An irony of this article ‘Tachee and His Knife” is that the first thing you notice when viewing this likeness of Tahchee is not the knife but his eyes. In 1833 A P Chouteau wrote “Dutch (Tahchee) is looked upon as the most sagacious and daring war Captain in the Cherokee Nation west of the Mississippi…Dutch may be known, by a slight description among a thousand warriors, by his remarkable black, keen, restless eyes.”  You wonder how many victims saw those eyes flash before they received a deathblow.

James Hall described Tahchee as: “He is five feet eleven inches high, of admirable proportions, flexible and graceful in his movements, and possesses great muscular power and activity; while his countenance expresses a coolness, courage, and decision, which accord well with his distinguished reputation as a warrior.”

A Classic Guardless Coffin Hilt of a Bowie Knife with a large escutcheon plate protrudes from what appears to be an unadorned rawhide pouch sheath. William R Williamson wrote, “The knife’s coffin shaped handle represents this design in the pure form.”  This is the first known image of such a knife.

Tahchee was born in 1790 at Turkey Town on the Coosa Riv­er in what is now Centre Alabama. This Cherokee Village is now inundated by Weise Lake. His father, Skyuko, a Cherokee Chief signed Cherokee Treaties with the United States in 1791, 1794, and 1806.

In 1795, Tahchee, his mother and Uncle Thomas Taylor journeyed down the Ten­nessee River into the Ohio and down to the St Francis River that was in Spanish Ter­ritory but now is in Arkansas.  They join the Cherokees who had settled there in 1785-1790 on a tract of land given to them by the King of Spain. Chief Duwali known as John Bowles or ‘the Bowle’ may have led this party. The encroachment of the white settlers, the lack of game and the changes to the Cherokee’s traditional way of life with the peace treaty of 1794 were the primary reasons for the exodus.

These Western Cherokees resisted being civilized and loved the hunt and the old ways.  They were called ‘Chickamaugans’. In 1776 they followed Dragging Canoe and settled on Chickamauga Creek east of Lookout Mountain near what is now Chattanooga Tennessee.

Bill Worthen, Curator of Historic Arkansas Museum, found these ads in the New York Herald newspaper.

G&W were tenants of John Jacob Astor in the Astor House. Astor, the Fur Titan, provided A P Chouteau with Indian Trade Goods. Auguste Pierre Chouteau owned a Trading Post at the three Forks of the Arkansas River above Fort Gibson in Oklahoma. These goods were transported from St Louis via the Missouri and Osage Rivers and by pack trains and Wagons.  Steamboats on the Arkansas River also delivered goods to the trading post located near present day Chouteau Oklahoma.

Tahchee left Ft Gibson in December 1836. He did not go through New York. The G&W Arkansas Knives and Indian Trade Knives were available in New York in July. Chouteau may have stocked a Sheffield made “Arkansas Tooth Pick” with his stock of butcher, cartouche, and scalping knives purchased from G&W. Tahchee could well afford the knife. Was there time for the knife to be transported from New York to the Three Forks of the Arkansas?

Early American Made Bowie Knives

An unmarked Bowie Knife thought to be made in Southwest Arkansas circa 1829-1837 is shown here and on page 142 of “The Antique Bowie Knife Book” by Adams, Voyles & Moss. The authors wrote, “In tracing of the ancestry of the Bowie knife, this one dates from the early beginning of the style.  The deceiving appearance is that this knife fit’s the hand like few others, and feels right there-like a good Bowie is supposed to.” The Carrigan Bowie Knife and the Coffin Handle Bowie Knives owned by Bill Wright and Jack Royse have 6-inch blades and are made by the same hand with identical materials, style and skill of the larger knife.

Tahchee Moves to Texas, 1825-1831

Possible James Black and James Bowie Connections

In 1824 Cherokee Agent Edward DuVal prevailed on the Cherokees residing south of the Arkansas River to move north of the River onto Cherokee lands. According to Duval, “the Dutch and his party refused to go and he frequently, and publicly told me, in the most explicit manner, that they never again meant to join the main body of the Nation: that they intended to go in the other direction and settle somewhere, beyond the Red River, within the Spanish provinces.  They remained at their village, about 20 miles South of the Arkansas, until late in the autumn of 1825”.  Dutch’s village was located about three miles west of present day Danville, Arkansas on Dutch Creek. He hunted the Fource Valley and Dutch Creek Mountain that was named after him.

Dutch moved south of the Red River above the mouth of the Kiamichi River that is North of present day Paris Texas. On the evening of July 18, 1826 while leading a horse stealing raid, Dutch with reckless daring darted in among a number of Osage within a few feet of Colonel A P Chouteau’s trading post, killed and scalped an Osage man. He eluded pursuit and reached the Red River with horses and the scalp. Tahchee loved horses; he bred and trained them. The Osage plains horses were swifter, fleeter and superior to the woodland horses of the Cherokee.

Epilog

In the summer of 1834 Captain William Dutch was hired by the US Government as a guide, scout and hunter for the Dragoon Expedition to the Comanche country. In 1835 he represented the Cherokees in the signing of the peace treaty with the plains Indians at Camp Holmes.

This distinguished warrior has been engaged in more than thirty battles with the Osages and other tribes and has killed with his own hand, twenty-six of the enemy; but, without the exception of a slight scratch on the cheek, has never been wounded.

One of the last of the old settlers, the renown Dutch after a brief illness died on November 12 of 1848 at his home at the mouth of the Canadian River on Dutchess Creek near present day Texanna, Oklahoma.

References

Indians and Pioneers by Grant Forman, 1930

The Cherokees and Their Chiefs by Stanley W Hoig, 1998

Fort Gibson by Brad Agnew, 1980

The Texas Cherokees by Dianne Everett, 1990

Territorial Papers

Chronicles of Oklahoma