Men are not worried by things, but by their
ideas about things.
-EpictetusThey have prostituted their culture. I went to Cherokee this summer. I could only stay two days.
Who controls the present controls the past; who controls the past controls the future.
Among legendary Cherokee figures few, if any,
have attained the lofty status of Tsali, aka Charley, aka Old Charley. That’s understandable if one’s knowledge of
the man is limited to the version depicted in the outdoor drama, Unto These Hills. But for anyone who begins with the
documentary record of his final days, the transformation of the Tsali of
history to the Tsali of legend is a head-scratcher. In that regard, a rewording of the Epictetus
adage is in order
Men are not inspired
by things, but by their ideas about things.
The popular legend of Tsali goes something like this:
During the Cherokee removal, Tsali and his family were
taken into custody. Subsequently, a
soldier accompanying the captives was killed and Tsali escaped. After hiding out in the upper Deep Creek
area, Tsali came forward to accept his inevitable execution on November 25,
1838. As a result of Tsali’s sacrifice,
federal officials allowed 1000 of his fellow Cherokees to remain along the
Oconaluftee River, thereby avoiding the Trail of Tears.
So we’re told. But
while the myth is easily refuted, some aspects of the story remain a
mystery. Few incidents occurring deep in
the Smokies in the 1830s are as well documented as the death of Tsali. I would be the last to claim, though, that
such documentary evidence is infallible.
Military records in particular should be taken with a very large grain
of salt. Having examined the respective
Union and Confederate accounts of the Civil War Battle of Bryson City, I find
it hard to believe that they are both describing the same event. Nevertheless…
Historian Duane King gets to the crux of the matter:
The
extent to which Tsali’s death has been glorified in martyrdom staggers the
imagination. To whites and acculturated
Indians, Tsali is seen as a combination of the Messiah and George Washington,
who made the ultimate sacrifice for the creation of a new state.
However,
many traditional Cherokees view the murder of the soldiers as a hideous crime
which jeopardized the entire Cherokee community in the North Carolina
mountains. It invoked the wrath of the
United States government. In their bid
to remain in North Carolina, the Oconalufty Cherokees had worked hard to
promote an image of peaceful, law-abiding, industrious, model citizens. Suddenly, through no fault of their own, that
image was challenged.
My curiosity led me to trace the evolution of the Tsali
story from fact to fiction. I promptly
discovered that several bona fide scholars had already outlined that
progression. Unfortunately, the nuances of
the “real” story don’t lend themselves to melodramatic pageants and other
tourist bait.
Clearly, there is a price to be paid for chipping away at a
legend. After University of Tennessee
historian John Finger wrote about the facts surrounding the Tsali incident, the
blustering, rough-edged, criminal, Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of
Cherokee Indians, Jonathan “Ed” Taylor, confronted the professor:
We
don't need outsiders coming in and attacking our heroes. Cherokees wouldn't attack George Washington,
and you're doing that to us.*
Good. I don’t want
anyone shaking my firmly held belief in GW’s chopping down of the cherry tree
or flinging of a silver dollar across the Potomac. Is nothing sacred?
Chief Ed is a funny one to be feigning such
sensitivity. Back in 1991, the Atlanta
Braves were catching hell for their mascot and their tomahawk chops even after
Chief Noc-A-Homa had been dispatched to the Great Baseball Stadium in the Sky.
But Taylor stepped up to the plate in their defense.
But Taylor stepped up to the plate in their defense.
Doug Grow reported on the controversy for the
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune:
CHEROKEE, N.C. — Thousands of the tomahawks
favored by fans of the Atlanta Braves are made here. So are the chicken-feather
headdresses.
``And blankets,`` said Jonathan Taylor.
``Don`t forget to mention we make blankets.``
Taylor is principal chief of the Eastern
Band of the Cherokee Indians. He also is a fan of capitalism, the Braves
baseball team, Braves owner Ted Turner and the much discussed tomahawk chop.
``We`re not fighting a war-Indians against whites-anymore,`` Taylor said. ``Cherokees just want to make a living. The tomahawk chop is great. Right now, we`ve got 300 Indians working over at the moccasin factory.``
``We`re not fighting a war-Indians against whites-anymore,`` Taylor said. ``Cherokees just want to make a living. The tomahawk chop is great. Right now, we`ve got 300 Indians working over at the moccasin factory.``
Cherokee is designed to be a tourist trap.
It`s filled with places with such names as the Honest Injun Trading Post, Trail
of Tears Gallery, Big Chief Swap Shop and Princess Cafe.
