168 MYTHS OK THE CHP^KOKEE (eth.ann.Ui 



were sulj.seiiuently iidded as to increase the number by more than GOO.' 

 A census taki>n by tlieir agent, Colonel Thomas, in 1841, gave the 

 number of East Cherokee (possibly only those in North Curoiinn 

 intended) as 1.220. ■• while a year later the whole number residintv in 

 Noi'th Carolina, 'i'cnnessee. Alabama, and Georgia was officially esti- 

 mated at from l.ooo to 1.20().-' It is not -the only time a per capita 

 payment has resulted in a sudden increase of the census population. 



In 1852 (Capt.) James W. Terrell was engaged by Thomas, then in 

 the state senate, to take charge of his store at Qualla, and remained 

 associated with him and in close contact with the Indians from then until 

 after the close of the war. assisting, as special United States agent, in 

 the disbursement of the interest payments, and afteiwaixl as a Con- 

 federate officer in the organizatit)n of the Indian companies, holdinga 

 commission as captain of Company A, Sixty-ninth North Carolina 

 Confederate infantry. Being of an investigating bent. Captain Terrell 

 was led to give attention to the customs and mythology of the Cher- 

 okee, and to accumulate a fund of information on the subject seldom 

 possessed by a whiti> man. He still resides at Webster, a few miles 

 from the reservation, and is now seventy -one j'ears of age. 



In 1855 Congress directed the per capita payment to the East Cher- 

 okee of the remo\al fund established for them in 184S. provided that 

 North Carolina should tirst give assurance that they would l)e allowed 

 to remain permanently in that state. This assurance, however, was 

 not given until 18(it;. and the money was therefore not distributed, 

 but remained in the treasury until 1875, when it was made applicable 

 to the purcha.se of lands and the quieting of titles for the benefit of 

 the Indians.* 



From 1855 until aftei- the civil war we find no official notice of the 

 East Cherokee, and our information must be obtained from other 

 sources. It was, however, a most momentous period in their histor}". 

 At the outbreak of the war Thomas was serving his seventh consec- 

 utive term in the state senate. Being an ardent Confederate sj^m- 

 pathizer, he was elected a delegate to the convention which passed the 

 secession ordinance, and inunediately after voting in favor of that 

 measure resigned from the senate in order to work for the southern 

 cause. As he was already well advanced in years it is doubtful if his 

 etfort would have gone beyond the raising of funds and other supplies 

 but for the fact that at this juncture an eflort was made by the Con- 

 federate General Kirby Smith to enlist the East Cherokee for active 

 service. 



The agent sent for this purpose was Washington Morgan, known to 

 the Indians as A'gansta'ta, son of that Colonel Gideon Morgan who 



1 Royee. Cherokee Nation.op. cit.,p.313 and note. 



- Report of tlie Indian Commissioner. ]ip. 459-460. 1S45. 



3 Commissioner Crawford. Rcporl of Indian Commissioner, p. 3, 1842. 



*Royce, op. cit.. p. 314. 



