Elias Boudinot

From NativeWiki

Elias Boudinot (1800–1839), Cherokee, started and edited the tribe's first newspaper. He was born in 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. Elias was the first editor of the first Indian newspaper in the country, called "The Cherokee Phoenix." He was a missionary who translated the New Testament Bible and hymns into Cherokee with the help of missionary friend, Samuel A. Worcester.

Boudinot was part of a prominent Cherokee family, the 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 Sequoyahs 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. Whites 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 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.

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, despite the fact that the tribe was almost entirely united behind the leadership of John Ross, who opposed any such treaty. The treaty was nonetheless ratified by Congress, and the Cherokee were removed to the West in the horrendous conditions now known as the "Trail of Tears". The treaty faction had avoided these conditions by leaving early and acquiring extra funds for their journey.

Elias Boudinot, Major Ridge and John Ridge were assassinated in 1839 by members of the Ross faction. 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 deaths cleared the way for the Ross people to step in.

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.

Secondary Sources

• The Murder of Elias Boudinot, Allen Ross, in the Chronicles of Oklahoma 12, No. 1.
• 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.