1838: EASTERN BAND OF THE CHEROKEE

The year 1838 appeared to mark the beginning of the end for the Cherokee in North Carolina. Were it not for an adopted white man and a renegade Indian, the Cherokee might have vanished forever from the mountains of North Carolina.

With the enforcement of the Indian Removal Act, the Cherokee had been arrested, dragged from their homes and forced to leave everything they owned to the gathering white vultures. Based on a loophole in the Treaty of New Echota, signed by President Jackson, a small band of Cherokee appeared to be exempt from the expulsion. Referred to as the Quallatown Cherokee, a white man adopted into their tribe (William Thomas) had purchased western North Carolina land in his name and provided the land for his band of brothers. With their residence falling outside official Cherokee boundaries (land the US government now claimed), the Quallatown natives seemed to be in the clear—but there remained some doubt.

For several hundred Cherokee who were being hunted down, the thought of leaving their treasured mountains drove them to desperate measures. Some families hid in the woods, others escaped the shoddy stockades where they were temporarily imprisoned and some fought back. Several Cherokee families led by Tsali—living near what is today Bryson City, North Carolina—managed to escape the soldiers who prodded them toward captivity, killing one and disappearing into the mountains. Enlisting the aid of the Quallatown Cherokee, the commanding officer in charge of the removal (Scott) promised to leave the Qualla in place and to abandon any further rounding up of fugitives if they would convince Tsali and his band to surrender. Recognizing their precarious situation, the Qualla Cherokee persuaded Tsali to yield. His execution, along with his elder brother and two sons, brought the man hunt to a close and sealed the survival of the remaining thousand or so Qualla Cherokee—and the fugitives who were still hiding in the mountains.

Today, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) are direct descendants of these North Carolina remnants, living on Quallatown land that was eventually designated a land trust by the US government (see “Cherokee Reservation”). The EBCI are the only remaining Cherokee living on native lands, comprising more than fourteen thousand Native Americans, all owing their heritage to an adopted white man and a native brother who sacrificed his life for the future of the Cherokee.