Talk:William Hicks (Cherokee chief)

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Content needs sourcing and expansion[edit]

An editor added two quotes related to William Hicks, contending they showed he did not support the Treaty Party and emigration. They need expansion of content and context, as well as better sourcing. The first statement does not make much sense for most readers. I tried to put the material in encyclopedic form. I was unable to find the Moravian Journals or these references on the James R. Hicks website. Also, according to WP policy, the Hicks website would not be considered a RS. It would be useful for editors to find other accessible sources for the Moravian Journals and newspaper, or published academic sources that support this viewpoint on Hicks not supporting the Treaty Party and removal to the West. Parkwells (talk) 11:55, 22 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

1) An editor contended that William Hicks' withdrawing his son from studying with the Moravian missionary couple, the Gambolds, meant that he was not aligned with Major Ridge or the Treaty Party, but there is too little information provided in the following quote to make that interpretation. Parkwells (talk) 13:17, 23 June 2012 (UTC) <<According to the Moravian Journal entry for 02/16/1805: "...Sam Bigbee came and picked up George Hicks because his father, William Hicks, wants to take him home with him."^[1][reply]

The context of this and its meaning cannot be understood by most readers. Sometimes the Cherokee parents hired private tutors, as did Major Ridge about 1812 when he withdrew his own son John from studying with the Moravian couple. Later he sent him to a private white school, as he was grooming him to be the Chief in the future. (See Thurman Wilkins, Cherokee Tragedy: The Ridge Family and the Decimation of a People, p. 105.)Parkwells (talk) 13:17, 23 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A further example of the alliance between Major Ridge and William Hicks, is that after John Ridge returned from college in 1822, his father and William Hicks urged the Moravian Father Gambold to open a mission in Oothcaloga and found a missionary school there. They both strongly encouraged education and teaching their children English. (Wilkins, p. 137)Parkwells (talk) 13:11, 23 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

At the time of tribal dissension, the editors of the Cherokee Phoenix and Indians' Advocate supported a treaty to get the best exchange for emigration and to try to protect Cherokee rights. They addressed these issues and tried to encourage support. William Hicks wrote to the paper in response to some article, saying

"...As a brother of the Head Chief mentioned, and being one of the 'whole of the Hicks family,' stated to be in readiness to depart from this Nation to the West, I pronounce the above paragraph [referring to a quote from a previous article] in regard to me, my sons, George, Eli, Jay and William Hicks, to be a gross slander..."^[2]

>>

References

^ Moravian Journal, James R. Hicks website, hosted at FamilyTreemaker
^ Letter to the editor, Cherokee Phoenix and Indians' Advocate, 7/8/1829, Vol II, No 14

[1] Moravian Journal, James R. Hicks website, hosted at FamilyTreemaker

[2] Letter to the editor, Cherokee Phoenix and Indians' Advocate, 7/8/1829, Vol II, No 14

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