Sam Houston had a diverse relationship with Native Americans, particularly the Cherokee from Tennessee. He was an adopted son, and he was a negotiator, strategist, and creator of fair public policy for Native Americans as a legislator, governor and president of the Republic of Texas. He left his widowed mother's home around 1808 and was taken in by John Jolly, a leader of the Cherokee. Houston lived in Jolly's village for three years. He adopted Cherokee customs and traditions, which stressed the importance of being honest and fair, and he learned to speak the Cherokee language. He felt that Cherokees and other indigenous people had been short-changed during negotiation of treaties with United States government, the realization influenced his decisions as a military officer, treaty negotiator, and in his roles as governor of the states of Tennessee and Texas, and president of the Republic of Texas.
Houston was a protégé of Andrew Jackson. He fought alongside the Cherokee against the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814), where he was injured. In 1817 and 1818, he negotiated and administered treaties that moved Cherokee people southwest to the Arkansas Territory. He practiced law for around ten years, was elected a congressman from Tennessee, and later was elected governor of the state. In 1829, Houston had a short-lived marriage with Eliza Allen. In April of that year, he resigned from his position as the governor of Tennessee. He returned to the Cherokee who were removed from Tennessee to the Indian Territory, based upon a treaty of 1828 (Treaty of Limits between Mexico and the United States). He became a legal citizen of the Cherokee Nation and lived like tribal members. He was an emissary to negotiate on the Cherokee's behalf with the United States government and other Native American tribes. He identified corrupt Indian agents and pressed for valid titles to the Cherokee's new lands in present-day Oklahoma. Houston married Diana Rogers Gentry according to Cherokee law in 1830, although he was still legally married to Eliza Allen under United States law. Houston and Diana operated a trading post at Wigwam Neosho near Fort Gibson, in what is now Oklahoma. He accepted a position to negotiate with the Comanche tribe in Texas in 1832.
The Alabama–Coushatta Tribe were among Houston's allies during the Texas Revolution. In 1836, the tribe provided provisions for Texans who fled Antonio López de Santa Anna's army during the Runaway Scrape, and they were also guides for Houston's army. Houston negotiated a treaty, called the Cherokee Indian Treaty of February 23, 1836 (Treaty of Bowles Village with the Republic of Texas), for the tribe to obtain land between the Sabine and Neches Rivers. With the westward expansion of the United States, Native American tribes were pushed west. As president of the Republic of Texas, Houston developed policies to provide trading opportunities, safety, and peace for Native Americans. Throughout the last years of his presidency, Houston asserted the right of Native Americans to own land. In 1854, during his term as a senator from Texas, Houston helped negotiate for creation of the Alabama–Coushatta Indian Reservation. Houston became governor of Texas when the country was moving towards civil war. While those around him wanted Texas to separate from the Union, Houston believed that course would end badly for the South. Texas seceded from the Union and all the state government officials but Houston took an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy. As a result, he was removed from office. He was able, though, to get the Confederate States War Department to discharge all draftees from the Alabama-Coushatta tribe, who had distanced themselves completely from the conflict.
Life with the Cherokees Early life
Sam Houston was born in Virginia. His father Samuel Davidson Houston, an American Revolutionary War veteran, died in 1806, when Houston was eleven. Two years later, his mother Elizabeth Blair Paxton Houston (1757–1831) moved the family of nine children to the wilderness of Blount County, Tennessee. They settled from Maryville on a tract along Baker's Creek that his father purchased before his death. The Houstons cleared the land, built a cabin, and opened a store. He hated taking orders from his brothers, at the farm and the store. Bored by his chores, Houston retreated for hours into the woods, where he sometimes ran into Cherokee people, whom he found peaceful and friendly. The farm was near the Tennessee border with the Cherokee Nation, whose members often traded at the Houstons' store. The Cherokee were one of the Five Civilized Tribes.
Houston attended Porter Academy, Blount County's first school, of which his two older brothers, James and John, were trustees. Houston disliked school. The only coursework that interested him was Latin, but the headmaster at the academy refused his request to be taught the language. Houston preferred reading books from his deceased father's library, especially the Greek classics, and other books that taught him about faraway lands and other historical periods.
According to Texas historian James L. Haley, Houston also preferred the "free and unsophisticated spiritual expression of the Native Americans" over the stern church sermons of damnation and hell. In 1809, he crossed the Tennessee River to live with the Cherokees along the banks of the Hiwassee River on Hiwassee Island, which was about 90 miles southwest of the Houstons' home. Sent to look for him, John and James found Houston at John Jolly's home. When his brothers asked him to return to the family, Houston told them that he preferred to live among the Cherokee people, which he did for three years. The tribe was led by Jolly (also known as Ahuludegi or Oolooteka), who emphasized the importance of fairness and honesty. The Indian agent of the Cherokee in southeastern Tennessee, Return J. Meigs, stated that Jolly's house was "one of the largest... finest homes in the South." Houston considered Jolly his "Indian Father", and regarded the Cherokees as his family. Jolly adopted him and gave him the Cherokee name Colonneh, meaning "the Raven," which in Cherokee lore fights an evil spirit to save the Corn Spirit, thereby ensuring a bountiful harvest. Houston wore their clothing, spoke the Cherokee language, danced with them, and played their ball games. He hunted wild game with the Cherokee boys and wandered along woodland streams with the girls. According to William Carey Crane and James L. Haley, these experiences helped shape his character and gave him skills that aided him while serving in the military and as a leader.
