"Commendable Progress": Acculturation at the Cherokee Female Seminary

Abstract

PRIOR TO THEIR REMOVAL, the Cherokees' domain east of the Mississippi River included northern Alabama, northwestern Georgia, western North Carolina, and eastern Tennessee. From their association with white Americans, the Cherokees had adopted churches, asylums, schools, and farms of ten to forty acres per family, on which they cultivated corn, cotton, rye, and wheat. Most lived in well-built cabins with chimneys, while a growing class of wealthy planters maintained plantation-style estates and slaves. The Cherokees also took other ideas from the whites, including their form of government, the institution of slavery, the concept of a written language, and the desire to educate their people. In 1828, however, gold was discovered on Cherokee lands in Georgia, and the resulting gold rush brought many non-Indians onto Cherokee lands. Along with this encroachment came the inevitable Treaty of New Echota in 1835, which required the Cherokees to surrender their lands. Despite their adoption of white ways, the Cherokees still lost their homeland to a government which earlier had guaranteed the lands to them forever.' After their removal to the west, the Cherokees pursued their goals of creating an Indian Republic, complete with a constitution modeled in part on the Constitution of the United States. They also brought their tribal alphabet, invented by the brilliant Sequoyah, and their newspaper, The Cherokee Phoenix (renamed The Cherokee Advocate in 1844). More importantly, they nurtured a determination to survive as a tribe after displacement from their native lands.2 Intermarriage with whites was a primary factor influencing the Cherokees' desire for cultural and educational advancement. More than any other tribe in North America, the Cherokees had married and associated with white settlers, thereby acquiring customs and viewpoints other than their own. Such acculturation was exemplified by John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1827 until his death in 1866. Ross was only one-eighth Cherokee, but his predominantly white ancestry proved relatively insignificant as he became an effective spokesman for the rights and welfare of the Cherokee people.3 Even before their arrival in Indian Territory, the Cherokees had manifested an interest in formal education. In 1799 John Barber Davis