{"id":2689,"date":"2015-10-28T19:06:42","date_gmt":"2015-10-28T19:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"\/site\/?p=2689"},"modified":"2024-10-15T21:45:33","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T21:45:33","slug":"tahchee-and-his-knife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crazycrow.com\/site\/tahchee-and-his-knife\/","title":{"rendered":"Tahchee and His Knife"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tah-Chee<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Tahchee and His Knife<\/h1>\n

By James Batson<\/h2>\n

Photo Credit: Charles Bird King<\/span><\/a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Tah-Chee Cherokee Chief 1838<\/h3>\n<\/div>

Tahchee and His Knife<\/h1>\n

By James Batson<\/h2>\n

Photo Credit: Charles Bird King<\/span><\/a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Tah-Chee Cherokee Chief 1838<\/h3>\n<\/div>
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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 \u201cDutch (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.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0You wonder how many victims saw those eyes flash before they received a deathblow.<\/p>\n

James Hall described Tahchee as: \u201cHe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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, \u201cThe knife\u2019s coffin shaped handle represents this design in the pure form.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0This is the first known image of such a knife.<\/p>\n

Tahchee was born in 1790 at Turkey Town on the Coosa\u00a0Riv\u00ader in what is now Centre Alabama. This Cherokee Village is now inundated by Weise Lake. His father, Skyuko, a\u00a0Cherokee Chief signed Cherokee Treaties with the United States in 1791, 1794, and 1806.<\/p>\n

In 1795, Tahchee, his mother and Uncle Thomas Taylor journeyed down the Ten\u00adnessee River into the Ohio and down to the St Francis River that was in Spanish Ter\u00adritory but now is in Arkansas.\u00a0\u00a0They 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 \u2018the Bowle\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

These Western Cherokees resisted being civilized and loved the hunt and the old ways.\u00a0\u00a0They were called \u2018Chickamaugans\u2019. In 1776 they followed Dragging Canoe and settled on Chickamauga Creek east of Lookout Mountain near what is now Chattanooga Tennessee.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Photo Credit: Charles Bird King<\/span><\/a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Tah-Chee Cherokee Chief 1838<\/h5>\n<\/div>
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Robert Abels\u2019 Bowie knife & Picture<\/h3>\n

In the 1960\u2019s, Robert Abels owned an antique Bowie Knife similar to the knife worn by Tahchee. He photographed the pictured Sheffield made “Arkansas Tooth Pick” over the old lithograph of Tahchee. He used this picture as a cover to two small size booklets of his collection of Bowie knives and as a full page in\u00a0“Classic Bowie Knives”<\/em>\u00a0published in 1967. Every serious Bowie Knife collector has a copy of the Old Lithograph of Tahchee.<\/p>\n

This knife was made for Gravely & Wreaks (G&W) in Sheffield, England. One may expect that it could be a copy of an early Bowie Knife that originated in the United States. The first known G&W ad placed on May 23, 1836 begins: “NEW CUTLERY ESTABLISHMENT<\/strong>, No. 9 ASTOR HOUSE, NEW YORK” advertised “ELEGANT BOWIE & HUNTING KNIVES”. Another G&W ad placed July 11, 1836 lists: “ARKANSAS, TEXAS and HUNTERS knives… butcher, cartouche and scalping knives”.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Bill Worthen, Curator of Historic Arkansas Museum, found these ads in the\u00a0New York Herald<\/em>\u00a0newspaper.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0\u00a0Steamboats on the Arkansas River also delivered goods to the trading post located near present day Chouteau Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

Early American Made Bowie Knives<\/h3>\n

An unmarked Bowie Knife thought to be made in Southwest Arkansas circa 1829-1837 is shown here and on page 142 of\u00a0\u201cThe Antique Bowie Knife Book\u201d\u00a0<\/em>by Adams, Voyles & Moss.\u00a0<\/em>The authors wrote, \u201cIn tracing of the ancestry of the Bowie knife, this one dates from the early beginning of the style.\u00a0\u00a0The deceiving appearance is that this knife fit\u2019s the hand like few others, and feels right there-like a good Bowie is supposed to.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Tahchee Moves to Texas, 1825-1831<\/h3>\n

