The Cherokee Indians

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ART. 6. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS



THE CHEROKEE INDIANS.


To the Editor of the
American Monthly Magazine
.
DEAR SIR,
OF the various subjects which the modern history of America presents to the consideration of the philosopher and philanthropist, the case of our Indians is perhaps one of the most interesting. No one can deny that the unenlightened, infatuated, corrupted, and instigated aborigenes [aborigines] of this country, have, in many instances, met with savage treatment at the hands of the whites ; and that considerable portions of the Indian race, who were susceptible of civilization, have been, often without provocation, cruelly persecuted, hunted down, nay, exterminated, by those who call themselves civilized men, friends of liberty and justice; and who impiously assume the Christian name!
Let it not be said, however, that amid these carnageous storms, the voice of humanity was silent. Our "red brethren" have always been objects of philanthropic solicitude. The disinterested labours [labors] of men who have dared to plead their cause and promote their welfare, have been, in some measure, crowned with success. And, I humbly trust, that the day is not far distant when benevolent minds, and Christians of all denominations will unite in a general plan for promoting civilization and christianity among the American Indians. I was glad to see, in your number for
September, a very important article, drawn up by my learned friend Professor MITCHILL, on "
The Progress of the Human Mind from Rudeness to Refinement; exemplified in an Account of the Method pursued by Col. Benjamin Hawkins, under the Authority of the Government of the United States, to civilize certain Tribes of Savages within their Territory.
" Too much cannot be said on this fertile subject. Every article of intelligence which may have a tendency to interest the benevolent public in behalf of the American Indians, should be circulated as widely as possible. In the beginning of the last month, I met with the enclosed "
Account of the Cherokee Schools, communicated by Gen. Calvin Jones, of Raleigh, to the editor of the Register
; and it is offered for insertion in your Magazine. Occasional letters from the missionary establishment over which the REV. JOHN GAMBOLD and his wife preside, at Spring-place in the Cherokee country, and other sources of authentic information, enable me to state some facts in addition to the account of Gen. Jones.
Mr. Gambold is an industrious and truly pious man. As is often the case among Moravian missionaries, besides imparting christian knowledge to his Indian people, and teaching them the useful arts, he is necessitated to provide his bread with the labour [labor] of his hands. His excellent wife, who possesses a strong mind, a refined understanding, and a christian zeal in the noble cause wherein they are engaged, is also indefatigable in aiding her persevering husband, and administering to the temporal and spiritual wants of their pupils. Though the number of Indian children whom they educate is small, yet there is a continual accession, whilst those who have enjoyed the benefits of the mission, make room for others, and endeavour to exhibit in their community the salutary lessons which they have been taught. The scholars are maintained entirely at the expense of the United Brethren. CHARLES RENATUS HICKS, the acting chief of the Cherokees, has great influence in his tribe, and is a very pious and useful man. On Good-Friday,
April 16, 1813, at Spring-place, he was received as a member into the church of Christ, by holy baptism, and has since continued a faithful professor of the Christian religion. Some of the other members of Mr. Gambold's flock, whose names could be mentioned, are represented as sincere and devout followers of Jesus.


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The other missionaries among the Cherokees, who act under the superintendence of the American Board of Foreign Missions, and who have a mission establishment at Chickemaugh, patronized by government, directed their first steps to the Rev. Mr. Gambold, and were received in the most affectionate manner. The gratifying particulars of their reception will unquestionably remain indelible on their minds. They were greatly assisted in their undertaking, by the experience, the counsel, and brotherly love of the worthy Gambold. And here, permit me to state, in the language of a reverend brother, "that the United Brethren are proceeding, with unabated ardour [ardor], in the important and interesting cause in which they are engaged, of sending the gospel to the benighted heathen, and of forming missionary stations among them. And they do this, literally, in humble faith on that unchanging God who has promised never to leave nor forsake his believing people. The debt which they have contracted for this purpose, still amounts, it is believed, to about twenty thousand dollars more than they alone have it at present in their power to liquidate. "
Subscriptions and donations towards the support of the missions of the United Brethren (or Moravians) will be thankfully received by the ministers of their congregations throughout the United States, particularly by the Rev. Benjamin Mortimer, 104 Fulton-street, New York; Rev. William H. Van Vleck, 74 Race-street, Philadelphia; Rev. Christian F. Schaaff, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Rev. George G. Miller, Newport, Rhode-Island; and by the Right Rev. Jacob Van Vleck, Salem, Stokes county, North-Carolina.

Yours, very respectfully,
[Signed] FREDERICK CHRISTIAN SCHAEFFER.
New-York,
Nov. 13, 1818.

