« key] THE EXCITEMENT AMONG THE CHEROKEE f> 7 7 



mountains. Full of this belief, numbers of t lie tribe in Alabama and 

 Georgia abandoned their bees, their orchards, their slaves, and every- 

 thing else that might have come to them through the white man, and, 

 in spite of the entreaties and remonstrances of friends who put no 

 t a it li in the prediction, took up their toilsome march tor the mountains 

 of Carolina. Wafford, who was then about 1<» years of age, lived with 

 his mother and stepfather on Valley river, and vividly remembers 

 the troops of pilgrims, with their packs on their backs, fleeing from 

 the lower country to escape from the wrath to come. Many of them 

 stopped at the house of his stepfather, who, being a white man, was 

 somewhat better prepared than his neighbors to entertain travelers, 

 and who took the opportunity to endeavor to persuade them to turn 

 back, telling them that their hopes and fears alike were groundless. 

 Some listened to him and returned to their homes, but others went on 

 and climbed the mountain, where they waited until the appointed day 

 arrived, only to find themselves disappointed. Slowly and sadly then 

 they took ii]> their packs once more and turned their faces homeward, 

 dreading the ridicule they were sure to meet there, but yet believing 

 in their hearts that the glorious coming was only postponed tor a time. 

 This excitement among the Cherokee is noted at some length in the 

 Cherokee Advocate of November 1C, 184-1, published at Tahlequah, 

 Cherokee Nation. Among the ('reek the excitement, intensified by 

 reports of the struggle now going on in the north, and fostered and 

 encouraged by the emissaries of Spain and England, grew and spread 

 until it culminated in the summer of 1813 in the terrible ("reek war. 



Enougb is known of the ceremonial of this religion to show that it 

 must have had an elaborate ritual. We learn from Warren that the 

 adherents of the prophet were accustomed to perforin certain cere- 

 monies in solemn councils, and that, after he had prohibited the corrupt 

 secret rites, he introduced instead new medicines and songs, and that 

 at the ancient capital of the Ojibwa on Lake Superior the Indians col 

 lected in great numbers and performed these dances and ceremonies 

 day and night. (Warren, 1.) They were also instructed to dance 

 naked, with their bodies painted and with the warclub in their hands. 

 (Kendall, (.) The. solemn rite of confirmation, known as "shaking- 

 hands with the prophet," was particularly impressive. From the nar- 

 rative of John Tanner, a white man captured when a child from his 

 home in Kentucky and brought up among the wild Ojibwa, we get the 

 best contemporary account of the advent of the new doctrine in the 

 north and its effect on the lake tribes. He says: 



It was while I was living here at Great Wood river that news came of a great man 

 among the Shawneese, who had been favoured by a revelation of tin- mind and will 

 of the Great Spirit. I was hunting in the prairie, at a great distance from my lodge, 

 when I saw a stranger approaching. At first 1 was apprehensive of an enemj . but 

 as he drew nearer, his dress showed him to lie an < ijibbeway ; but when he came up, 

 there was something very strange and peculiar in his manner. He signified to me 

 that I must i;o home, but gave no explanation of the cause. He refused to look at 



