Arkansas Cherokee displaying Osage scalps to a missionary, courtesy of UALR Archives and Special Collections
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The Arkansas region was so devoid of population at the time of the Louisiana Purchase that it was regarded as the "Congo of America." This was partly the result of the failure of colonialism, partly the result of the devastation of local tribes by European diseases, and partly because the dense swamps and impenetrable canebrakes along the Mississippi River barred land access from the east. Immigration by families required a passable road and Arkansas would not get one until halfway through the second decade of the 19th century.
So wild was the region that Jefferson and the presidents that followed came to view it as a potential resettlement site for eastern tribes facing white encroachment. There were flaws in this Indian policy, most notably the American reluctance to grant Indians the same political, legal, and property rights as whites. Given what would follow, the policy was relatively enlightened for its time, however, and the government did manage to entice hundreds, perhaps thousands of Indians, mostly Cherokee, to relocate to Arkansas.
Initially this immigration came from the hunter factions of the Cherokee under Chief Tahlunteskee. While this group sought to follow the "old ways," it was by no means primitive. In fact its members were scarcely distinguishable in their material culture from the white hunters that inhabited Arkansas at the time. 1817 brought a second wave of Cherokee immigration, spurred by a treaty that offered incentives to relocate in Arkansas. These were primarily mission-educated farmers, ranchers, and tradesmen headed by Chief John Jolly, a group virtually identical to the white pioneer families that were beginning to stream into Arkansas.
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"Room enough…to the 1,000th and 10,000th generation"
President Thomas Jefferson, 1803
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For more about "Arkansas Indians," see the Spring 1988 issue of the Arkansas News.
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