Houston visited his family in Maryville occasionally, when his clothing needed mending or he needed money. While he was away from home, he corresponded with his cousins, inquiring after his younger brother William's welfare, and showing affectionate concern for his sisters. He acquired a reputation for drinking too much liquor and he purchased gifts for tribal members on credit, which created mounting debt. As a result, he took a job clerking at a store in Kingston, thirty miles west of Maryville. Houston returned to Maryville in 1812, and at 19 he opened a school in a one-room schoolhouse a few miles to the north. He charged tuition of eight dollars per term, payable in cash, cotton cloth, and corn. His venture was successful, and he later recalled that he "experienced a higher feeling of dignity and self-satisfaction than from any other office or honor which I have held." Finding himself again facing debts, in March, 1813, he enlisted in the United States Army. He was appointed a sergeant the same day. Houston fought in the Creek War where he led the charge against the Creek. He rose through the ranks and he developed what would be a life-long relationship with Andrew Jackson. He fought alongside the Cherokee during the War of 1812 at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814. Houston was badly hurt when an arrow was shot into his upper thigh. He was not expected to live through the night, but he recovered enough to return home. He was promoted to first lieutenant under Jackson in May 1817.
Resettlement to Arkansas Territory (1818)
As whites settled in the western frontier, political pressure mounted to remove Native Americans from the Southern United States to land west of the Mississippi River, as proposed in 1803 (the year of the Louisiana Purchase) by Thomas Jefferson. A delegation of Cherokee people visited the western lands in 1809. By 1816, Jackson wanted all Cherokee to move west and he thought that Houston could help make this happen. In 1817, after a treaty was negotiated with the Cherokee, Jackson appointed Houston as a sub-agent to administer the treaty because he could speak the Cherokee language and knew many of the people that were to be moved. Houston believed that the removal of Cherokee from East Tennessee was inevitable, and he felt that the Cherokee were moving to a place where they could live in peace. He was known among the Cherokee as the Great Chief of the whites.
In February 1818, Houston was strongly reprimanded by Secretary of War John C. Calhoun after he wore Native American dress to a meeting between Calhoun and Cherokee leaders, beginning an enmity that lasted until Calhoun's death in 1850. Houston believed that the clothing he had worn showed respect for the Native American delegation, but Calhoun felt that it was unbecoming of an officer in the Army. Houston was also charged, and later cleared, of involvement in an illegal slavery ring. Angry over the incident with Calhoun and an investigation into his activities, Houston resigned from the army in 1818.
Houston continued to act as a government liaison with the Cherokee. The treaty he negotiated in 1818 stipulated that tribal members should get the same amount of land that they had in Tennessee. They were to have free navigation of the waterways, all head rights for their land, and receive money to make necessary improvements. Governor Joseph McMinn and Calhoun decided that it was important to ensure the success of the treaties and they bribed Tahlonteeskee, who received $1,000 () while other delegates received $500 in bribes. It is unknown whether Houston was aware of the arrangement. Unlike the later Trail of Tears, there was no forced removal of the Cherokee. Their removal was well-organized, with much of the travel on river boats. Once they arrived, though, they learned that they had been given land that had been Osage and Quapaw hunting grounds.
Reunited in 1829 Arrival After receiving his law license and practicing law in Tennessee beginning in 1819, Houston was elected a congressman in 1823, chosen for the position by Jackson. In October 1827, he took the oath as the governor of Tennessee. In January 1829, Houston married Eliza Allen, the daughter of wealthy plantation owner John Allen of Gallatin, Tennessee; their marriage quickly fell apart, and in April 1829, Houston resigned as governor. Shortly after leaving office, he traveled west to rejoin the Cherokee, and reunited with Jolly's tribe in mid-1829.
After a calamitous journey, Houston disembarked from the steamboat into a clearing that was lit by torches carried by Jolly's slaves. The chief had been notified that Houston was on board and he came to meet him and take him two miles back to his home.
The old chief threw his arms around him and embraced him with great affection. He said,
Seeking refuge from white society, Houston went to the lodge of Jolly to live among the people who gave him the happiest time of his life. In a letter dated May 11, 1829, to Jackson, he described himself as a man in "the darkest, direst hour of human misery" after his failed marriage. For his excessive drinking, he was nicknamed "Big Drunk".
Cherokee leaders