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 A SKETCH OF THE CHEROKEE PEOPLE ON THE 
 INDIAN RESERVATION OF NORTH CAROLINA 
 
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 A SKETCH OP THE CHEROKEE PEOPLE ON THE 
 INDIAN RESERVATION OP NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 By Virginia D.Young 
 
 Woman's Progress 
 Jan, 1894 
 
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 THE CHEROKEE PEOPLE. 169 
 
 A SKETCH OF THE CHEROKEE PEOPLE ON THE 
 INDIAN RESERVATION OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 In that part of Jackson county, reached by the " Murphy 
 division of the Richmond and Danville Railroad combination," 
 reside the remnant of the once powerful tribe of Cherokees. In 
 visiting it the first stage of our journey was by train to Whittier, 
 the scenery becoming wilder and grander as we advanced into the 
 heart of the Blue Ridge. When we left the train and looked 
 about us, on one side of the little station appeared a great bare 
 hill, at whose top a church with spire and shining cross, suggested 
 Dieppe and the fisherman's shrine to St. Jacques, where we 
 landed for the first time on the soil of La Belle France ! The 
 conveyance awaiting us was altogether unique, a large stout 
 wagon, with excellent springs and strong brakes, two comfortable 
 seats, high backed, and a large oilcloth to protect us from sudden 
 mountain showers. Our driver was a handsome young man, whom 
 we presently learned was from Kansas, and now engaged in teach- 
 ing one of the Indian schools. An Indian boy sat with him, 
 whom he introduced to us as " Jungdau," or Young Deer. The 
 team consisted of four bay horses, each bearing a cluster of bells, 
 whose incessant tinkling reminded us of the sound of the bag-pipe 
 in the daik defiles of the Trossachs, among which we had traveled 
 the preceding year. Again I felt the wild exhilaration of our ride 
 on top of the coach from Stronalacher to Aberfoyle, as we looked 
 on dark chasms or rushed at breakneck speed around the sides of 
 mountains not more awe-inspiring than these primeval peaks, 
 shooting into the blue heavens above us. The day was glorious, 
 and even Scotland's far-famed " Pass of Leny " did not exceed in 
 beauty and sublimity these rocky steeps and foaming cascades, 
 •with the whir of the bag-pipes so weirdly reproduced in the tink- 
 ling bells on the heads of the hurrying horses. :• 
 
 To bring tourists into this land of heaven-kissing heights, it 
 only needs some poet or prose writer, fired with love of its beauty 
 to endue fair stream or rocky knoll with glamour of romance and 
 story, as Miss Murfree has done for the " Great Smoky Mountains 
 of Tennessee," or Miss Magruder for Virginia. Rough as \yas 
 the way my heart was so full of the joy of beholding this glorious 
 handiwork of God, that I never feft a jolt, though my husband 
 much concerned at our rough and rapid transit kept a firm hold of 
 me lest I should actually be thrown from my seat down the abysses 
 of rock, by which our road so perilously ran. 
 
 The tourist who stops in Asheville, under the notion that he has 
 reached the ultima thule of mountain scenery in this " Switzerland 
 of America " (it had better be called the Scotland), makes a great 
 mistake. 
 
I70 WOMAN'S PROGRESS. 
 
 Going westward he finds a succession of picturesque stopping 
 places, as at " Balsam," and " Dillsboro," and sweet " Sylva," where 
 he will find his bodily wants provided for, while he feasts his eyes 
 on — 
 
 " Crags, and knolls, and mounds, confused hurled. 
 Like broken fragments of some earlier world." 
 
 As our driver deftly flourished his whip over his pretty bays, 
 without touching their sleek sides, he gave us much information 
 about the Indian country. 
 
 The Reservation embraces 70,000 acres, the bulk of it wooded 
 land, admirably adapted to sheep and cattle pasturage. In the 
 bleakest of winters there is a growth on the mountain tops, on 
 which the cattle thrive. Most of the Indian families keep cattle, 
 chiefly cows, ponies and pigs. There are not many deer left, but 
 an abundance of rabbits, squirrels and birds. There is also good 
 fishing in the streams. 
 
