Tsali

. Tsali ( ) was a leader of the Cherokee during two different periods of the history of the tribe. As a young man, Tsali joined the Chickamauga faction of the Cherokee in the late 18th century, and became a leader in the fight against the American frontiersmen and their constant expansion into tribal lands. Later in 1812, he became known as The Prophet, and urged the Cherokee to ally with the Shawnee warrior, Tecumseh, in war against the Americans. Two decades later, in what seemed a fulfilment of his earlier prophecy, he resisted the forced removal of the Native Americans from their mountainous, western North Carolina towns, and as a result, a large following of like-minded Cherokee gathered to him. Following Tsali's martyrdom, the three hundred fugitive followers of his that remained free after his sacrifice became the forebears of some 14,000 registered members of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians living today in the Qualla Boundary.

.]] Tsali ( ) was a leader of the Cherokee during two different periods of the history of the tribe. As a young man, Tsali joined the Chickamauga faction of the Cherokee in the late 18th century, and became a leader in the fight against the American frontiersmen and their constant expansion into tribal lands. Later in 1812, he became known as The Prophet, and urged the Cherokee to ally with the Shawnee warrior, Tecumseh, in war against the Americans. Two decades later, in what seemed a fulfilment of his earlier prophecy, he resisted the forced removal of the Native Americans from their mountainous, western North Carolina towns, and as a result, a large following of like-minded Cherokee gathered to him. Following Tsali's martyrdom, the three hundred fugitive followers of his that remained free after his sacrifice became the forebears of some 14,000 registered members of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians living today in the Qualla Boundary.

Early life

Tsali was born and reared in the Cherokee settlement known as Coosawattee Town (Kusawatiyi). He followed the Chickamauga war chief, Dragging Canoe, from the time the latter migrated southwest during the American Revolutionary War and continuing through the Cherokee–American wars.

Surrender and death

General Scott eventually enlisted the services of William Holland Thomas, a white attorney who had been adopted into the tribe in his youth. He had also represented the tribe in negotiations with the federal government regarding the removals. Thomas was given a message to the leader (Chief Lichen) of the fugitives. If Tsali and his family would surrender themselves to military justice, the rest of the Cherokee in the mountains could remain free. Upon hearing this, Tsali, his brother, and his sons came down from the mountains and gave themselves up. Tsali, Lowney (his Brother) and Ridges (his Son) were executed. Tsali's youngest boy, Wasitani, was spared, and he later recounted that his family had been shot by a firing squad that ". . . was commanded by Euchella, a fellow fugitive. The majority of the squad was made up . . . of Indians of the treaty (New Echota Treaty) party. This made the execution all the more humiliating. The rest of Tsali's large family was allowed to remain under the umbrella of the Eastern Band.

Legacy

Tsali Boulevard, a major artery of traffic in Cherokee, North Carolina, is named in his honor. A highly fictionalized account of the affair can be seen in the annual presentation of a Cherokee drama at the Qualla Boundary in the play, Unto These Hills, which was written by Kermit Hunter in 1950, a story that survives close to the scene of its original enactment.

References

Sources

Bedford, Denton R. Tsali. (San Francisco: The Indian Historian Press, 1972). Brown, John P. Old Frontiers: The Story of the Cherokee Indians from Earliest Times to the Date of Their Removal to the West, 1838. (Kingsport: Southern Publishers, 1938). Eckert, Allan W. A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh. (New York: Bantam, 1992). McLoughlin, William G. Cherokee Renascence in the New Republic. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992). Mooney, James. Myths of the Cherokee and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee. (Nashville: Charles and Randy Elder-Booksellers, 1982). Wilkins, Thurman. Cherokee Tragedy: The Ridge Family and the Decimation of a People. (New York: Macmillan Company, 1970).

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