![]() The CherokeesThe Cherokees stood as one of the largest and probably the most “Americanized" tribe on the continent. A few of their approximately twenty thousand members settled along the Arkansas River in present-day Arkansas as early as 1795. A tough chief named Duwali (or “The Bowl”) led this group. Gradually, more migrated into the area. By the end of the first decade of the 1800s, the federal government was actively inducing all Cherokees to move west. It did not, however, specify particular coordinates for the Cherokees’ new lands. At least one additional delegation of Cherokees reconnoitered lands the government offered them in northern and western Arkansas Territory, and more Cherokees agreed to move west. In 1807 American traders in Nachitoches, Louisiana met Cherokees who reported living up Red River to the north, probably in present-day southwest Arkansas. And in 1808 the Osages started complaining about Cherokees hunting on their lands in northern Arkansas and the eastern part of present-day Oklahoma without permission. Sibley and others had attempted to calm the fierce Osages as they cleared a wide and bloody swath in the wake of their southern migration from Missouri. This tribe of around 4,250 people that included 1,250 warriors raided, plundered, enslaved, and slaughtered their way through one Native group after another in present-day Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. They drove the Caddos, the Wichitas, and others before them (see Chapter 1). Tribes throughout the Southwest feared the Osages. Soon the Osages did much more than complain about the Cherokees. This time, however, they had met their equal. The Cherokees who had come west were a smart and rugged lot, and they had no intention of being shoved out of lands for which they had departed their ancient homes and communities and traveled hundreds in some cases, over a thousand-miles to find. The Cherokees stood their ground and fought back against the Osages, with no less savagery than their opponents. Plus, these Western Cherokee numbers continued to grow. By 1817 around two thousand lived in Arkansas, a few in present-day eastern Oklahoma. Spurred by federal government treaties that induced the struggling Osages to cede millions of acres of land they controlled in present-day Oklahoma (bounded roughly by the Verdigris River on the west, the present Kansas line on the north, Arkansas Territory on the east, and the Arkansas River on the south) to the U.S., as well as material compensation, the Cherokees’ western population swelled to six thousand by 1820. John Jolly (?-1838) This shrewd, greathearted man led the Western Cherokees or Old Settlers wing of the tribe through some of their most momentous years. Known in Cherokee as Ahuludegi or Oolooteka, he entered the scroll of history as headman of Cayuga town on Hiwassee Island in present-day southeastern Tennessee upon his older brother Tahlonteeskee’s migration west to the Arkansas country in 1809 as a leader of the Old Settlers.
Read the entire Oklahoma story in John J. Dwyer's Media The Oklahomans: The Story of Oklahoma and Its People volume 1 of a 2-part series on the 46th state and the people who make this state very special. |
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John Dwyer's Oklahoma HistoryAuthor John Dwyer takes us on a voyage through time, to discover Oklahoma is ways we've never fully understood. The hardbound pictorial of volume 1 is available for a limited time at up to 40% off, using this link.
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May 2024
Novelist and Oklahoma native Ralph Ellison said, "You have to leave home to find home", an apt description of the journey of John Dwyer, author and general editor of The Oklahomans. The Dwyer family roots were firmly transplanted from Ireland to Oklahoma by John's great-grandfather and grandfather, the latter who settled in Oklahoma City in 1909, just two years after Oklahoma achieved statehood. Although born in Dallas, TX, John was relocated to Oklahoma when his widowed mother returned to her home when he was two years old.
It would be on Oklahoma soil that his mother instilled in him his love for history, and coupled with his unusually creative imagination, it soon became apparent that John not only liked to hear great stories of legend and history, but to make up his own as well. It would be out of a sense of divine purpose that he would use that creativity in response to a higher calling in the years to come. John began a career in journalism during his high school days when he served in a variety of roles, including news and sports reporter, for the Duncan Banner, a daily newspaper in his small Oklahoma hometown. He was the youngest sports editor in the newspaper's history by the time he attended the University of Oklahoma on a journalism scholarship. He graduated in 1978 with a bachelor of arts and sciences degree in journalism. Dwyer further developed his journalistic skills in radio as a play‐by‐play football and basketball announcer for several radio stations. He won the coveted position of sports director for the University of Oklahoma's 100,000 watt KGOU‐FM radio station. For seven years, he provided live, on‐air reports to America's largest radio networks of University of Oklahoma college football games. Except for a year in England during 6th grade, John lived in the Sooner State for 28 years before returning to Dallas in 1986 to attend Dallas Theological Seminary where he earned his Master of Biblical Studies. While there, Dwyer worked part time on the sports staff of The Dallas Times Herald, which at the time owned one of the five largest circulations of any daily newspaper in Texas. It was in Texas that he also met and married his wife Grace in 1988 and settled down to start his family. In the spring of 1992, Dwyer and his wife founded the Dallas‐Fort Worth Heritage newspaper, which would grow to a circulation of 50,000 per month at the time of its sale, after nearly a decade, to new owners. The Heritage pioneered innovative features such as full color photography and graphics, an expansive web site, a cluster of informative daily radio programs, and an aggressive, uncompromising brand of investigative news reporting unprecedented for contemporary news publications holding an orthodox Christian worldview. In 2006, at the urging of his family and the Oklahoma Historical Society, John returned to Oklahoma to tackle the colossal task of writing "The Oklahomans," which was endorsed as an official project of the Oklahoma Centennial Commission. He has completed volume 1 (Ancient‐Statehood) and a portion of volume 2 (Statehood‐Present), which releases in November 2018. He is now an Adjunct Professor of History and Ethics at Southern Nazarene University. He is former history chair at Coram Deo Academy, near Dallas, Texas. His books include the non‐fiction historical narrative "The War Between the States: America's Uncivil War" (Western Conservatory), the novel "When the Bluebonnets Come" (Bluebonnet Press), the historical novels "Stonewall" and "Robert E. Lee" (Broadman & Holman Publishers), and the upcoming historical novels "Shortgrass" and "Mustang" (Oghma Creative Media). John and Grace have one daughter and one grandson and live in Norman, Oklahoma. They are members of the First Baptist Church of Norman, where they serve in a variety of teaching, mission, and other ministry roles. Categories |