(photo: The survey of Wha-ya-kah’s 640-acre reserve on Cullowhee Creek)

Wha-ya-kah (Grass Grows) [properly Uyegi ᎤᏰᎩ, transl.: There’s Grass Growing Here]

In 1819, the Calhoun treaty ceded this portion of the Cherokee Nation to the United States. That treaty provided for Cherokee families to claim reserves of 640 acres, remain on the ceded lands, and become citizens of the United States. Cherokee leaders in western North Carolina saw this clause as a way to preserve land bases for their communities and a way to save holy places like Kituwah, Cowee—and Two Sparrows on the Western Carolina University campus.

Uyegi (ᎤᏰᎩ), a probable headman of the Cullowhee community, registered his claim to 640 acres surrounding Tsisksitsi, the ancient mound where Killian Building now stands. English speaking federal agents heard his name as Wha-ya-kah—and all of the records about this reservation use that version of his name. His survey and plat evidenced a federally guaranteed title that the state of North Carolina ignored when it issued a conflicting title to John Bryson, Sr. Bryson displaced Wha-ya-kah and other Cherokee families from lower Cullowhee Creek, breaking centuries of Cherokee possession. Displaced Cherokee reservees brought suits in North Carolina courts, eventually winning their cases in the North Carolina Supreme Court in 1824—the landmark decision that established the legal basis for the group that eventually formed the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. No one recovered lands in the settlement, but the state was forced to compensate victims for their properties. In 1825, Wha-ya-kah/Uyegi accepted $1100 for his title, and moved his family to the Hiwassee River Valley near Hayesville, North Carolina, inside the remaining territory of the Cherokee Nation.

In 1838, the United States forcibly deported most of the Cherokee Nation to present-day Oklahoma. Uyegi and his family were swept up in military operations, and taken to Fort Hembree, then Fort Butler on their way toward the detention camps at Fort Cass, TN. Uyegi perished at Coker Creek, TN, far from his home on Cullowhee Creek. Most of the family continued west to present-day Oklahoma, and their descendants are members of the Cherokee Nation or the United Keetoowah Band.

Note: Most of the information above comes from the capacious mind and meticulous record keeping of our very own Anita Finger-Smith. Thanks Anita!

Article by Dr. Brett Riggs