92             The Chronicles of Oklahoma
Mr. Mooney's words, "an altogether unique specimen of
Indian literary art."
One of the matters of Cherokee history of which Will
West had full knowledge was that of the Eastern Band,
made up of refugees who evaded or escaped from the
custody of the soldiers assigned to bring in to the stockade
all the members of the tribe for their removal west of the
Mississippi in 1838. Years afterward, when the members
of this band had been given legal status of a sort, they lived
in fear of some personal retaliation on the part of the United
States Government, and were reluctant to reveal the names
of the leaders of the revolt by which they were able to
remain in the mountain fastnesses of North Carolina.
Having heard of Will West Long as a leader among his
people with special knowledge of the history of the Eastern
Band, I visited him at his cabin high in the Big Cove in the
summer of 1938. In company with an old man who was his
guest and who spoke no English, and of his grandson, a
little boy of perhaps a year and a half who played with
a rattle made from a baking powder can partly filled
with pebbles, we sat on the narrow porch of the cabin with
blue sky and pure sunlight and the green beauty of that
high valley all around us. Extension of the Blue Ridge
Parkway through the reservation of the Eastern Cherokees
known as the Qualla Boundary was then being proposed,
and these people, living as they had done for decades in
obscurity and poverty and great natural beauty, found
themselves the center of popular interest. I asked Will West
particularly about the story of Tsali which was then being
given considerable prominence in the news and in the
information offered tourists in that area.
Tsali, or Charley, Will West told me, was not the true
name of their hero; it was merely a name so common that,
in the use of it, the real identity of this leader would not
be known. Until recent years, with their status still un-
certain and their claims to the Qualla Reservation and some
additional lands still not fully recognized, the Eastern
Cherokee feared punishment and retaliation, irst upon the
leaders themselves and later upon the descendants of these
leaders. The old man sitting with us, Mr. Long said, was
a descendant of the man known as Tsali, and the old man,
addressed in Cherokee, confirmed this information with
smiles and nods of agreement.
Will West wrote out for me the names of the Cherokees
who began the revolt against the soldiers driving them
out of the mountains to the stockade. These were Lawini