Elias Boudinot

Elias Boudinot (ca. 1804–1839) was born in the Cherokee Nation, near present-day Chatsworth, Georgia. His given name was Gallegina Watie, or the Buck. He began his formal education at a Moravian school in Spring Place, Georgia, then in 1817 was invited to attend the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions School in Cornwall, Connecticut. On his journey there, Gallegina was introduced to Elias Boudinot, president of the American Bible Society, and adopted his name. By 1828 Boudinot had returned to Georgia, and in that year became the founding editor of the bilingual newspaper the Cherokee Phoenix, a position he held until 1832. He also published Cherokee translations of some two dozen religious texts, including Cherokee Hymns, Compiled from Several Authors and Revised, the first book printed using the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah. Boudinot supported the voluntary removal of the Cherokees to lands west of the Mississippi, a controversial position at odds with the majority of the tribe. After moving west in 1839, he was killed by fellow Cherokees opposed to his views on removal and other tribal matters. (Inducted in 2003)