Editor性视界传媒檚 note: This column was first published in March 2019.
QUESTION: When I looked online, I saw that the Wichita, Tawakoni, Kitsai and Caddo Indians had once settled in the East Texas area. There was no mention of the Cherokee Indians. I know that there are lakes named after regional Indian tribes. Why was the name Cherokee selected for Lake Cherokee? Who named it?
ANSWER: Ah, the Internet. If you don性视界传媒檛 stumble into just the right corner, it性视界传媒檚 not very helpful.
First, we have to talk about the Cherokees, because a small group of these North American Indians did make their way to East Texas during the early 1800s, you know, during those years when they were being 性视界传媒渧olunt-told性视界传媒 (that性视界传媒檚 a term I borrowed from family members who have served in the military) or outright forced to leave the places they had called home. The Texas State Historical Association性视界传媒檚 Handbook of Texas Online has a good summary of how they ended up in East Texas.
性视界传媒淏etween 1790 and 1820, many Cherokees, hoping to preserve what remained of their traditional culture, voluntarily migrated west of the Mississippi River and settled in the future Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas,性视界传媒 the handbook says. 性视界传媒淭hose who chose to remain on their ancestral land in the Southeast were ultimately forced to move west by the United States Indian removal policy, which was initiated in 1830. Between 1838 and 1839, 16,000 to 18,000 Cherokees were forcibly marched to their new home in northeastern Indian Territory. An estimated 4,000 died on the march, which has come to be known as the Trail of Tears.性视界传媒
The earliest Cherokees were reported in Texas in 1807, probably having moved here from Arkansas to settle along the Red River. Later, in 1820, a man known as 性视界传媒淐hief Bowl性视界传媒 led about 60 families into Texas and settled on the Three Forks of the Trinity River.
性视界传媒淏ut pressure from prairie tribes forced them to move eastward into a virtually uninhabited region north of Nacogdoches now in Rusk County. They carved out farms on land that belonged to their friends, the Caddoes, a once powerful Indian confederacy that had been greatly reduced by warfare and epidemic diseases. By 1822 the Texas Cherokee population had grown to nearly three hundred.性视界传媒
Texas entered a tumultuous time in its history not long after that, which, as all good Texans know, culminated in the Texas Revolution. The Cherokee people who were here declared themselves neutral in that war.
性视界传媒淭he Texas revolutionary government, anxious to ensure Cherokee neutrality, sent Sam Houston to counsel with the tribe in the fall of 1835. Houston, the newly elected commander of the Texan forces, was an adopted member of the Cherokee tribe and became an influential advocate of the Cherokee people,性视界传媒 the handbook says.
As a result, there was an agreement forged to 性视界传媒渆stablish a reservation for the Cherokees in East Texas that included the future Smith and Cherokee counties as well as parts of Van Zandt, Rusk, and Gregg counties. ... But the treaty was never ratified by the Texas government.性视界传媒
Now, I性视界传媒檓 going to answer the rest of your question by referring to an actual book: 性视界传媒淭he Little Book About Lake Cherokee,性视界传媒 which was written by Buddy Williams with a 2005 copyright date, is largely considered the go-to source of information on Lake Cherokee history.
That book tells you that Vern A. Clements, a Longview civic leader and bank president, is known as the 性视界传媒淔ather of Lake Cherokee.性视界传媒 He and other civic leaders led efforts to build the lake in the 1940s on what is called 性视界传媒淐herokee Bayou.性视界传媒
性视界传媒淐herokee Indians who once hunted through East Texas性视界传媒 pine forests have long ago moved their villages from the banks of Cherokee Bayou and Lee性视界传媒檚 Creek, but they left their name as a mark on the land which they ... once owned,性视界传媒 Williams性视界传媒 book says. 性视界传媒淟ake Cherokee, in many ways, is their legacy.性视界传媒
