Tragedy
of Chief Bowles
by Bob Bowman
Few
historical figures are as tragic as Chief Bowles, the 83-year-old
Cherokee Indian chief who died on a Neches River battlefield near Tyler
164 years ago this month.
The battle of the Neches, fought on July 15 and 16, 1839, was the
principal engagement of the Cherokee War, an event discolored by shame
akin to the Trail of Tears, the forced march of the Cherokees from their
homeland in the Southeast to Oklahoma in 1838 and 1839.
Bowles -- also known as The Bowl, Duwal'li, or Bold Hunter -- was born
in North Carolina around 1765, the son of a Scottish father and a
Cherokee mother.
As the leader of a village, he led his people from North Carolina to the
St. Francis Valley in Missouri in 1810 to escape growing pressures of
white settlers in the South. He later led the tribe to Arkansas and then
into East Texas.
In February of 1836, when Texas revolted against Mexico, Sam Houston
negotiated a treaty with the chief that would guarantee the Cherokees
possession of 1.5 million acres of land in East Texas.
But after the Texas Revolution, the Senate of the Republic of Texas
invalidated the treaty because the Cherokees had been briefly allied
with Mexico in an effort to secure their lands in East Texas before the
revolution. Indian and Mexican attacks on settlers in East Texas also
complicated the Cherokees' position.
When Mirabeau B. Lamar replaced Houston as president of the Republic, he
ordered Bowles and his people to leave Texas. Negotiations failed and
Bowles put the question to the Cherokees, as well as other tribes
sharing the lands.
Would they stand together in an effort to hold their land? The decision
was made to fight.
President Lamar sent his troops to the Neches River and the first day's
battle was fought in what is now Henderson County. The second day's
fighting occurred in what is now Van Zandt County.
The Texan Army numbered only 500, compared to 700 to 800 Indians, but
Bowles' warriors were routed, and pursuit continued until July 24. The
old chief, wearing a handsome sword and sash given him by Sam Houston,
remained in the field on horseback for two days. On the last day, he
signaled retreat, but few of his men were left to flee. Bowles was shot
in the leg and his horse was wounded. As he climbed from his mount, he
was shot in the back.
As the Texas militia approached him, he sat down, crossed his arms and
legs facing the soldiers, and waited for his death. The captain of the
militia walked to where Bowles sat, placed a pistol to his head, and
killed him. The Texans took stripes of skin from his arm as souvenirs.
His body was left where it lay. No burial ever took place.
The battle of the Neches was the largest single massacre in East Texas
with more than 800 men, women and children of the associated tribes
killed. While a state historical marker stands on the battleground, no
funeral was held for Chief Bowles until 1995 -- the 156th anniversary of
his death -- when descendants of the tribe met to honor the chief and
those who died with him.
Today, the American Indian Heritage Center is raising money to purchase
70 acres of the 1.5 million acres promised to the Cherokees and other
tribes in the l830s as a memorial to the old chief and his people.
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