Chief Bowles' Last Homesite

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker at Chief Bowles' Last Homesite tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, before we get into what happened here, you need to understand what was at stake — and it starts with a treaty. In 1836, General Sam Houston sat down with the Cherokees in Texas and negotiated an agreement.

The treaty granted the Cherokees possession of the lands they already occupied in east Texas. And the leading figure among those Cherokees — the man at the center of it all — went by several names. His people knew him as Duwali.

History would record him as Bowl, as Chief Bowles, as Bold Hunter. Whatever you called him, he was the one who mattered. Then came the Texas Revolution, and the ground shifted beneath everyone's feet.

When the dust settled, the Senate of the Republic of Texas looked at that treaty Houston had signed and declared it invalid. Just like that. The paper was worthless.

Near this very site, in 1839, Chief Bowles received the news that Texas president Mirabeau B. Lamar had issued orders to remove the Cherokee from Texas entirely. Not negotiate.

Not revisit the treaty. Remove them. Bowl was not a man who accepted that lying down.

He mobilized his people to resist the expulsion. And for a moment, you might believe that resolve alone could hold a nation together. It couldn't.

The Cherokees were defeated. And on July 16, 1839, at the Battle of the Neches — in what is now Van Zandt County — Chief Bowles was killed. The man who had stood at the center of his people's world, who had negotiated, who had resisted, who had fought — fell on that ground.

This site, right here, was the last place he called home.

What the marker says

In 1836, General Sam Houston negotiated a treaty with the Cherokees in Texas allowing possession of the lands they occupied in east Texas. The leading figure among the Cherokees at that time was Duwali (also known as Bowl, Chief Bowles and Bold Hunter). After the Texas Revolution, the Senate of the Republic of Texas declared the treaty invalid. Near this site in 1839, Chief Bowles learned of Texas president Mirabeau B. Lamar's orders to remove the Cherokee from Texas. Bowl mobilized his people to resist the expulsion, but they were defeated and the chief was killed at the Battle of the Neches on July 16, 1839, in what is now Van Zandt County. (2001)