Elizabeth King Cowgill

History of the National Cherokee Female Seminary Elizabeth King Cowgill

In the treaty of December 25, 1835, the first proposition was made to establish a seminary for girls and also one for boys in the Cherokee nation. Negotiators in this treaty were John Ridge, Elias Boudinot, John West, Archilla Smith, Samuel W. Bell, William H. Davis and Ezekiel West, all names which attained prominent places in Cherokee history. The fact that these negotiations were entered into two years before the first college for women was opened in New England, (Mount Holyoke, 1837), shows the advanced position taken by the founders of the Cherokee nation in the west. Progress of the Cherokees was due in large measure to the excessive pride in their schools which were never allowed to under the supervision in any way of the educational authority of the United States.