The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-10-24
QUALLA.

A forgotten people have been hidden for
two or three generations among the higher
ranges of the North Carolina mountains.
Their history is dramatic and pathetic enough !;
if we could rob ourselves of the consciousness
that they are Indians, we should find it as
strange as that of the flight of Tartar tribe
told by De Quincy. They are tribe of
Cherokees who were not included in the treat
les of 1919 and 1885, by which the United
States bought the land belonging to the Indi-
ans in the South, and gave them in lieu tracts
west of the Mississippi
The great body Of red men removed. leav
ing this fragment of a people, numbering
about 1900 souls, still occupying their original
territory, mountainous region called Qualla,
watered by the Tuckasegee and Oconalufta
Rivers.
This tribe fell for whole generation under
the absolute control of q single white man,
who, we are told, Exercised dictatorship
as unlicensed over them as did DR.. Francia
over the hall. breeds of Paraguay" This man
was their ruler, judge, business agent, reli-
gious leader, and in word master OF their
souls and bodies. They married, worked and
managed their households wholly according
| to his orders.
The man apparently had some ill-defned
ideas of morality, for although he permitted
poly gamy among them he con PEELED the whole
tribe to sign the pledge, and what is more to
keep it. His conscience, however, did not
hinder him from following the usual course OF
the white man with the red. 10 the thirty
wears in which he ruled them he managed to
possess himself of every foot OF the large ter
Iitory owned by them, and also OF additional
tracts purchased by the money paid them by
government in lieu of that which would
have been given them had they gone West.
This whole region was held In his name;
consequently when his outside speculations
ia led, it was seized by his creditors and sold
under the hammer. 1t was the ground on
which these Indians had lived since the
memory of man, apd for every foot of which
their money had paid. These Cherokees, too,
| differ from their Western brethren in that
thew have never made public appeals for aid,
have received no help from any religious
BODY, have no missionaries or teachers, and
vet have lived peaceable, inoffensive lives,
working willingly and hard to better their
condition; have built with their own means
two churches in which men OF their nation
preach, and have brought by hard labor
ten thousand acres of land under cultivation.
The case of swindling was so fragrant that
when it was brought in o the courts OF North
Carolina Judgment was promptly awarded on
behalf of the Indians, and they are now re-
stored to the possession of their homes and
land. Justice it appears, does no. wear SO
thick a bandage in Buncombe county as in
Washington. Bat the probability is, now
that they are restored to their rights, that
the honest men who aided them to gain
them will betake themselves to their own
concerns, and the poor Indians become
the prey of dozen spectators instead,
as heretofore Of one. They number
about II. 900; they are shut in by high noun
tain ranges and almost impracticable hill
roads from the rest of mankind; they are un-
taught but eager for knowledge and for place
in the unknown world outside. Since the
decision in their favor (in May LAST govern
ment agents, traders and dealers in whisky
have become cognzant of their Whereabouts,
and have penetrated the hitherto untraveled
porges of the Soco and Oconalufta. Unless
thing is done by better men in their be-
half. there is every probability that this
people will be driven down the short road to
ruin. which the Indians always tread SO
readily.
The only attempt heretofore made to edu-
cate them was by the State of North Carolina.
The Indians carried their children six and
seven miles to the school; the failure was not
on their part, but ON that of the white teacher,
who found the loneliness insupportable. Mis-
sionary work among this forgotten people
would be as hard and call for self-sacriice as
much as in China or Africa, and would be fol-
lowed by no applause But are they to be
| left begging for churches and schools Surely
some Christian church or individual will I'M
| derstand what is needed in Qualla and be
ready to help If there be any such We shall
gladly give them any practical information In
cur power.-N 7. Tribune.