Volume 18 , Issue 35

1894 - Chief Bushyhead, Most Notable Man In Cherokee Nation

It was in the Maxton Scottish Chief, Maxton, North Carolina, dated 14 February 1894, Wednesday, on page 1, reports concerning "Chief Bushyhead," the most notable man in the Cherokee Nation. His eventful and successful career - He was a 'forty-niner - and an Oklahoma Town Boomer.

Found on Newspapers.com

Chief Bushyhead was one of the most powerful factors in the settlement of the Cherokee sTrip. His name was Dennis W. Bushyhead, and he was for eight years the principal chief of the Cherokees.

Bushy head had been an eventful and successful career, as careers were measured by white men. He was sixty-seven years old in 1849, and his life had been one of incessant activity, in which he had at once commanded the complete confidence of the Cherokee Nation and the respect of business men and officials with whom he had come in contact.

Chief Bushyhead had many warm friends throughout the West, and wherever he went was sure of a hospitable welcome. When he talked of his own career he was very entertaining, and was always certain of attentive listeners. He was in Wichita, Kansas, on night recently (1894), and for several hours entertained half a score of his friends in his room. He told of his early boyhood among his tribe in North Carolina and Tennessee, of his removal to the Indian lands now embracing the Cherokee Nation, over which he presided for many years.

One of those many stories, illustrative of the development of the Great West, which he had seen sprung from a wilderness to a mighty empire.

"Well do I remember," said the old chieftain, "a visit made by General Winfield Scott to my father's house in Tennessee. I was fifteen years old then, and the great soldier came to our reservation to tell us that our hunting grounds were wanted by the whites, and that we must move West. Most of the tribe submitted, but probably a thousand of them hid in the hills and kept the soldiers busy in rounding them up for a long time. They never succeeded fully in this, and doubtless there were some members of the race there yet, who had assimilated withs eh white people.

"Forty-four years ago (1850) within a stone's throw of the Union Depot in Kansas City," continued Bushyhead, "I fitted myself out for a trip across the 'Great American desert.' It was at the breaking out of the gold excitement in California, and gold had as many attractions then for a young Indian brave as for the most ambitious white man. For eighteen years I remained on the Pacific coast and did not return to my people until 1867. Then I brought with me $4000.

"I suffered many hardships in those years, but hardships were in my line then, and I did not mind them particularly. When I crossed the then barren plains of Kansas there was not a house or sign of permanent habitation, and the man who would then have predicted that a great State would be carved out of that wide waste would have been adjudged insane.

"After all, my life has not differed much from that of the average white man. A mistaken idea prevails concerning the Cherokee Indians. They are a civilized race. I do not know a single man int he Cherokee Nation who has not adopted the habits and customs of the white people. We have good schools and churches, and in fact all of the institutions of civilized communities. We are proud of them and give them hearty support. The Nation now has a population of 26,000 prosperous people.

"Do you know," said he, as he poured a liberal dram from a bottle of old brandy, "that the Cherokees are pioneers in the cause of prohibition? I think you people here in Kansas got that idea from us. In 1819 the Nation passed a prohibition law, and in 1820 a law was enacted by the Cherokee Nation for the suppression of polygamy. In that, you see, we were far in advance of the American Government."

Chief Bushyhead, when the arrangements for opening the Cherokee sTrip were completed, was given the choice of any 160 acres in the country, just twice as much as any other Indian. Bushy head selected what is now the site of the thriving city of Kildare. He still retained his residence on his magnificent ranch in the Cherokee Nation, but was devoting his time, money and influence tot he upbuilding of Kildare and the surrounding country back in 1894.
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