Texas Cherokee

Texas Cherokees are the historical communities of Cherokee people living in what is now Texas. Tsalagiyi Nvdagi (ᏣᎳᎩᏱ ᏅᏓᎩ) is the Cherokee Language term for Texas Cherokee. Prior to the Trail of Tears, some groups of Cherokees fled west to avoid European-American encroachment.

In 1806 a band of Cherokee, most likely migrating south from the Arkansas area of the Louisiana Territory, founded a village along the Red River. That same year, an intertribal delegation, including Cherokee, petitioned the Spanish officials at Nacogdoches for permission to settle there, which was granted. Cherokee immigration into Texas increased between 1812 and 1819. The Republic of Texas, following Sam Houston's recommendations, established a reservation for Cherokee, but the negotiated Treaty of 1836 was never ratified (See below).

The Bowl, a former Chickamauga chief, led many Cherokee families into Texas in 1820. They settled near present-day Dallas but were forced by local tribes to move east into what is now Rusk County, Texas. By 1822, an estimated 800 Cherokee lived in Texas.

When Texas passed from Spanish to Mexican governance, Cherokee petitioned the new Mexican authorities for formal land grants but were denied. In 1830, an estimated 800 Cherokee lived in three to seven settlements in Texas. When the Texas Revolution came, Cherokee tried to remain neutral.

Having married into the Cherokee tribe and having a long-standing relationship with Chief Bowl, Sam Houston sought an alliance with Cherokee while he served as President of Texas. Seeking to give the tribe what the Mexican government had refused them and empowered under authority of the new government, General Houston, with fellow commissioners John Forbes and John Cameron, negotiated a treaty with the Cherokee and other associated groups wherein they would be granted certain east Texas lands north of the San Antonio Road and between the Angelina and Neches rivers. Essentially, this would have amounted to the greater part of present-day Cherokee County, all of Smith County and parts of Gregg, Rusk and Van Zandt Counties. It was somewhat less than the Cherokee had hoped to receive from the Mexicans, but given the prospect of having, finally, a secure homeland, they agreed.

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