Cherokee Arts & Humanities Council - Latest Images

Lacy Christie

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 02:30:02 -0500

Wakigu Dalasini (sometimes spelled Talasini) ca. 1797-1865

Lacy took the surname of his mixed blood wife, Betsy Christie. They left on the Trail of Tears, Betsy dying around Nashville, TN. Lacy came on with his children. He never remarried. He was the father of Watt Chrisite, grandfather of Ned Christie.

Watt Christie

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 02:23:10 -0500

Wade Wakigu - 1817-1902

He came on the Trail of Tears. He was married to 5 women, and had from 21 to 27 children with them. Among his children were Ned Christie, Goback and Jim Christie. He was a blacksmith, and served in the National Council for several years representing the Goingsnake District of the Cherokee Nation. A son of Lacy and Betsy Christie. He filed an application for allotment, but died prior to receiving one. He is sometimes confused with Watt "Smith" Christie, his cousin.

Zeke Proctor

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 02:11:55 -0500

(1831-1907) April 15, 1872.
On this date in the district court in Goingsnake District, Cherokee Nation, during session there occured a gunfight. The aftermath was nine men dead and several numbers wounded. The event has been dubed the Goingsnake Massacre, "the Tragedy at Goingsnake" or the "Proctor-Beck Fight."
The fight was a result of attempts of a United States marshal from Fort Smith and his posse to arrest and take to the courts in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Zeke Proctor. Zeke was on trial for the killing of Polly Kesterson.

He was granted amnesty by President Grant. He went on to be a member of the C.N. Council and a Sheriff.

Bushyhead, Edward W.

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:59:26 -0500

Bushyhead went to California during the gold rush remained there and became a well-known and honored citizen whose history is recalled at intervals in newspaper stories published about him in his adopted state. Edward W. Bushyhead and John Rollin Ridge joined the gold-seekers in 1850, going to California.

Edward Wilkerson Bushyhead, born in Cleveland, Tennessee, March 2, 1832,¹ was the son of the Rev. Jesse Bushyhead and Eliza Wilkerson Bushyhead. He was only seven years old when the Cherokees were ruthlessly forced from their comfortable homes in Georgia by white people who were determined to possess themselves of the land of the Indians. Jesse Bushyhead, one of the best-loved and most highly respected men of his nation, led a party of one thousand of his people into the wilderness; this journey was one of terrible hardships, not the least being a delay of one month on the east bank of the Mississippi River, where the ice running madly, prevented the outcasts from proceeding on their way. When the western side of the river was reached a sister was born to young "Ned" Bushyhead and from the place of her birth she was named Missouri, preceded by Eliza in honor of her mother.²

¹History of San Diego County . . . Lewis Publishing Company (Chicago, 1890), p. 273.

Ostenaco, Great Warrior

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:46:50 -0500

Sometimes spelled Austenaco, Great Warrior, 1762, a Red Chief.

Ostenaco (Ustanakwa, or "Big Head"), who preferred to go by the warrior's title he earned at any early age, "Mankiller" (Utsidihi), also known as Judd's Friend, who lived c. 1703 – 1780, ^[1] was the Warrior (skiagusta) of the Cherokee town Tomotley, residing previously in Great Tellico and probably born in Great Hiwassee, finally migrating in the town of Ultiwa on Ooltewah Creek (in the modern Hamilton County, Tennessee) during the Chickamauga wars. He was known as a great orator and a leading figure in diplomacy with British colonial authorities. (See additional image in this collection)

Cherokees with Col. Bouquet

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:35:29 -0500

Cherokee Indians with Col. Bouquet, 1764

This image is found in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division online database.

Elias Boudinot

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:31:09 -0500

(1802–June 22, 1839) He was born in Oothcaloga, Cherokee Nation (now Calhoun, Georgia) and named Gallegina Watie (also known as "Buck" Watie or Buck Oowatie). He edited the Cherokee Phoenix in New Echota.

He took the name "Elias Boudinot" after the man who paid for his education. He was a member of the Treaty Party. He was executed near Park Hill, Cherokee Nation.

TaChee, The Dutch

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:38:04 -0500

TaChee or sometimes Tu-chee, A Cherokee Red Chief

George Catlin painting

Oconostota

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:26:54 -0500

Cunne Shote (painting title), portrait of Cherokee leader Standing Turkey, by Francis Parsons (English, ?-1804), 1762, oil on canvas, Gilcrease Museum, 0176.1015

Oconostota or Standing Turkey, A Cherokee Band Chief.

Stand Watie

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:19:15 -0500

1806-1871 - Watie was a leader of the Cherokee Nation and a brigadier general of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was a member of the group that signed the Treaty of New Echota. Members of what would later become known as the National Party attempted to execute Stand Watie, his brother Elias Boudinot, Major Ridge, and John Ridge along with several other Treaty Party men and, of the men upon whom attempts were actually made on 22 June 1839, only Stand Watie managed to escape alive with an early warning of what was happening. He spent the rest of his life with body guards. The executions were legal under Cherokee law; which allowed for the execution of any persons who ceded Cherokee lands. Land was held in common.

Principal Chief John Ross

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:08:19 -0500

Ross served as Principal Chief longer than any other. He was of Scottish and Cherokee ancestry, but was known as Cherokee by the people primarily because he had a Clan through his mother.

Goback Christie

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:03:26 -0500

Cherokee craftsman, Goback Christie, at the well he dug and built the surround for, is with a chair he built, in the ca. 1950. He was a medicine man, a furniture maker, a wood worker. He owned a steam driven saw mill pictured in one of the Posse pictures of those who killed his brother, Ned Christie in 1892. Goback was a Mason.

Ned Christie

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:42:43 -0500

The mystery of Ned Christie runs throughout the Cherokee Nation. Time has erased much of the details of history and intermeshed fact and fiction. It has been over one hundred years since Ned was assinated by the United States in the Cherokee Nation. But, stories of his supernatural being circulate among his people. His ability to shape-change into birds and other animals are intricate parts of stories told about him.

His legend is alive at Stomp Grounds, in Cherokee homes, in books, and almost any where the Cherokee people gather and stories might be exchanged. His life outgrew the "outlaw" image the white people gave him, and gave the Cherokee people a warrior to be proud of, a man they and his family greatly admire and love.

His acts of bravery, his selfless fight for sovereignty for the Cherokee Nation, his battle in a war with the United States that ended in his death, gave the Cherokee a true hero. His family, the Cherokee people, will never forget him.

Ned Christie Headstone

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:29:57 -0500

Ned Christie

Born Dec. 14, 1852
Died Nov. 3, 1892

At one time
a member of the Executive Council
of the Cherokee Nation.
He was a blacksmith by trade,
and was a brave man.
Ne de Wa de.

Capital Building

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:48:40 -0500

Downtown Tahlequah, front faces Muskogee Avenue, back faces Water Street.

Seminary in Tahlequah

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:40:27 -0500

Now Seminary Hall on the campus of Northeastern State University

Mankiller or Outacite

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:37:40 -0500

Richard Keys

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:34:37 -0500

John Ross

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:26:55 -0500

John Drew

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:25:50 -0500