General Notes

Baptist minister. He was a leader of one of the parties traversing the
Trail of Tears to Indian Territory in 1839. Grandson of John Stuart, a
British officer who later became an Indian Superintendent. Information
taken from an article on Dennis Wolfe Bushyhead written by H. Craig
Miner. The article is in the book "American Indian Leaders" edited by R.
David Edmunds, University of Nebraska Press, 1980.
Information from Jim Harris of Chelsea, Oklahoma (August 1989).
A series of "broken peace pipes" brought the Bushyhead name into
prominence during following generations - a period of unhonored treaties,
exploitation, land grabbing, and finally the forced exile of an entire
people. The Removal Act of 1830, signed by President Andrew Jackson
argued that "no state could achieve proper culture, civilization, and
progress, as long as Indians remained within its boundaries". Jackson
ordered that the Five Civilized Tribes, the Cherokees, Creek, Choctaws,
Chickasaws and Seminoles, must move from the southern states to the
Indian Territory, now known as Oklahoma - a word that means "red people".
It was solemnly sworn in a "permanent treaty" to be the Indian's Promised
Land "for as long as grass grows and water flows" - which turned out to
mean until the white man wanted more land.
The Cherokees, about 16,000 in number, put up the greatest resistance and
were the last to be evicted. They were not nomads, as were many other
tribes. They loved their native hills and valleys, streams and forests,
fields and herds. They enjoyed established houses and communities, and
had learned to "talk on paper" like the white man. Many had accepted the
white man's God, and they had translated the Bible into Cherokee
language. The Jessee Bushyhead's contingent on the Trail of Tears was
detached on September 3, 1838
and arrived February 27, 1839. Of the 950 departing 898 arrived, there
were 6 births,
38 deaths, 148 desertions, and 171 accessions.
********************************
The Eastern Band of the Cherokees, p14;
"Jesse Bushyhead had been baptized [c1823] by an American Board minister
and started
his own congregation at Amohee, where he became acquainted with the
Valley Town mission.
Cherokees had adopted a constitution asserting that they were a sovereign
and free nation, and consequently were recognized by world powers.
A treaty with the United States preserved rights to their homeland in
parts of Tennessee and Georgia, but when gold was discovered in Georgia,
the state's proclamation that "all laws, orders, and regulations of any
kind made with the Cherokee Indians are declared null and void" resulted
in a horrendous land-grab and then in a death march which is one of the
saddest and most disturbing events in America's so called manifest
destiny. "One fourth of the Cherokees perished as they were first herded
into stockades and then "set toward the setting sun" in cold, hunger,
illness, and in complete desolation.
The Army commanded some of 13 separate groups, while others were hired
out to contractors who were paid $65 by the Government for food and
medicines for each person in their care - money that was often not used
for its intended purpose. Two of the detachments traveled by river while
the others made their miserable way by land across Tennessee, Kentucky,
Illinois and Missouri. One detachment was led by the Rev. Jesse
Bushyhead, a grandson of the Scot captain and his Cherokee wife. Young
Jesse had been brought up within the culture of the Indians but at the
same time subjected to the white man's civilization. He attended mission
schools and then a theological seminary, where he was ordained a Baptist
minister and served his own people as a missionary. He was also a gifted
interpreter and became a leader among the Cherokees in their struggle
against the white man's intrusion.
In late 1838, the Rev. Bushyhead gathered his family and follow