Masks of the Seven Clans of the Cherokee Nation: A ni ga to ge wi (Wild Potato), A ni tsi s kwa (Bird), A ni gi lo hi (Long Hair), A ni sa ho ni (Blue), A ni wo di (Paint), A ni ka wi (Deer), A ni wa yah (Wolf)

This page dedication to Edna Chekelelee 1933 - 1995

CLICK HERE to visit the official webset dedicated to Chief Junaluska Memorial and Museum.

CLICK HERE to visit the official home page of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

THE CHEROKEE IN GRAHAM COUNTY
Excerpts from 1872-1972 Graham County Centennial Book

The Graham County Indians known locally as the Snowbird Indians are the heirs of a great and powerful Cherokee Indian nation that existed in the Southern Appalachian Region long before the white settlers moved into these mountains. The proper name by which the Cherokee called themselves is "Yun-Wiya" which means or signifies "real people". The Cherokee are said to be of the Iroquoian stock and originally dwelt about the headwaters of the Ohio River. Wars with their neighbors over the years caused the Cherokee to move south into mountain regions, including the valleys of Stecoah, Cheoah and Yellow Creek in Graham County. The Cherokee of Graham County had to defend themselves against warring Creeks to the south, on the west against the Chickasaws and the Shawnees, on the north against the Iroquois. The whites too as their forces grew stronger began to make ever increasing demands upon the Cherokee. In 1798 they signed the Treaty of Tellico surrendering a portion of their lands with the pledge from the government that it would "guarantee the remainder of their county forever." The government did not keep its pledge as is clearly indicated by further demand reflected in the second and third Treaties of Tellico in 1804 and 1805. The Cherokee made every effort to adapt their ways and survive as a nation. A written language was developed; a national newspaper was published in their own language; a constitution was written following closely the representative model of the U.S. government. No nation ever made greater progress in so short a period of time. However the Cherokee as a nation was engaged in an unending struggle for its survival. The Cherokee were able to hold their mountain land until the coming of the white settlers. In 1738 the Cherokee population was greatly reduced by an epidemic of smallpox. In 1540 De Soto encountered the Cherokee in the mountain valleys of this region, the first contact with the white man. Life in Graham County for the Cherokee was a life of farming, hunting and fishing. In the early 1800's trading parties moved into Graham County followed closely by the white settlers as the great westward movement pushed onward.

Early records show that the first white settlers lived harmoniously with the Cherokee in Graham County until the U. S. government undertook to move the Cherokee out of their mountain lands to far away Oklahoma in an episode unequalled for grief and pathos by any other passage in our national history. Gold had been found in the Cherokee lands and the Indians without deliberation were forced to leave Graham County and other tribally occupied lands. It was said the Indian did not need gold and furthermore could hunt upon the level plains. The great movement west popularized as the "Trail of Tears" started in 1838. The roundup of the Cherokee in Graham County began with the arrival of the forces of General Winfield Scott. A stockade was built in Stecoah and a larger fort constructed on Fort Hill to be known as Fort Montgomery. The Cherokee were pushed from their cherished homes, cultivated fields, expansive hunting grounds; hence herded into the humiliating compounds by entire families as specified by army orders. Men, women and children were seized without notice at bayonet point wherever they could be found and removed to the stockades. Livestock and all major household goods went to the white successors who often immediately burned the homes and even dug into Indian graves searching for valuables.

In October 1838 the procession of exiles began composed of 14,000 including the old, the sick, and the young with only the most meager of provisions - cooking utensils, blankets and small remembrances in six hundred wagon. Winter came in mid-journey and the weary travelers averaged ten miles a day over the frozen earth. Often they stopped to bury their dead and worship the Great Spirit. Meanwhile a new President, Martin Van Buren, near Christmas 1838, reported to Congress that all had gone well. The whole removal was reported having "the happiest effects."

A provisional military road was built by General Scott and his soldiers across the mountains to Andrews and Murphy for destination Chattanooga and the long, shameful journey by the way of Illinois and Missouri to the designated area in Oklahoma. The road leads up Long Creek over the Snowbird Mountains. The survey of the road known locally as the Tatham Gap Road was effected by James Tatham without an instrument.

Not all the Cherokee in Graham County were caught up in the army roundup. A goodly number of our Cherokee escaped into the mountains of the Snowbird, Buffalo and Santeetlah area and hid out where a number of their heirs reside until this day.

Probably the most prominent leader of Cherokee in Graham County was Junaluska He had come to the attention of Preside Andrew Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814 when Jackson was leading a force against the Creek Indians. It is generally accepted by historians that Junaluska saved Jackson's life during the battle. The barbarious Creek Indians had secured themselves in the bend of the Tallapoosa River in a curvature resembling a horseshoe. Nature had furnish a situation of defense near impossible to penetrate. To approach it would expose an arm to cross fire from the enemy. Junaluska and his warriors swam under cover of darkness an the firing of muskets and rifles to the peninsula and seized the canoes of the enemy at mortal peril and set fire to a few of the buildings there situated. It is said that Junaluska "braved the worst and achieved the most at the telling crisis of the battle."

The great leader went with his people to the Oklahoma land, later returned, walking the entire route back to Graham County. Junaluska continued still to be a leader of his people. After his return, the state of North Carolina gave him a large tract of land in Graham County. In addition to the 337 acres of land, the 1847 North Carolina legislature made Junaluska a citizen of North Carolina and gave him $100.00. The land given to Junaluska now incorporates part of Robbinsville and Mill town.

