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Cherokee Tribal Architecture, 1839-1907 Ellen Dement Hurd A Rebuilding a Nation: Cherokee Tribal Architecture, 1839-1907 Ellen Dement Hurd A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Architecture University of Washington 2019 Committee: Jeffrey Ochsner Louisa Iarocci Program authorized to offer degree: Department of Architecture ©Copyright 2019 Ellen Dement Hurd University of Washington Abstract Rebuilding a Nation: Cherokee Tribal Architecture, 1839-1907 Ellen Dement Hurd Chair of Supervisory Committee Professor Jeffrey K. Ochsner Department of Architecture The Cherokee Nation was forcibly relocated from their ancestral homeland in the American southeast to Indian Territory (in what is now the State of Oklahoma) in 1839. This thesis discusses the architectural history of the administrative and institutional buildings constructed by the tribal government in the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory. This analysis covers the period between 1839 to 1907, encompassing the years between the establishment of the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory and the admittance of the state of Oklahoma to the Union. In this period, the Cherokee Nation engaged in a process of acculturation both socially and architecturally, selectively adapting building forms drawn from Euro-American cultural traditions. This thesis argues that the Cherokee Nation used Euro-American architectural styles to demonstrate the tribe’s ability to govern themselves according to the standards of the United States and, therefore, their right to retain political autonomy. Hurd i Table of Contents Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... i List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... v Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Terminology ................................................................................................................................ 4 Chapter One: Literature Review ................................................................................................. 7 Native American Architectural History ...................................................................................... 7 Cherokee History and Architecture ............................................................................................ 9 Chapter Two: Methodology ....................................................................................................... 12 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................. 12 Research Methodology ............................................................................................................. 15 Chapter Three: Cherokee Architecture Before Removal ....................................................... 19 Traditional Cherokee Architecture ........................................................................................... 19 Euro-American Contact and Socio-Cultural Change ................................................................ 24 Architectural Change Before Removal ..................................................................................... 29 Political Change and the Removal to Indian Territory ............................................................. 34 Chapter Four: Continuity and Change in the Cherokee Nation ............................................ 36 Political Division and Reunion After the Trail of Tears ........................................................... 36 Private Construction and Land Use .......................................................................................... 40 The Civil War and Reconstruction ........................................................................................... 46 Chapter Five: Cherokee Government Architecture ................................................................ 51 The Cherokee Governmental Structure .................................................................................... 51 The Cherokee Capital at Tahlequah .......................................................................................... 52 The Cherokee Supreme Court House ....................................................................................... 57 The Cherokee National Capitol ................................................................................................ 61 Expanding the National Justice System .................................................................................... 66 Chapter Six: Cherokee Institutional Facilities ......................................................................... 72 Establishing the Cherokee Educational System ........................................................................ 72 Building the Male and Female Seminary Buildings ................................................................. 76 Education and Social Support After the Civil War ................................................................... 82 The Second Cherokee Female Seminary Building ................................................................... 92 Chapter Seven: Dispossession of the Cherokee Nation ......................................................... 101 Reduction of Cherokee Territorial Claims .............................................................................. 101 The Movement for Allotment ................................................................................................. 105 Creation of the State of Oklahoma .......................................................................................... 109 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 113 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 116 Appendix A: Timeline of Subject Buildings ........................................................................... 122 Hurd ii List of Figures Figure 1: Map of Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) showing the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation established by the 1834 Indian Non-Intercourse Act. Map created by Katie Bush, Oklahoma Historical Society, 2018. ............................................................................. 2 Figure 2: Map of the nineteenth-century Cherokee Nation, showing the boundaries of the Nation's nine political districts and the approximate locations of study buildings. Original map courtesy of Cherokee Courts, undated. Modified by author. Not to scale. ..................... 6 Figure 3: Map of the Cherokees' traditional territory, showing original claims and subsequent reductions. Published in James Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee (Washington: Goverment Printing Office, 1902), plate iii. ............................................................................................ 20 Figure 4: An artist’s rendering of the mound and townhouse at the Coweeta Creek archaeological site on the Little Tennessee River in Macon County, North Carolina. This site dates from the Middle Qualla period, which lasted from ca. 1450 to ca. 1700, and typifies the characteristics of Cherokee town layout and building construction prior to sustained European contact. Drawing by Frank Weir, University of North Carolina Research Laboratories of Archaeology, 1970. ..................................................................................... 22 Figure 5: The Cherokee Homestead Exhibit, Haynesville, North Carolina. This site reconstructs a typical Cherokee home complex from the 17th or 18th century, and it includes a winter house, a summer house, and a food storage crib. Courtesy of the Archaeological Conservatory, 2016. .............................................................................................................. 24 Figure 6: The Cherokee National Council House, New Echota, Georgia. Originally constructed in 1826 and rebuilt in 1960. Photograph courtesy of Robert M. Craig via Archipedia, 2014. ............................................................................................................................................... 30 Figure 7: Print shop of The Cherokee Phoenix, New Echota, Georgia. Originally constructed in 1828 and rebuilt in 1960. Photograph courtesy of Robert M. Craig via Archipedia, 2014. 31 Figure 8: Cherokee Supreme Court building, New Echota, Georgia. Originally constructed in 1828 and rebuilt in 1960. Photograph courtesy of Robert M. Craig via Archipedia, 2014. 31 Figure 9: Log cabin on the Cherokee Qualla Reservation in North Carolina, photographed in 1888. Although it was photographed nearly a century later, this house typifies the homes of average Cherokees between 1810 and 1838. Photograph courtesy of the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institute. ................................................................ 32 Figure 10: Chief Vann House, Chatsworth, Georgia, constructed in 1804. Photograph courtesy of Georgia State Parks and Historic Sites, undated. .................................................................. 33 Figure 11: Rose Cottage, Park Hill, Oklahoma,
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