Cherokee Leader. He was a Cherokee Nation leader and the editor of the "Cherokee Phoenix." Born Gallegina (also known as Buck) Watie, son of Oo-watie at Oothcaloga in the Cherokee Nation in what is now northwest Georgia, he was the elder brother of Stand Watie. He was sent to Cornwall, Connecticut, to attend the American Boarding School. He enrolled in school as Elias Boudinot after having met and been impressed by another Elias Boudinot, a writer, poet, and statesman who was once President of the United States under the Articles of Confederation and director of the U. S. Mint. The elder Boudinot was equally impressed by Gallegina and offered him financial support. He converted to Christianity about 1820 and considered entering the Andover Theological Seminary, but poor health prevented it. In 1826, Boudinot married Harriet Ruggles Gold, the daughter of a Cornwall physician, creating a furor in New England. Returning to Georgia, Boudinot served as clerk of the Cherokee Council from 1825 to 1827. In 1826, he made a lecture tour of American cities to raise funds for a printing press and typed in the Cherokee syllabary. He worked on the translation of the Bible into the Cherokee language, and he was appointed the editor of the Cherokee Phoenix in 1828, which was the first newspaper published by any tribe. Pressure for the Cherokees to be removed to the west mounted, and utilizing his newspaper, Boudinot became a defender of Cherokee rights. In 1829, he strongly supported the enactment of the death penalty for giving away Cherokee land. In August 1832, he resigned as the editor of the Cherokee Phoenix, having changed his stance on removal, advocating it as the best choice for the survival of the Cherokee Nation. In December 1835, not long after the death of his wife, members of the party advocating a treaty met in his home and signed a document that provided for the exchange of the Cherokee country in the east for lands west of the Mississippi without the consent of the principal chief. The U.S. Senate ratified the document as the Treaty of New Echota, which marked the beginning of the Cherokee removal. Denounced by many Cherokee, Boudinot moved west in 1837 and settled at Park Hill, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). In a coordinated attack in June of 1839, Boudinot and two other members of the Treaty Party were stabbed to death.