 There are not more than twelve hundred and thirty Indians 
 now in the nation. Some of them live on grants in Swain and 
 Graham counties, and a goodly number in Georgia, numbering in 
 all, this side of the Mississippi, twenty-nine hundred and fifty-six. 
 The nation owns the land in common, but each man has his own farm, 
 on which he pays tax to the native authorities, who in their turn 
 pay tax to the State. 
 
 A lofty mountain, which overlooked one point of our route 
 was " Hobbs Peak," named after the first white man, who went among 
 the Cherokees as a teacher. He did a good work in civilizing the 
 red people. 
 
 Scarcity of game long ago drove them west on hunting expe- 
 ditions, but it was not until 1838 that they agreed to vacate their 
 lands and accept for them others beyond the Rocky Mountains. 
 Many, however, declined to leave the soil, to which they clung as 
 the Switzer to his Alps, and staying, they were compelled to work^ 
 and soon began to farm. They now raise corn, peas, pumpkins and 
 some tobacco, but not as much as formerly. The valleys and hill- 
 sides of the reservation produce fine wheat and corn. The latter 
 is their staff of life, which they prepare in many appetizing ways. 
 Sometimes they parch the whole grains and then pound it into 
 flour. They are as fond of hog-meat as white folks, and have 
 learned to cure their own bacon. 
 
 Basket-making is a universal art, and some of them are adepts 
 in moulding and ornamenting pottery. Their black vases, beautifully 
 carved, were much like some Aztec curios we saw at Florence in 
 Italy. 
 
 This Indian country, like western North Carolina generally, is 
 rich in hard-woods. Chestnuts, walnuts, white oaks, tower to 
 immense heights in the glorious solitude. Indicating the distance 
 from the road to the river below (some hundreds of feet) an Indian 
 used the phrase " deep as a tree," and truth to tell, the top of one 
 of these enormous chestnuts, growing down in the glen, where the 
 river rushed along its rocky bed, was just parallel with our road. 
 
THE CHEROKEE PEOPLE. 171 
 
 We passed some Indian huts, at which I looked curiously, but 
 could discover nothing different from the homes of poor white peo- 
 ple. There was even the usual tangle of sunflowers, zinnias, 
 dahlias and mornincr glories. 
 
 Our driver said the smooth white rocks we saw cropping up 
 above the bed of the river, were the Indian women's " washing 
 stones," and that the narrow canoe in which an Indian sat fishing 
 would carry a thousand pounds. 
 
 Though autumn had not yet fully come to paint the woods, 
 she had sent a courier ahead, to sprinkle red, yellow and purple 
 leaves on the dogwood, maple and gum. The burrs on the chin- 
 quapin bushes were bursting and the sourwood had flowered in 
 veil-like masses of infinitesimal florets, suggestive of spider Avebs, 
 A tree which attracted my attention, the driver told me, was the 
 " cucumber tree," whose blood-red cucumber-shaped pods, set amid 
 thick foliage, recalled the rozvan tree of Scotch thickets. Wild 
 flowers rioted in this domain of Nature, mingling their varying- 
 shades of pink, violet and gold in every rocky crevice 
 
 " Far o'er the illimitable scene. 
 The briar rose fell in streamers green. 
 And creeping shrubs, of thousand dyes, 
 Waved in the west wind's gentle sighs." 
 
 ~ The Indians up there have, like their white neighbors, exten- 
 sive apple orchards. The apples are of greater size than I saw else- 
 where. They are not ripe till frost touches them, but, gathered after 
 cold weather sets in and stored in barn-lofts among the hay, they 
 take on such stores of sweetness and flavor as is scarcely to be 
 found in the winter-keeping apples of any other region. I speak 
 from experience, as our friends at Waynesville, next door neighbors 
 to the Indians, sent us a barrel of most delicious ones last winter. 
 
