CHEROKEE ROSE, ON RIVERS OF GOLDEN TEARS

 Highlights in History of a Great Indian Nation

And Dark Chapters in the American Spirit.

And a soft voice, seemingly from heaven, spoke to me;  

"The Sacred Hoop is broken, and the Cherokee are banished into the Darkening Land.  I command you, my Grandson Joseph, to tell our story to the white man;  that they may give us a small page in the history of the country that denied us a home."

Cherokee Princess Waw-Li

To Joseph (Rich Joe) Vann

On The Trail of Tears, Jan.1839

Prologue, the birth of Chief James Vann:

 In that Enchanted Land of the Cherokees, nestled among the Great Smoky Mountains, brown thrashers and robins sang lustily to the sharp spring breeze.  Chilled waters from melting snows flooded the Little Tennessee River as it flowed swiftly by a small log cabin hugging the bank.

 The Great Spirit blessed his people with a bountiful land, but there were other, less gracious, spirits abroad in the hills, all up to no good.  The man-sized Raven Mockers would swoop upon a sick or dying man and fly him to the Darkening Land in the west, where his soul would wander for eternity. And those Little People, lurking in caves or behind rocks, could cause a Cherokee all sorts of trouble.  Most feared of all were the Evil Water Spirits, catching unwary boatmen or fishermen and sucking them into whirlpools or rapids.

 Before the cabin, on a great bearskin, lay a small brown woman in a purple robe, quietly squirming in pain.   A squat, swarthy shaman in deerskins danced, drummed and sang, blowing pipe smoke in four directions, "Osa li heliga" (We are grateful). Rocking in a chair nearby, a large red-haired, bushy-browed bagpiper played 'Loch Lomond', oblivious of the raucous comments of ravens in the sycamores. Suddenly, a bloodcurdling scream split the air, "Curse you, shaman!  I will cast you into the Darkness.”

 "No, my Princess" soothed the little man, "your Messiah is trying to come out backwards!  I told you not to ride with the warriors to sack Ft. Loudon. Then you had to cast that captain into the treetops."  He shook his head worriedly.

 "Dinna ye fret, me lassie." The piper strode over and sat by his wife on the bearskin pallet. "Recollect our dream of a royal dynasty?  You, the daughter of your Go-sa-du-is-ga, and me from the line of Bonnie Prince Charlie.  We shall build a castle in these hills that will look down upon the clouds. I, John Joseph Vann, Agent of the Queen, do swear it"

 So-qui-li (Horse) knelt between the plump thighs of Waw-Li, Princess and Sorceress of the Cherokees,  "Hump your back!" Scudding storm clouds sped across the mountain top. Strong blew the winds, and dark the angry clouds, spilling over with lightning. A great jagged bolt exploded on the watchtower of Tellico Blockhouse, and Thunder Boy rolled his war drums, echoing from peak to valley. The shaman yelled "He is accursed!"

 So-qui-li grabbed the baby, and ran toward the river. "I must drown him!  We have all the lunatics we need."

 John Joseph leaped to his feet, on a dead run after the shaman.  He caught Soquili at the water's edge and snatched the bloody child away. "Ye 'II not drown me bairn!   I'll make a canny trader of him.  I take his sins upon me own shoulders."

 "John of Tellico,  He will be a curse to you and the family.  I and the mother have the right to drown a baby who is born backwards."

The father bathed the babe in the cold waters, then quickly dried him with a blanket, and strode swiftly toward the cabin.   He picked Waw-Li up from the bearskin and went inside the cabin.  "Husband John," she argued, "You will regret keeping the baby.  He was foretold to be our Messiah, but he will be a curse upon us."

 John Joseph Vann had told of fighting for Bonnie Prince Charlie at the Battle of Culloden Moor in Scotland. When the Prince was defeated and exiled, John was 'escorted' to Carolina and served with the Royal Rangers as Agent for the Queen, in 1750.

 In Charles Town, he learned of rich kaolin clay deposits in Cherokee land of the Great Smoky, Mountains. In Tellico, Tennessee,  Vann's industry in mining and shipping the clay to English chinaware makers caught the attention of 'Emperor' MoyToy and his Queen, Go-sa-du-isga. Their daughter. Princess Waw-Li, became enamored of the tall, handsome Scotsman. They were soon married and began planning a 'Royal Dynasty Castle'.