American Indian Movement leaders in the
Twin Cities and in Atlanta have spoken with a combination of contempt and pity
for the Cherokee tribe. One AIM leader, Bill Means, compared the Cherokees
profiting from the Braves` success to the
Indian scouts who helped the cavalry.
The last line is hilarious, considering that is PRECISELY
what happened in the case of Tsali. Why
isn’t that the moral of the story? “Look
how swimmingly things turn out when Indian scouts help the cavalry!!!!”
Background to a Showdown
In 1835, one minority faction of Cherokees signed a treaty
in New Echota, Georgia that provided for removal of Cherokees to the West. But another small faction settled along the
Oconaluftee River held fast to the terms of an 1819 treaty which had allowed
them to seek United States citizenship and hold lands in the vicinity of
Quallatown. These “Oconaluftee,” “Lufty,”
or “Qualla” Indians had enjoyed harmonious relations with their white
neighbors, and the white merchant Will Thomas was an adopted member of the
group.
When the terms of the New Echota Treaty were being
implemented, there was great dissension among the “non-Oconaluftee”
Cherokees. Many who felt railroaded by
the small faction of treaty signers did their best to elude the United States
Army as it rounded up Cherokees for the removal. Among those fugitives was a small band led by
Tsali.
Most of his early life was spent with the so-called Chickamauga
Cherokees of northwest Georgia, about 100 miles away from Qualla. During the onset of the Revolutionary War, a
number of Cherokees in Tennessee sought to distance themselves from the
expanding frontier settlements. Starting
in 1776 –77, they migrated southwest and establish a dozen new towns south of
present-day Chattanooga.
These Chickamauga or Lower Cherokees had ongoing conflicts
with the Upper Cherokees remaining along the Hiwassee and Little Tennessee
Rivers. Black Fox of the Chickamauga served
as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1801-1810, and took a major role
in treaty negotiations. In 1806, Black Fox relinquished nearly 7,000 square miles of land in
present-day Tennessee and Alabama, and was given a lifetime annuity in
return.
A series of such
transactions, arguably quite self-serving, did not sit well with certain
elements among the Cherokees. Upper Cherokees complained to President Thomas Jefferson January 24, 1808:
We…can never consider any future Treaty binding upon us,
until it is reviewed & approved by a Majority of all our beloved Men, Chiefs
& Warriors. This Regulation will effectually prevent all future
Misunderstandings of our Engagements and secure Tranquility between us.
Tommy J responded to the Upper
Cherokees on May 4, 1808:
You complain that you do not receive your just proportion
of the Annuities we pay your Nation; that the Chiefs of the lower Town’s take
for them more than their share. My Children, this distribution is made by the
Authority of the Cherokee Nation, & according to their own rules over which
we have no control. We do our duty in delivering the Annuities to the head men
of the Nation and we pretend to no Authority over them, to no right of
directing how they are to be distributed. but We will instruct our Agent Colo.
Meigs to exhort the Chiefs to do justice to all the parts of their Nation in
the distribution of these Annuities & to endeavor that every town shall
have its due share. We would willingly pay these Annuities in money which Could
be more equally divided, if the Nation would prefer that, and if we can be
assured that the money will not be laid out in strong drink instead of
necessaries for your wives & children….
You propose My Children, that your Nation shall be
divided into two and that your part the Upper Cherokees, shall be separated
from the lower by a fixed boundary, shall be placed under the Government of the
U.S. become citizens thereof, and be ruled by our laws; in fine, to be our
brothers instead of our children. My Children I shall rejoice to See the day
when the red men our neighbors become truly one people with us, enjoying all
the rights and privileges we do, & living in peace & plenty as we do
without any one to make them afraid, to injure their persons, or to take their
property without being punished for it according to fixed laws. but are you
prepared for this? have you the resolution to leave off hunting for your
living, to lay off a farm for each family to itself, to live by industry, the
men working that farm with their hands, raising stock or learning trades as we
do, & the women spinning & weaving Clothes for their Husbands &
Children? all this is necessary before our laws can suit you or be of any use
to you.
By 1811, other outside
factors complicated the turmoil among the Cherokees. The Shawnee leader Tecumseh came south to
persuade the Five Civilized tribes to join his proposed pan-Indian alliance to resist
the Americans. He exhorted the Muscogees
in October 1811. General Samuel Dale,
who was present at the meeting, claimed these were the words of Tecumseh:
In defiance of the white warriors of Ohio and Kentucky, I
have traveled through their settlements, once our favorite hunting grounds. No
war-whoop was sounded, but there is blood on our knives. The Pale-faces felt
the blow, but knew not whence it came. Accursed be the race that has seized on
our country and made women of our warriors. Our fathers, from their tombs,
reproach us as slaves and cowards. I hear them now in the wailing winds. The
Muscogee was once a mighty people. The Georgians trembled at your war-whoop,
and the maidens of my tribe, on the distant lakes, sung the prowess of your
warriors and sighed for their embraces. Now your very blood is white; your
tomahawks have no edge; your bows and arrows were buried with your fathers. Oh!
