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Born 1800, Pine Log, Cherokee Nation East (now Georgia)
After touring the United States on a speaking tour to raise money to print the Cherokee Phoenix, Boudinot returned to New Echota and his new home. It was only a short walk from his house to the presses of the Phoenix. Worcestor moved to the Cherokee capital as well. The first issue rolled off the press in February, 1828, and circulation grew quickly. Boudinot wrote on a wide variety of subjects from the settlers' thirst for land and gold to more mundane topics such as the evils of alcohol.
Died June 22, 1839, Park Hill, Cherokee Nation West (now Oklahoma)
Although he lived less than 40 years, few people had a more profound effect on the Cherokee Nation than Elias Boudinot. His legacy includes: 
Elias Boudinot
Born in 1800 (shortly after the arrival of his lifelong friend and cousin John Ridge) Gallegina, or Buck, Watie would be educated by the Moravians at Spring Place, not far from his parent's home in the Oothcaloga Valley.
In 1818 he journeyed north to the American Board School in Cornwall, Connecticut. During this journey he visited two former American presidents, Thomas Jefferson at Monticello and James Madison at Montpelier. Both were pleased to see young Buck and the other Cherokee and Choctaw youths who accompanied him.
Moving north from Virginia the young men stopped in Washington, D. C. and Burlington, New Jersey, where Buck met with Dr. Elias Boudinot, a writer, poet and statesman who is probably best-known for his election to a one-year term as President of the United States under the Articles of Confederation, his role as director of the U. S. Mint for many years, and his fight for Negro rights in New Jersey. The doctor took a strong liking to Gallegina and offered to support the Cherokee financially. Buck agreed to use his name from that day forward.
John Hanson, Elias Boudinot, Thomas Mifflin, Richard Henry Lee, Nathan Gorham, Arthur St. Clair and Cyrus Griffin all held the title of President of the United States before George Washington. As created under the Articles of Confederation the position was essentially a ceremonial one with little power.
During his stay at the college Buck would visit home, frequently traveling with his friend John Ridge. They had many secrets to share, including the women that each had fallen in love with. In Buck's case, young Harriet Gold was the woman of his dreams.
Harriet's father reluctantly agreed to the wedding, but requested secrecy because of the angry reaction of the town to the engagement of John Ridge and Sally Northrup. It did no good. Within days word of the engagement was out and Miss Gold was burned in effigy on the town square. When she entered her church she was asked to leave. When the couple wed in March, 1826, it was the beginning of what was, by all accounts, a very happy union. Unfortunately, the fervor of racism that swept the town after the second interracial marriage forced the school to close its doors forever.
About this time the Cherokee tribe completed a 25-year move towards nationalism. The establishment of a capital at New Echota, creation of a bicameral council and Supreme Court was the formal start of the Cherokee Nation. Boudinot was selected as editor of the national newspaper because of his experience, his ability to use both English and the new "Talking Leaves," a written language contributed by the warrior Sequoyah, and his friendship with Samuel Worcester, known to the Cherokee as "The Messenger."
In 1829 Editor Boudinot's pay increased from $300.00 to $400.00 annually and he got an assistant. Harriet ran the Boudinot house which included a school, hospital (of sorts), boarding house for relatives, and a Christian mission. Strangely, in the autumn of 1829 both Boudinot and John Ridge strongly supported the enactment of the death penalty for giving away Cherokee land. It was under the terms of this law that Boudinot and Ridge (and Ridge's father, Major Ridge) would lose their lives 10 years later.Full license to our oppressors, and every avenue of justice closed to us. Yes, this is the bitter cup prepared for us...
The shaping of Elias Boudinot's belief that removal was the only answer for his nation can be witnessed in the editorial tone of the Cherokee Phoenix. From the time he started until his resignation in 1832, Boudinot's slow, steady shift is apparent in his writing. By this time federal troops had left the Cherokee Nation (now disturbing called Cherokee Georgia by whites). It was routine for Boudinot to be called to the front of the Phoenix office to defend his editorials to angry Georgia militia. But he stood firm in the face of great adversity and would not back down.I am induced to believe there is danger, "immediate and appalling," and it becomes the people of this country to weigh the matter rightly, act wisely, not rashly, and choose a course that will come nearest benefiting the nation
On August 1, 1832, Elias Boudinot resigned as the first editor of the Cherokee Phoenix. He had changed his stance on removal, advocating it as the best choice for the Cherokee Nation. Cherokee leader John Ross would no longer permit the paper to print the views of its editor.
That same year Georgia held two lotteries, the Sixth Land Lottery and the Gold Lottery, dividing up the Cherokee Nation's remaining Georgia land.
1835 was a critical time for the young former editor. Harriet Boudinot died that year. From February until December an immense political drama played out on Buck's doorstep. Twenty members of the rebellious Treaty Party signed the Treaty of New Echota in Boudinot's house on a cold December evening. The following day some 200 Ridgites met to "ratify" the Treaty.
Life in the relocated Cherokee Nation was different for Boudinot. He re-married, this time a young lady with the intriguing name of Delight Sargent. Working with his old friend Rev. Worcestor on translating the Bible into Cherokee, he was caught completely unsuspecting by a group of Cherokee men in June, 1839, stabbed and tomahawked to death near the new home he and his wife were building.
Cherokee in North Georgia
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North Georgia History
Photo of Elias Boudinot courtesy State of Georgia, New Echota Historic Site.
American Indians of Georgia
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