The Cherokee’s Farewell

Chapter XXVII

     It was June 1934.  Fourteen Cherokee Indians, all related, were encamped on the riverbank southwest of Chariton.  A reporter from Chariton Newspapers visited their tent village to interview them.  The story is preserved in an old scrapbook loaned to this writer by Dean Boozell of the Russell Community.

     The Indians had been in Missouri collecting herbs.  Members of the tribe had made this pilgrimage almost every year since January 2, 1881 to pay respect to the memory of their famed ancestor, Chief John Rinehart, who died here on that date.  Other members of the family are buried in the same lot – said to be his wife and three children brought here years later for burial.  The monument, a tall obelisk was one of the finest in its day.   It stands on the lot on the south side of the road just inside the cemetery.

     Mrs. Dolly Friar, granddaughter of Chief Rinehart and spokesman for the group, related the events, which led to the burial here.  Her father, Ephraim Joles, was an Englishman who traveled after Memorial Day at least when the graves of the chief and his family were to be decorated – and perhaps longer as one of the women was expecting a “little papoose” and they were certain to stay until after it arrived”. 

     Boyd Schotte remembers how beautifully the graves were decorated each year.  They used various bright colored stones, glass and rocks of many kinds, none native to this area and he says the graves were never disturbed nor vandalized.

     Mrs. Friar knew the name and purpose of each of the 165 roots, they sold for medicinal purpose.  They had license to sell all types of medicines but they sold no habit-forming drugs nor any impure ingredients.

     She said, “We wouldn’t know how to handle such things.  The medicines we know are those made by nature.  It is a pleasure for Indians to follow the old trails of their ancestors.  The paths they set are clean and pure.  They did not rob.  They broke no laws.  They lived honest, good lives and we are proud of them.

     Mrs. Friar said her father was well known to Lucas County’s early settlers.  He was a Mason and an Odd-Fellow.  In a spring wagon he once took Chief Rinehart’s wife from Oklahoma to Minnesota.  Said Mrs. Friar: “To make a trip like that in those days one needed to know and be liked by everyone.  He died at age 94 in 1931 and he and his wife are buried in St. Paul.

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