Muscogees, brethren of my mother, brush from your eyelids the sleep of slavery;
once more strike for vengeance; once more for your country. The spirits of the
mighty dead complain. Their tears drop from the weeping skies.
Let the white race perish. They seize your land; they corrupt your women; they trample on the ashes of your dead! Back, whence they came, upon a trail of blood, they must be driven. Back! back, ay, into the great water whose accursed waves brought them to our shores! Burn their dwellings! Destroy their stock! Slay their wives and children! The Red Man owns the country, and the Pale-faces must never enjoy it. War now! War forever! War upon the living! War upon the dead! Dig their very corpses from the grave. Our country must give no rest to a white man's bones. This is the will of the Great Spirit, revealed to my brother, his familiar, the Prophet of the Lakes. He sends me to you. All the tribes of the north are dancing the war-dance. Two mighty warriors across the seas will send us arms. Tecumseh will soon return to his country. My prophets shall tarry with you. They will stand between you and the bullets of your enemies. When the white men approach you the yawning earth shall swallow them up. Soon shall you see my arm of fire stretched athwart the sky. I will stamp my foot at Tippecanoe, and the very earth shall shake.
Let the white race perish. They seize your land; they corrupt your women; they trample on the ashes of your dead! Back, whence they came, upon a trail of blood, they must be driven. Back! back, ay, into the great water whose accursed waves brought them to our shores! Burn their dwellings! Destroy their stock! Slay their wives and children! The Red Man owns the country, and the Pale-faces must never enjoy it. War now! War forever! War upon the living! War upon the dead! Dig their very corpses from the grave. Our country must give no rest to a white man's bones. This is the will of the Great Spirit, revealed to my brother, his familiar, the Prophet of the Lakes. He sends me to you. All the tribes of the north are dancing the war-dance. Two mighty warriors across the seas will send us arms. Tecumseh will soon return to his country. My prophets shall tarry with you. They will stand between you and the bullets of your enemies. When the white men approach you the yawning earth shall swallow them up. Soon shall you see my arm of fire stretched athwart the sky. I will stamp my foot at Tippecanoe, and the very earth shall shake.
If those were indeed the
words of Tecumseh, such sentiments drew mixed response in the South. A Cherokee leader, The Ridge, after observing
Tecumseh among the Muscogee, threatened him with death should he ever set foot
upon Cherokee territory. On the other
hand, Tsali was very receptive to Tecumseh’s message and during a national
council of the Cherokees, he argued for war against the Americans. After a heated debate, The Ridge prevailed
with his arguments in favor of maintaining peace with the Americans.
Several weeks later,
though, the Southeast was rattled by the New Madrid earthquakes. Tsali asserted the temblors fulfilled
Tecumseh’s vow that by stamping his foot at Tippecanoe, “the very earth shall
shake.” With prophetic fervor, Tsali
warned of a coming apocalypse for the Cherokee Nation and convinced many fellow
Cherokees to retreat to the Smoky Mountains to find safe haven. Tsali, his wife, and three sons relocated
from Georgia to the Nantahala River near its confluence with the Little
Tennessee and lived quietly for the next quarter century.
This brings us to where
the scholars begin to trace the evolution of Tsali from man to myth. In November
1838, United States Army troops under the command of General Winfield Scott
were tracking down recalcitrant Cherokees trying to avoid their forced
removal. A number of holdouts, including
Tsali and his family, were hiding along the Little Tennessee River and its
tributaries. Will Thomas was assisting
the army by organizing a party of Oconaluftee Cherokees to help track down the
fugitives.
Rounding Up the Fugitive
Cherokees
I was aware of the
military correspondence regarding the matter, but I was surprised to find that
the records were published in numerous periodicals within a month of Tsali’s death. An overview of events is found in a November
6, 1838 letter from General Scott, at the headquarters of the Eastern Division
of the War Department in Athens, Tennessee.
At that point, he knew of the killings committed by Tsali’s party and
was awaiting their capture, shuttling army troops in and out of the
region.
Troops were ordered from
North Carolina to the Canada frontier, July 21st, on the assurance of Brigadier
General Eustis, their immediate commander, that all the Indians …had been
collected and sent in to the agency for emigration….
