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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 63 



On this occasion, Mr. Mooney made headquarters in the largest 

 and most conservative settlement, locally known as Raven Town or 

 Big Cove, some 12 miles from the agency, over a very rough moun- 

 tain road impassable for vehicles during a part of the year. Here, 

 shut in by the highest peaks east of the Mississippi, some 500 Indians 

 dwell in fairlv comfortable two-room log cabins perched high up on 



Fig. 60.— Cherokee potter; Katalsta, daughter of 

 Yanaguski, " Drowning Bear," Head chief of the East 

 Cherokee about 1838. Photograph by Mooney. 



the slopes of the mountains, always near a convenient spring. 

 They till their fields of corn and beans, which extend sometimes even 

 up to the crest of the ridge Some have oxen, and a few have horses, 

 but the great majority cultivate their fields by hand, and travel always 

 on foot. 



While many are nominally Christians, and most of the younger 

 people can speak English, they still, as a community, adhere to their 



