The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 1, July 1897 - April, 1898 Page: 38

38 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.

THE EXPULSION OF THE CHEROKEES FROM EAST
TEXAS.
JOHN H. REAGAN.
In the first half of the year 1839 the Cherokee Indians occupied
that part of Texas which is bounded on the east by the Angelina
river, on the west by the Neches river, on the south by the old San
Antonio road, and on the north by the Sabine river. What is now
Cherokee and Smith counties covers substantially the same terri-
tory. At that time, the Shawnee Indians occupied what is now
Rusk county, their principal village being near where the town of
Henderson is now situated. The Delaware Indians then lived in
the eastern part of what is now Henderson county. Less than two
years before that time, the Kickapoo Indians lived in the north-
eastern part of what is now Anderson county; and in a hotly con-
tested battle between them and their Mexican allies and the Texans,
they were defeated and driven from that part of the county. The
whites charged the Cherokees with stealing their horses and with
an occasional murder of white people. This their Chief Bowles
denied; and alleged that the thefts and murders were committed by
wild Indians, who came through his country. But in 1838 the
Cherokees murdered the families of the Killoughs and Wilhouses,
several in number, and broke up the settlement of whites in the
vicinity of Neches Saline, now the northwest part of Cherokee
county. There was no question about these murders being com-
mitted by the Cherokees, and that Dog Shoot, one of their head
men, led in this massacre. Complaints of thefts and murders by
the Cherokees became so numerous, and were so authenticated, as
to cause the President of the Republic, General M. B. Lamar, to
send a communication to Chief Bowles, through the Indian agent,
Martin Lacy, Esq., making certain recitals evidencing hostility to
the white people. Among the facts so recited, as- I remember them,
one was that in the year 1836, when the people of Texas were re-
treating from their homes before the advancing army of the Mexi-
can general, Santa Anna, that he, Chief Bowles, assembled his war-
riors on the San Antonio road, east of the Neches, for the purpose