In a few weeks, [it was] discovered that
perhaps 300 had escaped…by retiring to distant hiding places in the same range
of mountains, beyond the limits of the late Cherokee country; which number was
in the months of July and August augmented by forty or fifty [more], who stole
away singly from the principal emigrating depot…
Early in August I sent
Lieutenant Scott, with a detachment of mounted men and Indian runners furnished
by the Cherokee authorities, into those mountains, who succeeded, by the aid of
those runners in bringing to the agency about 90 of the fugitives…
On the 12th of September I
dispatched Lieutenants Larned, Johnson, and Smith, with a larger detachment of
mounted men, and a double set of Indian runners, furnished as before and [they
apprehended] about 60 prisoners, all of whom were captured, not one having
yielded to invitation or persuasion on the part of the runners.
Lieutenant Larned
estimates the remaining Indians in the region (subject to emigration— that is,
excluding those who have acquired the right to remain on the Oconeelufty,
Haywood county, under the laws of North Carolina,) at about 200 souls,
including 40 warriors. Five of the latter were the prisoners of Lieutenant
Smith, and [they] murdered two of his men and wounded a third. Indeed he had no others with him at the
moment, the rest of his party being on the return from a search for Indians,
and only half a mile off when the prisoners made the attack. That this act of hostility was wholly
unprovoked by any unkindness, is evident from the fact that the two men killed
had dismounted and lent their horses to the murderers to ride, who pretended to
be lame or fatigued.
Tsali Kills His Captors
and Escapes
In a November 5 letter to Lieutenant
Larned, Lieutenant A. J. Smith went into greater detail concerning the murders
committed by the Cherokees taken into custody:
Agreeably to your
instructions, dated September 17th, I repaired immediately to Oconeelufty,
North Carolina, for the purpose of collecting all the Indians in that
neighborhood belonging to the nation. After two weeks unsuccessful search at
Olufty, I started to S. Carolina, in pursuit of a large number of Indians that
had been reported to me to be in the vicinity of Pickens. I found a camp of
sixteen, and brought them to O.
On my return to the place,
I found orders for us to return home as soon as practicable. On our way down
the little Tennessee river I heard of a party of Indians within a few miles of
us, and thinking it my duty to collect them, if possible, I proceeded in
company with Mr. Thomas and three men to their camps, sending the other party
on down the river in charge of a sergeant and eight men. I found but eight at
their camp, but understanding that there were twenty belonging to the company,
I concluded to stay with them until next morning, hoping they would all come
in. I was, however, obliged to start with only twelve of the company.
This day I expected to
overtake the other command, but was forced to stop at James Welsh's. There I
found an express with a repetition of your previous orders. From thence I made rny way, with all possible
speed, down the river, ordering, by express, a portion of the men of the first
command to join me immediately. On the evening of [November 1st] I discovered
an unwillingness among the Indians to travel, and, in order to make greater
speed, I put some of the children on horses, but it was with great difficulty I
could then get them along, I suspected.all was not right and frequently
cautioned the men to be on their guard.
Shortly after sunset, I
discovered a long dirk-knife in the possession of one of our Indians, and
ordered it to be immediately taken from him. He turned it over without any
hesitation; and we had proceeded but a short distance before I spied an axe,
which I also ordered to be taken from them, but I am sorry to say, too late,
for I had scarcely finished the order, before I saw the axe buried in the
forehead of one of our men.
This being the signal for
attack the others fell immediately to work, and in less than one minute, they
killed two, wounded a third, and commenced searching them, and carrying off
every article they could lay their hands on. I fortunately escaped unhurt, and
owe my life in a measure to the spirit and activity of my horse.
Search for the Killers
Returning to General Scott’s letter, plans for capture of the offending party are outlined:
Returning to General Scott’s letter, plans for capture of the offending party are outlined:
The country to be searched
by Colonel [William S.] Foster is very extensive, and in the greater part,
extremely difficult to traverse, both for horse and foot. It abounds in deer,
wild beef cattle, and hogs. I suppose that the expedition may be out about four
weeks…
The instructions which I
shall give the expedition, (which has commenced its march,) will have nothing
in them of a vindictive character, except as regards the murderers, and I shall
change my former orders so far as to permit the troops to fire on any warrior
who flies.
The Indians lo be pursued
are mere outlaws. They have obstinately separated themselves from their tribe,
and refused all obedience to the orders and entreaties of its chiefs.
Nevertheless, they shall be again summoned to deliver themselves up, with a
promise of kind treatment to all except the murderers. Every Cherokee in this
neighborhood who has heard of the recent outrage has expressed the utmost
indignation and regret, and it would be very easy to obtain from the emigrants
on the road any number of warriors to march with the troops against the
outlaws. I shall, however, only accept of the services of a few runners, to
bear invitations of kindness, deeming it against the honor of the United States
to employ, in hostilities, one part of a tribe against another.
