46 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 196 



Those who died— 10 93 



Those not baptised — 21 

 31 02 



43 

 Children— 11 7 23 

 6 

 35 



COMMENTARY 



Among The Inoli Letters there are two other rolls of the members 

 of Echota Methodist Mission as well as several short lists of names 

 that may be church committees. One senses a,n incomplete victory 

 on Qualla Boundary by the forces of righteousness: On one of the 

 rolls, opposite the names of several of the members, is the notation 

 "turned out." 



When reading out a list of names, or calling a roll, it is customary 

 among the Cherokees to voice final syllables that are unvoiced in 

 routine conversation, although there are some names that provide 

 exceptions. It was deemed the better procedure to treat the foregoing 

 roll as if it were actually being called. 



A document in Enghsh in The Inoli Letters estabhshes the fact 

 that Echota Methodist Mission in Soco Valley existed as early as 

 September 7, 1850, apparently on or very near the same site now 

 occupied by the stone Methodist Chiu-ch on Highway 19. Kusseil 

 (MS., 1956, p. 254) informs us that Will Thomas, who was a Methodist, 

 donated the land for the mission and organized the Sunday School of 

 the church. 



Modi's clerical status is defined by another document in the 

 collection, his license as a local preacher given on August 25, 1849, 

 by the Quarterly Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 

 South, at Waynesville, N.C. The word digh{a)dhi:ya, employed 

 above, is a troublesome one. To a contemporary Cherokee it means 

 'Pastor,* but in Ino:Ws time it appears to have had the meaning 

 we have assigned to it. 



The entire Bible has never been translated into Cherokee. All of 

 the New Testament was translated, but not by 1856-58. It was the 

 practice of the Mission Press at Park Hill, Cherokee Nation, to issue 

 newly translated books separately. One of the documents in The 

 Inoli Letters is a copy in Tno:li's handwriting, marred by some 

 orthographic errors here and there, of Luke 9:23-27. Perhaps he 

 did not possess a copy of the Cherokee Luke and had extracted this 

 from one that he had borrowed. Another document in the collection 

 is an account of the traditional fate of each Apostle. In some respects 

 it is curiously at variance with accepted traditions. Copies of this 