Account of the Cherokee Schools. Communicated by Gen. Calvin Jones, of Raleigh, to the Editor of the Register.

As the notice which you have published of the schools in the Cherokee nation, from the imperfect hints furnished in conversation, seems to have been well received, and to have excited interest, I very readily comply with your request to give a more circumstantial account of those schools, and of the prospect they afford of civilization to a nation that has enlisted all my sympathies in its favour [favor], and I am much gratified to learn that your views and sentiments on this subject are so entirely in accordance with my own.
I must premise, that when I visited the Cherokee nation lately, I had no predilections in its favour [favor] . I had known something of two tribes of Indians, and that all attempts to civilize one of them had been unavailing, and had every where seen the various tribes recede, and melt away at the approach of the white people. I had always believed the enthusiastic zeal of good men led them to expect human means would effect what had been denied by an interdict of nature; that there were physical as well as moral causes which would for ever prevent the civilization of these savages until the capabilities of their minds were improved, matured and perfected, by the long continued existence of their race and species. But I have seen the nation, and have witnessed the success of the attempts which are making to instruct and humanize them, and am no longer sceptical. I renounce my Darwinian error. I firmly believe, if the efforts now making are duly seconded, the little that remains of a brave and unfortunate nation will be rescued from barbarism, suffering, and utter annihilation.
Heretofore there seems to have been more zeal for christianity, than knowledge of the constitution of the human mind, employed in missionary labours [labors] . Little is to be expected from preaching abstruse doctrines to men who have never been taught the exercise of their thinking faculties. The American Board of Foreign Missions have profited by past experience; they have anatomised [anatomized] the mind, and know its properties and structure -- they have learned, (to borrow the idea of the poet) that the twig must be bent to give fashion to the tree.


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The first school in the Cherokee nation was founded by the Moravian Society of Salem, in North-Carolina, about twenty years ago; and has been continued without interruption, but on a limited scale, ever since. The Rev. M. Gambold is the present missionary. He is a plain, worthy man, and supports his family chiefly by the labour [labor] of his own hands, while his wife instructs ten or twelve Indian children. On the Sabbath Mr. G. preaches. Charles Hicks, the second man, nominally, in the nation, but in influence the first, is a member of his church; and is reputed an enlightened an devout Christian, who does honour [honor] to his profession. But the most considerable school is at Chickemaugh, under the superintendence of the American Board of Foreign Missions. Its first instructer was the Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury, who went into the nation three years ago, and left it last winter to found a school among the Choctaws. It is due, however, to the distinguished merit of the Rev. Gideon Blackburn, of Tennessee, to state here, that he was the pioneer in this business; having, by his individual exertions, maintained a school taught by himself in that part of the nation, many years ago; which, however, the difficulty of subsisting, and much unfounded obloquy thrown upon his conduct and motives, made it expedient for him to abandon.
The present head of the mission is the Rev. Hard Hoyt, a venerable, pious, sensible, and discreet man; who, with his wife, and six interesting children, left the pleasant valley of Wyoming, in Pennsylvania, to encounter the difficulties, and endure the privations of a wilderness, with the single view of extending the blessings of civilization and christianity among the Cherokees. The teacher of the school is Mr. William Chamberlain, of Vermont. The steward and manager, Mr. Moody Hall, of New-York; and there are two young men learning the Cherokee language, with a view to increase the utility of their labours [labors], Daniel S. Beatrick, and L. Long.
This institution is very creditably patronized by government. The expenses of the buildings for the accommodation of the families attached to the mission, of the Indian pupils, and of the school, are defrayed by Col. Meigs, the Indian agent, who furnishes, at the charge of the government, all the requisite implements of husbandry. A fertile tract of land is loaned to the missionaries, so long as the institution exists, which serves the double purpose of lessening the burden of expense upon the Board of Missions, and of initiating the Indian youth into the principles and practice of agriculture.
The school is conducted on the Lancastrian plan, and consists of 53 scholars, of whom 49 are Indians. I spent a day in the school, taught and heard every one of the classes myself, and I declare that I never saw a better regulated school, or scholars of more promising dispositions and talents. They were quick in apprehension, retentive in memory, docile, and affectionate. The greater number of the scholars were between 8 and 12 years of age: a few were 16, and one, I think, was 18. This last was a young woman of much merit; she read well, conversed sensibly, was grave, dignified, and graceful in her manners, handsome in her person, and would be an ornament to almost any society. I was told that at their female society meetings, when asked to pray, she always unhesitatingly did so, and in a manner peculiarly fervent and eloquent; her name is Catharine Brown. Not four years ago she wore the dress, spoke the language, and had the manners of her nation. Lydia Lowry, Allice Wilson, and Peggy Wolf, three other Indian girls that I recollect, of less mature age, were good scholars, and genteel and agreeable in their manners. Edward, a brother of Catharine Brown's, and too many other boys to be enumerated, would, for their open, manly countenances, correct manners, and decent school acquirements, obtain respect and consideration in any community.
The school is opened and closed by prayer, and all the scholars join in singing hymns. Those who merit them, re-


