 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (December 2011) |
Yonaguska | |
|---|---|
| Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians | |
| In office 1824–1839 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Salonitah |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1759 Anson County, North Carolina, British America |
| Died | 1839 Soco, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Nationality | Cherokee |
Yonaguska (c. 1759–1839), who was known as Drowning Bear (the English meaning of his name), was a leader among the Cherokee of the Lower Towns of North Carolina.[1][2][3]
During the Indian Removal of the late 1830s, he was the only chief who remained in the hills to rebuild the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, joined by others who had escaped or eluded the United States soldiers. Before that time, he had adopted William Holland Thomas as his son; the fatherless European-American youth was working at the trading post and had learned Cherokee. Yonaguska taught him Cherokee ways and, after Thomas became an attorney, he represented the tribe in negotiations with the federal government. Thomas was never a Chief of any Cherokee band but played important roles. Thomas bought land and established a Cherokee reserve for the tribe's use at what is now the Qualla Boundary, the territory of the federally recognized tribe in North Carolina.
During his life, Yonaguska was a reformer and a prophet; he was a leader who recognized the destructive power of the white man's liquor and the settlers' insatiable greed for Cherokee lands.
- ^ Spires, Derrick R.; Roberts, Christina; Rezek, Joseph; Murison, Justine S.; Mielke, Laura L.; Looby, Christopher; Lazo, Rodrigo; Knight, Alisha; Hsu, Hsuan L. (2022-04-13). The Broadview Anthology of American Literature Volume B: 1820 to Reconstruction. Broadview Press. p. 184. ISBN 978-1-77048-826-7.
- ^ Ricky, Donald (2001-01-01). Encyclopedia of Georgia Indians: Indians of Georgia and the Southeast. Somerset Publishers, Inc. p. 293. ISBN 978-0-403-09745-6.
- ^ Heard, Joseph Norman (1987). Handbook of the American Frontier: The northeastern woodlands. Scarecrow Press. p. 403. ISBN 978-0-8108-1931-3.