17'J MYTHS OK THE CHKKOKKK (kth ann. I'.i 



pox fi-oni iUi infected eiuiii) near Kiio.willi'. Slioi'tly al'ler liis i-etiini 

 he became sick and soon died. As the eliaiii<teristic pustules had not 

 a])])earpd. the disease seeming- to woik inwaidiy, tiie nature of his 

 sickness was not at tirst suspected — smallpox havini;- h(>en an unknown 

 disease among the Cherokee for nearly a century — and his funeral was 

 largely attended. A week latei' a number of those who had })een pres- 

 ent became sick, and the disease was recognized l)y C'olonel Thomas as 

 smallpox in all its virulence. It spread throughout the tribe, this 

 being in the early spring of ISfifi, and in spite of all the eliorts of 

 Thomas, who bi'ought a doctor fi'om Tennessee to wait upon them, 

 more than one hundred of the small community died in conse<(uence. 

 The fatal result was largely due to the ignorance of the Indians, who, 

 hnding their own remedies of no avail, used the heroic alioriginal 

 treatment of the plungi^ bath in the river and the cold-water douche, 

 which resulted in death in almost every case. Thus did the war bring 

 its harvest of death, misery, and civil feud to the East t'herokee.' 



Shoi'tly after this event Colonel Thomas was comptdled by physical 

 and mental intirmity to retire from further active participation in the 

 atlairs of the East Cheiokee. aftin- more than half a century spent m 

 intimate connection with them, during the greater portion of which 

 time he had been their most trusted friend and adviser. Their aHairs 

 at once became the prey of confusion and factional strife, which con- 

 tinued until the United States stepped in as arbiter. 



In 1868 Congress ordered another census of the East Cherokee, to 

 serve as a guide in future payments, the roll to include only those 

 persons whose names had appeared upon the Mullay roll of 1848 and 

 their legal heirs and i-epr(^sentiitives. The work was com]3l(>ted in the 

 following year by S. H. .Swcnitland, and a payment of interest then 

 due under former enactment was made by him on this ))asis.- "In 

 accordance with their earm^stly expressed d(>sire to be i)rought under 

 the immediate charge of the government as its wards," the Congn'ss 

 which ordered this last census directed that the Commissioner of Indian 

 Afiairs should assimie the same charge over the East Cherokee as over 

 other tribes, but as no extra funds were made availal)le for the pur- 

 pose the matter was held in abeyance.' An unratified treaty made 

 this year with the Cherokee Nation west contained a stipulation that 

 any Cherokee east of the Mississippi who should remove to the Chero- 

 kee nation within three years should be entitled to full citizenship and 

 ]irivileges therein, but after that date could be admitted only by act 

 of the Cherokee national council.* 



After the retirement of Thomas, in the absence of any active 



1 Author's information from Colonel Thomas and others. Various informants have magnifioil the 

 nnmher of deaths to several hundred, but the estimate here given, obtained from Thomas, is proba- 

 bly more reliable. 



2Ro.vee. Cherokee Nation. Fifth Ann. Keii. Bureiui of Ethnology, p. 314. 1888. 



J t;^ommissioner F, A. Walker. Report of Indian Commis-iioner. p. 2.5. 1872. 



<Royee, op. cit., p. 3ni. 