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ceive as rewards, daily and twice a day, for "punctual attendance," "behaviour [behavior] ," and "diligence," cards, or tickets, with the initial letters of those words printed on them, which are valued at half a cent, a cent, and three half cents. These are current money, and are received in payment for knives, books, or whatever else they wish to purchase. For damaging slates, losing pencils, negligences, &c. [et cetera] &c. [et cetera] they are sometimes fined in tickets. The children value these tickets highly, both for the honour [honor] which the number of them confers, and the substantial profit they afford.
All the scholars live at the mission house, where they are both clothed and fed gratuitously, unless their parents choose to pay the expense, which is not often the case. Besides the literary, religious, and moral instruction which they receive, they are taught practical farming, and are initiated into habits of industry, an art and virtue unknown among savages. They all eat in a spacious hall attached to the rear of the mansion house; the girls at one table and the boys at another, at which the pastor, teacher, and the ladies of the family preside. The order and decency observed at their meals equally surprised and pleased me. The boys occupy several detached cabins as lodging-rooms, which form the right wing of the mission-house; the girls, a spacious one on the left, where they are accompanied by a daughter of Mr. Hoyt. They sit and work in the main building, where they form busy, interesting, and pleasing groups, around some of the ladies of the family.
What is learned in the school room is not the most considerable, nor, considering the situation of the nation, the most important part of their education. They are made practical farmers under the direction of an excellent manager, by which means they give direct support to the institution, and procure important advantages to themselves.
Every Monday morning the labours [labors] for the week are assigned to each, the boys being mustered before the house, and the girls being assembled within it. The former, according to their employments, are denominated hoe-boys, axe-boys, plough-boys, &c. [et cetera] and among the latter are divided the duties of carding, spinning, cooking, and house work, and making and mending the garments of the scholars. Every morning of the week afterwards, the boys are summoned into line by the sound of a whistle. After the roll is called, the classes are designated by naming their avocations, when the members of each break out of the ranks at once, and enter upon their second employments with great spirit and alacrity. They remain in school six hours a day, and w k [work] four or five. I went round to visit them at their several labours [labors] in the wood and in the field, and found them every where busy and cheerful. They seemed, by their manner, to require no other recreation. A prudent, well regulated system of moral discipline, appeared completely to supersede the necessity of every kind of corporeal punishment or physical coercion. The utmost harmony reigned throughout. Neither idleness nor games gave them occasion for feuds or dissentions. Their affection for their teachers seemed to be unbounded. I have seen the boys, by half dozens, surround Mr. Chamberlain, when he came in fatigued, clasp him round the neck and arms, all eager to tell or ask something and engage his attention; and when he had good-humouredly [humoredly] shaken off one set, he would be immediately surrounded by another, clamorous as black birds. A command, however, would always reduce them instantly to order and place. Play is occasionally allowed. One boy will throw up a gourd or shingle, which will come to the ground, with a dozen arrows sticking to it. Bathing in the fine clear stream of Chickamaugh is permitted twice a week. Indeed an Indian would not dispense with this, for they are scrupulously attentive to cleanliness. An Indian child runs into the water as natural as a duck. I have seen them (particularly in the Chickasaw country) scarce six years old, up to their chins in the stream of a bold creek. Col. Meigs, the Indian agent,