Col. Foster will also have
the aid, as runners, guides, and interpreters, of some of Mr. Thomas's
Oconeelufly Indians, as well as the personal services of Mr. Thomas himself,
who takes a lively interest in the success of the expedition.
Besides punishing the
murderers and capturing the other fugitives, the expedition has another
important object, viz., to prevent those Indians who, unprovoked, have
commenced hostilities, from murdering the White families thinly scattered over
that mountainous region.
Finally, on December 5,
Captain John Paige announced “mission accomplished”:
I have the honor to report
the arrival of the troops from the mountains; they having captured the five
murderers, four of which were executed, and the fifth was pardoned. The Lufty Indians that reside in North Carolina
rendered great assistance in finding them. After the murderers were caught,
they were tied to trees, the troops drawn up, and the Lufty Indians shot
them. The families of the murderers
(nine in number) were brought to this place and will go west accompanied by the
troops as prisoners. The troops will all
leave this nation in a few days…
Eyewitness to Tsali’s
Execution
In these accounts there is
nothing to indicate that the Oconaluftee Indians faced any risk of
deportation. So where did we get the
idea that Tsali “sacrificed” himself so that “his people” could remain in the
mountain? Five years afterwards, an eyewitness to Tsali’s execution gave a
deposition to Joseph Welch, Justice of the Peace. This account explains that
the small group of Cherokees who executed the Tsali party did gain the right to
remain in North Carolina as a reward for their cooperation, a far cry from the
legendary tale:
This day personally came
before me, Joseph Welch, one of the acting Macon County Justices of the peace
in and for said county, Jonas Jenkins, aged forty one years, a respectable
citizen of said county who, after sworn according to law, deposeth and saith as
follows:
That about the fifteenth
of November 1838, he was employed to accompany Euchella and about forty
Cherokee warriors that had been employed by Colonel Foster of the United States
Army to aid in capturing Charley and three other Cherokee Indians that had as
he was informed murdered two soldiers by the names of Perry and Martin
belonging to the 4th Infantry a short time previous to the time he entered the
service.
After the Cherokee company
and the few white hunters that accompanied them captured three of the
murderers, deponent aided to guard them to where Colonel Foster was, then
stationed with the United States troops near the mouth of the Tuckasegee River
on the Little Tennessee River in the above mentioned county.
A few days afterwards the
murderers were tried by the Cherokees, found guilty (as deponent as informed)
and deponent was present when they were shot by a guard of the Cherokees under
the direction of Euchella in the presence of Colonel Foster and the United
States Army which was drawn up on the bank of the Little Tennessee River to see
them executed.
Euchella and the chiefs
and warriors that composed the company were directed to assemble at Colonel
Foster's tent to hold a talk. Colonel Foster when they were assembled informed
them that they had seen in the punishment of those murderers the consequence
resulting from an attack on the United States Army and murdering citizens. He
stated that he was aware of the important services they had rendered the United
States in capturing and executing those murderers and that only one by the name
of Charley remained to be captured and executed, he would leave them to perform
that part of the duty and would immediately march his army out of the country
and in consequence of the meritorious services rendered the United States by
the Cherokee chiefs and warriors in performing the services he would close the
emigration and permit Euchella and his band as well as all the Cherokees
remaining in the country (except old Charley's family) to settle in and unite
with the Cherokees at Qualla Town that had been citizenized.
He advised them to send
runners to bring in their friends that had been lying out in the mountains to
avoid being taken to Arkansas to inform them of the permission granted them to
settle at Qualla Town and become citizens of the state, advised them to say to
their friends not to lie out in the mountains any longer suffering with hunger
but to take his advice and settle at Qualla Town and not scatter off among the
whites, to live in friendship with their white neighbors and make good citizens
and he assured them that they would never be molested by the United States.
Euchella replied before
they were made citizens of the United States. that they had aided the white
people in their war against the Creek Indians and now since the government of
the United States had been so kind to them as to permit the Cherokees remaining
to remain citizens of the state of North Carolina, they would always be found
ready as American citizens to render their adopted country all the aid in their
power against her enemies.
Euchella and the other
chiefs and warriors belonging to the company took leave of Colonel Foster and
Euchella, informed him when his warriors had captured Charley that he should be
dealt with as the chiefs had promised and though he might be in a foreign country
when he heard from them, he should have no reason to accuse them for not
performing on their part in good faith all they had promised him. The Cherokee
company then marched up the Tuckasegee River towards Qualla Town and the
American Army started towards Tennessee as deponent was informed, he did not
wait to see them on their march but they were preparing to march when he left
with the Cherokee company.
