The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 7, July 1903 - April, 1904 Page: 145
xvi, 340 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Cherokee Indians in Texas.
Even the people of eastern Texas did not rally to the standard
of the Fredonians with the spontaneity one might expect from the
part some of them had already taken in the affair. When the
crisis approached, without assistance from the United States or
from Austin's colony, they yielded to the offers of the Mexican
agents-notably Colonel Bean.1
The Indians, thus, constituted the last and only hope for success
of the small body of determined Fredonians. Hunter and Fields,
after the conclusion of the treaty, immediately returned to the
Cherokee village for the purpose of securing its ratification by the
various tribes which they represented. Here great and unexpected
obstacles presented themselves. Many of the warriors were absent.
The Kickapoos, one of the strongest and most warlike of the asso-
ciated tribes, cherished sentiments of deadly hostility toward the
whole white population and could not be brought into the league.
After a week's negotiating, only thirty Cherokee warriors volun-
teered, and half of these deserted Hunter when they arrived at
Nacogdoches and found the Fredonians engaged in a drunken
brawl.2
However, the factor that was of greatest importance in creating
Indian disaffection was the Mexican agent. The Mexican author-
ities plainly foresaw that the Indians were most to be feared,
that the rebellion depended upon their aid for success; and they
did not hesitate about the means to be employed for detaching
them. Peter Ellis Bean3 busied himself with securing the alliance
'P. E. Bean to S. F. Austin, December 28, 1826. Austin Papers.
Quoted on p. 146 below.
Two years later the governor of Coahuila and Texas in a letter to the
minister of relations, dated March 18, 1828, said of these colonists: "The
inhabitants de los Ays have rendered very important services to the Gov-
ermnent by making open declaration against the revolutionists in Nacog-
doches raised by Hayden Edwards and associates in December 1826, with
whose assistance that nefarious assemblage was completely routed and
broken up and good order restored in that section of the State." Emrpe-
sario Contracts, 330. Translation.
2Foote, Teioas adcZ the Temcans, I 256, 257.
8Bean went to Mexico in June, 1825, and while there received a colonel's
commission in the Mexican army. He returned in the fall of 1826, reach-
ing San Antonio about the end of November and San Felipe December
15th, just in time to take part in putting down the Fredonian affair.145
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 7, July 1903 - April, 1904, periodical, 1904; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101030/m1/149/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.