Motherhouse | Nerinx, Kentucky

“Treaty of Sycamore Shoals,” mural by T. Gilbert White in the west Lunette of Kentucky Capitol Building (1910)

Portrait of Dragging Canoe by William Hodges (1791)

Settler Colonialism

The Treaty Period

Destroyers.

“Whole Indian Nations have melted away like snowballs in the sun before the white man’s advance. They leave scarcely a name of our people except those wrongly recorded by their destroyers…. We had hoped that the white man would not be willing to travel beyond the mountains. Now that hope is gone. They have passed the mountains, and have settled upon Tsalagi [Cherokee] land. They wish to have that usurpation sanctioned by a treaty. When that is gained, the same encroaching spirit will lead them upon other land of the Tsalagi. New cessions will be asked. Finally the whole country, which the Tsalagi and their fathers have so long occupied, will be demanded….”

Tsi'yu-gunsini (Dragging Canoe) at Transylvania Purchase (March 9, 1775)

Portrait of John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1765)

Illegal.

“And whereas, advice has been received that one Richard Henderson and other disorderly persons, his associates, under pretence of a purchase made from the Indians, contrary to the aforesaid orders and regulations of His Majesty, do set up a Claim to the Lands of the Crown within the limits of this Colony, I have thought fit therefore to issue this my Proclamation, strictly charging all Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs and other officers, civil and military, to use their utmost endeavours to prevent the unwarrantable and illegal designs of the said Henderson and his abettors….”

Proclamation by John Murray, Earl of Dunmore concerning the Transylvania Company's settlement in western Virginia (March 21, 1775)

“Judge Richard Henderson” drawing by T. Gilbert White (c. 1916)

Rapturous.

“The country might invite a prince from his palace, merely for the pleasure of contemplating its beauty and excellence; but only add the rapturous idea of property, and what allurements can the world offer for the loss of so glorious a prospect?”

Letter from Richard Henderson and John Luttrell (June 25, 1775)

“Third president, 1801–1809,” oil painting by Mather Brown (1786)

Savages.

“[King George] has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”

Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776)