Yonaguska

Yonaguska (* 1759 / 1760 in the Lower Towns of Cherokee on the border between North Carolina and Georgia , † April 1839 in Soco , North Carolina) under Drowning Bear (dt. Drowning bear, English meaning of his tribal name) known was a chief of the Cherokee in North Carolina. During the expulsion of the Indians in the late 1830s, he was the only chief who remained in the Appalachians and built the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians from what remained of the great Cherokee nation.

Yonaguska was the adoptive father of the white William Holland Thomas , who served as a lawyer for the tribe in negotiations with federal authorities. In addition, Thomas bought land and thus established the Qualla Boundary , the area of ​​the nationally recognized tribe that serves as a reservation for the Eastern Band. During his entire life, Yonguska was a reformer and prophet who recognized the destructive greed of the white settlers for land and saw the consequences of alcohol for his people and banned them from the land of the Cherokee after a vision in 1918.

Childhood and youth

Yonaguska was born around 1759/1760 in the Cherokee Lower Towns on the border between what is now North Carolina and Georgia , the exact place of birth and date are unknown. According to the Cherokee matrilineal inheritance and descent rules, Yonaguska was assigned to his mother's clan and gained his status there. As a 12-year-old, Yonaguska had a vision that the Euro-American settlers would destroy the Cherokee way of life, but the adults paid no attention to him. At the age of 17, he witnessed the destruction caused by Griffith Rutherford and his North Carolina militia , which burned 36 Cherokee villages to the ground. The Cherokee had allied themselves with the British during the War of Independence and the colonialists tried to dissuade the Cherokee from interfering in the revolutionary events and to discourage them.

Yonaguska has been described as an exceptionally handsome man, strongly built, and six feet tall. As a young man he suffered from alcohol addiction . Together with his wife, he adopted the fatherless Euro-American William Holland Thomas , who worked at the trading post in Qualla Town. He gave Thomas the name will-usdi (dt. Little Will), taught the boys the language and traditions of the Cherokee.

Role as leader

In 1819, when Yonaguska was 60 years old, he became seriously ill. He had a vision that he told his people about after his recovery. The news from the spirit world said the Cherokee should never drink whiskey again and whiskey should be banned. He had Thomas write a promise after the Cherokee of Qualla Town refrain from drinking alcohol in the future. Yonaguska was the first to sign, followed by the other chiefs of the clans and the townspeople. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians banned alcohol until his death in 1839 , and Yonaguska had the few Cherokee who did not keep their promise flogged.

During the early 19th century federal officials tried to persuade Yonaguska to lead the Cherokee west across the Mississippi River . Withstanding all their efforts, he declared that the Cherokee were safer in their mountains and that they belonged on their ancestral lands. Other chiefs signed the 1819 treaty selling Cherokeeland along the Tuckasegee River . At the time, Yonaguska was given an area of ​​2.5 square kilometers in the bend of the river between Ela and Bryson City , in this area was also Kituhwa of the Mississippi culture , which was sacred to the Cherokee as their oldest city.

As federal pressure increased to evict the Indians of the Southeast, Yonaguska declined any offer of land swap or subsidies. After seeing the Euro-American settlers in North Carolina slide further and further west, he didn't think they would ever be satisfied. He thought the government would not keep its promises and would not leave his country only to be later evicted.

Missionary Samuel Goodenough worked with Elias Boudinot to translate and print the Gospel of Matthew in Cherokee. Yonaguska insisted on checking all scriptures before they were distributed among the Cherokee. He said of the gospel:

Well, it seems a good book - strange that the white people are no better, after having had it so long.

Well this seems like a good book - strange that white people aren't better after having had it for so long.

Yonaguska allowed distribution among his people, even if he himself showed no interest in Christianity.

Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

The government treaties of 1817 and 1819 reduced the Cherokee Nation's territory to North Carolina and they had to give up their land in favor of the white settlers. In 1824, Yonaguska collected the remaining Cherokee outside of the new borders. They settled together on Soco Creek on land that his adoptive son Thomas had bought for them. Although part of the tribe, Thomas was considered a white man before the law and was legally allowed to purchase land. He could also allow Indians to live on his land. The land that Thomas acquired for the tribe became the central part of the Qualla Boundary , which is now considered the tribal area of ​​the nationally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

death

Shortly before his death in April 1839, Yonaguska was carried to the village house in Soco, where he spoke to his tribe for the last time. He made Thomas his successor as chief and warned them against ever leaving their country. Then he wrapped his blanket around himself, lay back quietly, and died. He left two wives and a number of children. Yonaguska was buried next to Soco Creek, about a mile below the old Macedonian Mission. A pile of stones marks the spot.

literature

• Bob Blankenship: Cherokee Roots, Volume 1: Eastern Cherokee Rolls Bob Blankenship, 1992.
• John P. Brown: Old Frontiers: The Story of the Cherokee Indians from Earliest Times to the Date of Their Removal to the West, 1838 . Southern Publishers, 1938.
• John Ehle: The Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation . Doubleday, 1989.
• John R. Finger: The Eastern Band of Cherokees 1819-1900 . University of Tennessee Press, 1984.
• Wilson Lumpkin: The Removal of the Cherokee Indians from Georgia . Augustus M. Kelley, 1907.
• James Mooney: Myths of the Cherokee and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee . Charles and Randy Elder-Booksellers, 1982.
• Smithsonian Institution: Mooney's American Bureau of Ethnology Records , photography by Katalsta & Ewi Katalsta, daughter and granddaughter of Yonaguska / Yanaguski.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} E. Stanly Godbold, Mattie U. Russell: Confederate Colonel and Cherokee Chief: The Life of William Holland Thomas , University of Tennessee Press, 2001, ISBN 978-1-5723-3161-7 p. 10 (English)
2. ↑ Michael R. Bradley: It Happened in the Great Smokies: Stories of Events and People that Shaped a National Park Globe Pequot, 2020, ISBN 978-1-4930-3974-6 , p. 46 (English)
3. ^ William S. Powell: Dictionary of North Carolina Biography: Vol. 6, TZ University of North Carolina Press, 1996 ISBN 0-8078-2225-6 p. 293 (English)
4. ^ Robert Sparks Walker: Torchlights to the Cherokees Overmountain Press, 1993, ISBN 978-0-9328-0795-3 . Pp. 15–16 (English)
5. ↑ translation
6. ↑ Michael R. Bradley: It Happened in the Great Smokies: Stories of Events and People that Shaped a National Park Globe Pequot, 2020, ISBN 978-1-4930-3974-6 , pp. 47-49 (English)