My husband and I visited the Oklahoma Historical Museum in Oklahoma City this year. We love learning new things about our adopted state. The other thing we enjoy doing is learning about our ancestors. While at the museum, we found an interesting link to both.
The museum had a wonderful display of the Native Americans and their achievements. My husband recognized a name on a plaque, took a photo, and later researched it at home.
My husband’s fourth great grand uncle was Elias Boudinot (May 2, 1740-October 24,1821) a little-known founding father and signer of the Constitution.
Among his achievements: Director of the United States Mint under the first three U.S. Presidents, New Jersey U.S. Representative from 1789-1795, 4th President of the Continental Congress 1782-1783. Advocated for women’s rights, Native American rights and ending slavery. Elias helped found the American Bible Society. He was a prolific writer and used his words to work toward change. He sponsored students who attended the Board School for Indians in Connecticut and the Foreign Mission School in New Jersey. One of those students stayed with him in his home in Burlington, New Jersey. Gallegina Uwati, known as Buck Wati. His mother, Suzanne Reeves, was half Cherokee. He was the oldest of nine children.
Buck and Elias formed a strong bond, so much so that Buck asked if he could borrow his name. The statesman agreed. I wonder if he considered the Cherokee the son he never had.
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Elias Boudinot- Cherokee |
Buck began going by Elias Boudinot even while in school. He also met and married Harriet Ruggle Gold, the daughter of a prominent family who supported the Cornwall Misson School where Elias was attending. This was the second interracial marriage connected to the school and caused such a firestorm of prejudice that the school was forced to close immediately. Elias and his bride returned to High Tower, Cherokee Nation in Georgia, where they worked with the mission. His heart focused on helping every way he could. Here we see he borrowed his namesake’s passion for making a better nation. He fixed his attention and efforts on his Cherokee brethren.
The Boudinot passion continues
This passion included making sure his children and other mix race Cherokee would always be considered part of the Nation. Because the Cherokee are a matriarchal society all children born to white women would be consider white not Cherokee. Boudinot and his cousin John Ridge, who had also married a white woman, worked together to change that tradition for all interracial couples. He used his influence as a chief’s son to bring about this important change. He wanted his children to be considered Cherokee. This was just the beginning of his work to better things for his people and help them to acculturate into American society. The Cherokee were the first tribe to see the need to adapt to the white man’s culture in order to preserve their own. Even so, whites still insisted on their prejudices.
Elias not only borrowed the Stateman’s name but his desire to make changes and right wrongs. With the help of his uncle, Major Ridge, he produced the first Cherokee newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix. It was bilingual, written both in Cherokee and English. Some historians believed that he wrote most of the paper in English as a way to explain to whites how his people had assimilated and taken on many white customs. He spoke around the country and wrote many pamphlets in an effort to persuade the whites to accept them. Many of his writings have been preserved.
Elias was an advocate for allowing the Cherokee to stay on their land. But after his efforts to educate the whites seemed to be failing, he saw the writing on the wall. Andrew Jackson and many others were determined to remove the Indians, especially after gold was found in Georgia. Elias changed positions and worked tirelessly to get the best possible treaty for his people.
His alliances change made him a pariah. Most of the Cherokee wanted to stay on their ancestral lands. When Elias and John Ridge signed the removal treaty without the consent or signature of Chief John Ross, the official authority for the Cherokee Nation, his honor in the tribe went from bad to worse. He resigned as editor of the Phoenix but continued to write editorials against John Ross and his supporters, who were determined to stay no matter the consequences. Elias’ education and understanding of white laws and culture made him a good leader. But when he tried to assure his people the removal would give them peace, he made enemies.
After his wife Harriet died from childbirth complications, he took his children and moved to Indian Territory before the Removal Act’s deadline. He avoided the Trail of Tears and other removal marches. Another strike against him. He settled among the Old Settlers (those who had come to Oklahoma as early as 1818 to maintain their Indian culture.) They had already established a government and weren’t keen on all the new arrivals. Once the other Cherokee were forced to move in 1836, they were angry with Boudinot, blaming him for the terrible conditions of their journey. By 1838 a small group of John Ross supporters assassinated Boudinot along with his cousin John Ridge and uncle Major Ridge because of their involvement in signing the treaty.
The name and passion continue
But my husband’s ancestor’s name continued through Elias Cornelius Boudinot, one of the noted spokespersons for bringing more people to Indian Territory and naming it Oklahoma as his father always dream. Elias C. had spent most of his childhood raised by his mother’s family after his father was murdered. At 18, he returned west. He became a lawyer in Arkansas and lived near the Cherokee people. (Oklahoma is right across the border from Arkansas.) His first case was getting his uncle Stand Watie acquitted of murder charges. His uncle had killed the man who murdered his father and his father’s cousins. Stand Wati had survived. Years later there was a confrontation, and the murderer was now dead. Later, Stand Watie served as the Confederate General over the Cherokee units.
Elias C. Boudinot had his father’s passion for the Cherokee but had different political views. He was pro-slavery and, like most of the Cherokee nation, he joined the Confederacy, serving as captain in his uncle Stand’s unit. He also served as a Representative for the Cherokee in the Confederate Congress. He, along with other prominent Cherokee, saw the CSA as the only government willing to allow Indian Territory to become a state run by Native Americans.
Like his father, Elias C. made decisions that angered his tribesmen. He encouraged the railroad to be built through Indian Territory, insisted they allow their land to be parceled and encouraged white settlement. He promoted the Boomer movement. (Whites illegally settling on Indian land). He succeeded along with like-minded men to encourage Congress to open Oklahoma Territory to homesteaders. Some Oklahomans consider him a great man while others consider him a villain. He never married, so the passion to do seem right for the nation, that had started with Elias Boudinot the founding father, continued through Elias Boidinot the Cherokee, seemed to end with the passing of Elias C. Boudinot the politician, lawyer and businessman.
Have you heard of any of these men?
Cindy Ervin Huff, is a multi-published award-winning author in Historical and Contemporary Romance. She’s a 2018 Selah Finalist. Cindy has a passion to encourage other writers on their journey. When she isn’t writing, she feeds her addiction to reading and enjoys her retirement with her husband of 50 plus years, Charles. Visit her at www.cindyervinhuff.com.