Cherokee Phoenix

NEW ECHOTA

Published October, 15, 1828

Page 2 Column 3b-4a

NEW ECHOTA:

Wednesday, October 15, 1828

We are sorry that we Indians are so frequently misrepresented. The following is from the Athenian. The two commissioners in the service of the General Government, are probably the two Arkansas Cherokees, James Rogers and Thomas Maw, for whom, for selling their country, poles have been erected on which to hang their heads-this is done by their citizens over the Mississippi. There are no poles here for them. Whether these men are entitled to the dignified appellation of Commissioners of the United States, we know not. They have not been introduced to us, by the General Government-they may, for aught we know, be secret agents, a fact, the gentleman direct from Tennessee, probably was well acquainted. Those editors who exchange with us, and have copied the article in question, would do us a favour [sic] by making public this explanation.

It is reported on the authority of a gentleman, direct from Tennessee, that two Commissioners in the service of the General Government, and acting under its authority, are now executing their commission within the Cherokee Nation, in endeavoring to excite a spirit of emigration to the West. The effect is represented as being not only unpopular, but hazardous in the extreme, their lives having been threatened, and poles erected on which to exhibit their heads. The Agent, Colonel Hugh Montgomery, it is also stated, has received instruction from the War Department, to accompany them, and to protect them against the execution of the threat by which they are menaced. How far the Agent will be disposed to lend his official sanction to the encouragement of such a disposition, is a matter of much doubt, if we may infer from his apology to the Indians of the unpleasantness of his duty which usually accompanies his exertions. Should the measure be successful, which is highly uncertain, the names of those disposed to emigrate, will hereafter be enrolled, and measures taken for their removal.- Georgia Athenian.