Chronology of American Indian History

there are few complaints about this violation of
the First Amendment’s separation of church and
state, perhaps because of the fund’s early success.
Over the next five years, the fund will contribute
to 32 schools for Indian children. (See also entry
for 1873.)

1820

October 18

The Choctaw cede 5 million acres to the
United States.
By the Treaty of Doak’s Stand, the Choctaw tribe
is compelled to relinquish its claim to more than 5
million acres, much of its southeastern homeland.
The agreement sets the boundaries for a reduced
Choctaw Nation but stipulates that they will be dis-
solved when the Choctaw have become “so civilized
and enlightened as to be made citizens.” At that
time, the lands are to be divided into farming plots
owned by individual Indians. The Doak’s Stand
treaty also threatens any Choctaw “who live[s] by
hunting and will not work” with being forced to
move to western lands.

1821

Sequoyah creates a Cherokee syllabary.
After 12 years of work, Cherokee scholar Sequoyah
develops a system of 85 symbols that can be used
to write the Cherokee language. He is the first per-
son ever to create a written language entirely by
himself.
Initially, Sequoyah attempted to assign a unique
symbol to represent each Cherokee word, but this
system proved too complicated. In his final syllabary,
each symbol stands for a discrete sound. The writing
system’s simplicity allows a Cherokee speaker to learn
to read and write in only a few days.
Seeking the endorsement of the Cherokee
tribal government, Sequoyah and his daughter
Ahyokeh give a public demonstration, during which

they take turns deciphering messages written using

Sequoyah’s symbols. Soon after the government

sanctions the use of syllabary, the Cherokee become

a literate people. The writing system becomes in-

valuable for recording laws, business transactions,

and healing techniques and for staying in contact

with relatives who have left their traditional home-

land (see entry for 1817). In part because of the

Cherokee’s use of a written language, they earn the

reputation among non-Indians as the most “civi-

lized” of eastern Indian tribes. (See also entry for

FEBRUARY 21, 1828.)

The Hudson’s Bay Company and North West

Company merge.

After nearly 40 years of rivalry and conflict, the two

most powerful North American trading companies—

the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West

Company (see entry for 1784)—merge to create one

large firm, which retains the Hudson’s Bay name. The

merger will take away much of the bargaining power

of Indian fur trappers, who in the past had been able

to play off the competing companies against one an-

other to make deals more advantageous to them.

Charles Bird King is commissioned to paint

Indian portraits.

The superintendent of Indian trade under Presi-

dent James Monroe, Thomas McKenney, hires artist

Charles Bird King to paint portraits of Indian leaders

who come to Washington to meet with the president.

King will make more than one hundred paintings.

Hung in the superintendent’s office, they will become

known as McKenney’s “Indian Gallery.”

Mexico grants Indians citizenship.

After declaring its independence from Spain, Mexico

confers full citizenship on Indians living within the

new country’s borders. In the Plan of Iguala, the gov-

ernment states, “All the inhabitants of New Spain,

without any distinction of Europeans, Africans or

Indians are citizens of this monarchy with choice of

all employment according to merit and disposition.”

Indians’ citizenship rights will be upheld in the Mexi-

can constitution adopted in 1824.