Yonaguska
(properly 'The bear drowns him,' whence his common name 'Drowning-bear').
The adopted father of Col. Wm. H. Thomas, and the most prominent chief in
the history of the East Cherokee, although, singularly enough, his name
does not occur in connection with any of the early wars or treaties. This
is due partly to the fact that he was a peace chief and counselor rather
than a war leader, and in part to the fact that the isolated position of
the mountain Cherokee kept them aloof, in a great measure, from the tribal
councils of those living to the west and south.
In person he was strikingly handsome, being 6 ft 3 in.
in height and strongly built, with a faint tinge of red, due to a slight
strain of white blood on his father's side, relieving the brown of his
chicks. In power of oratory he is said to have surpassed any other chief
of his day. When the Cherokee lands on Tuckasegee River were sold by the
treaty of 1819, Yonaguska continued to reside on a reservation of 640
acres in a bend of the river a short distance above the present Bryson
City, North Carolina, on the site of the ancient Kituhwa. He afterward
moved over to Oconaluftee, and finally, after the removal, gathered his
people about him and settled with them on Soco Creek on lands purchased
for them by Thomas. He was a prophet and reformer as well as a chief. When
about 60 years of age he had a severe illness, terminating in a trance,
during which his people mourned him as dead. At the end of 24 hours,
however, he awoke to consciousness and announced that he had been to the
spirit world, where he had talked with friends who had gone before, and
with God, who had sent him back with a message to the Indians, promising
to call him again at a later time. From that day until his death his words
were listened to as those of one inspired. He had been somewhat addicted
to liquor, but now, on the recommendation of Thomas, not only stopped
drinking himself, but organized his tribe into a temperance society. To
accomplish this he called his people together in council, and, after
clearly pointing out to them the serious effect of intemperance, in an
eloquent speech that moved some of his audience to tears, he declared that
God had permitted him to return to earth especially that he might thus
warn his people and banish whisky from among them. He then had Thomas
write out a pledge, which was signed first by the chief and then by each
one of the council, and from that time until after his death whisky was
unknown among the East Cherokee. Although frequent pressure was brought to
bear to induce him and his people to remove to the west, he firmly
resisted every persuasion, declaring that the Indians were safer from
aggression among their rocks and mountains than they could ever he in a
land which the white man could find profitable, and that the Cherokee
could be happy only in the country where nature had planted him. While
counseling peace and friendship with the white man, he held always to his
Indian faith and was extremely suspicious of missionaries. On one
occasion, after the first Bible translation into the Cherokee language and
alphabet, some one brought a copy of Matthew from New Echota, but
Yonaguska would not allow it to he read to his people until it had first
been read to himself. After listening to one or two chapters the old chief
dryly remarked: "Well, it seems to be a good book—strange that the white
people are not better, after having had it so long." He died, aged about
80, in Apr. 1839, within a year after the removal. Shortly before the end
he had himself carried into the townhouse on Soco Creek, of which he had
supervised the building, where, extended on a couch, he made a last talk
to his people, commending Thomas to them as their chief and again warning
them earnestly against ever leaving their own country. Then wrapping his
blanket around him, he quietly lay back and died. He was buried beside
Soco, about a mile below the old Macedonia mission, with a rude mound of
stones to mark the spot. He left two wives and considerable property,
including an old Negro slave named Cudjo, who was devotedly attached to
him. One of his daughters, Katalsta, still (1909) survives, and is the
last conservator of the potter's art among the East Cherokee.
Ross, John.
Chief of the Cherokee;
Born in Rossville, Ga., Oct. 3, 1790; died in
Washington, D. C., Aug. 1,
1866. He was the son of
an immigrant from Scotland
by a Cherokee wife who was herself three-quarters white. His
boyhood name of
Tsan-usdĭ, ‘Little John,' was exchanged when he reached
man's estate for that of
Guwisguwi, or Cooweescoowee, by which was known a large white
bird of uncommon
occurrence, perhaps
the egret or the swan. He went to school
in
Kingston, Tenn. In 1809 he was sent on a mission to the Cherokee
in Arkansas by the
Indian agent, and thence forward till the close of his life he
remained in the public
service of his nation. At the battle of the Horseshoe, and
in other operations of the Cherokee contingent
against the Creeks in 1813-14, he was adjutant of the Cherokee regiment. He
was chosen a member of the national committee of the Cherokee Council in 1817, and drafted the reply to the U. S. commissioners who were sent
to negotiate the
exchange of the Cherokee lands for others w. of the
Mississippi.
In the contest
against the removal his talents found play and recognition.
