Abstract:
Living on scattered tracts of the Cherokee Band, 247 Indians took refuge in the Smoky Mountains after white chief and benefactor, Colonel W. H. Thomas, bought property for the Cherokees. The land purchase was not contiguous; other tracts are located in the Qualla boundary in Swain and Jackson Counties, as well as tribal lands in Cherokee and Graham Counties. In Graham, the Snowbird Indians have lived on these tribal lands for centuries, the most noted of them a chief named Junaluska.