Site of Bowles' Indian Village

Duane's take

Now here's how the marker tells it, and I'll give you every word it's got to give. You're rolling through Rusk County, and the ground beneath you has got a story older than Texas itself — older, at least, than the Republic that would rise just weeks after what happened right here. On February 23, 1836 — and you want to hold that date in your mind, because Texas would declare independence in a matter of days — General Sam Houston and a man named John Forbes sat down with Bowles, chief of the Cherokees, and his associated bands, and they put their names to a treaty.

Right here. On this very ground that once held Bowles' Indian Village. Now the treaty didn't use plain language the way a handshake deal might.

No, the document reached for words like 'domicile' and 'tillage-usufructuary rights' — which is a legal mouthful meaning, in the plainest terms, that the Cherokees and their associated bands were guaranteed a place to live and the right to work the land. Houston signed it. Forbes signed it.

Bowles accepted it. That's three men, two nations, and one document, all converging on a single February day in what would very soon become the Republic of Texas. Whatever came after — and history being history, there was always something that came after — this marker asks you to stop here, on this ground, and remember what was promised.

The State of Texas erected this marker in 1936 to make sure you did.

What the marker says

Here General Sam Houston and John Forbes signed a treaty on February 23, 1836 with Bowles, chief of the Cherokees, and his associated bands by which "domicile" and "tillage-usufructuary rights" were guaranteed them. Erected by the State of Texas 1936