By the Waters of Tanasi

Longfellow’s Hiawatha came to mind as I stood on the shoreline of Tellico Lake. The waters of the Little Tennessee gently lapping and the plaintive honk of a wild goose were the only sounds to be heard. There was no sign of human activity, not even a cell phone tower. While I indulged in this solitude I pondered the history of those who used to make this lush valley their home. Back before the incursion by land hungry speculators who talked of peace, but methodically planned the removal of the Cherokee people from their ancestral homeland. I am not naïve in believing the Cherokee were totally innocent, but in my opinion, they were treated unjustly. One poignant story is told of efforts to convert Chief Yonaguska, also known as Drowning Bear, to Christianity. After hearing the words from a few chapters of the Scriptures, he responded: “It seems to be a good book—strange that the white people are not better, after having had it for so long.”(1) One of the key figures in this sad story was Andrew Jackson, our seventh President. Jackson led the battle against the Creek Indians at Horseshoe Bend in August of 1814, where a beloved Cherokee by the name of Junaluska saved his life. Chief Junaluska was granted citizenship for his heroic act, but understandably, later questioned the outcome of his action. President Jackson, politically committed to resolve the “Indian problem”, expelled them from their homeland via the infamous Trail of Tears. A number of Cherokee, led by Chief Yonaguska, retreated to the rugged mountains of North Carolina. Others slipped away along the trail and disappeared into the backwoods. Many of those forced out of their homes in the dead of winter died along the trail where they were buried in unmarked graves. There is a legend that the tears of the Cherokee became the seeds for the flower known today as the “Cherokee Rose”. Chief Junaluska went with the Cherokees to the west in 1838, but returned to live out his days on the land granted to him in Graham County NC, near Robbinsville, where he died on November 20, 1858. Ironically, The Trail of Tears route passed near The Hermitage, home of President Andrew Jackson.

By the waters of Tanasi, Cherokee names and granite monuments are reminders of our past. One identifies the location of the Cherokee towns of Tanasi and Chota, which lie beneath the lake some 300 yards off shore. Jet skis and pleasure boats now cruise Tellico Lake beneath whose waters lies the soil upon which Native Americans lived for thousands of years before Columbus “discovered” this New World. The inscription on the commemorative plaque for Tanasi states: TANASI – CAPITAL OF THE CHEROKEE NATION from 1721 – 1730. The first recorded spelling of Tennessee as it is today occurred on Lt. Henry Timberlake’s map of 1762. In 1796 the name was selected for the 16 th state. Those who reside in this beautiful state are forever linked to its Cherokee heritage.

The Reverend David B. Cumming (1796-1880) was one of seven brothers, who became Methodist preachers. The Cumming family moved to Maryville from Pennsylvania so their children could receive an education at what is now Maryville College. David was a traveling Methodist preacher for several years in the French Broad section of Tennessee and North Carolina and is credited with organizing the very first Methodist church in Asheville, NC. In 1834, he was appointed a Presiding Elder to the Newtown District (Chattanooga) and a missionary to the Cherokees in lower East Tennessee. One sentence from R.N. Price’s Holston Methodism (2) greatly understates a key aspect of his ministry. “In 1838 he was transferred to the Arkansas Conference, and later to the Indian Mission Conference.” His is a wonderful story of courage and conviction. You see, David’s “transfer” involved his accompanying the Cherokee people on the Trail of Tears! His remaining ministry was lived out among the Cherokee, where he served until his death in 1880. Price notes that on David’s last visit to the Indian Mission Conference, “. . . he was received with great joy by the natives, who crowded around him with streaming eyes, thanking God for permitting them to see their spiritual father once more in the flesh.” Christina Wolf, Oklahoma Conference Archivist, kindly provided me with verification of David’s ministry. His memoir does not say where he was buried, just that “no marble shaft will mark his resting place” and that he died in his home in McDonald County, MO. In death, he elected the same burial that so many of his Cherokee family received along the trail.

Some among us, my own family included, trace our roots along two branches—the frontier pioneer and the Native American. Thanks be to God, the descendants of Tanasi and those far-away Scottish Highlands now meet on the level as brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank you Chief Yonaguska. Your observations regarding the inconsistencies that are all too common among Christian believers is true. Thank you Chief Junaluska. You were surely an instrument of God’s providence. Thank you Reverend David Cumming. Your spirit of love and compassion, which so freely embraced the Cherokee people, will stand for eternity as a witness of faithful ministry. May God help us to follow your example in our own brief moment in time.

Ron Matthews, Superintendent. The Maryville District United Methodist Church. 336 S. Washington St., Maryville, 37804.

(1) Michael Frome. Strangers in High Places. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1980), p. 86.

(2) R.N. Price. Holston Methodism. 5 vols. (Nashville; Dallas: Publishing House of the M.E. Church, South. Smith & Lamar, Agents. 1908), Vol. 3, p. 101.