kee steadily gained at the expense of the Osage, and by 1808 over 2,000Cherokee were established in northern Arkansas. The Turkey Town treaty (1817) was the first formal recognition of the Western Cherokeeby the United States. Under its terms, 4,000 Cherokee ceded their lands in Tennessee inexchange for a reservation with the Western Cherokee in northwest Arkansas. With thisnew immigration during 1818-19, the number of Western Cherokee swelled to over 6,000.However, the Osage continued to object to the Cherokee presence, and the Americanswere forced to build Fort Smith (1817) and Fort Gibson (1824) to maintain peace. Whitesettlers of the Arkansas territory were soon demanding the removal of both the Cherokeeand Osage. In 1828 the Western Cherokee agreed to exchange their Arkansas lands for anew location in Oklahoma. The boundaries were finally determined in 1833, although ittook until 1835 to get the Osage to agree. Meanwhile, the Cherokee homeland in the east was rapidly being whittled away byAmerican settlement reflected by a series of treaties: Hopewell 1785; Holston 1791;Philadelphia 1794; Tellico 1798, 1804, 1805, and 1806. The final cession of ten millionacres in 1806 by Doublehead (Chuquilatague) outraged many of the Cherokee andresulted in his assassination as a traitor by the faction led by Major Ridge(Kahnungdatlageh -"the man who walks the mountain top"). A new, mixed-bloodleadership of Ridge and John Ross (Guwisguwi - blue eyes and 1/8 Cherokee) seizedcontrol determined not to yield any more of the Cherokee homeland while introducingmajor cultural changes. With a unity made possible by the departure of the moretraditional Cherokee to Arkansas, in less than 30 years the Cherokee underwent the mostremarkable adaptation to white culture of any Native American people. By 1817 the clansystem of government had been replaced by an elected tribal council. A new capital wasestablished at New Echota in 1825, and a written constitution...
