The Cherokee Legend Of "Tsali"
Tsali was a Cherokee (Tsalagi) Hero, an average man, a farmer and a family man just minding his business in western North Carolina. until one day in 1838 when racist president Andrew "scumbag" Jackson issued a presidential executive order of "forced removal" ordering all Cherokees off of their homes and rounding them up into holding cells as they would begin their forced relocation to Oklahoma under armed escort.
Tsali refused to leave his Native Tsalagi Home lands and his refusal to obey the President's Executive Order "forced removal" cost Tsali his life and made him a martyr and a Hero to his people.
Tsali was one of the “traditionalist” Cherokee who had not been involved in the heated debates over the removal policy. He lived with his wife and three sons in a cabin near the mouth of the Nantahala River, where it flows into the Little Tennessee, near present day Bryson City, North Carolina. After an l8l9 treaty, he, as well as about l000 other Cherokee at Quallatown, lived outside the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation. Like most of the North Carolina Cherokee, he had been somewhat bypassed by the “progress” that had been made by those Cherokee who had accepted the “white man’s road after 1794. Most of the “Progressive” Cherokee lived in Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama. Most of the Cherokee who lived in the mountains of Western North Carolina were “traditionalists.”....
Tsali’s brother-in-law came to Tsali’s cabin in May of l838 and told Tsali ofthe 7,000 soldiers who were rounding up the Cherokee to take them to a land where the setting sunbent down to touch the earth. General Winfield Scott had said that all Cherokee people must begin the long march west before the next new moon. Tsali did not understand why the Cherokee must go,and he only thought of it for a few moments as he sat by the fire puffing his pipe. The next day he went back to his fields, with little more thought of it. And while Tsali worked his fields, the soldiers were rounding up the Cherokee and putting them in the more than 25 stockades, in preparation for the long march west. (article by: Lowell Kirk)
This “average” man found himself in circumstances he might never have imagined, and his reaction to historical forces much greater than himself made him into a hero and martyr for the Cherokee who remained in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Tsali’s sacrifice, his death at the hands of a firing squad he chose for himself, proved to be a turning point in the history of the principal people; the present-day Eastern Band of Cherokee.
As the troops commanded by General Winfield Scott gathered people of the Cherokee nation for removal, they searched for those who tried to hide. Most of the Cherokee cooperated—and spent their final days back east in the stockades—but 1,000 or more either hid from the troops or hoped their relative isolation would protect them. Tsali and his family were among these people. By the time the troops finished rounding up the stragglers they could ferret out—and Tsali lay in his grave— those remaining behind, the first of the Eastern Band, would number about 1,000.
As a farmer and provider, Tsali was far more concerned with the weather and the crops he nurtured in the soil. Tribal factions struggled. Politicians argued. But Tsali knew little of the turmoil until May 1838. His brother-in-law, Lowney, brought word of the companies of soldiers searching the valleys and the thousands of Cherokee people herded in stockades. The whites were preparing for a great march to the west, to herd the principal people to a new home in Oklahoma. Tsali returned to his fields, and one of the stories told of him at this time involves a dream. As he worked, legend has it that Tsali imagined his people remaining in the mountains and carrying on the traditions and wisdom of their ancestors. True or not, the legend fits with what happened to Tsali next. On the trail scouts discovered Tsali and his family when they came to their cabin and ordered them to join other Cherokee in the stockade at Bushnell which is now covered by the waters of Fontana Lake. Like the rest of the nation, Tsali and his family were given little time to prepare for the journey. Taking only the belongings they could carry, Tsali, his wife, sons, and brother-in-law left their home under the guard of two soldiers. When Tsali’s wife stumbled and a soldier prodded her with his bayonet, Tsali’s life took a much different course. Hiding his anger as well as he could, Tsali spoke to his kinsman in their native tongue, aware that the soldiers did not understand Cherokee. “When we reach the turn in the trail,” he is supposed to have said, “I will trip and fall and complain of my ankle. When the soldiers stop, leap upon them and take their guns. Then we’ll escape into the hills.” (Cherokee Nation website)
The Cherokees had never intended to kill or wound either of the soldiers, but an accidental discharge during the struggle left one soldier dead and turned Tsali, Lowney, and the sons, Ridges and Wasituna, into wanted men. Tsali’s family fled immediately to the safety of a concealed cave under Clingman’s Dome, now a part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where Scott’s troops would be at a marked disadvantaged if they ever discovered the fugitives. And Tsali was committed to fighting to the death rather than letting his family become prisoners. Apparently, the fugitives weren’t aware that more than 1,000 other Cherokee were also hiding out in remote areas of the Great Smokies. They had banded together under the leadership of Utsali or “Lichen,” who had sworn never to leave their mountain homeland. Tsali’s family and Utsali’s band eluded capture during the summer of 1838.
