Lewis Downing served as Chief

Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation

Principal Chief is today the title of the chief executives of the Cherokee Nation, of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, the three federally recognized tribes of Cherokee. In the eighteenth century, when the people were organized by clans and...

 of the Cherokee Nation

Cherokee Nation (19th century)

The Cherokee Nation of the 19th century —an historic entity —was a legal, autonomous, tribal government in North America existing from 1794–1906. Often referred to simply as The Nation by its inhabitants, it should not be confused with what is known today as the "modern" Cherokee Nation...

 from 1867 to 1872. After the death of John Ross, he was a compromise candidate who worked to heal divisions in the tribe following removal

Indian Removal

Indian removal was a nineteenth century policy of the government of the United States to relocate Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the river...

 to the Indian Territory

Indian Territory

The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...

 and the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

.

Background

Downing was born in eastern Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

 in 1823 to Samuel Downing and his wife Susan Daugherty, who were both Cherokee with mixed European ancestry, as were many among the leaders of the Nation in those years. The young Downing attended school at the Valley Town Mission in North Carolina. When he was a young man, Downing and his family went west during the forced removal of the Cherokee and their slaves, now known as the Trail of Tears

Trail of Tears

The Trail of Tears is a name given to the forced relocation and movement of Native American nations from southeastern parts of the United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830...

. The family was possibly part of the detachment party led by Jesse Bushyhead

Jesse Bushyhead

The Reverend Jesse Bushyhead was a Cherokee religious and political leader. He was born in southeastern Tennessee. As a young man, he was ordained a Baptist minister. A member of the John Ross faction of the Cherokees, he was dispatched by Ross in 1837 on a mission to the Seminoles...

 or the party led by Situagi and the Reverend Evan Jones.

In 1839, the Downings arrived in what is now Adair County, Oklahoma

Adair County, Oklahoma

Adair County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of 2000, the population was 22,638. Its county seat is Stilwell. Adair County was named after the Adair family of the Cherokee tribe.-History:...

. They settled near the site where Reverend Jones organized the Baptist Mission. Downing continued his education at Baptist Mission.

Career

Early in life, Downing became a convert of the Mission through the efforts of Reverend Jones. Downing subsequently was ordained as a Baptist minister. The historian John Bartlett Meserve wrote, "Reports of his [Downing's] spiritual activities reach back to 1842 when he was but nineteen years of age. On August 3, 1844, he was unanimously chosen pastor of the Flint Baptist Church, succeeding the Reverend Jesse Bushyhead who had passed away shortly before."

The young minister was a strong participant in Cherokee Nation

Cherokee Nation

The Cherokee Nation is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It was established in the 20th century, and includes people descended from members of the old Cherokee Nation who relocated voluntarily from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokees who...

 politics and as such was elected senator from Goingsnake District on August 4, 1845. He later removed to a farm on what is today the southeast corner of Mayes County, Oklahoma

Mayes County, Oklahoma

Mayes County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It was named for Samuel Houston Mayes, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1895 to 1899. According to the 2010 census the population was 41,259, a 7.5 percent increase from 2000, when the population was 38,369...

, where he was elected to the senate on August 4, 1851, and again on August 1, 1859. In 1851, Downing served as a delegate from the Cherokee tribe to Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

.

Civil War

The American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 exacerbated divisions within the tribe dating to removal and the years of violence following that. Chief Ross agreed to an alliance with the Confederacy

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 and the Cherokee formed the majority of the Indian cavalry

Indian cavalry

Indian cavalry is the name collectively given to the Midwest and Eastern American Indians who fought during the American Civil War, most of them on horseback and for the South.-Cherokee Nation:...

. Lewis Downing was named chaplain

Chaplain

Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...

 of companies F and S of the Regiment of Cherokee Mounted Rifles for the Confederate service, which was formed by Chief Ross on October 4, 1861. Col. John Drew was the commanding officer. The members of this regiment were mostly full bloods and were not slave owners. The regiment fought in the Confederate service at Pea Ridge, Arkansas

Pea Ridge, Arkansas

Pea Ridge is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. The name Pea Ridge comes from a combination of the physical location of the original settlement of the town, across the crest of an Ozark Mountains ridge, and for the hog peanuts or turkey peas that had been originally cultivated by...

, on March 7–8, 1862.

With the advance of the Union forces into the Territory in July 1862, and the departure of Chief Ross for Philadelphia under growing tribal tensions, the cavalry's members began to waver in their allegiance to the South. With few exceptions, among them Col. John Drew, the Cherokee began to abandon Confederate

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 service. On July 11, 1862, at Flat Rock Creek, most joined the Third Indian Home Guards for service in the Union Army

Union Army

The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...

