Report "i the Indian Commissioner, p. li, 1886; reiterated by him in Report
lxxvii.
[9 Kin — oi 12
17tS MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
created and constituted a body politic and corporate under the name,
style, and title of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, with all the
rights, franchises, privileges and powers incident and belonging to
corporations under the laws of the state of North Carolina. 1
On August 2, 1893, ex-Chief Smith died at Cherokee, in the fifty-
seventh year of his life, more than twenty of which had been given
to the service of his people. Nimrod Jarrett Smith, known to the
Cherokee as Tsa'ladihi", was the son of a halfbreed father by an Indian
mother, and was born near the present Murphj 1 , Cherokee county.
North Carolina, on January 3. 1S3T. His earliest recollections were
thusof the miseries that attended the flight of the refugees to the
mountains during the Removal period. His mother spoke very little
English, but his father was a man of considerable intelligence, having
acted as interpreter and translator for Reverend Evan Jones at the old
Valleytown mission. As the hoy grew to manhood he acquired a fair
education, which, aided by a commanding presence, made him a per-
son of influence among his fellows. At twenty -five years of age he
enlisted in the Thomas Legion as first sergeant of Company B, Sixty-
ninth North Carolina (Confederate) Infantry, and served in that capacity
till the close of the war. He was clerk of the council that drafted the
first East Cherokee constitution in 186S, and on the death of Principal
Chief Lloyd Welch in 1880 was elected to fill