MIZE, JAMIE MYERS, Ph.D. Sons of Selu: Masculinity and Gendered Power in Cherokee Society, 1775-1846. (2017) Directed by Dr. Greg O’Brien. 243 pp. My study analyzes moments of conflict and gender crisis in Cherokee society from 1775-1846; moments when balance and harmony were threatened, and the efforts by Cherokee men to either reestablish a balance between men and women or harmony between men. The pressures of colonialism required Cherokee men to continuously renegotiate their manhood. This project considers change and continuity in Cherokee society through the consideration of masculinity: how it was contested and how it evolved. To do this I look at the impact of gender relations on Cherokee politics and diplomacy, and other expressions of manhood. This work analyzes how competing notions of masculinity shaped experiences such as Cherokee participation: in the American Revolution, the creation of the Chickamauga towns, the United States’ “civilization” program, voluntary migrations, and forced Removal. Ultimately, gender relations among men and between men and women shaped Cherokee politics and identity in the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries. The vast majority of Native gender histories have, up until very recently, been about women due to the assumption that all history is men’s history. Gender, including manhood, is a social construct, and as a result it is always evolving to respond to internal and external pressures. My study is important because it is not just an examination of Cherokee men, it is an illustration of how they reinterpreted and recreated their roles and responsibilities in response to colonial pressures. This says a great deal about Cherokee identity more broadly, and the active role that American Indians played in shaping their identities. Knowing one side of Native gender constructions is not enough, and my work addresses this significant gap in Cherokee and Southeastern American Indian historiography. Ultimately, Cherokee ideals of manhood and womanhood lay at the center of what it meant to be a Cherokee; therefore, this project utilizes gender not only as a category for analysis but also as a lived experience. SONS OF SELU: MASCULINITY AND GENDERED POWER IN CHEROKEE SOCIETY, 1775-1846 by Jamie Myers Mize A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Greensboro 2017 Approved by Committee Chair © 2017 Jamie Myers Mize APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation, written by Jamie Myers Mize, has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Committee Chair Committee Members Date of Acceptance by Committee Date of Final Oral Examination ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my mentor, friend, and advisory committee chair, Greg O’Brien, for his advice and direction. I would also like to acknowledge the other members of my committee for their support and input. Sue Abram shared her extensive knowledge of this topic with me and also offered encouragement throughout the completion of this project. Chuck Bolton provided advice and reassurance. Jill Bender’s suggestions helped shape the articulation of the larger argument, and she was always willing to listen and offer support and motivation. My committee members are amazing scholars and advisors, and I am grateful for the opportunity I have had to work with them all. I would also like to acknowledge Sarah McCartney for her willingness to read and edit my work and also for her emotional support and friendship. I would like to thank Justina Licata for her encouragement and infectious enthusiasm; her friendship and support keep me going. Last but not least, I would like to thank my family for their patience and support. My father, James J. Myers and my in-laws, Dr. and Mrs. Shannon Mize helped me in innumerable ways. My husband, Cecil Shannon Mize III encouraged me to follow my dreams and believed in me when I did not believe in myself. I am grateful for the input and support of all these individuals. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ...............................................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................1 II. “WE WILL HAVE OUR LANDS”: CHEROKEE MASCULINITY AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CHICKAMAUGA TOWNS, 1776-1794 ......................................................................................................20 III. “WE WERE TOLD TO LEARN TO LIVE LIKE WHITE PEOPLE”: CHEROKEE MASCULINITY AND THE “CIVILIZATION” PROGRAM, 1794-1830 ................................................................................81 IV. “RECENTLY IMIGRATIONS HAVE BEEN MADE TO ARKANSAS RIVER”: CHEROKEE MASCULINITY, IDENTITY, AND VOLUNTARY MIGRATIONS, 1785-1833 ................................................130 V. “CHEROKEES ARE MEN”: CHEROKEE MASCULINITY AND REMOVAL, 1830-1846 ...............................................................................180 VI. EPILOGUE .......................................................................................................227 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................235 iv LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1. List of Attacks by American Forces on Cherokee Towns ................................. 36 v LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1. Eighteenth-Century Cherokee Town Regions .................................................. 21 Figure 2. Nineteenth-Century Cherokee Town Regions ............................................... 103 Figure 3. Spanish Louisiana ........................................................................................... 133 Figure 4. St. Francis Cherokee Settlements and New Madrid ....................................... 137 Figure 5. Western Cherokee Land Claims 1812-1828 .................................................. 145 Figure 6. Lovely’s Purchase .......................................................................................... 147 vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION My study analyzes moments of conflict and gender crisis in Cherokee society from 1775 to 1846; moments when balance and harmony were threatened, and the efforts by Cherokee men to either reestablish a balance between men and women or harmony between men. The pressures of colonialism required Cherokee men to continuously renegotiate their manhood. This project considers change and continuity in Cherokee society through the consideration of masculinity: how it was contested and how it evolved. To do this I look at the impact of gender relations on Cherokee politics and diplomacy, and other expressions of manhood. My study is an ethnohistorical study that expands understandings of gender relations in Southeastern Indian communities, specifically the Cherokee, to illuminate the active role that Natives played in shaping their identities and responding to internal and external pressures of colonialism. Gender, because it is socially constructed, is a useful analytical tool because it provides historians with a window into people’s perceptions of their own identity as well as that of others.1 Colonialism brought various cultural and economic pressures to bear on 1 For discussion of gender as a useful analytical tool see: Joan W. Scott, “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis,” The American Historical Review 91, No. 5 (December 1986): 1053-75; Gail Bedermen, Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880- 1917 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995), 7; Nancy Shoemaker, Negotiators of Change: Historical Perspectives on Native American Women (New York: Routledge, 1995), 5; Juliana Barr, Peace Came in the Form of a Woman: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands (Chapel Hill: The 1 historic Cherokee mores. The time period of this study reflects the beginning of intense American colonialism in 1775 with the onset of the American Revolution, and ends in 1846, when the Cherokees signed a treaty between themselves and the federal government that established a government and ended the violence generated by Removal. This dissertation is an examination of how Cherokee men responded to these pressures. Masculine activities such as warfare, diplomacy, hunting, and the roles of Cherokee men in clan relationships receive particular attention.2 This work analyzes how competing notions of masculinity shaped experiences such as Cherokee participation: in the American Revolution, the creation of the Chickamauga towns, the United States’ “civilization” program, voluntary migrations, and forced Removal. While American colonialism impacted all Southeastern Native groups and their gendered identities, the Cherokees are a particularly illuminating case because of their efforts, as well as the efforts of their advocates, to highlight their adoption of Anglo-American culture. One purpose of this study is to explore the cultural motivations and underpinnings for the University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 10-11; Rebecca Kugel and Lucy Eldersveld Murphy, Native Women’s History in Eastern North America before 1900 (2007), xxvi; Gunlog Fur, A Nation of Women: Gender and Colonial Encounters Among the Delaware