of the Cherokee people were arrayed in hostile feeling toward those who ruled the nation; whether a corresponding disposition and feeling prevailed among the majority who administered the government toward the minority; the lengths of oppression, resistance, and violence to which the excitement of each against the other had severally led the opposing parties, and whether the discontent was of such extent and intensity among the great mass of the Old Settler and Treaty parties as to forbid their living peaceably together under the same government with the Ross party. This commission convened at Fort Gibson on the 16th of November,480 but their labors resulted in nothing of practical benefit to the sorely distressed Cherokees.
Death of Sequoyah or George Guess
Sequoyah or George Guess, the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet, removed to the country west of the Mississippi long anterior to the treaty of 1835,481 and was for several years one of the national council of the Western Cherokees.
In the year 1843 he left his home for Mexico in quest of several scattered bands of Cherokees who had wandered off to that distant region, and whom it was his intention to collect together with a view to inducing them to return and become again united with their friends and kindred.
He did not meet with the success anticipated. Being quite aged, and becoming worn out and destitute, he was unable without assistance to make the return trip to his home. Agent Butler, learning of his condition, reported the fact to the Indian Department482 and asked that sufficient funds be placed at his disposal for the purpose of sending messengers to bring the old man back. Two hundred dollars were authorized483 to be expended for the purpose, and Oo-no-leh, a Cherokee, was sent on the errand of mercy, but upon reaching Red River he encountered a party of Cherokees from Mexico who advised him that Guess had died in the preceding July, and that his remains were interred at San Fernando.484
Old Settler and Treaty Parties Propose to Remove to Mexico
In the fall of 1845 the bulk of the Old Settler and Treaty parties, having become satisfied that it would be impossible for them to maintain a peaceful and happy residence in the country of their adoption while the influence of John Ross continued potent in their national government, resolved to seek for themselves a new home on the borders of Mexico. A council was therefore held at which a delegation (consisting of forty-three members of the Treaty and eleven of the Old Settler party) was chosen to explore the country to the south and west for a future abode. They rendezvoused485 at the forks of the Canadian and Arkansas Rivers, and, after electing a captain, proceeded via Fort Washita, crossing the Red River at Coffee's trading house, and following the ridge dividing the waters of Trinity and Brazos to the latter river, which they crossed at Basky Creek. Here they found a small settlement of sixty-three Cherokees, who had moved in the preceding June from a place called by them Mount Clover, in Mexico.
Among their number was found Tessee Guess, the son of George Guess. Leaving Brazos486 the explorers traveled westward to the Colorado, reaching it at the mouth of Stone Fort Creek,487 beyond which they proceeded in a southwesterly direction to the San Sabba Creek, at a point about 40 or 50 miles above its mouth. They returned on a line some 60 miles south of their outgoing trip,488 and with their friends held a council at Dragoon Barracks in the Cherokee Nation.489 At this meeting it was decided to ask the United States to provide them a home in the Texas country upon their relinquishment of all interest in the Cherokee Nation, or in case of a refusal of this request that the territory of the nation be divided into two parts, and a moiety thereof be assigned to them with the privilege of adopting their own form of government and living under it.
The governor of Arkansas490 and General Arbuckle491 both concurred in the conclusions reached by this council, and urged upon the authorities at Washington the necessary legislation to carry the same into effect.
More Political Murders
Shortly after the delegation selected by the foregoing council had proceeded to Washington in the interest of the adoption of the scheme proposed, another epidemic of murder and outrage broke out in the nation. On the 23d of March, Agent McKissick reported to the Indian Department the murder of Stand, a prominent member of the Ross party, by Wheeler Faught, at the instigation of the "Starr boys," who were somewhat noted leaders of the Treaty party. This murder was committed in revenge for the killing of James Starr and others during the outbreak of the preceding November. It was followed492 by the murder of Cornsilk, another of Ross's adherents, by these same "Starr boys," and six days later the spirit of retaliation led to the killing of Turner, a member of the Treaty party. On the 25th of the same month493 Ellis, Dick, and Billy Starr were wounded by a band of Ross's Cherokee police, who chased them across the line of Arkansas in the attempt to arrest them for trial before the Cherokee tribunals for the murder of Too-noo-wee two days before. General Arbuckle took them under his protection, and refused to deliver them up for trial to the Cherokee authorities until the latter should take proper steps to punish the murderers of James Starr. Subsequently Baldridge and Sides, of the Ross party, were murdered by Jim and Tom Starr, in revenge for which the light horse police company of the Ross government murdered Billy Ryder, of the Treaty party.494
In this manner the excitement was maintained and the outrages multiplied until, on the 28th of August, Agent McKissick reported that since the 1st of November preceding there had been an aggregate of thirty-three murders committed in the Cherokee Nation, nearly all of which were of a political character. The feeling of alarm became so widespread that General Arbuckle was constrained to increase the military force on the frontier by two companies.
Negotiation of Treaty of 1846
While these unhappy events were in progress Major Armstrong, superintendent of Indian affairs, who was in Washington, submitted to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, at the suggestion of the several Cherokee delegations, a proposition for the appointment of a commissioner clothed with full powers to adjust all difficulties between the various factions of their people.
The Commissioner replied that as the matter was before Congress and would likely receive the speedy attention of that body, no action would be justified by the executive authorities without first being assured that the proposition was founded in good faith and would result in some certain and satisfactory arrangement. He must also have assurance that there existed a firm determination