Old Settler Cherokee in the Arkansas River Valley

Emily Beahm of the Arkansas Archeological Survey will present “Old Settler Cherokee in the Arkansas River Valley: Internal Relationships and External Institutions” at the July meeting of the Ouachita Chapter of the Arkansas Archeological Society.

This talk will be held on Tuesday, July 2, at 7 p.m. in the Board Room at Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts, 200 Whittington Ave., Hot Springs. The event is free and open to the public.

By the first quarter of the nineteenth century, the central Arkansas River valley was home to thousands of Cherokee (“Old Settlers”) who had moved from their traditional homeland in the Appalachians to escape from the violence and encroachment of Euromerican settlers. While violence with Euroamericans was less of an issue west of the Mississippi River, the Old Settler Cherokee were regularly in conflict with the neighboring Osage to the north and west. They were also impacted by two Euroamerican institutions, both aimed at stripping away Native peoples’ traditional culture: the Factory System and the Missionary System.

This presentation introduces ongoing research into the Old Settler Cherokee communities that existed in the central Arkansas River valley between the 1790s and 1820s and how the Spadra Factory and the Dwight Mission impacted members of these communities.

Beahm is the University of Arkansas-Arkansas Archeological Survey Station Archeologist at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute. Her research focuses on Indigenous plant use and foodways, gender, rock art and 3D modeling. She has created print and web-based educational material focusing on these topics. Though her participation in the NSF funded research project “Evidence-based Transformation of Undergraduate Field Schools to Promote Safety and Inclusivity among Southeastern Archaeology” and other activities, she works to identify and implement ways to make the discipline of archaeology representative, safe, and accessible for all students.

The Arkansas Archeological Survey’s research station at Henderson State University, 1042 Haddock St., Arkadelphia, holds regular Archeology Lab Days on Thursdays. Students and members of the public are invited to come by the research station on Thursdays between 9 am and 4:30 pm to learn more about archeology in Arkansas. For more information, contact Mary Beth Trubitt at 870-230-5510.