Elias Boudinot (Cherokee)

Infobox Person
name = Elias Boudinot


imagesize = 200 px | caption = Elias Boudinot
birth_date = 1802
birth_place = Oothcaloga, Georgia
dead=dead
death_date = death date|1839|6|22|mf=y
death_place = Park Hill, Cherokee Nation West (now Oklahoma)

Elias Boudinot (1802–June 22, 1839) was a Cherokee Indian who started and edited the tribe's first newspaper. He was born in Oothcaloga, Cherokee Nation (now Calhoun, Georgia) as Gallegina Watie (also known as "Buck" Watie or Buck Oowatie), edited the "Cherokee Phoenix" in the New Echota, and died in Oklahoma. Gallegina means Deer; therefore, he was called "Buck" Watie before changing his name. He took the name "Elias Boudinot" from the man who paid for his education. The newspaper he edited, "The Cherokee Phoenix", was the first Indian newspaper in the country. He was a missionary who translated the New Testament Bible and hymns into Cherokee with the help of a missionary friend, Samuel A. Worcester.

Boudinot and the Cherokee Nation

Boudinot was part of a prominent Cherokee family, the son of David Watie (Uwati), brother of Stand Watie, nephew of Major Ridge and cousin of John Ridge. He was also, allegedly, a descendant of Attacullaculla and the chiefs of Chota-Tanasi. Boudinot, the Ridges, John Ross, Charles R. Hicks, and his son, Elijah Hicks formed the ruling elite of the Cherokee Nation, which came to believed that rapid acculturation was critical to Cherokee surivial. Elias' "Cherokee Phoenix" published partially in Sequoyah's syllabary, but mostly in English, was meant to showcase Cherokee "civilization" including New Echota, the capital.

The United States, particularly the state of Georgia, despite professed aims of "civilizing" the Cherokee by moving them westwards, were only interested in the land the Cherokee occupied. White settlers began to encroach on Cherokee land through violence and quasi-legal actions such as the Georgia land lottery. The Cherokees' defense of their land climaxed in two Supreme Court cases argued by former United States attorney general William Wirt: "Cherokee Nation v. Georgia" and "Worcester v. Georgia". Although the Supreme Court acknowledged the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation, President Andrew Jackson refused to take action that would force Georgia to abide by the Court's decision.

Boudinot and John Ridge's thinking on relations with the United States were profoundly effected by an unusual meeting in May 1832 with Supreme Court Justice John McLean, in which McLean advocated removal to the Indian Territory and ultimate entry into the United States. On August 1, 1832, Boudinot resigned as editor of the Cherokee Phoenix after Ross refused to allow Boudinot to write editorials which suggested removal as an option for the nation.

Cherokee removal

In May 1834, Boudinot, Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Andrew Ross, brother of John Ross, collectively the "Ridge Party," met with John H. Eaton, secretary of war with the goal of signing a treaty of removal. Unable to bridge their differences with anti-removal forces, the Ridge Party signed the Treaty of New Echota on December 29, 1835.

Death

Elias Boudinot, Major Ridge and John Ridge were assassinated in 1839 by members of the Ross faction, who stabbed them to death. The three had joined the established political structure of the Old Settlers, those who had emigrated prior to the Treaty of New Echota, and their murders cleared the way for the Ross people to step in.

ee also

*Timeline of Cherokee removal

Further reading

Primary sources

*Dale, Edwards Everett. "Cherokee Cavaliers; Forty Years of Cherokee History as Told in the Correspondences of the Ridge-Watie-Boudinot Family". Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1939.

econdary Sources

*Carter, Samuel. "Cherokee Sunset". Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday, 1976.
*Wilkins, Thurman. "Cherokee Tragedy: The Ridge family and the Decimation of a People". Norman, OK: U of Oklahoma Press, 1986; ISBN 0-8061-2188-2 (1989 paperback edition).
*Pudue, Theda. "Rising From the Ashes: The Cherokee Phoenix as an Ethnohistorical Source". Ethnohistory Vol. 24 No. 3, 1971.

External links

* [http://www.paulridenour.com/swatie.htm Oowatie family genealogy]