Daphne Swilling writes from Tennessee

My friend Ian,
Not long ago, I reached for my trusty volume of Billy Kennedy’s The Scots-Irish in the Hills of Tennessee”. I offer to you a sentence on page 26. Billy writes,” The Ulstermen and women were natural frontiersmen; their character was shaped by the frontier into something new.” This characteristic today is recognized as American. I celebrate the great legacy of the Ulstermen in our first frontier but there is so much more to this “something new” story.

James Mooney, a famous American ethnographer who lived among the Cherokees for several years makes a fascinating statement in his book, “History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees.” He considers that in much of the advance in civilization by the Cherokee has been due to the intermarriage among them of white men. According to Mooney, these white men were mostly Scots and Scotch- Irish. The families that have made Cherokee history were nearly all of mixed descent. “Principal Chief John Ross has clearly stated that “in the Cherokee Nation especially nearly all the leading men for a century have been more of white than of Indian.”

Through the interaction between the newly immigrated Scot, Scotch-Irish and Cherokee in the Appalachians there came a realization that there were many shared commonalities between them. History would call them Mixed Bloods but in the beginning they were called the Blessed Blends. It was the Scotch-Irish who coined this word to describe the marriage union between Celt and Native. The same word was applied to the children who were born of these unions; carrying in their bloodlines the beauty of both worlds.

In the centuries to come we will see the fruit of this union unfold in the greatest pioneer movement known to man that was launched from their Appalachian homeland. Pioneers are pathfinders and forerunners who show the way for others to follow fundamental change. Both pioneers, the Scotch-Irish and Cherokee would change the course of their people groups forever! There is no greater impetus for change than government and education in our natural world but it would be not just the Ulsterman but the Cherokee man as well who would champion government and education.

We consider Fort Watauga, what is now the State of Tennessee and the site of the first democratically governed European community, a government formed under a written document called the Watauga Compact of 1772. This document is said historically to be foundational to all independent governments in the United States and predates the Declaration of Independence. It was also said to be the Mayflower Compact west of the Appalachian Mountains. The first court of justice west of the Appalachians was also established at Fort Watauga.

We consider New Echota, Capital of the Cherokee Nation where the first democratic form of government under a constitution was established by Native Americans. This government had three branches, a bicameral legislation branch, an executive branch led by a principal chief, and judicial branch ruled by a Supreme Court

In the area of the contribution established by the Cherokee Nation in education, Sequoyah, a blessed blend and silversmith, completed an independent syllabary that made it possible to teach the Cherokee Nation how to read and write. According to Wikipedia, “this was the only time in recorded history that a member of an illiterate people independently created an effective writing system.” After adoption by the Cherokees in 1825, their literacy rate grew so rapidly, it surpassed that of European-American settlers living in the surrounding area. In 1851 the Cherokee Female Seminary was established. It was the first institute of higher learning exclusively for women in the United States west of the Mississippi River. Along with the Cherokee Male Seminary, it was also the first college created by a tribe instead of the US Federal Government.

The Scotch-Irish are famous for their endless contributions towards the educating of the young 13 colonies under Great Britain and later the young United States both in the city centers and the distant frontier settlements they established. Among those, I mention Princeton University and my beloved University of Tennessee.

In January 2, 1829 the Cherokee Nation faced the greatest battle in the history of their people as once again they must settle the issue once and for all that the Cherokee Nation is an independent and sovereign nation. Still considered a savage race, and of imbecile intellect they stepped into the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land without bow or arrow and won their case!

Ed: Ian Adamson has asked me to provide this link to the text of his speech in Atlanta which dealt with allied issues –

Cherokees, Jimmy Carter and the Frontier, by Ian Adamson, Tuesday, February 2. 2010