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The heir apparent to the presidency garners a new nickname.

After resigning as Governor of Tennessee, Houston left Nashville in the middle of the night, boarded a steamboat on the Cumberland River, and headed to Arkansas. In a letter to Andrew Jackson, Houston lamented his domestic misfortune. He informed Jackson that he had reunited with Chief Oolooteka and his Cherokee family and also offered his services to keep peace among the Indians.

During his three-year self-imposed exile, Houston became a Cherokee citizen, dressed in Indian clothing, and married Tiana Rogers, an Indian woman of mixed blood. He ran a trading post called Wigwam Neosho and drank so heavily that he earned the nickname "Big Drunk."

Houston also became involved in Indian affairs, gaining respect among the Cherokee, Osage, and Creek tribes, and often acting as peacemaker and tribal emissary. Houston made trips to Tennessee, Washington, and New York, advancing Indian causes and gradually re-entering the white world.

In 1832, Houston generated controversy in the white world once again, when, on a trip to Washington, he assaulted William Stanbery, a US Representative from Ohio, apparently in a dispute over an Indian issue. Houston received a reprimanded from the House of Representatives for the assault and also found himself back in the world of national politics. Soon thereafter, with the support and encouragement of his mentor, President Jackson, Houston was off to Texas to make more history.

Sources:

Randolph B. Campbell, Sam Houston and the American Southwest, ed. Oscar Handlin (New York: Harper Collins, 1993).

The Sam Houston Memorial Museum, accessed June, 2003.
http://www.shsu.edu/~smm_www/

The Handbook of Texas Online, accessed June, 2003.
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/HH/fho73.html

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