Joel B. Mayes
| Joel B. Mayes | |
|---|---|
| Tsa-wa Gak-ski | |
 |
|
| Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation leader | |
| Preceded by | Dennis Bushyhead |
| Succeeded by | C. J. Harris |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
October 2, 1833 Cartersville, Bartow County, Georgia |
| Died | December 14, 1891 (aged 58) Tahlequah, Cherokee County, Oklahoma |
| Resting place | Tahlequah Cemetery, Cherokee County, Oklahoma |
| Spouse(s) | Martha J. Candy Martha McNair Mary Delilah Vann Drew |
| Education | Cherokee Male Seminary |
| Known for | Cherokee Supreme Court justice, Cherokee Outlet sale |
Joel Bryan Mayes (Tsa-wa Gak-ski, in Cherokee) (1833 – 1891) was Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.
He was born on October 2, 1833 in present-day Carterville, Bartow County, Georgia to the former Nancy Adair (b. 1808, and part-Cherokee) and her husband Samuel Mayes (1803-1858, and adopted into the Cherokee tribe upon his marriage in 18245). In 1838, Samuel Mayes and his family (as well as the Adair family and others of mixed Scots/Irish and Cherokee ancestry and their slaves), relocated across the Mississippi River into what was then Indian Territory. Many of these "Old Settlers" had signed a removal treaty (the Treaty of New Echota) which many other Cherokee (including chief John Ross) abhored and renounced. Samuel Mayes bred and sold livestock, and also owned many enslaved persons before his death in 1858 in what eventually became Mayes County, Oklahoma (named for him and/or his son after statehood five decades later).
Joel B. Mayes was one of Samuel Mayes's many sons. His elder brothers were George Washington Mayes (1824-1894), John Thompson Mayes (1826-1863) and Francis Asbury Mayes (1833-1863). Both the latter accompanied their father driving cattle to California circa 1852. While John Thompson Mayes returned with his father to Indian Territory, Francis Asbury Mayes remained in California for several years, but when returning to Oklahoma in 1863, was reported ambushed by hostile tribesman and killed. The eldest brother, Wash Mayes, would serve as high sheriff of the Cherokee Nation for many years. A younger brother Samuel Houston Mayes (1845-1927), also became a principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, and the namesake of Mayes County, Oklahoma. Other younger brothers were William Henry ("Tip") Mayes (1842-1918) and Wiley B. Mayes (1848-1934).
He attended tribal schools, then college at the Cherokee Male Seminary, graduating in 1856. He edited a small weekly newspaper there called the Sequoyah Memorial, with the motto: "Truth, Justice, Freedom of Speech and Cherokee Improvement." Mayes then taught school at Muddy Springs from 1855 to 1857, before becoming a cattleman like his father until the American Civil War.
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