The next day Wachucha and
some other Cherokees met the Cherokee company with old Charley who they had captured
on Nantahala and the next day afterwards Euchella and the chiefs tried him, he
acknowledged he had killed the soldier and that he expected to die for it when
he done the act. Euchella after the decision was made informed Charley that he
would be shot at twelve o'clock. A short time before twelve he told Euchella to
hunt up his children that had been left in the mountains when he was taken
first to be emigrated, to be a father to them talk good to them, give them good
advice, to tell them what had become of their father and that it was his
request that they should die in that country and never go to Arkansas.
He told them he was a
brave man and not afraid to die and when he was chained to the tree to be shot
he showed no symptom of fear. Euchella promised him what he requested in
relation to his children should be performed, a bandage was place over his eyes
and three of the warriors were selected to execute the sentence and at a signal
given by Euchella with his hand, the three selected fired, one ball passed into
his brain and two balls into his breast, deponent aided in digging his grave
and burying him on the bank of the Tuckasegee River.
The Cherokee company
immediately marched on towards Qualla Town. A few days afterwards deponent was
at that town and saw about thirty of the outlying Cherokees including men,
women, and children almost naked move into the town to settle there in
pursuance of the instructions given by Colonel Foster in permitting those
Cherokee Indians to remain with the best arrangement that could have been made,
that the interest of the government of the Cherokees and the white citizens
were promoted thereby. Colonel Foster's whole regiment unaided by the Indians
could not in his opinion have captured those murderers against this time. The
large beds of laurel in which they had secreted themselves rendered it
impossible for him to have taken them with his troops, deponent further saith,
as sworn to and subscribed before me August 16, 1843.
So there you have it. Myth debunked.
So there you have it. Myth debunked.
The Legend Takes Root
Before long, the legend of
Tsali took on a life of its own. A prime
suspect in this process is Will Thomas, though his motives are not entirely
clear. We do know that Thomas was an
informant to Charles Lanman when that writer travelled through Qualla a decade
after the Cherokee removal.
Lanman’s retelling appeared in his book, Letters from the Alleghany Mountains. His embellishment of Tsali’s dying words is a stock feature of the romanticized “noble savage” literature of the nineteenth century:
Lanman’s retelling appeared in his book, Letters from the Alleghany Mountains. His embellishment of Tsali’s dying words is a stock feature of the romanticized “noble savage” literature of the nineteenth century:
Another of the characters
I intended to mention is named Euchella. He is a very worthy chief, and now in
the afternoon of his days. He is quite celebrated among his people as a
warrior, but is principally famous for important services rendered by him to
the United States Government during the Cherokee troubles. He, and a band of
one hundred followers, first attracted public attention by evading, for upwards
of a whole year, the officers of Government who had been commanded to remove
the party beyond the Mississippi. It having been ascertained, however, that
Euchella could not easily be captured, and would never submit to leave his
country, it was determined that an overture should be made, by which he and his
brotherhood of warriors could be secured to assist the whites in their
troublesome efforts to capture three Indians who had murdered a number of
soldiers. The instrument employed to effect a reconciliation was the Indian
trader, Mr. Thomas, who succeeded in appointing a meeting with Euchella on a
remote mountain-top.
During this interview, Mr.
Thomas remonstrated with Euchella, and told him that, if he would join the
whites, he might remain in Carolina, and be at peace. “I cannot be at peace,”
replied the warrior, “because it is now a whole year that your soldiers have
hunted me like a wild deer. I have suffered from the white man more than I can
bear. I had a wife and a little child—a brave, bright-eyed boy—and because I
would not become your slave, they were left to starve upon the mountains. Yes;
and I buried them with my own hand, at midnight. For a whole week at a time
have I been without bread myself, and this in my own country too. I cannot bear
to think upon my wrongs, and I scorn your proposition.”
It so happened, however,
that he partially relented, and having submitted the proposition to his
warriors, whom he summoned to his side by a whoop, they agreed to accept it,
and from that time Euchella became an ally of the army. It was by the efforts
of Euchella and his band that the murderers already mentioned were arrested and
punished. They had been condemned by a court martial, and sentenced to be shot,
and the scorn of death manifested by one of them, named Charley, is worth
recording.
