234 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
Cherokee Nation to lands set aside in the Indian 
Territory. 
Now, it is one thing to decide to move an Indian, 
and another thing to do it. You have first to catch 
your Indian, and when the hour struck for the Chero- 
kees to go West, — nothing was said about their 
growing up with the country, — lo, the band had 
shrunk to half its size. This half was deported and 
men went out to hunt up the other half. Any one 
who thinks he can find an Indian hiding in the wilds 
of western North Carolina, has not seen the country. 
He might as well spend his time hunting for the lost 
ten tribes of Israel. In course of time the Indians 
returned to their homes and went on peacefully rais- 
ing corn, grunting emphatic denials to any suggestion 
to go West. Finally, the large territory they now 
own, over one hundred thousand acres, was bought 
for them with their own money by one who cham- 
pioned their rights, so that the Indians who would 
not go West now occupy some of the most pictur- 
esque and beautiful as well as fertile land in the 
North Carolina mountains. They are known as the 
"Eastern band of the Cherokees," and are not "re- 
servation Indians" in the ordinary meaning of the 
words, since they own their land by right of purchase 
and are true citizens of the Republic with all the 
privileges of citizenship. These Indians are as law- 
abiding as their white neighbors, more so, since they 
have never distilled unlawful "moonshine," but 
have only drunk it, when they could get it, until the 
chief of the tribe, becoming aware of the devasta- 
