Charles R. Hicks
Charles Renatus Hicks (December 23, 1767 – January 20, 1827) (
These three leaders were among those who urged their people to acculturate to European-American ways, in order to succeed in a rapidly changing world. An increasing number of European Americans were entering their territory.
Hicks supported a Moravian mission school in Cherokee territory in order to formally educate the tribe's children. He served as the "second" chief. In 1827 when Principal Chief Pathkiller died in office; Hicks succeeded to that position. He died two weeks later.
Early life and education
Charles Renatus Hicks was born December 23, 1767, in the town of Tomotley near the Hiwassee River, at its confluence with the Tennessee River in present-day eastern Tennessee. He was the son of Nan-Ye-Hi, a half-blood Cherokee woman, and a white (probably Scots) trader named Nathan Hicks. At the time, both the Cherokee people and European traders thought that such strategic alliances benefited them. Among his younger siblings was his brother William Hicks.
As the Cherokee were a
Nan-Ye-Hi and her brother Gunrod were the children of a Jennie (Oconostota) Taylor, a Cherokee woman, and Jacob (aka Johann) Conrad, a Swiss immigrant. Gunrod married Onai (Cherokee), and had several children: Hair Conrad, Rattlinggourd, Terrapin Head, Young Wolf, and Quatie.
Marriage and children
Charles Hicks married Nancy Anna Felicitas Broom as his principal wife. She was the daughter of Chief Broom of
Nancy and Charles Hicks had several children: Elsie[1] (1760 - 1826), Nathan Wolf (b.1795), Elijah 1797, Elizabeth (Betsy) 1797, Sarah Elizabeth 1798, Jesse Hicks 1801, Edward, and Leonard Looney 1804. Their son Elijah married Margaret Ross, a half-sister of Chief John Ross. Their son, Nathan, married Elsy (Alice) Shorey. (As a successful Cherokee man, Hicks later took other wives, a traditional practice among his people.)
Career
Hicks was bilingual and he served as an interpreter to the U.S.
The Creek, traditional competitors and enemies of the Cherokee, became divided over acculturation and land issues, resulting in the
Allied with other former warriors James Vann and Major Ridge, Hicks formed a triumvirate with them; they were among the most influential younger leaders in the Nation. The three men were prominent from the late eighteenth century, after the Cherokee–American wars, to just past the first quarter of the 19th century. They supported acculturation and adoption of some European-American ways.
After reading a book called Idea Fidei Fratrum, an exposition of Moravian doctrine, Hicks embraced
Hicks was extremely well-read and acculturated, and had collected one of the largest personal libraries in North America at the time, public or private. In an 1826 letter
In 1817, Hicks was elected Second Principal Chief under Pathkiller.[4] After the "revolt of the young chiefs" two years later, partly over land deals, Hicks became the de facto head of government, with Pathkiller serving as a figurehead. When Pathkiller died in January 1827, Hicks succeeded him as Principal Chief, the first Cherokee of any European ancestry to serve in that position.
On January 20, 1827, Hicks died, two weeks after assuming office. His younger brother William Abraham Hicks served as interim Principal Chief. John Ross, as President of the National Committee, and Major Ridge, as Speaker of the National Council, had more true political power. The tribe ended its traditional government and formed a constitutional republic.[4]
In 1828 it elected John Ross as the new Principal Chief. Popular with full-bloods, who outnumbered the mixed-race members by a three-to-one margin, Ross was repeatedly re-elected. He served as Principal Chief until his death in 1867, after the American Civil War.[4]
References
- ^ Emmet Starr, History of the Cherokee Indians and Their Legends and Folk Lore (1922), republished by Ravenio Books, 2013, p. 7
- ^ Fries, Adelaide. Records of the Moravians in North Carolina.
- ^ source?
- ^ a b c Arrell Morgan Gibson, Oklahoma, A History of Five Centuries, University of Oklahoma Press, 1981, p. 65
Sources
- Brown, John P. Old Frontiers: The Story of the Cherokee Indians from Earliest Times to the Date of Their Removal to the West, 1838 . (Kingsport, TN: Southern Publishers, 1938 / Arno Press Reprint, New York, 1971).
- Hicks, Charles R., Memoirs of Charles Renatus (United Bretherin (Moravian) Archives, Winston-Salem, NC).
- McClinton, Rowena. The Moravian Springplace Mission to the Cherokees, 1805-1821. (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2007, 2 volumes).
- McClinton, Rowena Ruff. "Notable Persons in Cherokee History: Charles Hicks," Journal of Cherokee Studies 17 (1996): 16-27).
- Moulton, Gary E.(editor), The Papers of Chief John Ross,(Norman, OK, University Of Oklahoma Press, 1985), Vol. I.
- William G. McLoughlin|McLoughlin, William G., Cherokee Renascence in the New Republic. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992).
- Wilkins, Thurman. Cherokee Tragedy: The Ridge Family and the Decimation of a People. (New York: Macmillan Company, 1970).