Archived Letter

Cherokee East to Cherokee West

This is a letter from members of the Cherokee Nation East to the Cherokee Nation West, concerning the Western Cherokees’ selling or giving up land to the United States government. The Eastern Cherokees writing the letter do not at all approve of this transaction and warn the Western Cherokees that if they are not represented in the settlement process of the land they will take up the matter with the State Senators. I found this letter particularly interesting for several reasons. Firstly, the language is very formal and sounds like it could have come from a state governor rather than a nation that had adopted English as a second language and had tried to integrate itself into American culture by claiming rights as a sovereign nation. The letter follows a certain form which, as described in the "History Matters" article, allows it to explain its purpose as a letter of business and maintain a certain standard of letter writing. This formality and form belie the intensity of the issues the authors are speaking of; comments like “talk with each other as we did before our nation was subjugated and over run by the States of Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee” seem very calm and staid, considering the writers are discussing the violent takeover of their land. It is clearly not a personal letter, and through the proper American letter format we see evidence of their Cherokee culture, such as “the country given to them by the Great Spirit for a permanent home.” However, the ideas of homelessness and houselessness addressed in the letter underscore the mixing of traditional Cherokee values and the American influence.

This letter is also interesting because it shows how the Cherokee regarded themselves within the United States political system: subjugated, perhaps, but entitled to rights such as being able to buy and sell their own land, having a say in treaty ratification through the U.S. Senate, and even using the newly constructed railroad and telegraph system. We know from history that the Cherokee were eventually pushed out of their lands by President Andrew Jackson, and though they sought redress through legal means and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in their favor, Jackson still forcibly removed them from their land, despite their entrance into American culture, as evinced by this letter. The letter represents a kind of snapshot at a very particular time in U.S. and Cherokee history, when the Cherokee were well educated enough to send this type of letter, but before they were pushed out of the Southeast. The Cherokee do not see themselves as victims of a racialized conception of themselves, but rather wronged parties in a legal settlement between two governments.

Finally, this letter interests me because the situation of American Indians, politically, socially, culturally, etc., really interests me because of the plight of those who lived in this country before Europeans came and the way in which the United States treated them, and continues to treat them today. Their situation is unique in that they did not come to America, but rather the label America was forced upon their land by outsiders. This letter is a very interesting view of U.S.—Cherokee relations and shows us much about both groups.