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Show 208 WESTERN WILDS. 1817, sets forth that fifty- four towns have agreed on " a form for future government." The following act, passed in 1819, hints at a Credit Mobilier Scheme : Whereas, The Big Rattling Gourd, William Grimit, Betsey Broom, The Dark, Daniel Griffin, and Mrs. Lesley have made certain promises, etc.: Be it nou; therefore, known, .... The above persons are the only legal proprietors and a privileged company to establish a turnpike, leading from Widow Fools', at the forks of Hightower and Oostinallah, to the first creek east of John Field's, known by the name Where- Vann- was- shot, etc. Some of the dark statesmen retained their aboriginal names, some simply translated them into plain English, and others adopted new names from missionaries or noted Americans. Hence we find among the officials: Young Wolf ( perhaps a rising warrior), Okanstotah Logan, Bark Flute ( probably a musical orator), Oolayoa, and Soft Shell Turtle ! Judge Rattling Gourd is a prominent citizen of the na-tion at present. John Jolly and Spring Frog perhaps the Sunset Cox and Ben Butler of their politics were active in effecting the union. The Eastern and Western Cherokees reunited in their present country in 1839, and the " Act of Union" is signed by James Brown, Te- ke- chu- las- kee, George Guess ( Se- quo- yah), Jesse Bushyhead, Lewis Ross, Tobacco Will, Thomas Candy, Young Wolf, Ah- sto- la- ta, and some others. At the conclusion is this indorsement: " The foregoing instrument was read, considered, and approved by us, this 23d day of August, 1839: Major Pullum, Young Elders, Deer Track, Young Puppy (!), Turtle Fields, July, The Eagle, The Crying Buffalo, and a great number of respectable old settlers and late emi-grants too numerous to be recorded." Some two hundred years ago the Cherokees, then known as an offshoot from the Waupanuckee ( whom the French called Lenni Lenape, and the Americans have since named Delawares), were pushing slowly down from western North Carolina towards the coast. On the Yemassee celebrated by the genius of Gilmore Simms they came in contact with the whites ; and twenty years before the Revolu-tion occurred a bloody contest, in which they were driven westward. In the Continental forces were two lieutenants, afterwards known to fame as General Francis Marion and Major Peter Horry. The major in his account tells with surprise of the superior dwellings and ad-vancement of the Cherokees. Since that time they have made twenty successive treaties with the United States; and if any faith what-ever is to be kept with Indians, their title to the region they now occupy is as good as that of any white man to his land. They aban- |