosperity of 

 Indian nations are frequently sacrificed or placed in jeopardy by the unrestrained 

 cupidity of their own individual citizens; mid mhereas, we ourselves are liable to suffer 

 from the same cause, and be sulijected to future removal and disturbances: There- 

 fore, . . . 



"Be it further enacted, That any person or persons who shall, contrary to the will 

 and consent of the legislative council of this nation, in general council convened, 

 enter into a treaty with any commissioner or commissioners of the United States, or 

 any officer or officers instructed for the purpose, and agree to cede, exchange, or dis- 

 pose in any way any part or portion of the lands belonging to or claimed by the 

 Cherokees, west of the Mississippi, he or they so offending, upon conviction before 

 any judge of the circuit or supreme courts, shall safer death, and any of the afore- 

 said judges are authorized to call a court for the trial of any person or persons 

 so transgressing. 



