New Echota

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New Echota
National Register of Historic Places
National Historic Landmark District
New Echota Council House (reconstruction)

New Echota Council House (reconstruction)

New Echota (Georgia)
Paris plan pointer b jms.svg
location Calhoun , Gordon County , Georgia
Coordinates 34 ° 32 '27 "  N , 84 ° 54' 34"  W Coordinates: 34 ° 32 '27 "  N , 84 ° 54' 34"  W.
NRHP number 70000869
Data
The NRHP added May 13, 1970
As  NHLD declared 7th November 1973

New Echota was the capital of the Cherokee , a people of American Indians , from 1825 to 1838 . The 81  acre area of ​​New Echota is located north of present-day Calhoun in Gordon County in the American state of Georgia . The Cherokee Nation lived there until it was forcibly evicted by the US Army . This expulsion of the Indians became known as the Path of Tears .

The site is a state park , was designated a Historic Site, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 13, 1970 , and was designated a National Historic Landmark District on November 7, 1973 .

history

In the early 19th century, the Cherokee abandoned their traditional clan system and developed a system of government similar to that of the United States . A parliament was set up to pass laws and approve contracts. For this purpose, the tribal area was divided into eight districts. For each district area, four MPs were elected to form a House of Commons called a "National Council" . This body selected twelve members for the "National Comitee" ( upper house ). This in turn, elected the three members of the government, the chief ("Principal Chief"), his deputy ("Assistant Principal Chief") and a finance minister.

Annual meetings of the Cherokee Tribal Council have been held in Gansagi (Gansigiyi) since 1819 . This place was also called the New Town . The locals called the area The Fork or Fork Ferry (ferry at the river bifurcation). The names came about because the area is at the confluence of the Coosawattee River and Conasauga River to the Oostanaula River and there was a ferry station there until 1835, which was mainly operated by Alexander McCoy.

On November 12, 1825, New Town was declared the capital of the Cherokee and newly laid out as a planned city . The capital was renamed New Echota , made up of New Town and Echota . The former settlement of Chota , or Echota, was in what is now Tennessee and was the capital of the Overhill Cherokee from the middle of the 18th century until 1788 . Echota means city in the Cherokee language . Two years after the capital city was declared, the Cherokee passed a constitution in New Echota .

In 1830 50 Cherokee populated the settlement. At council meetings , several hundred Cherokee filled the city.

The Cherokee Phoenix's first Native American newspaper office in New Echota

The "Council House" (parliament building), which has existed since 1819, was expanded. In addition, a central square , a main street and a cemetery were created. A courthouse, private houses, shops, a mission station and school and the first Indian newspaper printing plant were built. Here the first Indian newspaper, The Cherokee Phoenix , was edited by Elias Boudinot and first published on February 21, 1828. It is published in English and on Cherokee. The Cherokee syllabary , designed by Sequoyah in 1821, was used for the latter language . Isaac H. Harris printed the newspapers. Missionary Samuel Austin Worcester and the Mission Abroad helped set up the newspaper printing facility in 1826, and procured printing and other equipment. Samuel Worcester was commissioned to cast the letters for the Cherokee alphabet. The tribal chiefs at the time (Elias Boudinot, Stand Watie , Major Ridge and Elijah Hicks) collected money to finance the newspaper. The newspaper contained news, laws, features , reports about the Cherokee Nation, as well as social, cultural, and religious topics. The court rulings relating to the expulsion of the Indians and the events that followed were also extensively reported.

After gold was found in the Cherokee area and other parts of Georgia, the country's gold rush began in 1829 . Thereupon the land of the Cherokee, also because of the fertile soil, became very popular.

On May 28, 1830, the Indian Removal Act was passed, which allowed the government to enter into relocation treaties with various Indian tribes. Another law was passed that same year banning whites from visiting Cherokee territory without a state permit. Worcester and eleven other missionaries protested because this law did not allow them to help the Cherokee resist evictions.

Two years later, the Cherokee territory was included in Georgia's sixth land lottery without their consent and assigned to white settlers . After this incident, most of the Cherokee left their capital and New Echota became a ghost town . The council meetings were moved to Red Clay , which is in what is now Tennessee.

The less than 500 remaining Cherokee founded the "Treaty Party" (contracting party), which - after their leader, the chief Major Ridge - also called Ridgeites. In Elias Boudinot's house they signed the Treaty of New Echota on December 29, 1835 , which regulated the resettlement of the Cherokee and granted them money and new settlement areas in Indian territory in exchange for their land. The treaty also stated that Cherokee who wish to stay in their home country would not be relocated. Since the Ridgeites did not include any tribal chiefs, John Ross , the chief at the time , called the contract invalid and demanded the approval of a new contract drawn up by himself. Without responding to this request, the original New Echota Treaty was eventually approved by the Georgian government.

As a result, in 1838 the Cherokee who had agreed to the relocation were relocated. The Indians were initially housed in a fortification called Fort Wool, which was built in New Echota. They were then sent to the northern border of Cherokee Nation territory and west from there. Ultimately, the Cherokee who had not consented to the relocation were also forcibly driven west by the US Army under the command of Winfield Scott . This way to the west, the so-called Trail of Tears , cost more than 4,000 Cherokee lives due to inadequate organization, insufficient food supply, disease and bad climatic conditions.

