While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
On January 31st, 1899, a general election was
held for the purpose of determining on what is known as the
Dawes Commission Treaty. The Full-bloods lost by two
thousand fifteen votes. The Keetoowah were united in their
opposition to the allotment of lands and dissolution of
their government, hut a part of them saw that the change was
inevitably coming and adjusted themselves accordingly.
Redbird Smith, however, took the
position that it was grossly unjust for the
United States Government, their Trustee, to
precipitately plunge a large number of his
people into so radically changed conditions,
he accordingly advised his following (about
5789 according to the roll of their number
at that time) that he reposed confidence in
the integrity of the intentions of the
Government of the United States to uphold
its Treaty Stipulations; that sooner or
later the Government would see the injustice
to the Full-bloods and would take active
measures to make amends. He therefore
counseled his people not to participate
further in the deliberations of what he
termed the majority of the advocates of the
change. He and his group stood steadfast in
this recalcitrant attitude until about 1910
when he became convinced that it was
useless.
In 1908 his position as Chairman was
officially changed by the Nighthawk
Keetoowah Council to that of Chief. An
election was held for this purpose and he
was unanimously elected in that capacity for
life, which he held and ably filled until
his death, November 8th, 1918, after a short
illness of forty-eight hours.
Redbird Smith was a man endowed with a
great native ability and great enough to
admit his own mistakes. In this matter he
said: “After my selection as a Chief, I
awakened to the grave and great
responsibilities of a leader of men. I
looked about and saw that I had led my
people down a long and steep mountain side,
now it was my duty to turn and lead them
back upward and save them. The unfortunate
thing in the mistakes and errors of leaders
or of governments is the penalty the
innocent and loyal followers have to pay. My
greatest ambition has always been to think
right and do right. It is my belief that
this is the fulfilling of the law of the
Great Creator. In the up-building of my
people it is my purpose that we shall be
spiritually right and industrially strong.’’
“I have always believed that the Great
Creator had a great design for my people,
the Cherokees. I have been taught that from
my childhood up and now in my mature manhood
I recognize it as a great truth. Our forces
have been dissipated by the external forces,
perhaps it has been just a training, but we
must now get together as a race and render
our contribution to mankind.”
“We are endowed with intelligence, we
are industrious, we are loyal, and we are
spiritual bet we are overlooking the
particular Cherokee mission on earth, no man
nor race is endowed with these
qualifications without a designed purpose.
Work and right training is the solution of
my following. We as a group are still
grouping in darkness in many things, but
this we know, we must work. A kindly man
cannot help his neighbor in need unless he
have a surplus and he cannot have a surplus
unless he works. It is so simple and yet we
have to continually remind our people of
this.”
“Our Mixed-bloods should not be overlooked
in this program of a racial awakening. Our
pride in our ancestral heritage is our great
incentive for handing something worth while
to our posterity. It is this pride in
ancestry that makes men strong and loyal for
their principle in life. It is this same
pride that makes men give up their all for
their Government.”
In the last few years of his life Redbird
Smith became obsessed with his ambition for
his people. He insisted in securing the
services of one who was willing to
co-operate with him in working some
industrial plan for the Nighthawk Keetoowah
Group, and he did not give up his program
until he secured an agreement with this
party to serve with his people for seven
years, beginning with January 1st, 1918.
His program covered not only the Nighthawks,
but all people of Cherokee blood. His great
ambition was to accomplish a united spirit
of cooperation among all the factors of the
Cherokee people. It was distinctly not his
idea to reestablish the old and discarded
regime of the Cherokee Government, but to
awaken a racial pride, so that the more
fortunate of the race may become great
factors in helping their less fortunate
brethren.
It is this spirit and ambition of his that
has prevailed even after his death, and that
which his survivors in Office are carrying
out in the selection of Levi Gritts as Chief
of the Cherokees. It should be understood
that it is purely a purpose of unifying the
Cherokee people to a grand effort of
aggrandizing the race that it may acquit
itself as a contributor to a grand race of
men in America, as Redbird called it “The
Mother of the New World.”