Faced with the nearly impossible task of capturing the fugitives, General Scott came up with an idea for ending the campaign and revenging the death of his soldier. He sent for Will Thomas, the white trader who had been adopted by the great chief Yonaguska. “If Tsali and his kin will come in and give up,” he told Thomas, “I won’t hunt down the others. If Tsali will voluntarily pay the penalty, I will intercede with the government to grant the fugitives permission to remain. But if Tsali refuses, I’ll turn my soldiers loose to hunt every one of them.” When Thomas delivered the message under Clingman’s Dome, Tsali agreed to turn himself in. When they reached the stockade, Tsali, Ridges, and Lowney were sentenced to death, while the younger Wasituna and his mother were spared.
A Legend Is Born:
In a field next to the stockade at Bushnell, the condemned men were stood against three trees. The colonel in charge asked the prisoners for their customary final words. Tsali spoke up: “If I must be killed, I would like to be shot by my own people.” Three Cherokee men were selected to be the executioners. Tsali and his kin waved aside the blindfolds they were offered. A volley rang out in the valley, and the men slumped to the earth. Tsali, Lowney, and Ridges were buried near the stockade. A little over 100 years later, the valley was flooded, and the graves today are covered by the waters of Fontana Lake.
The Great Spirit is displeased with you for accepting the ways of the white people. You can see for yourselves, your hunting is gone and you are planting the corn of the white men...You yourselves can see that the white people are entirely different beings from us; we are made from Red Clay."
-Tsali, Cherokee Medicine Man.
"I have a little boy...If he is not dead, tell him the last words of his father were that he must never go beyond the Father of Waters, but die in the land of his birth. It is sweet to die in one's native land and be buried by the margins of one's native stream."
- Tsali, awating execution, 1838.
Tsali refused to leave his Native Tsalagi Home lands and his refusal to obey the President's Executive Order "forced removal" cost Tsali his life and made him a martyr and a Hero to his people.
Tsali was one of the “traditionalist” Cherokee who had not been involved in the heated debates over the removal policy. He lived with his wife and three sons in a cabin near the mouth of the Nantahala River, where it flows into the Little Tennessee, near present day Bryson City, North Carolina. After an l8l9 treaty, he, as well as about l000 other Cherokee at Quallatown, lived outside the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation. Like most of the North Carolina Cherokee, he had been somewhat bypassed by the “progress” that had been made by those Cherokee who had accepted the “white man’s road after 1794. Most of the “Progressive” Cherokee lived in Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama. Most of the Cherokee who lived in the mountains of Western North Carolina were “traditionalists.”....
Tsali’s brother-in-law came to Tsali’s cabin in May of l838 and told Tsali ofthe 7,000 soldiers who were rounding up the Cherokee to take them to a land where the setting sunbent down to touch the earth. General Winfield Scott had said that all Cherokee people must begin the long march west before the next new moon. Tsali did not understand why the Cherokee must go,and he only thought of it for a few moments as he sat by the fire puffing his pipe. The next day he went back to his fields, with little more thought of it. And while Tsali worked his fields, the soldiers were rounding up the Cherokee and putting them in the more than 25 stockades, in preparation for the long march west. (article by: Lowell Kirk)
This “average” man found himself in circumstances he might never have imagined, and his reaction to historical forces much greater than himself made him into a hero and martyr for the Cherokee who remained in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Tsali’s sacrifice, his death at the hands of a firing squad he chose for himself, proved to be a turning point in the history of the principal people; the present-day Eastern Band of Cherokee.
