New Yesterdays by Jim L Wright - HTML preview

Chapter 13

Tooantuh took his time filling his pipe. His face was dark and his jaw set. Adahy waited patiently for the words of his Chief. He held Tooantuh in great esteem and always felt honored by an invitation to the Chief's house. None of that was in his mind right now, though. All he could think about now was how the lives of their people were about to change, and maybe not for the better. The Council had met the previous night and it had been decided that going to war with the white settlers was their only hope of saving their homes.

Tooantuh took an ember from the fire and ignited the pungent tobacco. His eyes moved upward as he exhaled the smoke and attempted to sort his thoughts. There were so many things to consider. He had led his people in many battles over the years, but nothing could compare to the battle he was contemplating right now. This battle could save his people or utterly destroy them. The injustice of having to fight to keep what had been given to them by the Creator was a crushing weight on his shoulders. The arrogance of these European settlers was beyond compare. He could not conceive how they assumed that it was acceptable to murder innocent people in order to take their lands and homes from them. They came from a place across the a-me-quo-hi; the Great Water, and took by force what was not theirs to take. They had superior weaponry and could fire on the Indians from great distances. Now, though, the Indians had the white man's weapons as well and their strength was more equalized.

He looked long and thoughtfully at Adahy and finally spoke.

"We must use the information from the boy and fight to keep what is ours. This land was given to us at the beginning of the world and we must do everything we can to keep it from the white man. Our mothers and fathers have lived on these lands since the beginning of time. We must not lose this chance to save ourselves from the settlers."

The Medicine Man nodded his agreement, feeling it was not yet time for him to speak. After a brief pause to smoke his pipe, the old man continued.

"We will send six braves to travel to other villages. From those villages, more will be sent out and our braves will continue on to even more villages until all the tribe is informed. We will ask all of them to come here to make plans to meet the white army and do battle with them. Jim says that history tells him that the 7,000 soldiers are nearly all of their army. We can gather far more warriors than that. With our weapons traded by the white men and our own weapons I believe we can overwhelm them and force them to back away from us and leave us to live in peace. Many of us will die, but if our homes and families are not worth dying for then we have no honor."

With that pronouncement he sat back and waited to hear Adahy's response. He didn't have to wait long.

"Many times, I have healed the wounds given to our people by the white man. We have seen our hunting grounds taken and turned into towns and farms. It is getting more and more difficult to feed our people because they have destroyed our hunting grounds. If the boy’s information is correct, I am in agreement with you and we should make a stand here and now. If we can defeat their army here it will show them we mean to stay in the place of our ancestors. We will force their government to recognize us and stay beyond our borders."

Tooantuh was relieved to know he had the support of the Medicine Man. In reality, he didn't doubt Adahy would agree with him, but it was comforting to hear him speak his agreement.

In these early days of the nineteenth century there were more than 17,000 Cherokee living in around fifty villages scattered in the mountains from Carolinas and eastern Tennessee down through north Georgia and northeast Alabama. Six warriors were chosen, five men and one War Woman to travel as fast as possible to each village to request the presence of the Chief in Tooantuh's village in Alabama at a Great Council Fire. In each village other warriors were dispatched to more villages to spread the message in order to contact all the villages in the shortest possible time.

In late 1822 the Cherokee Nation had met in another Great Council and enacted laws to protect the lands that they still controlled. It was no secret that the white Americans' appetite for Indian land was insatiable. It was decided and published that the Council unanimously declared that they would hold no treaties with any United States Commissioner to make any cession of lands, "being resolved not to dispose even one foot of ground" to the white men. They did not have more land than was sufficient for their people and were determined that no more would be taken from them.

The information Jim provided to Tooantuh and Adahy made it clear that soon and very soon the Americans would break yet another in a long list of broken treaties and completely disregard the sovereignty of the Cherokee nation. This would be their last chance to save their ancestral homes and it must not be squandered.

****