228 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 196 



The Cherokee Agency personnel were always cooperative. Miss 

 Evanelle Tomasson, Mrs. Margaret Smith, and Mrs. Molly A. Blan- 

 kenship were particularly helpful. 



I wish to express my thanks to the Institute for Research in Social 

 Science of the University of North Carolina for financial aid in the 

 early phase of the fieldwork. I am deeply indebted to the National 

 Institute of Mental Health for grant MF-9222, which provided 

 generous and continued support for this research. The University 

 of North Carolina at Greensboro Research Council provided funds 

 to assist in the final preparation of the manuscript. 



Miss Priscilla Roetzel and Miss Lorraine Lively were kind enough 

 to edit and proofread the manuscript. 



Finally, I am grateful to have known the people of Cherokee. In 

 the last analysis, it is they who made this research possible. 



THE CHEROKEE 



THE PAST 



Following the Removal in 1838, the history of the Cherokee branches 

 into two nearly discrete streams. One stream holds in its current 

 those who went west during the Removal. Apparently many of the 

 better educated and mixbloods were among this group. In examin- 

 ing a roll compiled by Mullay, a Federal enumerator, Gaston Litton 

 (1940, p. 209) says that the great predominance of Cherokee names 

 suggests that the emigi*ation of 1838-39 took away most of the mix- 

 bloods. Judging from the elegance of the prose of the letters written 

 by the Ridge, Watie, and Boudinot families, one is probably justified 

 in concluding that a significant portion of potential leadership was 

 drained off by this event (Dale and Litton, 1939). 



The other historical course involves the fortunes of the fugitives 

 from the roundup, "principally . . . mountain Cherokee . . ., the 

 purest-blooded and most conservative of the Nation" (Mooney, 1900, 

 p. 157). As a result of Tsali's historic sacrifice,^ General Winfield 

 Scott granted permission to the people hidden deep in secluded recesses 

 of the mountains to remain in the east. Col. Will Thomas ("Little 

 Will") spent 6 years in Washington, D.C., seeking official recognition 

 of the right of his adopted people to remain in their homeland. Per- 

 mission was finally granted, and Thomas, using the moneys due the 

 Cherokee for property confiscation and damage, purchased tracts of 

 mountain land for them. The titles to the property were held by 



» Tsali and his sons killed a soldier while escaping from the Removal roundup. They, like other es- 

 capees, fled to an inaccessible mountain cave. General Scott, recognizing the tremendous task involved 

 in capturing all of the fugitives, offered permission for them to remain in their homeland in exchange for 

 Tsall. Tsali and his two older sons surrendered and were executed for the murder. 



