It’s interesting to trace legends back to see how they’ve changed over time and how they differ, depending upon who’s telling the story.

Tsali the Martyr

In 1849 Charles Lanman wrote Letters from the Alleghany Mountains. Lanman spent some time with the Cherokee in Quallatown, in present-day Jackson County. His book first told the story of Tsali outside the Cherokee community. Lanman portrayed Tsali as a martyr for his people.

In Lanman’s version of the legend, Euchella, like Tsali, was on the run. But he made a deal with the soldiers. Euchella executed Tsali in exchange for permission to stay in North Carolina. Lanman borrowed from William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar for Tsali’s last words to Euchella: “And is it by your hands, Euchella, that I am to die?”

An Anthropologist Tells the Story

The story told by Charles Lanman became the version repeated among outsiders. Four decades later, Lanman and William Holland Thomas served as sources for a retelling of the Tsali story by ethnographer James Mooney in the book History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees.

Mooney’s version gave a detailed account of the capture and execution of Tsali. In Mooney’s account, Tsali attacked the soldiers because they mistreated his wife. They prodded her to speed up on the road. Tsali killed one soldier, and the rest fled. General Winfield Scott then said that if the other Cherokee hiding in the mountains would give Tsali up, he would let them stay in western North Carolina. Tsali, after hearing this, surrendered willingly to die for his people. General Scott ordered that Tsali and three of his family be executed. He ordered other Cherokee prisoners to carry out the sentence. Tsali emerged as a martyr who eagerly gave his life so that other Cherokee could be free.

It Was All a Mistake

John Parris, in his book The Cherokee Story, denied that Tsali killed any soldiers. The soldier killed in Parris’s story was tripped by Tsali and accidentally shot himself in the head. Tsali was executed, along with Ridges and Lowney, his son and brother-in-law. Tsali’s youngest son, Wasituna, was spared because of his young age. Parris continued the idea that Tsali became a martyr, dying so that other Cherokee could live in North Carolina.

A Soldier’s Eyewitness Account

Letters and maps from Second Lieutenant Andrew Jackson Smith and Colonel William Stanhope Foster tell the tale from beginning to end. They paint a different picture of the Tsali story.

Second Lieutenant A. J. Smith described the escape of Tsali on November 5, 1838. Smith stated that he put some of the children on horses to speed up travel. Shortly after sunset, he suspected that the Cherokee prisoners would try something. Smith noticed an ax in the possession of a prisoner, but before his men could seize it, the prisoner had killed a soldier. The Cherokee prisoners then killed two more soldiers and wounded a third. Lieutenant Smith escaped when his horse spooked and ran away. The Cherokee fled into the hills.

A manhunt followed, with Colonel William S. Foster and his infantry in charge. They used the help of William Holland Thomas and many Cherokee, including Euchella’s band, to hunt down Tsali and his family. On November 19 the soldiers captured Tsali’s oldest son, Nantayalee Jake, and Tsali’s son-in-law Nantayalee George, with their families. They also captured Tsali’s wife. Euchella’s band gathered on November 23 and executed Nantayalee Jake, Nantayalee George, and another fugitive who was captured around November 20. Tsali’s fifteen-year-old son, Wasituna, was spared because of his age. Euchella and Wachacha captured Tsali on the Tuckasegee River on November 25 and executed him.

During the hunt for Tsali, local residents petitioned Colonel Foster to allow fugitive bands of Cherokee to stay. Colonel Foster wrote to General Scott with that suggestion and on November 24 issued a proclamation allowing the fugitives of Euchella’s band to remain in North Carolina. This proclamation came before Tsali’s execution and required that Euchella’s band capture and punish outlaw Cherokee.

Different versions of the legend conflict, leading to many questions. What happened to make Tsali attack the soldiers? Did Tsali attack the soldiers? Were Tsali’s actions justified? Did Tsali give his life voluntarily so that the fugitive Cherokee could stay in North Carolina?

None of the accounts answers these questions completely. What do you think?

Wasituna’s Eyewitness Account

Mollie Sequoyah told this version of the legend in 1961. She heard it from Wasituna (Washington), Tsali’s son who escaped execution.

Charley’s [Tsali’s] wife had a baby two months old—that’s what Washington said. And he said, “I can’t tell you really what about it, I was too small,” he said, “I’m too young.”

He said, “My mother, she had a baby and she had to change his clothes or something. She sat down on a log. Then after a while a soldier got up. ‘Hurry up!’ and he was pushing her to get up and she won’t move, and she just kept on cleaning it—her baby. Then the other one got up with a horse whip. He beat her up with a horse whip.”

Then after a while they went and pick up both of them, her and the baby. Then they went and set them on the horse. As soon as the horse moved, then that lady, she’s just trying to fall off and she got her foot hung in the stirrup. Then her baby dropped. It went that way, out yonder, and bust the head. And it died right then.

That’s how come Charley got mad. He and his boys just used a stick and beat up, they killed two soldiers.

“Well,” he said. “We’re five, let’s try to kill ’em all.”

They killed two and then the other one [escaped]; then he [Tsali] just turned around and led the horses and went as fast as he can and he went to another place. . . .

Then the army made out that the Indians had to go look for their own people—Cherokee Indian! They had to kill them theirself too—not white man, not government. . . .

When Charley and his boys got caught and they got ready to be killed, they were just tied up on the tree, and they kill them—Charley and the three older boys. Washington didn’t say they use a gun. He just said, “They dressed me up just like they did the other ones.” He said they put on a coat—black, then they tied up their heads—black. And he was all ready to be killed too.

“Then after a while,” he said, “two men come, they got me to leave me run. Way out yonder, talking—they were talking. Then they just unbuttoned my coat, then they took off my coat and they took my cap off and they gave me my mother’s things, they give them back.”
They spared his mother too.

And this man Washington, every time when he talk about his mother and daddy, tears run down his eyes. And I just sat there watching. I just heard it when he was telling my mother and stepfather.