Sketches of Western North Carolina, Historical and Biographical Part 29

As early as the year 1806, two Deputations attended Was.h.i.+ngton City from the Cherokee nation; one from the lower towns, to make known to the President their desire to remove west of the Mississippi, and pursue the hunter's life; the other Deputation, representing in part the Cherokees belonging to the above settlement, to make known their desire to remain in the lands of their fathers, and become cultivators of the soil. The President answered their pet.i.tions as follows:

"The United States, my children, are the friends of both parties. As far as can be reasonably asked, they are willing to satisfy the wishes of both. Those who remain may be a.s.sured of our patronage, our aid, and good neighborhood."

The treaties formed between the United States and the Cherokee Nation, in the years 1817 and 1819, made provision for those desiring to remain, agreeably to the promise of the President; and they thus became citizens of the United States, each family being allowed a reservation of six hundred and forty acres of land. The whites claimed the same lands under a purchase made of the State. Suits were inst.i.tuted in favor of the Indians, and by our Courts were decided in their favor. Afterward they sold their reservations to the Commissioners of the State, and purchased lands in the white settlement, and in the neighborhood of the hunting grounds reserved for them by treaties concluded with the Cherokee nation between the years 1790 and 1799; which privilege as a part of their nation they now enjoy.

The Cherokees now own in Haywood county, a tract of seventy-two thousand acres of land, well adapted in the vallies for farming, and on the mountains for wild game and sports of the chase. _Qualla Town_, their metropolis, is chiefly inhabited by the former sovereigns of the country, among whom are a few Catawbas. The Qualla Town people are divided into seven clans or divisions, over each of which a chief presides.

About the year 1830 the princ.i.p.al chief of this settlement, by the name of "Drowning Bear" (or You-na-guskee) becoming convinced that _intemperance_ would destroy himself and his people, determined, if possible, to bring about a work of reform. He accordingly directed his clerk to write in the Indian language an agreement which translated reads as follows: "The undersigned Cherokees, belonging to the town of Qualla, agree to abandon the use of spirituous liquors." This instrument of writing was immediately signed by the old and venerable chief, and the whole town. This wise proceeding has worked a wonderful change for the better in their condition. They are now a temperate, orderly, industrious and peaceable people.

One of the most wonderful achievements of our age is the invention of the Cherokee alphabet. The invention was made in 1821 by _Guess_, (Se-qua-yah) _a half breed_ Indian, his father being a white man and his mother a Cherokee. He was at the time not only perfectly unacquainted with letters but entirely so with every other language except his own. The first idea of the practicability of such a project was received by looking at an old piece of printed paper and reflecting upon the very singular manner (to him) by which the white people could place their thoughts on paper and communicate them to others at a distance. A thought struck him that there surely must be some mode by which the Indians could do the same. He first invented a distinct character for each word, but soon found the number so great that it was impossible to retain them in the memory. After several months' labor he reduced his original plan so as to give to each character a _syllabic sound_, and ascertained there were but eighty-six variations of sounds in the whole language; and when each of these was represented by some particular character or letter, the language was at once reduced to a system, and the extraordinary mode of now writing it crowned his labors with the most happy success.

Considerable improvement has been made in the formation of the characters, in order that they might be written with greater facility.

One of the characters, being found superfluous, has been discarded, reducing the number to eighty-five. Guess emigrated to the West in 1824. It has been much regretted that he did not remain in North Carolina to witness the advantages and blessings of his discovery.

The Bible, newspapers and other literature are now published in the _musical_ Cherokee language.

The Catawba Indians, contiguous to our southern borders, and once so numerous and powerful, have dwindled down to a diminutive remnant--mostly half breeds. They inhabited in their palmiest days much of the territory south of the Tuscaroras, and adjoining the Cherokees. For their general adherence to the patriots in the Revolution they have always received the fostering care of the State.

They own a tract of land ten miles square in the south-east corner of York county, South Carolina. They speak a different language from the Cherokees, but possessing a similarity of musical sounds. They gave origin to the name of the n.o.ble river along whose banks, in its southern meanderings and its larger tributaries their lingering signs of former habitation are frequently visible, informing us here they once flourished in their simple avocations and enjoyments of the forest, and now excite our commiseration in their gradual decay and probable future extinction.

CONCLUSION.

In conclusion, the author would remark that other historic materials are on hand, in a partial state of preparation, which may hereafter be published. The history of "liberty's story" in the "Old North State,"

with all its grand array of early patriotic developments, has never been fully presented to the world. The field of research is still far from being exhausted, and it is hoped others--descendants, it may be, of our ill.u.s.trious forefathers, will prosecute the same line of investigation as herein attempted.

For the present, this series of sketches, with their unavoidable omissions and imperfections, craving indulgent criticism, will come to an end.

NOTES

[A: Bancroft, I., p. 270.]

[B: Bancroft. Vol. II., p. 158.]

[C: Wheelers Sketches, I., p. 30.]

[D: Wheeler's Sketches, I., p. 49.]

[E: Wheeler's Sketches, I., p. 50.]

[F: Foote's Sketches of North Carolina, p. 83.]

[G: General Moultrie, in sneaking of this engagement in his "Memoirs of the American Revolution," says: "When General Sumter began this attack he had not more than ten rounds of ball to a man; but before the action was over, he was amply supplied with arms and ammunition from the British and Tories that fell in the beginning."]

[H: "Virtue affords no exemption from death."]

[I: "Beautiful, although dead."]

[J: Tarleton's Southern Campaigns, p. 94.]

[K: Lossing's "Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution," vol. II, p.

393.]