Cherokee Exodus from Texas
Chandler, Henderson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Driven from eastern states by white settlers, Cherokee Indians migrated to the East Texas area, becoming established by 1820. In 1822, they unsuccessfully sought title to their land from Mexico. The years following were ones of an increasingly uneasy truce for both Texans and Cherokees. In 1839, Mirabeau B. Lamar, Republic of Texas president, sent orders for the tribe to leave Texas. In July 15-16 battle northwest of here two Texans and eighteen Indians, including Chief Bowles (aged 81), were killed. The remaining Indians retreated into what is now Oklahoma.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Pushed out of their eastern homelands by white settlement, Cherokee people migrated into East Texas and were established in the region by 1820, seeking in vain to secure legal title to their land from Mexico. The uneasy coexistence that followed collapsed in 1839 when Republic of Texas president Mirabeau B. Lamar ordered the tribe expelled. In a two-day battle northwest of here on July 15–16, two Texans and eighteen Cherokees fell, including the aged Chief Bowles, and the survivors were driven north into present-day Oklahoma.
Why it matters
The Cherokee expulsion is a stark chapter in the removal of Native peoples from the American South, showing that the Republic of Texas pursued the same dispossession as the United States.
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Related people
- · Chief Bowles
- · Mirabeau B. Lamar
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cherokee Chief Bowles
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On this ground on July 16, 1839, Cherokee leader Chief Bowles was killed leading some 800 Native fighters of allied tribes against roughly 500 Texan troops. The clash marked the climax of the young Republic of Texas's campaign to expel the Cherokees and their allies from East Texas, the last major engagement between Cherokees and Texans. Bowles, an aged chief who had sought a permanent land guarantee, died on the field.
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