During 1811-1812, the Cherokees moved en masse to the Arkansas region. In the "Turkey Town Treaty of" 1817 the Cherokee ceded land and some 1,100 Cherockees started (1818-19) their removal from their ancestral lands East of the Mississippi to area to Arkansas Territory. The Cherokee agreed to exchange 1/3rd of the lands in the East for equal acreage located between the White River on the Northeast boundary and the Arkansas River on the Southwest boundary in the then Arkansas Territory. Out of these "treaties", the Cherokee had a choice of two alternatives. They could either "enroll" to move to the traded land in Arkansas or they could "file" for a reservation of 640 acres in the east which would revert to the state upon their death or abandonment of the property.
Reservation Rolls 1817: A listing of those Cherokees desiring a 640 acre tract in the east and permitted to reside their. No record exists of the 2,000 Cherokees who emigrated before 1817. |