ROYCE. J GENERAL REMARKS. 371 
previous efforts, failed of accomplishing the desired end. Thus the 
question still stands, and all those persons who have been able to make 
out a prima facie showing of Cherokee citizenship, under the ruling of 
the Department, are allowed to remain in the Territory unmolested. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
With the exception of these questions and complications arising out 
of the construction of the various articles of the treaty of July 19, 1866, 
nothing of an important character has occurred in connection with the 
official relations between the Cherokee Nation and the Federal Govy- 
ernment since the date of that treaty. 
Their history has been an eventful one. For two hundred years a 
contest involving their very existence as a people has been maintained 
against the unscrupulous rapacity of Anglo-Saxon civilization. By de- 
grees they were driven from their ancestral domain to an unknown and 
inhospitable region. The country of their fathers was peculiarly dear 
to them. It embraced the head springs of many of the most important 
streams of the country. From the summit of their own Blue Ridge 
they could watch the tiny rivulets on either side of them dashing and 
bounding over their rocky beds in their eagerness to join and swell the 
ever increasing volume of waters rolling toward the Atlantic Ocean or 
the Gulf of Mexico: the Tennessee and the Cumberland, the Kanawha 
and the Kentucky, the Peedee and the Santee, the Savannah and the 
Altamaha, the Chattahoochee and the Alabama, all found their begin- 
nings within the Cherokee domain. The bracing and invigorating atmos- 
phere of their mountains was wafted to the valleys and low lands of 
their more distant borders, tempering the heat and destroying the ma- 
laria. Much of their country was a succession of grand mountains, 
clothed with dense forests; of beautiful but narrow valleys, and exten- 
sive well watered plains. Every nook and corner of this vast territory 
was endeared to them by some incident of hunter, warrior, or domestic 
life. Over these hills and through the recesses of the dark forests the 
Cherokee hunter had from time immemorial pursued the deer, elk, and 
buffalo. Through and over them he had passed on his long and venge- 
ful journeys against the hated Iroquois and Shawnee. 
The blood of his ancestors, as well as of his enemies, could be trailed 
from the Hiwassee to the Ohio. The trophies of his skill and valor 
adorned the sides of his wigwam and furnished the theme for his 
beastful oratory and song around the council fire and at the dance. 
His wants were few and purely of a physical nature. His life was. 
devoted to the work of securing a sufficiency of food and the punish- 
ment of his enemies. His reputation among his fellow men was pro- 
portioned to the skill with which he could draw the bow, his cleverness: 
and agility in their simple athletic sports, or the keen and tireless 
manner that characterized his pursuit of an enemy’s trail. His life 