He had been given into the
hands of Euchella, and when he was tied to the tree, by one arm, where he was
to die, (to which confinement he submitted without a murmur,) he asked
permission to make a few remarks, which was of course granted, and he spoke as
follows: “And is it by your hands, Euchella, that I am to die? We have been
brothers together; but Euchella has promised to be the white man’s friend, and
he must do his duty, and poor Charley is to suffer because he loved his
country. O, Euchella! if the Cherokee people now beyond the Mississippi carried
my heart in their bosoms, they never would have left their beautiful native
land—their own mountain land. I am not afraid to die; O, no, I want to die, for
my heart is very heavy, heavier than lead. But, Euchella, there is one favor
that I would ask at your hands. You know that I had a little boy, who was lost
among the mountains. I want you to find that boy, if he is not dead, and tell
him that the last words of his father were that he must never go beyond the
Father of Waters, but die in the land of his birth. It is sweet to die in one’s
own country, and to be buried by the margin of one’s native stream.”
After the bandage had been
placed over his eyes, a little delay occurred in the order of execution, when
Charley gently raised the bandage, and saw a dozen of Euchella’s warriors in
the very act of firing; he then replaced the cloth, without manifesting the
least anxiety or moving a muscle, and in a moment more the poor savage was
weltering in his blood. And so did all three of the murderers perish.
Qualla Town, North
Carolina, May, 1848.
One More Bite at the Apple
Forty years after Will
Thomas told Charles Lanman about Tsali, he retold the tale to James Mooney, an
ethnographer who spent several years among the Cherokee at Qualla and compiled Myths
of the Cherokee. At this stage of his
life, Thomas’ mental faculties may have been seriously compromised. Either
that, or a tendency toward self-aggrandizement resulted in his taking a more
central role in the Tsali story as it was channeled by Mooney.
It remains to speak of the
eastern band of Cherokee—the remnant which still clings to the woods and waters
of the old home country. As has been said, a considerable number had eluded the
troops in the general round-up of 1838 and had fled to the fastnesses of the
high mountains. Here they were joined by others who had managed to break
through the guard at Calhoun and other collecting stations, until the whole
number of fugitives in hiding amounted to a thousand or more, principally of
the mountain Cherokee of North Carolina, the purest-blooded and most
conservative of the Nation. About one-half the refugee warriors had put
themselves under command of a noted leader named U′tsălă, “Lichen,” who made
his headquarters amid the lofty peaks at the head of Oconaluftee, from which
secure hiding place, although reduced to extremity of suffering from starvation
and exposure, they defied every effort to effect their capture.
The work of running down
these fugitives proved to be so difficult an undertaking and so well-nigh
barren of result that when Charley and his sons made their bold stroke for
freedom General Scott eagerly seized the incident as an opportunity for compromise. To
this end he engaged the services of William H. Thomas, a trader who for more
than twenty years had been closely identified with the mountain Cherokee and
possessed their full confidence, and authorized him to submit to U′tsălă a
proposition that if the latter would seize Charley and the others who had been
concerned in the attack upon the soldiers and surrender them for punishment,
the pursuit would be called off and the fugitives allowed to stay unmolested
until an effort could be made to secure permission from the general government
for them to remain.
Thomas accepted the
commission, and taking with him one or two Indians made his way over secret
paths to U′tsălă’s hiding place. He presented Scott’s proposition and
represented to the chief that by aiding in bringing Charley’s party to
punishment according to the rules of war he could secure respite for his sorely
pressed followers, with the ultimate hope that they might be allowed to remain
in their own country, whereas if he rejected the offer the whole force of the
seven thousand troops which had now completed the work of gathering up and
deporting the rest of the tribe would be set loose upon his own small band
until the last refugee had been either taken or killed.
U′tsălă turned the
proposition in his mind long and seriously. His heart was bitter, for his wife
and little son had starved to death on the mountain side, but he thought of the
thousands who were already on their long march into exile and then he looked
round upon his little band of followers. If only they might stay, even though a
few must be sacrificed, it was better than that all should die—for they had
sworn never to leave their country. He consented and Thomas returned to report
to General Scott.
Now occurred a remarkable
incident which shows the character of Thomas and the masterly influence which
he already had over the Indians, although as yet he was hardly more than thirty
years old. It was known that Charley and his party were in hiding in a cave of
the Great Smokies, at the head of Deep creek, but it was not thought likely
that he could be taken without bloodshed and a further delay which might
prejudice the whole undertaking. Thomas determined to go to him and try to
persuade him to come in and surrender. Declining Scott’s offer of an escort, he
went alone to the cave, and, getting between the Indians and their guns as they
were sitting around the fire near the entrance, he walked up to Charley and
announced his message. The old man listened in silence and then said simply, “I
will come in. I don’t want to be hunted down by my own people.” They came in
voluntarily and were shot, as has been already narrated, one only, a mere boy,
being spared on account of his youth. This boy, now an old man, is still
living, Wasitû′na, better known to the whites as Washington.