 And now^e came to a historic region, for here was a tall, old 
 block house, where in former days the warriors came to exchange 
 their peltries for beads and blankets^ bacon, tobacco, and, alas, fire- 
 water. Its heavy squared timbers and small loopholed windows 
 were reminders of Indian war times, of the Colonial period, and led 
 our driver into stories of the late war, when cannon were planted 
 on a commanding hill " to keep the Indians loyal." Two regiments 
 of Cherokees fought in our Southern army and others followed the 
 flag of the Union. 
 
 The tavern, or its ruins rather, is in a stone's throw of the 
 commission house, where white traders of a bygone age got lodg- 
 ings, and in spite of sagged roof and crumbling walls it is inhabited 
 still. 
 
 The "Indian Training School of the Cherokees " comprises a 
 number of buildings situated on a green plateau, about which winds 
 the bright current of the river, called in their musical tongue 
 " Oconee-Loughky." This school is kept up on an appropriation 
 from Congress, originally intended to defray the expenses of the 
 Cherokees to the West, but those who declined to go applied,. 
 
172 WOMAN'S PROGRESS. 
 
 through the member of Congress from that district, for a certain 
 proportion of the fund to be used in schooHng their youth. At the 
 time of our visit, Captain and Mrs. Spray were in charge and made 
 it very pleasant for us. In the main building, where we were enter- 
 tained, the superintendent and teachers all resided, except the " lady 
 doctor," who, we were told, had greatly recommended herself to 
 the Indians by successfully setting broken bones and healing wounds. 
 The girl pupils also reside in the main building, while the boys 
 occupy a separate house in the grounds. It was vacation time, but 
 at the sound of the bell the whole army of scholars came marching 
 into the dining-room in an orderly manner, and behaved in a per- 
 fectly civilized way during the meal. Some of the Indian, girls 
 waited on table and afterward washed up the dishes and reset the 
 tables. These girls were taught to sew, mend, darn and use sew- 
 ing machines. They were also instructed in laundry work and 
 cookery, and turned out such accomplished mistresses of these arts 
 that the demand for them as house servants at Asheville and other 
 neighboring towns, cognizant of their skill, could not be supplied. 
 
 Mrs. Spray showed me the " school-room," on the walls of 
 which were numerous pictures, illustrative of Bible scenes, and the 
 room was furnished with an organ and reading desk, at which one 
 of the teachers presided at night and early morn for prayers and 
 reading of the Scriptures. 
 
 The Indians show a sensibility to music, and the performances 
 of the " Indian Brass Band " were right often requested, they told 
 us, at Waynesville and other towns. I remember being struck with 
 the novelty of their " band stand" in a tree. It was a huge mul- 
 berry tree, whose limbs had been so cut and twisted as to form a 
 natural pavilion, with a trellis work floor and rustic easels to hold 
 music. The band ascended to their eyrie by a stairway built of 
 branches, retaining their natural bark. The performers were boys 
 from ten to seventeen years old, and played creditably such airs 
 as " Dixie," " Yankee Doodle " and " Way Down Upon the Suwa- 
 nee River." 
 
 Everything about the premises indicated thrift and discipline. 
 There was a farm attached to the school, and on this good crops 
 of corn and peas were growing, while vegetables were raised in 
 abundance for the school and some to sell. They also sold fine 
 butter and honey. 
 
 In the main building was a reception room, where an upright 
 piano, books, pictures and easy chairs gave an impression of refine- 
 ment. The bedroom we occupied was daintily neat. Our dinner 
 of nicely prepared chicken, beef, fruit, jelly, preserves, milk, butter 
 and lightbread, was served on china and damask. When we 
 returned to the rose- wreathed porch after dinner, we found the mail 
 had been brought, and the first thing that met our eyes was the 
 September number of Harper's Magazine which had not yet come 
 to hand when we left Waynesville, so much nearer civilization. 
 The postoffice, " Cherokee," is close to " Yellow Hill," the site of 
 the Trainincr School. 
 
