persistent effort at Washington from L836 to
L842, including one continuous stay of three years at the capital city,
Thomas finally obtained governmental permission for these to remain,
and their share of the moneys due for improvements and reservations
confiscated was placed at his disposal, as their agent and trustee, for the
purpose of buying lands upon which they could be permanently settled.
Under this authority he bought for them, at various times up to the
year L861, a number of contiguous tracts of land upon Oconaluftee
river and Soco creek, within the present Swain and Jackson counties
of North Carolina, together with several detached tracts in the more
western counties of the same state. The main body, upon the waters
of Oconaluftee, which was chiefly within the limits of the cession of
L819, came afterward to he known asthe Qualla boundary, or Qualla
reservation, taking the name from Thomas' principal trading store
and agency headquarters. The detached western tracts were within
the final cession of 1835, hut all alike were bought by Thomas from
\\ hite owners. As North ( Jarolina refused to recognize Indians a- land-
owners within the state, and persisted in this refusal until L866, 3
Thomas, as their authorized agent under the Government, held the
deeds in his own name. Before it was legally possible under the state
laws to transfer the title to the Indians, his own affairs had become
involved and his health impaired by age and the hardships of military
service so that his mind gave way. thus leaving the whole question of
the Indian title a subject of litigation until its adjudication by the
United States in 1875, supplemented by