In a message dated 1/13/2003 1:40:50 PM Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes: > Great, I am glad then. I don't remember Cherokees being in Texas. I heard > of it, but studying the how and why, etc, no. Of course, this told from > the > Indian perspective. > Carole Beth Chief Bowles took his people down into Texas where he was murdered. He son was also killed there. I will copy and paste the story. Rebecca BOWL (ca. 1756-1839). Chief Bowl (also known as Duwali, Diwal'li, Chief Bowles, Colonel Bowles, Bold Hunter, and the Bowl), the principal chief of the Cherokees in Texas, was born in North Carolina around 1756. He was the son of a Scottish father and a full-blooded Cherokee mother. Duwali was leader of a village at Little Hiwassee (in western North Carolina). In 1791 he signed the Treaty of Holston, and in 1805 he signed an unauthorized cession treaty, a move that proved unpopular with the majority of Cherokees. In early 1810, to access better hunting ground and to escape growing pressures of settlement in the southern states, he and his band moved across the Mississippi River and settled in the St. Francis River valley, near New Madrid, Missouri. In 1812-13 his people moved into northwestern Arkansas, south of the Arkansas River, and in 1819 they once more moved on, stopping briefly in southwestern Arkansas and at the three forks of the Trinity River before settling north of Nacogdoches. In Texas Chief Bowl became the primary "civil" chief or "peace chief" of a council that united several Cherokee villages. In 1822 he sent diplomatic chief Richard Fields to Mexico to negotiate with the Spanish government for a land grant or title to land occupied by Cherokees in East Texas. In 1827 he cooperated with the Mexican government in putting down the Fredonian Rebellion.qv In 1833 he made another attempt to secure from the Mexican government land on the Angelina, Neches, and Trinity rivers, but negotiations were interrupted by political unrest in Texas. In February of 1836 Sam Houstonqv negotiated a treaty with Bowl's council, guaranteeing the tribe possession of lands occupied in East Texas. After the Texas Revolution,qv however, the treaty was invalidated by the Senate of the Republic of Texas.qv In desperation, Bowl briefly allied with agents soliciting allies for a Mexican reinvasion of Texas. Shortly thereafter, President Mirabeau B. Lamarqv ordered him and his people to leave Texas. After negotiations failed, Bowl mobilized his warriors to resist expulsion. On July 16, 1839, Chief Bowl was killed in the battle of the Neches.qv On this site, the scene of the last engagement between the Cherokees and whites in Texas, the state of Texas erected a marker in 1936. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mary Whatley Clarke, Chief Bowles and the Texas Cherokees (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971). Dianna Everett, The Texas Cherokees: A People between Two Fires, 1819-1840 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990). Dorman Winfrey, "Chief Bowles and the Texas Cherokees," Chronicles of Oklahoma 32 (Spring 1954). E. W. Winkler, "The Cherokee Indians in Texas," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 7 (October 1903). Albert Woldert, "The Last of the Cherokees in Texas and the Life and Death of Chief Bowles," Chronicles of Oklahoma 1 (June 1923). The Story of Chief Bowles Duwa'li on the St. Francis River <http://rosecity.net/cherokee/space.gif> The Bowles (Duwa'li, or Chief Bowles), was born in North Carolina about 1756. He was an auburn haired, blue eyed, half blood Scotch Cherokee. <http://rosecity.net/cherokee/space.gif> It is said that settlers from a North Carolina settlement killed Bowles father when Bowls was a young boy and that the vengeful fourteen year old killed his fathers murderers. After that he hated all white people. The Bowl was in the prime of manhood age, thirty two, when he became town Chief of Running Water. One of the five lower towns of Chattanooga Tennessee. This became the rendezvous for many Cherokee chiefs. Bowles being one of them and all of them hating whites. <http://rosecity.net/cherokee/space.gif> In June 1794 they attacked some emigrants who were on their way down the Tennessee River to the western settlement at Mussel Shoals. The boat was loaded with valuable merchandise. William Scott, owner of the boat, was aboard along with five other men, three women, four children, and twenty slaves. As it passed down the Tennessee, the Cherokee attacked it. One hundred and fifty Indians then gathered and pursued the boat to Mussel Shoals, where they took it over. The Reverend Cephas Washburn, an early missionary to the Cherokees, recalled that while the Indians were camped on the river, several boats came down the river and stopped at the head of the Shoals. Scott and Stewart had a supply of goods that they wanted to trade to the Indians. After hearing that the Cherokee had real money they invited them onboard the boat. They gave them as much whiskey as they could drink. The whole time they planed on taking advantage of them after they got drunk. <http://rosecity.net/cherokee/space.gif> The Indians eagerly bought items at a very high price. They did not stop trading until the money was all gone. After sobering up, Bowles and his men realized that they had been duped by the white men. Bowles then took all of the merchandise back and tried to get their money back. Bowles was ordered off the boat. The warriors wanted immediate revenge, but Bowles wanted to settle it peacefully. Taking two of his warriors he tried again, warning the traders that they would fight if the money was not returned. Stewart and Scott attacked the three Indians, killing one. Bowles escaped but soon returned and killed the remaining white men on the boat. They did not harm the women, children or the slaves. <http://rosecity.net/cherokee/space.gif> Afraid of what his tribe would think about the massacre, since the Cherokee Indians were supposed to be abiding by a treaty of amity with the whites, Bowles and his men descended down the Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to the mouth of the St. Francis River in the boats. There they placed all the white women and children in one boat, gave each of the married ladies a female servant, put on board an ample stock of provisions and four strong and able black men and let them descend the Mississippi to New Orleans, the place of their destination. <http://rosecity.net/cherokee/space.gif> Bowles and his men then continued up the St. Francis to await results. The Cherokees in Tennessee went to the government and said they had nothing to do with the killings. They placed the entire blame on Bowles, and said they would help to find and arrest him. When Bowles learned that he was in disfavor of his people, he decided to make his home in Missouri and settled on the St. Francis. In time many more Cherokees joined him. <http://rosecity.net/cherokee/space.gif> After the government investigated the whole massacre they said it was felt that the Cherokees were fully justified in what they did. <http://rosecity.net/cherokee/space.gif> Chief Bowles and his people lived in the valley of the St. Francis in southeast Missouri until 1811. During that year there was a violent earthquake. The ground shook and sank in many places. The Bowles and many of his people thought that the Great Spirit was warning them to move. Many then moved to Arkansas. Other Cherokees began to move to Arkansas and by 1813 about one third of the Eastern tribe was living west of the Mississippi. * History of the Cherokee Indians by Emmet Scott * Cherokee Sunset by Carter * Chief Bowles and the Texas Cherokee by Mary Clark