("Pomp and Circumstance March" plays in the background)
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 educated 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.
CHIEFS & RULERS
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.
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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.