The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-05-07
SOME MOUNTAIN RED MEN.
Remnant of a Great Tribe Dwelling In
Peace and Comfort.
Especial Correspondence.l


Especial Correspondence.l
OUbI-A RESERVE, N. c., May s.
There are a score or two of idle, drunk
en- Seminole Indians left in southern
Florida, the Remnant of a strong and
warlike tribe which was beaten and
transported beyond the Mississippi more
than so years ago The only other Indians
in the southern states between the Allan
tic and the Mississippi are the 800 or
more Cherokees who since the rest Of
the great tribe was sent west by Gener-
al jackson, have occupied this reserva-
ton of some so, 900 acres in a series OF
the most beautiful valleys in all the
Appalachian range.
Through this splendid reservation
there flow the Ocowo and loco, two
clear mountain streams, the tributaries
of which are filled with trout. These
mountain Cherokees in wealth, culture,
obedience to law and everything that
indicates civilization are abreast if
not in advance of their neighbors, the
white mountaineers Of the Black, the
Balsam and Great Smoky ranges These
Cherokees have good farms, churches,
schoolhouses fair roads and such me-
chanical industries as are essential to
their own wants.
Here, walled in from the rest Of the
the toy nation of Andorra, we have an
independent republic, with its own laws,
customs and its regularly elected chief,
all distinct and separate from the
great state and nation about them as
Andorra is Independent of France and
Spain. The new chief is elected for four
years, like our president, with a salary
of $500 year and travelling expenses
when he ventures ON state business out
side the domain of Qualla.
In this republic there are political
parties without political impurity. The
Baptist and Methodist churches claim
nearly all the adults as communicates.
In no part of the country is the marriage
vow more respected than among these
little known Cherokees, and drunken
ness and divorce are practically IN
known.
Like their brethren of the Indian Ter
ritory, the Cherokees of Qualla have
their own written language and their
own alphabet, invented by that wonder
full man, the Indian Cadmus, ,SeQuoia.
While the white mountainous of this
part of North Carolina are an unimag-
NATIVE and legendless race, the Chero-
KEGS are a most poetic and roman
tic people, and with every stream, val
ley, precipice or mountain peak there is
some legend or myth connected that
lifts it out of the stupid and often gross
~ vulgar nomenclature of the whites
and gives it an added charm by associat-
ing it with some stirring event or
heroic character of the past.
An Englishman whom met down
here, and who, being at Asheville, near
by, was induced to come over, declares
that Qualla is the most beautifully TO-
mantle place he has ever seen, and that
the Cherokees are by all odds the most
interesting people he has ever met, yet
outside this neighborhood there is not
one American in ten thousand who
knows anything about the place or the
people.
Although good Christians, the Chero-
KEGS at Qualla, like their kinsmen be-
yond the Mississippi, still retain many
of their old tribal rites, which once had
and still retain some religious signif-
canoe. They have just finished a series
of dances and festivities, intended to
propitiate the powers that control fruit
ton, which always preeede their plant
ing of crops. After the harvest is in, I
am told, they have what is known as
their tcorn dances, +" which am as
sured tit is worth crossing the continent
to see.' -
While tours are being made to the
Yellowstone and to even as far away as
Alaska, here is place, within easy
reach of all eastern cities, which for
the beauty of its surroundings and the
interest of its red inhabitants is un-
equaled by any part of the great repub-
lics and yet even it's name and it's where
abouts are practically unknown to orr
people. ALFRED r. CALHOUN.
serdpes and the Figure.