cherokee women

Introduction: Women and Removal

During the 18th century, the impact of war and trade (traditionally men’s fields) had diminished Cherokee women’s political influence, and the adoption of Anglo-American institutions did so further. Still, as pressure for removal increased in the early 19th century, Cherokee women spoke out against it. Nevertheless, in the removal crisis of 1817—1819, Cherokee women made themselves heard on two occasions. In 1817 and 1818, women’s councils presented petitions to the National Council, which was composed solely of men. Nancy Ward seems to have inspired and led these women’s councils. Ward was a War Woman, a title traditionally awarded to women who distinguished themselves while accompanying war parties to cook food, carry water, and perform other gender-specific tasks. Ward had rallied the warriors after her husband’s death in battle in 1755. She subsequently aided the patriot cause during the American Revolution and addressed the Hopewell treaty conference in 1785. Now the elderly Ward and other women turned their attention to land cession and removal. The impact of their petitions is difficult to determine. The Cherokees ceded land in 1817 and 1819, but they did not accept individual allotments, which the women had opposed, and after 1819 they ceded no more land until 1835.

How did the women refer to themselves in their petitions to the National Council? Do you think that a tradition of matrilineal kinship may have led the women to describe themselves in such terms? How did women feel about ceding land and moving west of the Mississippi? What reasons did they give for their position? How did they envision the Cherokee future? What did they think motivated the men who supported land cession and removal? Can you find an argument for Cherokee sovereignty in the first petition that supporters of the Cherokee cause later used?

In the second petition, the women also addressed the issue of allotment, that is, dividing Cherokee land into separate tracts and assigning (or allotting) those tracts to individuals. This would have been a dramatic departure from the Cherokee practice of holding land in common, which permitted any citizen to use unoccupied land but prevented an individual from selling the land he or she held. The federal government saw the allotment of land as a means to bypass Indian governments and enable either the United States or its citizens to purchase land from individual owners. Allotment became a feature of the removal treaties of the Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Creeks and proved to be a disaster. Did the women support allotment? Can you think of any personal reasons that might have prompted them to oppose allotment?

Cherokee Women Resist Removal[i]

Petitions of the Women’s Councils, 1817, 1818

Petition

May 2, 1817

The Cherokee ladys now being present at the meeting of the chiefs and warriors in council have thought it their duty as mothers to address their beloved chiefs and warriors now assembled.

Our beloved children and head men of the Cherokee Nation, we address you warriors in council. We have raised all of you on the land which we now have, which God gave us to inhabit and raise provisions. We know that our country has once been extensive, but by repeated sales [it] has become circumscribed to a small track, and [we] never have thought it our duty to interfere in the disposition of it till now. If a father or mother was to sell all their lands which they had to depend on, which their children had to raise their living on, which would be indeed bad & to be removed to another country. We do not wish to go to an unknown country [to] which we have understood some of our children wish to go over the Mississippi, but this act of our children would be like destroying your mothers.

Your mothers, your sisters ask and beg of you not to part with any more of our land. We say ours. You are our descendants; take pity on our request. But keep it for our growing children, for it was the good will of our creator to place us here, and you know our father, the great president, will not allow his white children to take our country away. Only keep your hands off of paper talks for it’s our own country. For [if] it was not, they would not ask you to put your hands to paper, for it would be impossible to remove us all. For as soon as one child is raised, we have others in our arms, for such is our situation & will consider our circumstance.

Therefore, children, don’t part with any more of our lands but continue on it & enlarge your farms. Cultivate and raise corn & cotton and your mothers and sisters will make clothing for you which our father the president has recommended to us all. We don’t charge any body for selling any lands, but we have heard such intentions of our children. But your talks become true at last; it was our desire to forwarn you all not to part with our lands.

Nancy Ward to her children: Warriors to take pity and listen to the talks of your sisters. Although Jam very old yet cannot but pity the situation in which you will here of their minds. I have great many grand children which [I] wish them to do well on our land.

Petition

June 30, 1818.

Beloved Children,

We have called a meeting among ourselves to consult on the different points now before the council, relating to our national affairs. We have heard with painful feelings that the bounds of the land we now possess are to be drawn into very narrow limits. The land was given to us by the Great Spirit above as our common right, to raise our children upon, & to make support for our rising generations. We therefore humbly petition our beloved children, the head men & warriors, to hold out to the last in support of our common rights, as the Cherokee nation have been the first settlers of this land; we therefore claim the right of the soil.

We well remember that our country was formerly very extensive, but by repeated sales it has become circumscribed to the very narrow limits we have at present. Our Father the President advised us to become farmers, to manufacture our own clothes, & to have our children instructed. To this advice we have attended in every thing as far as we were able. Now the thought of being compelled to remove the other side of the Mississippi is dreadful to us, because it appears to us that we, by this removal, shall be brought to a savage state again, for we have, by the endeavor of our Father the President, become too much enlightened to throw aside the privileges of a civilized life.

We therefore unanimously join in our meeting to hold our country in common as hitherto.

Some of our children have become Christians. We have missionary schools among us. We have hard the gospel in our nation. We have become civilized & enlightened, & are in hopes that in a few years our nation will be prepared for instruction in other branches of sciences & arts, which are both useful & necessary in civilized society.

There are some white men among us who have been raised in this country from their youth, are connected with us by marriage, & have considerable families, who are very active in encouraging the emigration of our nation. These ought to be our truest friends but prove our worst enemies. They seem to be only concerned how to increase their riches, but do not care what becomes of our Nation, nor even of their own wives and children.

Petition

October 17, 1821 [1831?]

To the Committee and Council,

We the females, residing in Salecluoree and Pine Log, believing that the present difficulties and embarrassments under which this nation is placed demands a full expression of the mind of every individual, on the subject of emigrating to Arkansas, would take upon ourselves to address you. Although it is not common for our sex to take part in public measures, we nevertheless feel justified in expressing our sentiments on any subject where our interest is as much at stake as any other part of the community.

We believe the present plan of the General Government to effect our removal West of the Mississippi, and thus obtain our lands for the use of the State of Georgia, to be highly oppressive, cruel and unjust. And we sincerely hope there is no consideration which can induce our citizens to forsake the land of our fathers of which they have been in possession from time immemorial, and thus compel us, against our will, to undergo the toils and difficulties of removing with our helpless families hundreds of miles to unhealthy and unproductive country. We hope therefore the Committee and Council will take into deep consideration our deplorable situation, and do everything in their power to avert such a state of things. And we trust by a prudent course their transactions with the General Government will enlist in our behalf the sympathies of the good people of the United States.