Boudinot, Elias [Galagina], (c. 1803-1839)

Cherokee tribal leader and associate of American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) mission to the Cherokees

Born near Rome, Georgia, Galagina (his original name) was sent in 1818 to the ABCFM’s Foreign Mission School at Cornwall, Connecticut, where he was converted and took the name of a prominent statesman and patron of the school. After a year at Andover Theological Seminary (1822-1823) Boudinot returned to Georgia, where he worked with ABCFM missionary Samuel A. Worcester in translating biblical and educational literature. In 1828 the Cherokee National Council directed him to establish a newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix, using both English and the Cherokee syllabary. This major medium of information and opinion opposed efforts to remove the tribe beyond the Mississippi, and as a result it was suppressed by the Georgia legislature in 1835. However, Boudinot became convinced that removal was the only viable option and joined a few others in signing a removal treaty. This action and the suffering of the tribe along the notorious “Trail of Tears” led to bitter dissension, and Boudinot was assassinated in 1839.
Boudinot’s marriage in 1826 to Harriet Gold, a Cornwall girl, had provoked outrage in the Cornwall community but was supported by the ABCFM. After her death in 1836, Boudinot married Delight Sargent, a missionary teacher among the Cherokees.
Stowe, David M., “Boudinot, Elias (Galagina),” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 81.

This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright © 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.

Bibliography

Digital Primary

Boudinot, Elias. An Address to the Whites (1826), Philadelphia: William F. Gedden, 1926.

Worcester, Samuel Austin and Elias Boudinot, The Gospel according to Matthew: translated into the Cherokee language, 5th edition, Park Hill: Mission Press (1850).

Primary

Boudinot, Elias. Poor Sarah, or The Indian Woman. [Park Hill, Indian Territory: Mission Press], 1843 (1st ed., 1833).

Elias Boudinot’s “Editorials” in The Cherokee Phoenix (see link at Digital Texts below).

Secondary

Gabriel, Ralph Henry. Elias Boudinot, Cherokee, & his America. Norman, Okla: University of Oklahoma press, 1980 (1st edition, 1941).

Gaul, Theresa Strouth, Elias Boudinot, and Harriett Gold Boudinot. To Marry an Indian : The Marriage of Harriett Gold and Elias Boudinot in Letters, 1823-1839. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005.

Luebke, Barbara Francine, “Elias Boudinot, Cherokee Editor: The Father of American Indian Journalism” (Ph.D. diss., University of Missouri-Columbia, 1981).

Perdue, Theda, ed., Cherokee Editor: The Writings of Elias Boudinot (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1996).

Parins, James W., Elias Cornelius Boudinot: A Life on the Cherokee Border, U. of Nebraska Press, 2006. (This is a biography of Boudinot’s son with information about him early in the book.)

Rozema, Vicki, Voices from the Trail of Tears, John F. Blair, Publisher, 2003.

Wilkins, Thurman. Cherokee Tragedy : The Ridge Family and the Decimation of a People. 2nd ed., The Civilization of the American Indian series ; v. 169, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1986.

Woodward, Grace Steele. The Cherokees. The Civilization of the American Indian series, 65, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963. Missionary Herald 89 (1839): 131.

Links

Beeson, Leola Selman, “Homes of Distiguished Cherokee Indians,” Chronicles of Oklahoma, Volume 11, No. 3, September, 1933, pp. 927-930. (Article includes a photo of Boudinot’s home at New Echota, GA):

A photo of the building housing The Cherokee Phoenix near New Echota, GA:

A photo essay about New Echota, GA and Elias Boudinot in that context:
http://www.tnhistoryforkids.org/places/new_echota.

“The Murder Of Elias Boudinot,” Chronicles of Oklahoma, Volume 12, No. 1, March, 1934, 19-24:

Portrait

“Elias Boudinot” at: http://digital.library.okstate.edu/chronicles/v012/v012p019.html.