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asked a Cherokee girl why she did not marry a white man who paid his addresses to her. She replied, that she could not endure white men, they were so dirty; never, as she understood, bathing in creeks, as she understood, bathing in creeks as the red people did.
I have seen the girls at their several employments, forming circles round some of the ladies of the family, beguiling the time by singing and conversation; and seeming, as no doubt they really were, very happy. The white children of the mission family are treated in all respects as the Indian children are. Indeed, an exemption from any part of the routine duty and labour [labor] would be no favour [favor] . To the Indians this course is indispensibly [indispensably] necessary to their civilization and future welfare; and I am not sure but the plan of the Chickamaugh school, in all its details, is the best that could be devised for children in any community. During the week of my visit it fell to the lot of a girl (a young lady I might with propriety style her) to wait at table, as a part of the household labours [labors], and she performed the duties with equal propriety, cheerfulness, and grace. It was felt to be, as it really was, perfectly proper and honourable [honorable], because it was a place that each one in turn was destined to fill; and no ideas of servitude could of course be attached to it. This young woman was the daughter of a wealthy, high-minded chief, who kept a good table and servants; at whose house I have been handsomely entertained, and who spoke of the economy of this school in terms of high commendation.
The Indians are mostly favourable [favorable] to the mission. Mr. Hoyt is known among them by the appellation of the good man; and some profess to love to hear the good book talk, as they term reading the Bible. Every where the mission family are treated by the Indians with great respect and affection, and they will rarely receive pay from them for what they are accustomed to consider as sources of profit, and subjects of charge upon travellers. This is not the unmeaning politeness with which Indians have been charged. It is a very emphatic expression of their sense of the disinterested and useful labours [labors] of the missionaries. At a late national council, two men were appointed as special safeguards of the persons and properties of the missionaries. A little circumstance which took place a few days before I was at the school, speaks very distinctly the sentiments which prevail. An old Indian woman, who seemed not to have a vestige of civilization, brought a little savage, her grandson, to place at the school. When the former was about to depart, she wept so much over her child, who cried to accompany her, that Mr. Hoyt apprehended she would not leave him, and through an interpreter assured her that he would in a few days be reconciled to his situation. She replied that she had no intention but to leave him; that the parting was very painful to her, but she too well knew what was for the child's good. An Indian who had once been to visit the President at Washington, told me that civilization had made the white people great, but ignorance had made the Indians dwindle away to nothing. Most of those with whom I conversed seemed to feel the sentiment of patriotism strong in their bosoms, to deplore the fall of their once wide extended and powerful nation, and to be anxious that the little of it which remained, should be saved from annihilation. Who that himself enjoys the comforts of civilized life, and the consilations [consolations] of religion, and knows the wants and capabilities of these people, would withhold a contribution to a purpose so beneficent and full of merit?
One or two facts will enable all to judge for themselves of the teachableness of their dispositions, and their capacities for acquirement. A wild, naked-legged boy, eight years old, named Chees-quanee-tah, or a Young Bird, who could speak nothing but Cherokee, came for the first time in the school on the day on which I visited it; and I taught him the letters of the alphabet but three or four times over, using some device to impress them more strongly on the memory, in one of which I was assisted by a beautiful and sprightly little


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girl, who told me she was the black warriors daughter. This was, to place the letters, O, C, U, together, the pronunciation of which, in the Cherokee tongue signifies good; which I made him understand was applicable to him. The little girl, who spoke English tolerably, in a playful manner, with a look full of arch simplicity, told me her mother seldom applied it to her; but much oftener a word, of which I have now forgotten the Indian, that signifies bad. At night the boy distinctly remembered seven letter of the alphabet.
A little girl, by the name of Jenny Reece, had been six weeks in the school, and could spell very well in words of three letters; and yet had never, in conversation, been heard to utter a word of English. It is remarkable of the Indians, that when they commence expressing their ideas and wants in English, they in a time surprisingly short, speak it very distinctly. But they cannot be persuaded to speak, until conscious of their ability to do it well; afraid, I suppose, of drawing upon themselves ridicule: and, indeed, their first essays are calculated to excite laughter in many, when the ardour [ardor] of their anxiety to be understood, prompts them to premature efforts. Like the Greeks and Romans, they place the object before the agent. I heard this from a boy anxious to go to the store, on mail day. "Store go to who? want some to me." It was predicted from their usual progress, that this boy would speak correct in a month.
The mention of Jenny Reece brings her father's name and merit before me, and I hope to be pardoned for a passing notice of him, though apparently very remotely, if at all, in connexion [connection] with the school. This Charley Reece was a distinguished warrior, and one of the three Indians who, at the battle of the Horse Shoe, swam the river in sight of the contending armies, under the showers of arrows and bullets, and brought over the canoes which contributed so essentially to the dislodgement and defeat of the Creek Indians. Gen. Jackson mentioned him most honourably [honorably] in his despatches and general order; and President Madison wrote him a letter and presented him with a superbly mounted rifle, with suitable inscriptions. This, once his boast, is his pride no longer. I had some conversation with him, and he spoke of his military exploits with evident reluctance. This once haughty warrior is now a humble and devout professor of the religion of Jesus. The wild hunter who could not endure the restraints of home and but one wife, is now the industrious and prosperous farmer, and the respectable head of a happy family. This man's example -- the happiness he has conferred on a wife and amiable children, is surely enough to overturn infidelity in the heart of obstinacy itself, and make the most heedless anxious to promote the diffusion of principles capable of such happy influence. I belong to no church or sect, but I have seen too much of the benign effects of religion, to withhold from it this testimony in its favour [favor] . I am convinced of the very great and essential importance of its principles and doctrines to civilization. The Chinese can make pictures, and the Turks carpets, but they are barbarians; and neither science nor manners will ever obtain there until the domestic fireside becomes the place where confidence can repose itself, where the best and holiest affections of our nature can find their solace, and where the infant mind will be formed under the influence of precept and example. Polygamy is at eternal and irreconcileable [irreconcilable] war with civilization.
I had almost forgotten to say, that there is one certainty, and, I believe, two schools in the nation, supported and patronized exclusively by the Indians. I visited one of the patrons. He complained much of the moral character of the master, and said he had seen him drunk even on the Sabbath, and threatened to dismiss him. This teacher, a native of Europe, had the common stipend of country schoolmasters allowed, was allowed to cultivate as much land as he pleased, and had a good number of scholars; but the Indians were scandalized at his irregularities, and I expect, if the failed to civilize him, they