As the troops commanded by General Winfield Scott gathered people of the Cherokee nation for removal, they searched for those who tried to hide. Most of the Cherokee cooperated—and spent their final days back east in the stockades—but 1,000 or more either hid from the troops or hoped their relative isolation would protect them. Tsali and his family were among these people. By the time the troops finished rounding up the stragglers they could ferret out—and Tsali lay in his grave— those remaining behind, the first of the Eastern Band, would number about 1,000.
As a farmer and provider, Tsali was far more concerned with the weather and the crops he nurtured in the soil. Tribal factions struggled. Politicians argued. But Tsali knew little of the turmoil until May 1838. His brother-in-law, Lowney, brought word of the companies of soldiers searching the valleys and the thousands of Cherokee people herded in stockades. The whites were preparing for a great march to the west, to herd the principal people to a new home in Oklahoma. Tsali returned to his fields, and one of the stories told of him at this time involves a dream. As he worked, legend has it that Tsali imagined his people remaining in the mountains and carrying on the traditions and wisdom of their ancestors. True or not, the legend fits with what happened to Tsali next. On the trail scouts discovered Tsali and his family when they came to their cabin and ordered them to join other Cherokee in the stockade at Bushnell which is now covered by the waters of Fontana Lake. Like the rest of the nation, Tsali and his family were given little time to prepare for the journey. Taking only the belongings they could carry, Tsali, his wife, sons, and brother-in-law left their home under the guard of two soldiers. When Tsali’s wife stumbled and a soldier prodded her with his bayonet, Tsali’s life took a much different course. Hiding his anger as well as he could, Tsali spoke to his kinsman in their native tongue, aware that the soldiers did not understand Cherokee. “When we reach the turn in the trail,” he is supposed to have said, “I will trip and fall and complain of my ankle. When the soldiers stop, leap upon them and take their guns. Then we’ll escape into the hills.” (Cherokee Nation website)
The Cherokees had never intended to kill or wound either of the soldiers, but an accidental discharge during the struggle left one soldier dead and turned Tsali, Lowney, and the sons, Ridges and Wasituna, into wanted men. Tsali’s family fled immediately to the safety of a concealed cave under Clingman’s Dome, now a part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where Scott’s troops would be at a marked disadvantaged if they ever discovered the fugitives. And Tsali was committed to fighting to the death rather than letting his family become prisoners. Apparently, the fugitives weren’t aware that more than 1,000 other Cherokee were also hiding out in remote areas of the Great Smokies. They had banded together under the leadership of Utsali or “Lichen,” who had sworn never to leave their mountain homeland. Tsali’s family and Utsali’s band eluded capture during the summer of 1838.
Faced with the nearly impossible task of capturing the fugitives, General Scott came up with an idea for ending the campaign and revenging the death of his soldier. He sent for Will Thomas, the white trader who had been adopted by the great chief Yonaguska. “If Tsali and his kin will come in and give up,” he told Thomas, “I won’t hunt down the others. If Tsali will voluntarily pay the penalty, I will intercede with the government to grant the fugitives permission to remain. But if Tsali refuses, I’ll turn my soldiers loose to hunt every one of them.” When Thomas delivered the message under Clingman’s Dome, Tsali agreed to turn himself in. When they reached the stockade, Tsali, Ridges, and Lowney were sentenced to death, while the younger Wasituna and his mother were spared.
A Legend Is Born:
In a field next to the stockade at Bushnell, the condemned men were stood against three trees. The colonel in charge asked the prisoners for their customary final words. Tsali spoke up: “If I must be killed, I would like to be shot by my own people.” Three Cherokee men were selected to be the executioners. Tsali and his kin waved aside the blindfolds they were offered. A volley rang out in the valley, and the men slumped to the earth. Tsali, Lowney, and Ridges were buried near the stockade. A little over 100 years later, the valley was flooded, and the graves today are covered by the waters of Fontana Lake.
The Great Spirit is displeased with you for accepting the ways of the white people. You can see for yourselves, your hunting is gone and you are planting the corn of the white men...You yourselves can see that the white people are entirely different beings from us; we are made from Red Clay."
-Tsali, Cherokee Medicine Man.
"I have a little boy...If he is not dead, tell him the last words of his father were that he must never go beyond the Father of Waters, but die in the land of his birth. It is sweet to die in one's native land and be buried by the margins of one's native stream."
- Tsali, awating execution, 1838.