Source:CherokeeWaChi. Cherokee Rulers

From: CherokeeWaChi
Subject: CHEROKEE RULERS
Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2003 14:23:38 EST

ANCIENT CHEROKEE RULERS

So much ignorance has prevailed among the Cherokee people since about the time of the written Constitution in 1827, and the removal a few years later, that in all our research we have never come across a listing of the ancient Cherokee kings, called "Oukah". When there were three nations in one, that is until they were all joined together BY the written Constitution, each nation had its own Oukah, and some of them probably never even got mentioned in the history books or the annals of the states that finally surrounded the Cherokee Nation east of the Mississippi.

Since 1827, the names of the elected Principal Chiefs, and secondary chiefs, were recorded, but a listing of them is difficult to come by, and some are not correct. We will try to list here, for your information, what we have. It will obviously be corrected, changed, amended, etc. in the future.

1730 - 1741 MOYTOY

1741 - 1752 Ammonscossittee (illegally)

1741 - 1760 OLD HOP (Connecorte). Died. Jan.-Mar. 1760

Lower Nation: Wawhatchee 1755 - ?

1760 - 1763 STANDING TURKEY (Kanagataucka) (Kanagata Oukah?)

1763 - 1788 OLD TASSEL (Onitositali) (murdered, July 1788)

Oconostota (Great Warrior) died 1783

Attakullakulla (Great Diplomat) died 1777

1788 - 1804 LITTLE TURKEY Southern Division: The Badger

? - 1795 HANGING MAW (Scolacutta)(beloved man, Upper division) (died 1795)

1804 - 1808 BLACK FOX (Broken in 1808)

1808 - 1810 PATHKILLER (temporarily installed)

1810 - 1811 BLACK FOX (restored)

1811 - 1827 PATHKILLER

After Pathkiller, Charles Renatus Hicks was to reign as king, but he was ill at the time and never took office. His younger brother, William, served as interim ruler until the Constitution was finished. William was never considered for anything thereafter, having proved to be too friendly with the Georgians.

Ammonscossittee was the son of Moytoy, who ruled at Echota, the capital city of the Upper or Overhill Cherokees. Moytoy was created Emperor as well as Oukah. The British colonies on the east coast, thinking in the European system of heredity, naturally thought that Ammonscossittee would be the next king, and considered him that. It was not the Cherokee way, however, and did not long prevail.

Pathkiller was the last reigning Oukah and Emperor. However, William Shorey Coodey (Dayunita) was next in line, and the office was never abolished, nor were any of the old Cherokee ways abolished, due to what is called the "Whitepath rebellion" , the purpose of which was to preserve the old Cherokee ways.

The Cherokee Constitution went into effect in 1828. It was supposed to prove to the white outsiders that the Cherokees were "civilized", had a government equal to their own (in fact, taken after their own), and give Cherokees the respect due one government to another. Unfortunately, due to the State of Georgia, and the attitude of Andrew Jackson, President of the USofA, it produced quite the opposite effect.

In the Cherokee Constitution the Cherokee Nation is simply called a government -- it was not described as a republic or a democracy or any other descriptive word. In the minds of the militants and educatedd fullbloods perhaps it was still to be thought of as a kingdom, just one more mental adjustment from the time, two thousand years ago, that the Ani-Tsalagi (Cherokee people) migrated from their ancient homeland to more northern climes.

From: CherokeeWaChi@aol.com
Subject: Chiefs of the Arkansas Cherokees
Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2003 14:24:28 EST

CHIEFS OF THE ARKANSAS CHEROKEES

After some moved west

John Bowles 1795 - 1813

Takatoka 1813 - 1818

John Jolly 1818 - 1828

John Brown (1st Chief, Old Settlers)

John Looney (2nd Chief, Old Settlers)

John Rogers (3rd Chief, Old Settlers) (deposed 1839)

We would like to point out that these (mostly self-important and ambitious) Cherokees proved, for the most part, to be a thorn in the flesh to the Cherokees who remained in the east. And, even after the Trail of Tears they refused to give in to the will of the majority, and became traitors to their own people.