Enough Already
I have only scratched the surface
of the “mythification” of Tsali, but frankly I find it too tiresome to proceed. And I am eager to get back to the 16th
century and following the trail of Hernando De Soto. For further reading, including a closer look
at the evolution of the oral tradition of the Tsali legend among the Qualla
Indians, the following sources are all essential:
Duane King, “Tsali: The Man Behind the Legend,” Journal of Cherokee Studies, Fall 1979. Excerpted
online:
John Finger, “The Saga of Tsali: Legend Versus Reality,” North Carolina Historical Review, January 1979.
(Also at http://wcu.edu/WebFiles/PDFs/cherokee_Tsali.pdf )
Paul Kutsche, “The Tsali Legend: Culture Heroes and Historiography,” Ethnohistory, Autumn 1963.
Also, for a modernist
critical approach that breaks free from such confining paradigms as chronology,
historical fidelity, patriarchy, and the dreaded Old Dead White Guys, a recent
dissertation might be of interest.
Actually, as doctoral dissertations go it is fairly engaging:
AUGUSTÉ, NICOL NIXON,
Ph.D. The Rhetoric of Nuna Dual Tsuny: Retelling the Cherokee Trail of Tears.
(2006) Directed by Dr. Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater. 170pp. This dissertation discusses ways to examine
historical events such as the Cherokee Trail of Tears through various
rhetorical lenses and scrutinizes how to negotiate meaning via these
strategies. This work will contribute to
the current discourse on how rhetoric and rhetorical strategies guide the
reexamination of a unique American Indian/Euro-American history. To accomplish this task, I examine the Trail
of Tears event through rhetorical lenses that utilize dynamic genres such as
ethnohistory, witness, and women’s voice.
Even those doing the best
works of history and archaeology are combining evidence and imagination, in an
unavoidably imperfect way. Rebuilding
the distant past is like assembling a 1000-piece puzzle missing 900
pieces. Of course there is room for
“various rhetorical lenses.” If someone is
peeved that a great native feminist utopia was subverted by the arrival of Ol’
Whitey, then give voice to that great lost cause. I get it.
If some inspiring moral
can be drawn from the Tsali story, as it is generally marketed, fine. I get it.
But why the bitter resistance to hearing the extremely strong evidence
of another, contradictory, story? One in
which the Oconaluftee Cherokees had little to gain or lose from the shenanigans
of a guy named Charley. A fellow who
might have been something other than a selfless martyr.
Having spent most of my
life in these mountains, I consider the history of this place to be MY heritage,
too. And I have spent decades studying
that history, to see this place not just as it is today, but as it was long
ago. So I’m surprised, though perhaps I
shouldn’t be, at how hard it is to sweep away the misinformation and get to
something solid, or as solid as a reconstruction of the past can be.
Admittedly, when I read Ray
Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 or George Orwell’s 1984, it doesn’t strike me as
fiction, so much as a critique of current events, troubling events. And those books warn what happens when the
past is appropriated or erased by the powers-that-be. I find some satisfaction
in fighting back against that form of oppression in whatever small and feeble
way that I can. At least that’s one way
to justify my obsession with historical minutiae.
*Note - The Ed Taylor
quote appears in a Washington Post article (9/14/2004), When Myth Meets Reality, by Bob Thompson. Describing the
way that a “top ten list” of Eastern Cherokee cultural events was chosen for
inclusion in the National Museum of the American Indian, my overwhelming
response is deep sadness. From the article, “Event No. 9 was the opening of the
casino on Nov. 13, 1997.” The article
delivers an interesting critique on the struggles faced by the museum to
balance tribal involvement with historical integrity. Hopefully, intelligent policy has prevailed
over the PC crowd by now, but who knows. Everybody gets a trophy.
I would not go to the National Gallery of Art to see popsicle-sticks-glued-to-construction-paper presented as “art.” Nor would I go to the NMAI for a celebration of worthless junk spawned by a tribe’s marketing arm.
Sickening.
Vern Bellecourt, rest his soul, was right about those who prostitute their culture. Long ago and far away, I interviewed Mr. Bellecourt. I only wish I could have taken a ride with him through Cherokee. Now THAT would have been an interview!
I would not go to the National Gallery of Art to see popsicle-sticks-glued-to-construction-paper presented as “art.” Nor would I go to the NMAI for a celebration of worthless junk spawned by a tribe’s marketing arm.
Sickening.
Vern Bellecourt, rest his soul, was right about those who prostitute their culture. Long ago and far away, I interviewed Mr. Bellecourt. I only wish I could have taken a ride with him through Cherokee. Now THAT would have been an interview!
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