The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-11-06
A Forgotten People in the Mountains
of North Carolina

Their history is dramatic and pa
thetIc enough if we could rob our
selves of the consciousness that they
are Indians I'VE would find it as strange
as that of the fight of Tartar tribe
told by DeQuinccy. They are tribe
of Cherokecs who were not included
in the treaties of 1S19-36, by which
the United States bought the land be-
longing to the Indians in the south,
and gave them in lieu tracts west of
the Mississippi. The great body Of
red men removed, leaving this trag-
ment of Il people, numbering about
l 800 souls, still occupying their origi-
nal territory, mountainous region
called Qualla, watcred by the Tucka-
seege and Oconalutta rivers in North
Carolina. This tribe fell for Il whole
generation under the absolute control
OF n single white man, who, we are told,
exercised Il dictatorship as unlicensed
over them as did DIR. Francia over the
halfbreeds of Paraguay" This man
was the ruler, judge, business agent,
religious leader, and in a word master
of their souls and bodies. They mar
ried, worked, and managed their house
holds wholly according to his order.
The man apparently had some refined
ideas of mortality, for although he per-
mitted polygamy among them he com
PEELED the whole tribe to sign the pledge,
and what is more to keep it. His con-
science, however, did not hinder him
from following the usual course of the
white man with the red. In the thirty
years in which he ruled them, he man
aged to possess himself of every foot of
the large territory 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 specu-
lations failed, it was seized by his cred
itors, and sold under the hammer. 1t
was the ground on which these Indians
had lived since the memory of man,
and for every foot of which their money
had paid. These Cherokees, too, differ
from their western brethren in that
they have never made public appeals
for aid, have received no help from any
religious body, have no missionaries or
teachers, and yet have lived peaceable,
inoflensive lives, working willingly and
hard to better their condition; have
in which men of their nation preach,
and have brought by hard labor ten
thousand acres of land under cult
walton.
The case of swindling was so fragrant
that when it was brought into the
courts of North Carolina judgment was
promptly awarded on behalf of the
Indians, and they are now in possession
of their homes and land. Justice, it
appears, does not wear so thick a band
age in Buncombe county as in Wash
ington. But 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 In
dams become the prey of a dozen spec
ulators instead, as heretofore, of one.
They number about 1 900; they are
shut in by high mountain ranges and
almost impracticable hill roads from
the rest of mankind; they are untaught
but eager for knowledge and for a
place in the unknown world outside
Since the decision in their favor in May
last, government agents, traders, and
dealers in whisky have become cogni-
zant of their whereabouts, and have
penetrated the hitherto untraveled
gorges of the Soco and Oconalufta
Unless something is done by better
men in their behalf, there is every
probability that this people will be
driven down the short road to ruin,
which the Indians always tread so
readily.