Mr. Bell writes in his book "Old & New Cherokee Families", page 555:

1794. June. Bowles Massacre.

1795. Bowles became Principal Chief of Arkansas Cherokees until 1813.

1818. Tahlonteeskee became Principal Chief.

1834. July 16. Arkansas chiefs were:

1. John Jolly

2. Blackcoat

3. Thomas Chisholm (born 1790: died Nov. 12, 1834)

1839. Principal Chief: John Rogers, Jr.

Second Chief: John Smith

Third Chief: Captain William Dutch.

You will note that these listings do not agree.

PRINCIPAL CHIEFS OF THE CHEROKEE NATION AFTER THE TRAIL OF TEARS

PRINCIPLE CHIEFS Vice Principal Chiefs

1839 Sept. 9. JOHN ROSS Joseph Vann, (resigned June 26,1840) Andrew M. Vann (June 26, 1840 until his death in 1842)

1843 Aug. 7. JOHN ROSS George Lowrey

1847 Aug. 2. JOHN ROSS George Lowrey

1851 Aug. 4. JOHN ROSS Richard Taylor

1855 Aug. 6. JOHN ROSS John "Jack" Spears

1859 Aug. 1. JOHN ROSS Joseph Vann

1863 (Civil War) JOHN ROSS (continued), but died Aug. 1, 1866

1866 August until August, 1867. WILLIAM POTTER ROSS (elected by the national council)

1867 Aug. 5. LEWIS DOWNING James Vann

1871 Aug. 7. LEWIS DOWNING Robert Buffington Daniel (died Nov. 9, 1872) (died Jan. 16, 1872) (James Vann, elected by council)

1872 Nov. 9 WILLIAM POTTER ROSS James Vann (both were elected by the National Council to fulfill the terms)

1875 Aug. 2. CHARLES THOMPSON David Rowe

1879 Aug. 4. DENNIS WOLF BUSHYHEAD Wm. Penn Adair (died Oct. 21, 1880) Rabbit Bunch (elected by Council)

1883 Aug. 6. DENNIS WOLF BUSHYHEAD Rabbit Bunch

1887 Aug. 1. JOEL BRYAN MAYES Samuel Smith

1891 Aug. 3. JOEL BRYAN MAYES Henry Chambers (died Dec. 14, 1891) (died Dec. 10, 1891)

1891 Dec. 14 - Dec. 23 THOMAS MITCHELL BUFFINGTON (President of the Senate, became acting chief)

1891 Dec. 24 JOHNSON HARRIS Stephen Tehee (National council elected both)

1895 Aug. 5. SAMUEL HOUSTON MAYES George Washington Swimmer

1899 Aug. 7. THOMAS MITCHELL BUFFINGTON George Washington Swimmer

1903 Aug. 3. WILLIAM CHARLES ROGERS David McNair Faulkner

1906 Cherokee government suspended by the USofA federal government.

1914 WILLIAM CHARLES ROGERS, Acting Principal Chief, died.

1941 J. BARTLEY MILAM (appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt)

1949. WILLIAM WAYNE KEELER. J. D. Johnson (Deputy Chief) (all appointed illegally Vice Chiefs: Bruce Townsend by President Harry Truman), Rev. Sam Hider,Richard Chuculate, Robert W. Swimmer

1971. WILLIAM WAYNE KEELER (first elections of the 20th century, ordered by the Supreme Court, after the lawsuit which the present Oukah inspired, actually filed by The Original Cherokee Organization, under George Groundhog).

1975. Some people of Cherokee blood, knowing little of Cherokee history, lore, culture, or legal status, formed the "Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma". They are called, in several history books, "white businessmen" who did for themselves and their friends, and little, if anything, for the Cherokee people.

1975. ROSS SWIMMER

1979. ROSS SWIMMER

1983. ROSS SWIMMER Wilma Mankiller (resigned, Dec. 1985, to go to WashDC)

1985. Dec. WILMA MANKILLER

1991. WILMA MANKILLER

1995. JOE BYRD Garland Eagle

You will notice that the early information above is from the white man's records. Unfortunately, nobody recorded the names of the rulers before the white man came with his ability to write. Before this time, Cherokee records were kept on "belts" of wampum beads, various symbols being woven in which reminded the "reader" of the story. Several of those belts survive today, having been borrowed from members of the Oukah's family, but nobody today knows how to "read" them.

Link to the Cherokee Heritage Project Page