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Show MOONZT] PRESENT CONDITION 179 In 1894 the long- standing litigation between the East Cherokee and a number of creditors and claimants to Indian lands within and adjoining the Qualla boundary was finally settled by a compromise by which the several white tenants and claimants within the boundary agreed to execute a quitclaim and vacate on payment to them by the Indians of sums aggregating $ 24,552, while for another disputed adjoining tract of 33,000 acres the United States agreed to pay, for the Indians, at the rate of $ 1.25 per acre. The necessary Government approval having been obtained, Congress appropriated a sufficient amount for carrying into effect the agreement, thus at last completing a perfect and unincumbered title to all the lands claimed by the Indians, with the exception of a few outlying tracts of comparative unimportance. 1 In 1895 the Cherokee residing in North Carolina upon the reservation and in the outlying settlements were officially reported to number 1,479. * A year later an epidemic of grippe spread through the band, with the result that the census of 1897 shows but 1,312,8 among those who died at this time being Big- witch ( Tskil- e'gwa), the oldest man of the band, who distinctly remembered the Creek war, and Wadi'y& hl, the last old woman who preserved the art of making double- walled baskets. In the next year the population had recovered to 1,351. The description of the mode of living then common to most of the Indians will apply nearly as well to- day: While they are industrious, these people are not progressive farmers and have learned nothing of modern methods. The same crops are raised continuously until the soil will yield no more or is washed away, when new ground is cleared or broken. The value of rotation and fertilizing has not yet been discovered or taught. . . . That these people can live at all upon the products of their small farms is due to the extreme simplicity of their food, dress, and manner of living. The typical house is of logs, is about fourteen by sixteen feet, of one room, just high enough for the occupants to stand erect, with perhaps a small loft for the storage of extras. The roof is of split shingles or shakes. There is no window, the open door furnishing what light is required. At one end of the house is the fireplace, with outside chimney of stones or sticks chinked with clay. The furniture is simple and cheap. An iron pot, a bake kettle, a coffeepot and mill, small table, and a few cups, knives, and spoons are all that is needed. These, with one or two bedsteads, homemade, a few pillows and quilts, with feather mattresses for winter covering, as well as for the usual purpose, constitute the principal house possessions. For outdoor work there is an ax, hoe, and shovel plow. A wagon or cart may be owned, but is not essential. The outfit is inexpensive and answers every purpose. The usual food is bean bread, with coffee. In the fall chestnut bread is also used. Beef is seldom eaten, but pork is highly esteemed, and a considerable number of hogs are kept, running wild and untended in summer. 4 By the most recent official count, in 1900, the East Cherokee residing in North Carolina under direct charge of the agent and included * Commissioner D. M. Browning, Report of Indian Commissioner for 1894, pp. 81- 82,1896; also Agent T. W. Potter, ibid., p. 898. • Agent T. W. Potter, Report of Indian Commissioner for 1896, p. 387,1896. • Agent J. C Hart, Report of Indian Commissioner, p. 208,1897. « Agent J. C Hart, Report of Indian Commissioner, pp. 218- 219,1898. |