Little Bean's Cherokee Village
Rusk, Cherokee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the winter of 1819-1820 Chief John Bowles led about sixty Cherokee families from Arkansas to East Texas. Near this site a small settlement was established by a leader named Little Bean. They remained until 1839, when the Republic of Texas government forced the tribe to move to Oklahoma. The land later was opened to Anglo settlers. Early owners of the Indian village were Reza J. Banks and Lewis Rogers. Little Bean, who died in 1839, is thought to be buried in the vicinity of the village.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the winter of 1819–1820, Chief John Bowles led about sixty Cherokee families from Arkansas into East Texas, and near this site a leader named Little Bean founded a small settlement. The community lived here for two decades until 1839, when the Republic of Texas forced the Cherokee to remove to Indian Territory in present Oklahoma; Little Bean, who died that year, is believed to be buried nearby, and the land was later opened to Anglo settlers.
Why it matters
The village and its violent end are a Texas chapter of the wider dispossession of the Cherokee, showing how the young republic cleared Native peoples from land it wanted for settlement.
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Related people
- · Chief John Bowles
- · Little Bean
- · Reza J. Banks
- · Lewis Rogers
Related events
- · Expulsion of the Cherokee from Texas (1839)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cherokee County
Rusk, TX
When Spanish and French explorers reached this region in the seventeenth century, they found Tejas and Hasinai peoples living here, and the Spanish planted missions among them. The Cherokee, driven from the United States, migrated to the area around 1822 and were present during early Anglo colonization before President Mirabeau B. Lamar's administration expelled them in 1839. Formally created from Nacogdoches County in 1846, Cherokee County filled quickly with farms and towns and has since produced two Texas governors, a Wyoming governor, and a Texas House speaker.
Cook's Fort
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Named for early Nacogdoches settler Joseph T. Cook, this site grew up around a frontier fort built by a military company under Captain Black—a stronghold, the marker notes, that was never attacked. James Cook added a store and blacksmith shop, and a village of some 250 people had gathered here by 1846. After the county seat was established at nearby Rusk, the residents moved away and the settlement faded.
Henry Cemetery
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Chief Bowles' Last Homesite
Alto vicinity, TX
In 1836 Sam Houston negotiated a treaty recognizing the Cherokees' right to the East Texas lands they occupied, where their leading figure was Duwali — known also as Bowl or Chief Bowles. But after the Texas Revolution the Senate of the new Republic voided the treaty, and in 1839 President Mirabeau B. Lamar ordered the Cherokee expelled. Learning of the order near this site, Bowles rallied his people to resist and was killed at the Battle of the Neches on July 16, 1839.