Junaluska would meet with the Snowbird Indian Council leaders at the Council grounds where he is now buried in the town of Robbinsville. The Cherokee leader died in 1858 after a long and hard struggle to keep his people in the mountains he loved. The story is told that Junaluska was an old and sick man before his death. There was supposed to have been a healing spring used by the Cherokee across the mountain at Citico, Tennessee. Junaluska was on the trail leading to the healing spring when his death took place.

On November 10, 1910, on a ridge within the town of Robbinsville, the General Joseph Winston Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution unveiled a native stone monument in memory of Junaluska. Largely through the untiring devotion and efforts of Carolina A. Hawkins of the DAR the idea of the unveiling conceived and developed. Bob Colvard was asked to select a stone from the Colvard's lands. It required eight yoke of oxen one-half day to pull the immense boulder on a sled one mile to the top of the hill where Junaluska is buried. The bronze tablet attached to the stone monument has this inscription "Here lie the bodies of the Cherokee Januluska, and Nicie his wife. Together with his warriors, he saved the life of General Jackson, at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, and his bravery and faithfulness, North Carolina made him a citizen and gave him land in Graham County. He died November 20, 1858, aged more than one hundred years. This monument was erected to his memory by the Joseph Winston Chapter DAR 1910."

Colonel Will H. Thomas was a white leader of the Cherokee in the early history of Graham County. Thomas purchased lands in Graham County for the Cherokee on their return from the west and for those that had hidden out from the western movement. Most of the land was purchased on Little Snowbird. Col. Thomas formed a regiment of North Carolina Troops for the Confederate States in the War Between the States. The Sixty-Ninth Regiment-Infantry, was in part composed of Indian Companies, and was a portion of what was known as "Thomas Legion." Company "A" of the Regiment had Graham County Indians listed by the names, Second Lt. Peter Greybeard, Ground Squirrel, Atowhee, Chowah, Kooe-Skooe, Ochumteh, Tetoltogib, Owl Watta and Junaluskee.

After the formation of Graham County 1872, action was taken to set up some type school system for the Cherokee. On Sept. 1880, a school district was set up to include the Indians. Like all early schools, the Cherokee went to the one teacher schoolhouse. So Cherokee children were sent to school at Yellow Hill in Swain County. J. F. Hyde was one of the white schoolteachers that taught the Cherokee in Graham County. Many teachers have served the Indians faithfully at Snowbird throughout the years. The last teachers at Snowbird were Al Lee and his wife who served until the Indians were transferred to Robbinsville Schools in 1963. The Snowbird Community continues to be served by an education specialist, Mrs. Rebecca Harless, assigned by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, who promotes all types of educational activities with the community.

The Cherokee were farming the lands when the white settlers arrived here in Graham County. Corn was one of the main crops. The streams and woodlands constituted a good source of food. The Cherokee used timber to build their early homes during the days of the white settlement. Cattle raising was introduced by the early settlers and the Cherokee started growing beef. Jno Ropetwister was a Cherokee that was successful in cattle growing. It is said that Ropetwister would drive his large herds of cattle over into Tennessee and sell them for gold coin. After the death of Ropetwister, it seems that both Indians and white became interested in what happened to Ropetwister's gold. Many thought the old Cherokee had saved a great amount of gold during his successful cattle growing and sales. The legend of Ropetwister's gold and what happened to it remains one of the unsolved Cherokee mystery stories in Graham County.

According to many historians the Cherokee Indians were the most learned in art and literature of any of the tribes in the United States.

One of their number, Sequoyah, invented an alphabet of phonetic syllables and sounds from the Cherokee spoken language. Later he reduced these sounds to a written language, having arrived at a selection of 76 characters. Soon the Cherokee could read and write in their own language. By 1828 they were publishing their own newspaper.

Another Cherokee Indian of our country who became legendary largely because of his age was Old Cheesequire. Cheesequire is reported to have lived to be 137 years old. The final resting place of the old Indian who died sometime after the year 1880 on Ground Squirrel Branch has been located and marked with a large marble marker at the low gap on the old Indian Trail from the Stump Fort to Fort Montgomery (Robbinsville).

Cheesequire, who said that he played ball on the present site of the City of Knoxville when Knoxville was largely old sage grass fields, said that he was born about the year 1743 and was sixteen years old when the last herd of buffalo left Cheoah Valley. He reportedly followed the herd across the present Hooper Bald as they headed west. The late Charlie Denton remembered Cheesequire wandering about the countryside clothed in his deerskins and pointed hat barefooted in all kinds of weather.

The Cherokee Indians of Graham County are a hardy people who have weathered the hardships of a cruel wilderness, many Indian Tribal Wars, a death march to the West, smallpox epidemic and the coming of the white settlers. In most cases they have been able to retain a pure blood line of the true Cherokee and also preserve their native language. Many of their early customs are retained and the native craftsmanship is present with the older folks. The Graham County Cherokee in the Snowbird, Buffalo, and Santeetlah section is part of the fading memory of a great Cherokee Nation that composed an area of about 40,000 square miles, including parts of Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.

Graham County NC Travel and Tourism Authority 12 North Main Street Robbinsville, NC 28771 PHONE 1-828-479-3790 1-800-470-3790 EMAIL: info@GrahamCountyTravel.com