Dennis Bushyhead

Dennis Wolf Bushyhead (Cherokee, March 18, 1826 – February 4, 1898) was a leader in the Cherokee Nation after they had removed to Indian Territory. Born into the Wolf Clan, he was elected as Principal Chief, serving two terms, from 1879 to 1887. Biography Dennis Wolf Bushyhead was born on Mouse Creek near present-day Cleveland, Tennessee, in the eastern part of the state. He was the oldest son of Rev. Jesse Bushyhead, whose Cherokee name was Unaduti. His mother Eliza Wilkinson of the Wolf Clan was from Georgia (U.S. state). She was his father's second wife. Both parents were of mixed-race ancestry and identified as Cherokee. Also known as Unadena, meaning "woolly head" in Cherokee, the boy Jesse was reared in his parents' Cherokee culture. He started school in 1833 at Candy Creek Mission, Tennessee, under the charge of Rev. Holland. In 1835 he went to the Mission School at Valley River in North Carolina and remained there for one year, where he was taught by Evan Jones, a noted Baptist minister and close associate of his father. Bushyhead was a supporter of the Chief John Ross faction, when the tribe was divided by opinions about making a treaty to cede land and move west of the Mississippi River, as was being urged by the federal government. In 1838 as part of Indian Removal, Rev. Jesse Bushyhead conducted a detachment of Cherokee, numbering nearly 1000 people from the old nation, to Beattie's Prairie in the Delaware District (Indian Territory) as part of Indian Removal from the Southeast. His son Dennis was among the party. In the following year, the boy attended Mission School at Park Hill, Cherokee Nation, overseen by Rev. Samuel A. Worcester. He studied there for one year. In 1841 his father sent Dennis to college (more similar to a seminary or prep school) at what is now known as the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. In March 1841 Bushyead was invited to join Chief Ross' delegation to Washington, D.C. to attend the inauguration of General William Henry Harrison as President of The United States.