. This contingent was composed of three regiments consisting of 1,480 men, of which Lewis Downing was named Lieut. Colonel and the Rev. John B. Jones was designated its chaplain, in the brigade of Col. William A. Phillips.

At the time, the majority of the Cherokee favored the Confederacy. They and those who were pro-Union formed dual governments in the Cherokee Nation, each striving to control its political affairs. The pro-Union forces, who recognized John Ross as chief, held meetings at Cowskin Prairie. In July 1862, they renounced allegiance to the Confederacy. Tom Pegg took over as acting chief, and their National Council in early 1863 reflected the Emancipation of President Abraham Lincoln. On February 21, 1863, they emancipated all the slaves in Cherokee territory, but most were held by their opponents. laws of emancipation

Abolitionism

Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...

 were enacted and future slavery

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

 abolished. Lewis Downing assisted in leadership, serving as the third (in succession) acting principal chief of the Union Cherokee in John Ross' absence in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

. The dual governments continued until after the conclusion of the war. The pro-Confederate Cherokee were led by Stand Watie

Stand Watie

Stand Watie , also known as Standhope Uwatie, Degataga , meaning “stand firm”), and Isaac S. Watie, was a leader of the Cherokee Nation and a brigadier general of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War...

, who served as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army.

Post war

Lewis Downing as president of the pro-Union tribal council, went to Washington in 1863 to alert the government to the divided situation of the Cherokee.

After the war, a preliminary intertribal peace conference with the United States commissioners was held at Fort Smith

Fort Smith National Historic Site

Fort Smith National Historic Site is a United States National Historic Site located primarily in Fort Smith, Arkansas along the Arkansas River, and also along the opposite bank of the river near Moffett, Oklahoma....

 on September 8, 1865. It was at this meeting that Downing protested against the refusal of the commissioners to accord recognition to John Ross as the Principal Chief of the Cherokee. At that time, Stand Watie was chief of the pro-Confederate Cherokee, and he proposed federal recognition of two Cherokee nations. The US dealt only with Ross and the pro-Union faction.

Ross returned to Tahlequah

Tahlequah, Oklahoma

Tahlequah is a city in Cherokee County, Oklahoma, United States located at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. It was founded as a capital of the original Cherokee Nation in 1838 to welcome those Cherokee forced west on the Trail of Tears. The city's population was 15,753 at the 2010 census. It...

 for a brief period in the fall of 1865. He returned to Washington the next year to protest against the approval of section nine of the treaty of June 19, 1866. The US government was requiring the Cherokee to free their slaves, and to grant them full citizenship in the Cherokee nation and equal rights to annuities and land grants as full-blood Cherokee. The Reverend John B. Jones approved this disputed section; he had accompanied Ross as a delegate and signed the treaty as such.

Becoming chief

John Ross died at Washington on August 1, 1866. As Assistant Principal Chief, Lewis Downing succeeded him and served until October 19, 1866. The National Council chose William P. Ross to fill the position of Principal Chief until the next election.

Much bitterness lingered among the Cherokee following the end of the war. Many resented the conditions which the US government had included in the peace treaty, as the pro-Confederate Cherokee had wanted the government to remove the freedmen at its expense and to allocate them land separately from the Cherokee. Among the Ross faction of the pro-Union Cherokee were many who insisted upon the exclusion of the pro-Confederate Cherokee from tribal affairs. There were sentiments that the penalties for their Southern activities had not been entirely exhausted.

Downing opposed discrimination within the tribe. He formed the Downing Party to work for reunification of the different factions. Reverend John B. Jones threw his power and influence among the full bloods, behind the Downing movement which was to rehabilitate the Southern Cherokees and align them with the Union Cherokee. In the tribal election held on August 5, 1867, Lewis Downing was elected Principal Chief with the support of both factions. The Downing party controlled the political affairs of the Cherokee Nation until Statehood in 1908, except for the tenure of chief Dennis W. Bushyhead from 1879 to 1887.

Lewis Downing signed the Treaty of April 27, 1869, at Washington. He represented the Cherokee at Washington as a delegate in 1869 and in 1870. He was re-elected on August 7, 1871.

He died in office at Tahlequah, on November 9, 1872, and is buried in the old Ned Adair cemetery in what is today Mayes County, Oklahoma

Mayes County, Oklahoma

Mayes County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It was named for Samuel Houston Mayes, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1895 to 1899. According to the 2010 census the population was 41,259, a 7.5 percent increase from 2000, when the population was 38,369...

.