10 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bcll. 196 



It is true that they do not tell us all that we would like to know; 

 in certain respects they raise more queries than they answer. We 

 wish we knew, for instance, what the titles and exact duties of the 

 Wolftown officials were. How were these officials selected and for 

 what length of time did they remain in office? We do not learn of 

 the precise relationship of the Gadu:g(i) to the Township Council; 

 and although they tell us of crime, they are silent upon the subject 

 of punishment. 



But we discover that the Eastern Cherokee were much more 

 highly acculturated than we had surmised, that township government 

 was a flourishing organism, and that economic problems were solved 

 with much ingenuity. 



If through wobbly spelling and scratchy calligraphy the documents 

 that comprise The Inoli Letters have sometimes grievously extended 

 their fellow Cherokees, the translators, they have also provided new 

 proof that there is something immutable in Cherokee psychological 

 makeup. That legalistic turn of mind, with its tenacity for proprie- 

 tary and monetary rights, is fully present and accounted for in the 

 civic records of Wolftown. That favorite Cherokee word duyu:gh{o)dv 

 ('right,* 'just') binds the documents together with a living thread. 

 And there are unexpected flashes of a wry humor that stir up the 

 dust that clings to aU legal instruments. This, too, is typically 

 Cherokeean, as is the curious concept of what is systematic and what 

 is not, and as is that gift for synthesis. 



The Terrell Roll is a moving document, recording as it does the 

 ghastly price the Eastern Cherokee had to pay in human life to 

 maintain a precarious hold upon their native soil. Over the Wolftown 

 documents there hang the unspoken distrust of the White man and 

 the constant fear of eviction. No great spiritual wind sweeps across 

 these pages; rather is there a stubborn, grubbing tenacity to persevere 

 and endure. 



NO. 1.— NOTICE CONCERNING ILLEGAL CUTTING OF TIMBER 

 (on recto, in English) 



AU persons — are forewarned from entering the Indian Boundary 

 for the purpose of cutting saw logs — or wood of any kind — as the 

 law will be put in force against those offending — The Indians claim 

 the right of pay for timber cut — and it must be done 



Oct 2d "1850 W H Thomas agt 



per G. T. Mason 



