The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-05-10
THE HOME OF THE cHERokEea
From Whence they were Removed to the
Indian Territory.
T(lrfp-inal1

From Whence they were Removed to the
Indian Territory.
IOriginaL
There are only two Of us, and being coun-
try editors, we were a trife more than
elated when the senior announced that we
had In our struggle for financial existence
come ont Is cents ahead Womanlike
called for an outing for three months, and
understandable, he granted the request with
out the usual preface. Neither of us thought
Of Newport or Europe. but in one breath
breathed the magic word ''Chilhowee!' in
terrogatively and he decisively.
And we actually started out in April, first
enjoying a trip through the ''B. l. t." or the
Beautiful Indian Territory, as its resident
white people fondly call it, across the
prairies Of Kansas, among the low ridge
hills of Missouri, down the broad sweeping
Mississippi to Memphis, and across the
country to East Tennessee, toking our time
to see and enjoy the new, the old and the
curious
1t was at Maryville, in Loyal Blount,"
we caught our first glimpse of the Chilhowee
mountain range, the Frozen Deer of the
Cherokee, who loved his pure, health-giving
springs, gurgling streamlets and lofty shade
trees as passionately as do the mountaineers
of Switzerland their Alpine homes. Say
''Chilhoween in the presence of one OF their old
men in the Nation to-day and the dulled eye
will brighten, look of rapture steal over the
brown, wrinkled visage, as he repeats the
word that recalls the grandeur of the noun
tain home of his youth the hunting grounds
where the bear, wolf and deer repaid the
tolls Of the chase; then as the vision slowly
fades and the eye rests upon the vast expanse
of prairie that lays spread out before him,
with its broad acres of waving grain, mark
the scowl of sullen endurance that drops
over the aged features and he is again moth
ing but one Of the Indians who has no right
to anything that might can wrest from him.
according to that policy of the government
which makes no distinction between the civ
ilized and the wild Indian.
As we sat upon an immense bowlder crown
ing one of the loftest peaks of Chilhowee,
and gazed over the greatly broken stretches
Of mountains, coves and valleys, as peculiarly
adapted TO the wants of the red man as the
territory fills the needs of his Unsuitable white
brother we, for the first time, realized the
height and depth of that cruel necessity
which forced the gentle Cherokee from the
mountain lands of the east to the low, fat
lands of the west.
From our eyrie perch we could see the
misty outlines of the ranges of the Big Smoky
looming up into the clouds in the background,
while before us lay, in variegated forms of
beauteous hue and shape. the low-lying foot
hill approaches, and it was easy to fancy we
saw the dusky forms of eager hunters in pur-
suit Of the game they loved to bring in as the
fruit of their toll.
Here, too, the youth of TIE nation drank
sweet waters from its fountains: climbed
hand in hand to the highest points. gathered
pine cones, chestnut burs, or many-colored
pebbles in the tracks of the rils, which, with
every rain or snow for ages past, have rolled
like mighty tears adown the face of nature;
stood poised in breathless silence watching
and hardening to the bounding ROCKS sent
down the steep mountain sides; or sat wrapt
in dreamy thought while the balmy air cooled
the heated brow and entranced the senses
with its delicate fragrance into sweet forget
funess of the present
Among the queenly laurel aud starlike ivy
grows dusky red flower that scents the air
with the perfume of the pineapple, and which,
the old folk say, the shy Indian maid was
wont 10 gather and put in her bosom to on.
chant the senses of her warrior when he came
To- WOO.
II Il were not for the sturdy fact that over
a thousand souls refused 60 Ice removed. and
chung too tenaciously 60 their beloved noun.
tain 90 be dialodged. we would paint these
dark, sweet wild flowers a. gift from the
war god Of the Cherokeee 90 the knely Chill
howee, Ia memory of the loss Of his favorite
people, but truth having quenched the bright
spark ~ poesy, We appease the desire 10 ron.
der homage Ca the ancient homo of our friends
and kinsmen by wreathing the royal purple
flowers aud dark green leaves of the stated,
laurel into ehaplet aud place II with rev.
erent touch on the brow of their grand
Chlhowee NELLIE H. uRAeH.
kNoxvudF, Tenn, April ~.