TSE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 205 



years ago, and never rejoining thera. It is a strong desire witli them to live alone; 

 consequently the opposition to allotting on the same reservation with the Pottawato- 

 mies, urging that they had settled on these lands long before the Pottawatomies, and 

 that the land by right is theirs. 



These people are engaged in raising hogs, ponies, and cattle, and are the most 

 extensive agriculturists in this agency. Besides their gardening they will average 

 about 8 acres of corn to the family. 



Some Shawuees reside with the Cherokees in ludian Territory. Num- 

 ber not given. 



CHER-O-KEES. 



[Cherokee: Laws of the United States. Cherokee: Indian Bureau, June, 1885.] 



Formerly of the State 'of Georgia, recently removed west of the Mississippi to the 

 headwaters of the Arkansas. This tribe are mostly civilized and agriculturists; 

 number, 22,000. 



Mr. Catlin was with the Cherokees, near Fort Gibson, in 1836. 



283. John Ross, a civilized and well educated man; head chief of the nation. 

 Painted in 1836. 

 (See Plate No. 215, page 119, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



Of this picture and man, Mr. Catlin writes : 



John Ross, a civilized and highly educated and accomplished gentleman, who is 

 the head chief of the tribe. 



This man, like most of the chiefs, as well as a very great proportion 

 of the Cherokee population, has a mixture of white and red blood in his 

 veins. 



The Cherokees amount in all to about 22,000, 16,000 of whom are yet living in Georgia, 

 under the Government of their chief, John Ross, whose name I have before mentioned. 

 With this excellent man, who has been for many years devotedly opposed to the treaty 

 stipulations for moving fi-om their country, I have been familiarly acquainted ; and, 

 notwithstanding the bitter invective and animadversions that have been by his politi- 

 cal enemies heaped upon him, I feel authorized, and bound to testify to the unassum- 

 ing and gentlemanly urbanity of his manners, as well as to the rigid temperance of 

 his habits, and the purity of his language, in which I never knew him to transgress 

 for a moment, in public or private interviews. — G. C. 



Shortly after Mr. Catlin wrote the above the remainder of the Chero- 

 kees were removed to beyond the Mississippi Eiver. 



In the movement for the civilization and adoption of an independent government 

 among the Cherokees, John Ross, Elias Boudinot, John Ridge, and other Cherokees 

 were pioneers from 1820 to 1848. 



The most prominent man of this movement was John Ross, a Cherokee ot the 

 mixed blood. * * * [gee portrait, page 176, vol. 3, McKenuey & Hall.] 



We must speak of him in general terms as the leader of his people in their exodus 

 from the land of their nativity to a new country, and from the savage state to that 

 of civilization. Through the whole of this interesting and exciting movement he has 

 been an efficient actor, and, of some of the most important events the prime mover. 

 He has no fame as a warrior, nor do we know that he has ever been in the field. 

 His talents are those of the civilian. Plain and unassuming in his appearance, of 

 calm and quiet deportment, he is a man of great sagacity and of untiring energy. 

 Assiduous in the pursuit of his objects, he has spent many of his winters at Washing- 

 ton, where he was well known to all the leadin g statesmen and to the philanthropists 