After the eviction

After the eviction, some buildings continued to be used. One house was converted into a school and Samuel Worcester's house was inhabited until the 1950s. Other buildings were moved or demolished. Most of the rest of the land has been converted into agricultural land. Still the city looked deserted.

The memorial in honor of the Cherokee who died on the path of tears .

It wasn't until the early 20th century that the city changed. The US Department of War (now the US Department of Defense ) bought part of the land that includes New Echota. In 1930 work began on a memorial to the Cherokee who perished on the Path of Tears near the city center. This was completed a year later. In 1933 the land was transferred from the War Department to the National Park Service . As a result, the city was no longer developed into a historic site and became increasingly neglected. It was not until 20 years later, in the 1950s, that archaeological excavations were carried out, and crockery and household goods were found, among other things. 600 of a total of approx. 1700 artifacts could be assigned to the possession of the Cherokee. The most significant find was a large part of the letters that were used for printing the Cherokee Phoenix.

One of Chief James Vann's tavernas. Transferred to New Echota in 1955.

In 1956, the New Echota area was assigned to the Georgia Historical Commision . After the state of Georgia approved the reconstruction of the city as a state park on March 13, 1957, one of Chief James Vann's taverns was moved from a river bed to New Echota and restored . A year later work began on restoring the Worcester House. The council house, the Supreme Court, and the newspaper printing plant of the Cherokee Phoenix could be reconstructed with the help of found remains or descriptions.

The state park was finally opened on May 12, 1962. On the site there is a smokehouse, barns, the foundation of the Boudinot house with the original well, and various reconstructed houses. All restored and reconstructed buildings form an open-air museum that can be visited. Approx. 600 parts of the letters that were used for the first newspaper printing are on display in the newspaper printing shop. A small museum that was added in 1969 can also be visited, as well as the Cherokee Memorial that was moved near the museum in 1988. Other buildings, such as two farms across from the state park, are not open to the public because they are privately owned. A two-kilometer interpretation trail (Newtown Trail) runs through town and ends in downtown New Echota, where the Cherokee lived until they were relocated.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : New Echota  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ National Park Service : National Register Information System, New Echota ; accessed March 13, 2019.
  2. ^ National Park Service: List of NHLs by State, Georgia ; accessed March 13, 2019.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k New Echota Historic Site. In: About North Georgia. Retrieved February 24, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b Gansagi. In: Gordon County Place Names. December 28, 2009, accessed February 24, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Fork Ferry (The Fork). In: Gordon County Place Names. December 27, 2009, accessed February 24, 2019 .
  6. ^ David Seibert: New Echota Ferry. In: Historical Markers by County. GeorgiaInfo, accessed February 24, 2019 .
  7. ^ Nicole Peels: Chota Memorial. In: Tennessee River Valley Geotourism MapGuide. Retrieved February 24, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Gerald F. Schroedl: Chota. In: Tennessee Encyclopedia. Tennessee Historical Society, October 8, 2017, retrieved February 24, 2019 (American English).
  9. ^ New Echota. In: Gordon County Place Names. January 8, 2010, accessed February 24, 2019 .
  10. ^ A b c d William R. Mitchell: New Echota . In: Historic Sites Survey, National Park Service, Georgia Historical Commission (Ed.): National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), Inventory - Nomination Form . Atlanta 1971 ( nps.gov ).
  11. ^ A b History of the Cherokee Phoenix. In: Cherokee Phoenix. January 13, 2015, accessed February 24, 2019 .
  12. ^ Georgia Historic Newspapers Basic Search. In: Georgia Historic Newspapers. Retrieved February 24, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Cherokee Phoenix, and Indians' Advocate, Volume 2, Number 1, March 18, 1829. In: world digital library. March 18, 1829, accessed February 24, 2019 .
  14. ^ Georgia Gold Rush. In: About North Georgia. Retrieved February 24, 2019 .
  15. ^ Ken Drexler: Indian Removal Act: Primary Documents in American History. In: Library of congress. January 22, 2019, accessed February 24, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Jonathan Ray: Andrew Jackson and the indians, 1767-1815 . Ed .: Jonathan Ray. S. 256/257 ( ua.edu [PDF]).
  17. ^ Representatives Meadows of the 5th, Jasperse of the 11th, and Ridley of the 6th: House Resolution 1764 . ( ga.gov [PDF]).
  18. ↑ Cherokee Trail of Tears. In: About North Georgia. Retrieved February 24, 2019 .
  19. ^ A Guide to Northwest Georgia's Native American Past. New Echota State Historic Site. In: Georgia Department of Natural Resources. February 7, 2018, accessed February 24, 2019 .
  20. ↑ a b c d Richard Thornton: The Secret History of New Echota. . . Part One. In: People of One Fire. Richard Thornton, August 6, 2017, accessed February 24, 2019 (American English).
  21. ↑ a b c New Echota Walking Tour. In: About North Georgia. Retrieved February 24, 2019 .