Dennis Bushyhead
Dennis Wolf Bushyhead (Cherokee, March 18, 1826 – February 4, 1898
Biography
Dennis Wolf Bushyhead was born on Mouse Creek near present-day
Also known as Unadena, meaning "woolly head" in Cherokee,[1] the boy Jesse was reared in his parents' Cherokee culture. He started school in 1833 at Candy Creek Mission, Tennessee, under the charge of Rev. Holland. In 1835 he went to the Mission School at Valley River in North Carolina and remained there for one year, where he was taught by Evan Jones, a noted Baptist minister and close associate of his father. Bushyhead was a supporter of the Chief John Ross faction, when the tribe was divided by opinions about making a treaty to cede land and move west of the Mississippi River, as was being urged by the federal government.
In 1838, as part of
Bushyhead studied in New Jersey for three years, completing his education at Lawrenceville in July 1844. He was enrolled in the sophomore class at Princeton University when he learned that his father had died and he had to return to the Cherokee Nation.[3]
In October 1844 Bushyhead started work as a clerk for Lewis Ross, brother of Chief John Ross, serving until the summer of 1847. He was elected as clerk for the Cherokee Senate in October 1847, serving for one year.[3]
In November 1871, Bushyhead was elected as treasurer of the Cherokee nation and held the position for a full term of four years. He was reelected to the post in 1875. In 1879, Bushyhead was elected as the
Family life
On September 6, 1869, Bushyhead married a widow, Elizabeth Alabama Adair (née Schrimsher), from Fort Gibson. They had four children together: Jesse Crary (1870–1942), Mary Elizabeth (1873–1930), Sarah Catherine (1876–1908), and Dennis Bushyhead, Jr. (1880–1961). Elizabeth Bushyhead died on October 30, 1882.
On October 31, 1883, Bushyhead married Eloise Perry Butler (1859–1940), a niece of a U.S. Senator.[1] She helped raise the four young children from his first wife, and the couple had two children of their own: James Butler (1884–1965) and Frances Taylor Bushyhead (1887–1929).[6]
Death
Dennis Bushyhead died February 4, 1898, in Tahlequah, the capital of the Cherokee Nation, and was buried in the Tahlequah City Cemetery.[7]
Legacy and honors
- Bushyhead, Oklahoma, was named after the principal chief. It is a small rural community in Rogers County, Oklahoma.
Sources
- ^ ISBN 978-0-403-09778-4. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
- ^ Foreman, Carolyn Ross. "Aunt Eliza of Tahlequah." Chronicles of Oklahoma. Vol. 9, No. 1 (March, 1931). Archived 2012-11-07 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved June 19, 2013.
- ^ a b Meserve, John Bartlett. "Chief Dennis Wolfe Bushyhead" Archived 2012-11-02 at the Wayback Machine, Chronicles of Oklahoma. Volume 14, Number 3. September, 1936]. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
- ^ CHEROKEE NATION v. NASH, Civil Action No. 13-01313 (TFH), 267 F.Supp.3d 86 (2017); accessed 16 October 2018
- ^ Corie Delashaw, "BUSHYHEAD, DENNIS WOLFE (1826–1898.)", The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture; accessed 16 October 2018
- ^ Access Genealogy: Bushyhead, Dennis W. Archived 2012-08-12 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved July 22, 2013.
- ^ Corie Delashaw, "Bushyhead, Dennis Wolfe (1826–1898)." Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Accessed March 5, 2015.
Further reading
- Harold Keith, "Problems of a Cherokee Principal Chief," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 17 (September 1939).
- John Bartlett Meserve, "Chief Dennis Wolfe Bushyhead," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 14 (September 1936).
- H. Craig Miner, "Dennis Bushyhead," in American Indian Leaders: Studies in Diversity, ed. R. David Edmunds (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1980).
- "The Indian Territory, Its Chiefs, Legislators and Leading Men", Native American Nations website
- J.S. Murrow, The Rev. Jesse Bushyhead: Cherokee Indian and Missionary, 2015, ISBN 978-1508595113.