As president of the national committee from
1819 till 1826 he was instrumental in the introduction
of school and mechanical training,
and led in the development of the civilized autonomous
government embodied in
the republican constitution adopted in 1827.
He was associate chief
with William Hicks in that
year, and president of
the Cherokee constitutional convention. From 1828 till the removal to Indian Territory in 1839 he was
principal chief of the
Cherokee Nation, and headed the various national
delegations that visited Washington to defend the right
of the Cherokee to their
national territory.
After the arrival in Indian Territory,
he was chosen chief of
the united Cherokee
Nation, and held that office until his death, although during the
dissensions caused by the Civil War the Federal authorities
temporarily deposed him. See Mooney, Myths
of the Cherokee, 19th Rep. B. A. E.,
122, 150, 224, 225, 1900.
Inventor of the Cherokee alphabet, born in the
Cherokee town of Taskigi, Tenn., about 1760; died near San
Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, in Aug. 1843. He was the son of a
white man and a Cherokee woman of mixed blood, daughter of a
chief in Echota. Besides his native name of Sikwayi, or Sequoya,
he was known as George Gist, otherwise spelled Guest or Guess,
the patronymic of his father, generally believed to have been a
German trader. He has also been claimed as the son of
Nathaniel Gist of Revolutionary note.
Sequoya grew up in the tribe, quite unacquainted with
English or civilized arts, becoming a hunter and trader in furs.
He was also a craftsman in silverwork, an ingenious natural
mechanic, and his inventive powers had scope for development in
consequence of an accident that befell him in hunting and
rendered him a cripple for life.
The importance of the arts of
writing and printing as instruments and weapons of civilization
began to impress him in 1809, and he studied, undismayed by the
discouragement and ridicule of his fellows, to elaborate a
system of writing suitable to the Cherokee language.
In 1821 he
submitted his syllabary to the chief men of the nation, and on
their approval the Cherokee of all ages set about to learn it
with such zeal that after a few months thousands were able to
read and write their language. Sequoya, in 1822, visited
Arkansas to introduce writing in the Western division of the
Cherokee, among whom he took up his permanent abode in 1823.
Parts of the Bible were printed in Cherokee in 1824, and in 1828
The Cherokee Phoenix, a weekly newspaper in Cherokee and English
, began to appear.
Sequoya was sent to Washington in 1828 as an
envoy of the Arkansas band, in whose affairs he bore a
conspicuous part, and when the Eastern Cherokee joined the old
settlers in the west his influence and counsel were potent in
the organization of the reunited nation in Indian Territory.
When, in his declining years, he withdrew from active political
life, speculative ideals once again possessed his mind. He
visited tribes of various stocks in a fruitless search for the
elements of a common speech and grammar. He sought also to trace
a lost band of the Cherokee that, according to tradition, had
crossed the Mississippi before the Revolution and wandered to
some mountains in the west, and while pursuing this quest in the
Mexican sierras he met his death. See Mooney,
Myths of the Cherokee, 19th Rep., B. A. E., 108 et seq., 147,
148, 1900, and the authorities therein cited. More on Sequoyah
Lowrey, George.
A cousin of Sequoya and second chief of the Eastern Cherokee under John
Ross, commonly known as Mayor Lowrey. His native name was Ag1 It ('He is
rising'), possibly a contraction of an old personal name, Agin'agi`ll
(.'Rising-fawn'). He joined Ross in steadily opposing all attempts to
force his people to move from their eastern lands, and later, after this
had been accomplished, he was chief of council of the Eastern Cherokee at
the meeting held in 1839 to fuse the eastern and western divisions into
the present Cherokee Nation. See Mooney in 19th Rep. B. A. E., 115, 135,
1900.
Lowrey, John, A Cherokee
chief, commonly known as Colonel Lowrey. He commanded, the friendly
Cherokee who helped Gen. Andrew Jackson in the war against the Creeks in
1813-14, and with Col. Gideon Morgan and 400 Cherokee surrounded and
captured the town of Hillabi, Ala., Nov. 18, 1813. The two were
conspicuous also in the battle of Horseshoe Bend, Mar. 27, 1814, for
which they were commended. Lowrey was one of the signers of the treaties
made at Washington, June 7, 1806, and Mar. 22, 1816. See Mooney in 19th
Rep. B. A. E., 90, 1900.
Source: Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Frederick Webb Hodge,
1906, Bureau of Ethnology, Government Printing Office.
Online Publication: The manuscript was scanned and
then ocr'd. Minimal editing has been done, and readers can and should expect
some errors in the textual output.
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