Janaluska (1775-1868) was a war leader of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, in what is now North Carolina. In 1813, he and his warriors joined General Andrew Jackson's army in a punitive expedition against the Red Stick Creeks in what is now Alabama. At the battle of Horseshoe Bend, March 27, 1814, he joined Jackson in interrogating some prisoners. One of them broke loose and lunged for the General. Janaluska intervened and killed the attacker, saving Jackson's life. Later, Janaluska was awarded land for participating in the fight against the Creeks. In 1819, he lost his rights to the land after yet another treaty with the Natives was violated. He moved to the larger Cherokee settlement of Qualla Town. While there, he may have become acquainted with a young clerk at the trading post, William Holland Thomas. Their acquaintance would stand Janaluska in good stead later in life.Yonaguska (1759-1839) was another Cherokee leader who knew Thomas well. William Holland Thomas (1805-1893), was born in what is now Waynesville, North Carolina. His father died by drowning when William was a baby. Later, he was apprenticed to a trader in Qualla Town and took a genuine interest in the post's Cherokee clientele, learning their language and customs. In time, the fatherless young man and the older Cherokee warrior Yonaguska developed a close friendship. Yonaguska adopted Thomas as his son, giving him the name "Will-Usdi" or Little Will. In 1820, the trading post closed. As partial payment of his past-due wages, the trader gave Thomas a set of law books. Thomas studied them and was admitted to practice law in North Carolina. Eventually, he came back to Qualla Town and reopened the trading posts. He and Yonaguska remained in close touch and they would have much to talk about in the years to come.
Jackson's Administration passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, aimed primarily at the five largest Southeastern tribes, Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole. As the pressure mounted on the Cherokee to leave or face military action, Janaluska made the journey to Washington and asked to see the man whose life he'd once saved. Jackson granted him an audience, then denied the incident ever happened. He told Janaluska there was nothing he could do and dismissed him. Later, as he saw his people being dispossessed, Janaluska remarked that, if he'd known at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend what was to come, history would've been written differently. In 1838, he was placed in a stockade and began the trip to Oklahoma. Several weeks in, he and fifty other Cherokee deserted and tried to head back to North Carolina. They were arrested and deported to Oklahoma. Janaluska stayed until 1847, when he could stand it no longer and returned to North Carolina.Meanwhile, Yonaguska had been made the Principal Chief of the Cherokees remaining in North Carolina. Some of them had received earlier land grants and believed the government would honor them. Yonaguska wasn't so sure. He asked him adopted son to represent the North Carolina Cherokee's interests in Washington. Thomas realized that the Cherokee wouldn't be able to stay in North Carolina unless someone bought the land outright. Since Natives were losing their land rights and unable to purchase land, Thomas used his own money and credit, as well as available Cherokee funds, to purchase land in North Carolina in and around Qualla Town. This land became the Qualla Boundary, the nucleus of the land held by the Eastern Band Cherokee in North Carolina. He also fought for, and won, the right of Yonaguska and several other Cherokee to become citizens of North Carolina and thus avoid deportation.
Yonaguska now repaid the debt to his adopted son, by convincing the Eastern Cherokee to chose William Holland Thomas to replace him as Principal Chief, the only White man ever to hold that post. After Yonaguska's death, Thomas continued to fight for the right of his adopted people to stay in North Carolina. In 1847, when Janaluska returned home, Thomas took his case to the state legislature, earning state citizenship for the old warrior so that he could remain in Qualla without fear of arrest and removal, again. Thomas continued his labors on behalf of the Cherokee, seeking election to the state legislature so that he could use the leverage of that position on their behalf. He served from 1848-1860. When North Carolina seceded from the Union, Thomas formed a troop of cavalry and infantry from Cherokee recruits, and others of Scots and Sotch-Irish extraction. Thomas' Legion of Cherokees and Highlanders. They fired the last shots of the Civil War, days after Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Another Cherokee unit serving in the West under General Stand Watie also claims that distinction.
Following the War, Thomas' health began to deteriorate. It's believed he suffered from Alzheimer's Disease. He was eventually sent to a mental institution and spent the next several years of his life in and out of mental hospitals. During his lucid moments, he assisted ethnologist James Mooney of the Smithsonian Institution by recounting his knowledge of the Cherokee, their history, legends and traditions.
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