Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1971 Speech Activities in Tahlequah, Cherokee Nation, During the Seventies. Ruth M. Arrington Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Arrington, Ruth M., "Speech Activities in Tahlequah, Cherokee Nation, During the Seventies." (1971). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 1961. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/1961 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 71-29,342 ARRINGTON, RuthM., 1924- SPEECH ACTIVITIES IN TAHLEQUAH, CHEROKEE NATION, DURING THE SEVENTIES. The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Ph.D., 1971 Speech University Microfilms, A XEROX Company , Ann Arbor, Michigan THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED SPEECH ACTIVITIES IN TAHLEQUAH, CHEROKEE NATION, DURING THE SEVENTIES A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Speech by Ruth M. Arrington B.A., Oklahoma College For Women, 1946 M.A., University of Michigan, 1951 May 1971 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The writer wishes to express sincere appreciation to the many people who have assisted during the preparation of this study. To Dr. Francine Merritt, the chairman of the advisory committee, special thanks are extended. The contributions of Dr. Waldo W. Braden, Dr. Clinton W. Bradford, Dr. William J. Olive, and Dr. Claude L. Shaver, who are members of the committee, are gratefully acknowledged. The help given by the members of the staff at John Vaughan Library at Northeastern State College in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, is appreciated. Mrs. Rella Looney, Archivist, and Mrs. Louise Cook, Newspaper Librarian, at Oklahoma Historical Society in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, are recognized for their kind encouragement and help. The inspiration and aid given by Dr. T. L. Ballenger, Cherokee historian, is graciously acknowledged. To all of those who assisted in the preparation of the manuscript grateful thanks are expressed, especially to typist, Mrs. Deanna Land, and her assistant, Mrs. Ann Marie Lloyd, as well as to proofreaders, Dr. Marjorie Holland and Dr. Minter Uzzell. ii TABLE OP CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................... ii ABSTRACT ...........................................iv CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ................................ 1 II. THE CHEROKEE NATION BEFORE 1870 ............. 19 III. THE CHEROKEE NATION PROM 1870 TO 1880 .... 72 IV. SCHOLASTIC ENLIGHTENMENT AND ENTERTAINMENT . 109 V. CIVIC SELF-IMPROVEMENT, BENEFITS, AND FUN . 144 VI. C O N C L U S I O N ................................ 185 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................ 195 APPENDIXES.............................................. 203 A. Addresses, Orations, and Compositions .......... 204 B. P o e m s ........................................... 225 C. Programs ..... ............................. 246 D. Tableaux, Charade, and Pantomime ................. 252 E. Miscellaneous .... ...... 270 VITA .................................................... 282 iii ABSTRACT During the 1870's Indians residing in the vicinity of Tahlequah, the western capital of the Cherokee Nation, attended and participated in school and community speech activities comparable to those popular in the United States in the same period. This study reports the Tahlequah activities, noting their origin and the implications of their growth and influence for the Nation. Early Cherokee tribal accomplishments are chronicled in the study to provide a background for the development of speech activities. Particularly significant advances include acceptance of the Christian religion and estab­ lishment of churches and schools, perfection of an alphabet for writing the Indian language, establishment of a republican form of government with a written constitution, and publication of a bilingual weekly newspaper. Two periods of hardship and suffering were especially difficult. The first tribal ordeal was their forced exodus to an unsettled western wilderness. The second crisis, the Civil War, left the land of the red men in ruins. By the 1870' s Cherokees launched into a period of development that was a high point of their cultural growth. Religion and education contributed to advancement, as did iv travellers who brought ideas to and from the Nation. The tribal newspaper encouraged Cherokee progress by publicizing local events and printing items that furthered knowledge of a variety of topics. As early as 1827 speech activities were performed at the mission schools in the Nation and continued to be a part of life in the Cherokee capital in the West after it,3 establishment in 1839. During the seventies speech activities, consisting of the end of term exercises, oral examinations, and public exhibitions, took place in the public schools, Cherokee Female Seminary, Cherokee Male Seminary, and Cherokee Orphan Asylum, and at educational events in the town. Meetings of debating societies, sometimes called literary societies, were the scene of speech activities, as was the Teachers' Institute. Elocutionary and musical performances were included in "concerts" staged to benefit local causes. Orations, declamations, essays, debates, dialogues, and tableaux were included on the programs. In the community organizations designed mainly for self-improvement of the citizenry included reading circles and debating societies. The local amateur dramatic club sometimes performed a benefit for a community project, but the major purpose was enjoyment by players and audience. Performances by skilled solo readers were attended and appreciated by Tahlequah citizens. Professional touring companies were rarely available because of poor transpor­ tation, but a few circuses, minstrel troupes, and magician shows came to Tahlequah and nearby towns. Throughout the nineteenth century there were Indians who clung to the old ways? that segment of Cherokee society is not represented in this study. Those Indiems who were influenced by the culture imported from the United States and who assimilated it were the ones who took part in and attended speech activities in the seventies in Tahlequah, the capital of the Cherokee Nation. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Speech activities were part of the cultural life of America in the nineteenth century. Elocution helped the school boy learn to read with greater effectiveness; oratorical or debate activities enabled the lawyer and minister to perform professional responsibilities more skillfully; the reading circle offered participants a keener insight into literature. About 1870 "there was a great demand for organizations which would uplift and polish the great mass of common people."^ Activities grounded in elocution helped to fulfill this need, as entertainment sind adult education joined forces. The extent and manner of the spread of these cultural activities to the American frontier is a subject of interest to the speech historian. Thus far slight attention has been given to their occurrence on that part of the frontier occupied by the aboriginal Indian Nations. Participation in these activities by the Indians might well be an index to the encroachment of American culture on native ways, or, depending on one's view, the successful adoption of civilized ways by the tribes. ^Mary Margaret Robb, Oral Interpretation of Literature in American Colleges and Universities (New York: The H. W. wITson Company, 1941) , p. 12(5. 2 This study focuses attention on the cultural center of the Cherokee Nation, Tahlequah, the Nation's capital, in the present state of Oklahoma, during the era of the seventies. Its purpose is to determine the nature of speech activities that were part of the life of citizens of Tahlequah in comparison with those popular in the United States during the same period, the avenues through which the activities were introduced into the life of the people, and the importance of the activities in community affairs. The introductory chapter of this study provides information concerning the sources of data for the study, references to related studies, a brief review of the history of the Cherokee Nation before the period of this study, a description of typical American speech activities during the period, and a note on the ways by which American culture spread along the frontier. The second chapter details the history of Tahlequah from 1839 until the end of the sixties. Instances of speech activities occurring during the period are included. The cultural rebirth of Tahlequah and the Cherokee Nation in the seventies is the topic of the third chapter. Educational institutions of the town, their histories and practices, and the speech activities performed in schools are chronicled in the fourth chapter. The speech activities and performances of community groups are considered in the fifth chapter, together with information concerning nearby communities and 3 their entertainments. The final chapter is an overview of the findings of the study. SOURCES OP THE STUDY Information basic to this