Elias Boudinot (Galagina)
was a Cherokee, born about 1802. In 1818, at the insistence of
the noted philanthropist whose name he was permitted to adopt, he
entered the mission school of the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions at Cornwell, Connecticut.
In 1823, in collaboration
with Rev. S. A. Worcester, he began the translation of parts of the
New Testament into the Cherokee language. In 1827, under the
auspices of the Cherokee National Council, he established the Cherokee
Phoenix which was published for six years and then discontinued.
In 1833 he wrote a book called "Poor Sarah, or The Indian
Woman," which was published in the Cherokee language and another
edition of this book, printed at Part Hill in 1843, was probably the
first book ever printed in Oklahoma.
Boudinot was a man of
marked ability and exerted a great influence over his people until he
espoused the cause of the Ridge party in support of the sale of the
Cherokee lands in the East and the migration of the tribe to the
wilderness of the West. This made him very unpopular and
ultimately led to his assassination by some of the more vindictive
partizans of the oppositions shortly after their arrival on the new
reservation, June 20, 1839. Boudinot was a brother of Stand
Waitie, who was a colonel and brigadier general in the military
service of the Confederate States.
Source: A
History of Oklahoma by Joseph B. Throburn and Isaac M.
Holcomb, Doub and Company San Francisco 1908.
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