100. The Raid On Tïkwäli'tsï

The last noted leader of the Shawano raiding parties was a chief known to the Cherokee as Tawa'lï-ukwanûñ'tï, "Punk-plugged-in," on account of a red spot on his cheek which looked as though a piece of punk (tawa'lï) had been driven into the flesh.

The people of Tïkwäli'tsï town, on Tuckasegee, heard rumors that a war party under this leader had come in from the north and was lurking somewhere in the neighborhood. The Cherokee conjurer, whose name was Ëtäwa'hä-tsistatla'skï, "Dead-wood-lighter," resorted to his magic arts and found that the Shawano were in ambush along the trail on the north side of the river a short distance above the town. By his advice a party was fitted out to go up on the south side and come in upon the enemy's rear. A few foolhardy fellows, however, despised his words and boldly went up the trail on the north side until they came to Deep Creek, where the Shawano in hiding at the ford took them "like fish in a trap" and killed nearly all of them.

Their friends on the other side of the river heard the firing, and crossing the river above Deep creek they came in behind the Shawano and attacked them, killing a number and forcing the others to retreat toward the Smoky mountains, with the Cherokee in pursuit. The invaders had with them two Cherokee prisoners who were not able to keep up with the rapid flight, so their captors took them, bound as they were, and threw them over a cliff. An old conjurer of their own party finding himself unable to keep up deliberately sat down against a tree near the same spot to wait for death. The pursuers coming up split his head with a hatchet and threw his body over the same cliff, which takes its name from this circumstance. The Shawano continued to retreat, with the Cherokee close behind them, until they crossed the main ridge at the gap just below Clingman's dome. Here the Cherokee gave up the pursuit and returned to their homes.