Possible James Black and James Bowie Connections<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0According to Duval, \u201cthe 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.\u00a0\u00a0They remained at their village, about 20 miles South of the Arkansas, until late in the autumn of 1825\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Dutch\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Photo Credit: SMU Central University Libraries<\/span><\/a>, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons. Tah-Chee Cherokee Chief 1838<\/h5>\n<\/div>
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In 1825 and 1826 James Black lived on Little River east of Dutch\u2019s village.\u00a0\u00a0He then moved back to Washington, Arkansas.\u00a0\u00a0An Isaac Pennington lived in Washington in 1828 and 1829 and an Isaac Pennington traded with the Cherokees in 1835 as a partner with Holland Coffee. He was also associated with A PChouteau.\u00a0It is more likely that Tahchee got his knife made by a blacksmith in southwest Arkansas than from a vendor selling Sheffield knives in New York.<\/p>\n

In 1828 the Cherokee were forced out of Arkansas into the Cherokee Nation now located in Oklahoma. And Tahchee moved to Bowles\u2018 settlement in Texas, 6 miles south of the Sabine River near Kilgore Texas about 45 miles north of Nacogdoches near Trammels Trace. Trammels Trace, an old Indian Trail, ran from Nacogdoches to the Red River at Fulton Arkansas through Washington Arkansas where James Black resided.<\/p>\n

In the spring of 1829, Dutch led a War Party that attacked a Tawakoni village located on the Brazos River near Waco Texas. During the bloody fight three young Cherokees fell into a snare of the enemy and:<\/p>\n

\u201cDutch mounted his horse which was of a beautiful dark bay color with black legs, mane and tail, which he had raised, sired by a wild stud taken from the Grand Prairie. He was a finished horse, in form, of a noble carriage & well trained.\u00a0\u00a0Dutch\u2019s object was to bring back the young men… He was advancing rapidly when the young men were destroyed.\u00a0\u00a0When another of the enemy detached himself in a slow gallop in another direction.\u00a0\u00a0Dutch gave chase for some distance, when the horseman suddenly turned back to escape to his friends & lead Dutch to the snare. With us it was a time of awful suspense.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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Photo Credit: Tah-Chee’s Bowie Knife<\/span><\/a>, Crazy Crow Trading Post.<\/h5>\n<\/div>
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Dutch also let his horse out & the chase was for life or death.\u00a0\u00a0He overtook him before the rescue of his friends & knocked him off his horse with the barrel of a rifle with such violence that it peeled his scalp from the lower part of his head to the top.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>From\u00a0\u201cThe Cherokee War Path\u201d\u00a0<\/em>written by John Ridge in Washington City in 1836 as narrated by John Smith and published in\u00a0Chronicles of Oklahoma.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dutch lived with his band of Cherokee in Texas until late in 1831. With the help of the tribe living in Oklahoma, he moved back into Cherokee Nation. John Smith, Edwards, Ignatius, N. and Ogden Chisholm and forty other men with their horses were employed for ninety-five days in removing Dutch\u2019s party to the mouth of the Canadian.\u00a0\u00a0Here Dutch built a handsome plantation surrounded by an extensive settlement of Cherokees.<\/p>\n

James Bowie traveled through Nacogdoches on his way to and from San Antonio. He made numerous trips from 1828 through 1831. On horseback he traveled down Trammels Trace near Tahchee\u2019s village more than once.\u00a0\u00a0I think that Tahchee and James Bowie knew each other. I would like to think that Tahchee traded one of his fine horses for one of James Bowie\u2019s knives. Anyway, we know that James Bowie traveled a lot by horseback and had an eye and a need for a horse like Tahchee\u2019s.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Epilog<\/h3>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

References<\/h3>\n

Indians and Pioneers<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>by Grant Forman, 1930<\/p>\n

The Cherokees and Their Chiefs<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by Stanley W Hoig, 1998<\/p>\n

Fort Gibson<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>by Brad Agnew, 1980<\/em><\/p>\n

The Texas Cherokees\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>by Dianne Everett, 1990<\/p>\n

Territorial Papers<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Chronicles of Oklahoma<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>

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Crazy Crow Articles<\/h2>\n<\/div>