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would, as they threatened, discharge him. I neither saw the teacher nor his school. It would swell this article to a size too great for a newspaper, were I to speak of the character and manners of the Indians; and it would, besides, be foreign to the object for which I commenced it. I will, therefore, only say in a few words, that I found them every where kind and obliging in their deportment, and correct in their conduct; that in their houses, and I entered not a few. I observed a general appearance of order and neatness that indicated comfort. The women seemed very industrious in various domestic employments; and the men much more so, in their agricultural pursuits, than in any Indian nation I ever visited. Many of them had considerable plantations, and two, at whose houses I was, owned several negroes, an employed white men as over seers; and all had horses and cattle. Every thing, I thought, manifested the progress of civilization, and the practicability of its soon attaining the ordinary degrees of perfection.
Possibly this brief exposition of facts and circumstances, new to most of the readers of the
Raleigh Register
, will excite in the benevolent a desire to strengthen the hands of those employed in this work of instruction, and of giving them the means of more extended and general usefulness. The education of the Cherokees will only be limited by the ability to found and support schools. I have no correspondence with the Board of Missions, but presume donations to their Treasurer in Boston, Jeremiah Evarts, will be acceptable. It is equally likely that the Moravian Society of Salem would not refuse benefactions, though they have never asked contributions. The good they have done has been their own, and it has been done without ostentation. I was told that plain ready made clothing for boys, particularly trowsers [trousers] and hunting shirts, was wanted. Dr. Strong, of Knoxville; A. J. Huntingdon, of Augusta; George Dunning, of Savannah; Dodge and Sayre, of New-York; and the Superintendent of Indian affairs, Washington city, will remit any thing to the mission house at Chickamaugh, that is committed to their care. I add this paragraph at the suggestion of a traveller now confined in this city by sickness, who observed to me yesterday, "that the good deeds of men fell short of their beneficent wishes, from not knowing how and where to dispense their liberalities."


New-York,
Nov . 19 th, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
Since I addressed you relative to the INDIANS, three young Cherokees have arrived in this city, and bring accounts from Spring-place. One of these Indians has been 6 years under the care of the Rev. Mr. Gambold; another, 4 years; and the third, a shorter time. They are on their way to the Missionary College at Cornwall, Connecticut; where several Indian youths are already pursuing their studies.
If they follow the excellent advice which they have received from their affectionate instructers at Spring-place, they may, by the divine blessing, become useful men. It must be acknowledged, that by sending these youths so far from their kindred tribe, to be placed for a time among the white, though much may be gained, much is also hazarded. However, the character of those to whom these juvenile descendants of the aborigines are intrusted, warrants us to anticipate a happy result. Our friends at Spring-place, write under date of the
2d Oct. 1818, that they are about erecting a meeting-house at the expense of the Missionary Society of the United Brethren. They say, "it is our wish to be as little expensive as possible to the Missionary Society; however, having been necessitated to hire a carpenter for one dollar per day, it may, when finished, require a good sum." And further, "Mr. Gambold has to direct, and with his hands to assist daily, from morning until night ."
Contributions toward defraying the expense of the new church or meeting-house at Spring-place, for the benefit of


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the Cherokees, will be thankfully received by the Rev. B. Mortimer, 104 Fulton street, New-York.

Very respectfully,
Yours,
[Signed] FREDERICK CHRISTIAN SCHAEFFER.