THE CHEROKEE PEOPLE. 173 
 
 We were glad to accept an invitation from "Chief Smith " to 
 visit him at his home in the vicinity of the school. He came to his 
 gate to meet us, with a majesty of mien well suited to the leading 
 man of his tribe. His eagie outline of feature looked as if it could 
 readily adapt itself to a tiara of feathers, while his still upright form 
 testified to a vigorous old age. He offered us water from a pump 
 close at hand, of his own invention, rustic but effective. He told 
 us he had " built an aqueduct of hollowed logs, by means of which 
 he had brought the clear cold water to his door from a spring a 
 mile distant." 
 
 At an election held some time before he had been superseded 
 by " Stillwell Sononka." The government is vested in a council, 
 of which the chief is head. 
 
 The news of our arri\al must have quickly spread for numbers 
 came to see the " Unaka," as they call the whites. Some of the 
 women had their babies at their backs, in regular papoose fashion, 
 and one very aged woman named Catalsta, carried a large net 
 fastened around her head in which were a quantity of baskets. 
 This woman's teeth were sound and white, though she was eighty 
 years old. The voices of all the Indian women were soft and sibi- 
 lant, and to me had a peculiarly soothing tone. 
 
 I was siruck with the small size of these people, which the 
 superintendent said was owing to the excessive use of tobacco and 
 whiskey. He said consumption is " very prevalent among them." 
 
 Some of the children of the Training School were little tots, 
 but they never cried though in their play they often got right hard 
 falls and this same stoical quality we noticed in the babies brought 
 by their mothers. I learned the names of some of the children, 
 which seemed to be a combination of English and Indian names, as 
 for instance, Ollie Larch, Annie Liddie, Catolsta, Chickalillie, Tasus- 
 kie, Whargolah, Dinah Hornbuckle. Some of the boys' names w^ere 
 Ned Wilnotie, Saquallie, Goliath Rigjim, Dinola, Jesseau, Julius 
 Youngduck. 
 
 I thought there was a decided resemblance in these people to 
 the Japanese, only the color of the Indians is a darker yellow, 
 except among the half-breeds. The twinkle of their small black 
 eyes indicate a decided sense of humor, though I have heard it said 
 the Indians have none. But there is always a gurgle of laughter 
 going on when they talk among themselves. 
 
 The inspiration of this school is a woman, Mrs. Spray. She is 
 a strong believer in woman suffrage, and has instilled her belief 
 into the Indian girls under her care. She is the mother and real 
 head, looked up to and beloved by the whole school and nation, the 
 motive power by which she rules being love. It is her house- 
 wifely skill which has made refinement and neatness and system, 
 characteristic of this home in the wilderness. She show^ed me the 
 sewing-room where a half-dozen girls were at work under a director, 
 some cutting out garments for the scholars, some basting, and two 
 or three running sewing-machines. On shelves in the room were 
 rolls of cloth awaiting the scissors. 
 
174 WOMAN'S PROGRESS. 
 
 The clean clothes were just brought in from the laundry, also 
 run by Indian girls, and they were sorting, mending and darning 
 with the precision of veterans. 
 
 I also was taken to inspect the kitchen, in which the long 
 ranges and cooking vessels fairly shone with their hard scrubbing. 
 Near the back of the kitchen was a large sheltered entry, and in the 
 midst of it a wide trough-like receptacle, underneath which a 
 stream of water had been forced to run in a pipe. In this original 
 kind of refrigerator, were placed bowls of milk and butter, the latter 
 in quantities sufficing for the use of the school and an overplus to sell. 
 Stored away in another cool place was a tempting assortment of 
 preserves and jellies and jams. A batch of girls were peeling fruit to 
 fill a porcelain lined kettle for preserving and to dry. The girls 
 trained by Mrs. Spray have a reputation for skill and housewifery, 
 and are much sought after in the neighboring towns. Mrs. Spray 
 interests herself in getting them good places. 
 
 Fairfax, S. C. Virginia Duraxt Young. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
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