Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-02
Preserving Land of Tragedy

he CTOuOle WIFI MEXICO tOOIneQ on TINT
horizon and Scott was directed to make
an end Of the business. The march wa.
begun with $4,000 men, women anc
children. Standing on top of the peal
that bears his name, Junaluska looked
backward across the Valley Of the Noon.
day Sun. His heart was broke. He
cursed Jackson and died and was buried
there.
About 800 people of the scattered
nation were never ferreted out. They
hid like wild animals in the forests. The
pitiful caravan took its way westward
through Nashville and past the house
of their friend, who did not bother
about them. Three out of every five
who started the march died of star
walton or exposure on the way. The
residue became the Cherokee tribe in
Oklahoma, but the glory of the nation
died on top Of the peak where Juna-
luSka lies entombed and in the ashes
OF Sequoyah's little printing press
Nothing of its work remains except one
thin volume. The Georgian's gold is
Mr.. Melons copper.
Remnant Hangs On.
For 40 years the remnant that chung
to the Great Smokes lived with no more
legal claim to their lands than the bears
that prowled the valleys. Concerned
with wars and civil strife, the United
States had not time to bother with
them. Let alone, they established them
selves in quiet coves, put together little
houses, trapped and hunted and raised
small fields of corn, traded with their
white neighborS, who were now coming
into their deserted valleys in increasing
numbers Fifty years ago their presence
and their natural rights to the lands
were grudgingly recognized by the Fed
eral Government and the usual routine
of paternal supervision instituted. Their
lands were laid out, covering about 35,-
600 acres. The rest of their territory
passed into private hands and is now
being bought to form the park
Gone is the last veStige of their brief
civilization. with its modernized repub-
l1can government, its written language.
only is the primitive, phlep-
matte and unresponsive to the civiii-
ration the whites have brought them at
the reservation school 1t is a broken,
bitter race, this descendant of the rem
nant that would not give up its noun
lains. 1t takes, with silent resentment.
me Government school, the Government
1ole. 1t is shabby recompense for
"nat was taken from them.
Put in Six Townships.
something of tribal homogenitv is
maintained in the Indian community. It
s divided into six townships, with a sort
d commissioner from each township.
;nleI Is elected each year. Once in re-
;sne years IL was graduate of Harvard
:. university, returned to his people and
AS ancestral OK, who was made chief.
" another time 1t was a member of a
'reat Carlisle Indian foot ball team. The
BUSINESS OF government is nominal. For
uolclal purposes they are residents of
ne counties in which their lands lie
Lney are not allowed to vote.
individual and family life among
mem is lived as far removed from the
instructed eyes of white men as it can
,e. There are no settlements" Each
louse Is set apart. aloof, alone. and
mere they live, not touched and not
I troubled by the ebbing and the
lunt, they trap, they farm a little
sather tanbark to sell to the great tan.
lerles In the western end of the State
AIM SILENT suspicious of whites who
lave ever despoiled them ana nursing
pc name OF undimmed hate against
hem. "Se0
undermining the Last.
SSAooA - quite modern. The
,nl!oren are herded in from the reser-
alton and taught as most American
'nlloren are taught. They are an
outraged to forget their own tongue
lney are taught to weave baskets and
% 40 strange things with beads on the
1attern OF show-piece Indians who wait
beside the tracks of the trancontinentaI
/; You have to 60 far back into
~. ne NUS TO get anything intrinsicallv
Cherokee.
Unless, perchance, you happen To he
WI rogers, for this cowboy comedian-
Is descendant of a family
lIaC survived the journey to Oklahoma
JaCeiy ne went unheralded to visit his
'oLIn carolina kin, an ambition that he
10 nourlSned all his life. 1t CHANGED
1 1taS Ine Gay OF his ingress into the
,.. - p country was the day in which |
asst headlines in all the regional naners
nnounced that Mr.. Rockefeller had
SSureo the establishment of the nark
Y q donation Of $4,000, 900. The two
'taCes mad been struggling for two wears
raise half that amount
tnIS incident has nothing To do with
ile park or even the saga of the Chero-
Ees' OF even with the more innnortant |
Spects OF Will Rogers visit to the re-
note country, but it is worth recount.
~. Not unnaturally, the entire recior, |
as agog over the announcement of Mr.
.oSAeteHers unparalleled generos tv
M persons along the way were in a
eceptlve state Of mind toward any fur
ier miracles that might happen. even
~ psonal ADVENT OF the Rockefellers |
themselves among them.
Mistaken In Identity.
Mr. Rogers was making the trim in
ne automobile of a law son1eH,bat
loVenly looking newspaper man whom
z na0 known for several wears Tha
ar happened TO be of a foreign MAKE !
no considerably spruced up for the oc.
aSIon; IL looked like it m 'ght contain
sveraI members of the oil mapnate's
aihhy Wnen 1t drew up before the one
lug STORE IN a remote mountain VIII
~ mheIe tne comedian wanted to buy
~ ~ Inc car and its contents ex-
, ,Su "loe ana profound interest and
In the drug store two mountaj-, o,.,
ems approached Mr.. Rogers and asred
I'm II ne were not John D. RockefeIier
ie younger. Before he could restrain
Is surprise he had admitted vaouelv
nat ne was Mr.. Rockefeller They we,.
iao TO see him and thanked hin, -,
e s n OF the mountain section for the
0,UUO,O00. N
,,,I And Is your pa with you. Mr.. Rookie
siler! they wanted to know.
ruftner taken aback, the comedian
olhtlng to the lazily stopped fenre ~
Is companion, dressed in kniclrers -
gol1 cap. wearing the CUSTOMARY s,,r,
asses "a and leaning indolently aSa;nst
ne car, said: against
Says It's His Father.
:. res, that's pa over there by the car
ppreciate it." 7c would
stricken dumb with astonishmert
~. I'm ne was addressed as Mr.. Rocses
RED t alo even dumber when he discoy-
athsr n1 ne was supposed to be the
'i' OF man eight years Older thai
'ia the newspaper man starad