t<> all the lands claimed by the
Indians, with the exception of a few outlying tracts of comparative.
unimportance. 1
In 1895 the Cherokee residing- in North Carolina upon the reserva
tion and in the outlying settlements were officially reported to number
1.47'.'. ' A vear later an epidemic of grippe spread through the band,
with the result that the census of L897 shows but 1,312, s among those
who died at this time being Big-witch (Tskil-e'gwa), the oldest man of
the band, who distinctly remembered the Creek war. and Wadi'yahi,
the last old woman who preserved the art of making double-walled
baskets. In the next year the population had recovered to 1,351.
The description of the mode of living' then common to most of the
Indians will apply nearly as well to-day:
While they are industrious, these people are notadjoining states and some hundreds of unrecognized claim-
ants. Those enumerated own approximately 100,000 acres of
land, of which 83,000 are included within the Qualla reservation
and a contiguous tract in Jackson and Swain counties. They receive
no rations or annuities and are entirely self-supporting, the annual
interest on their trust fund established in 1848, which has dwindled to
about $23,000, being applied to the payment of taxes upon their unoc-
cupied common lands. From time to time they have made leases of
timber, gold-washing, and grazing privileges, but without any great
profit to themselves. By special appropriation the government sup-
ports an industrial training school at Cherokee, the agency head-
quarters, in which 170 pupils are now being boarded, clothed, and
educated in the practical duties of life. This school, which in its work-
ings is a model of its