Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Copy book 1836-1888

Bound handwritten copy book of letters to and from various members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina and officials in Washington, D.C. including such persons as Ulysses S. Grant, President; Columbus Delano, Secretary of the Interior; Edward P. Smith, Commissioner of Indian Affairs; John Ross, Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokees; James Taylor, delegate; and many others. An attempt was made to trace all of the correspondents.

Included are letters seeking arbitration for claims, payments of allocations due, resolutions of the tribal council, petitions to the government on behalf of the Eastern Band of Cherokees with responses from the Attorney General, Secretary of the Interior and others.

The bulk of the material dates to the latter half of the 1870s although there is an interesting batch of correspondence between John E. Wool, Brigadeer General Commander in the area to B.F. Butler, Secretary of War in 1836 in which he relates experiences with the Cherokees, such as taking one of their chiefs, Roman Nose, prisoner to induce them to sign a treaty. An interesting archive of material pertaining to the Cherokee Indians, particularly the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina.

Forms part of the J. Bartley Milam papers.