PROBABLY few Eastern Cherokees noticed the stock market crash of Octo-
ber 1929. Events on Wall Street outwardly had little bearing on their lives.
Already the tribal economy was in a shambles, employment was almost non-
existent, and many Cherokees were hard pressed to provide for their fami-
lies. For the Eastern Band, America's depression decade blended almost im-
perceptibly with the economic hard times attending the decline of western
North Carolina's lumber industry. A few tribal members had migrated to
industrial cities, gone into military service, or found employment on other
reservations, but most preferred to survive as best they could at home.

One immediate response to the crisis was an attempt to revitalize Chero-
kee agriculture, which had stagnated during the years of wage labor. Few
Indians had much knowledge of modern, systematic agricultural practices,
though there were some notable exceptions, including full-bloods like Will
Saunooke and Johnson Owl. Saunooke cultivated about twenty-five acres
and regularly won prizes at the Cherokee fair, while Owl, a Bird Town resi-
dent and former Carlisle student, farmed some ninety-five acres--far more
than the average Cherokee. Yet even Owl worked on the outside when he
could. In 1930 he had a job in Pennsylvania and planned to return to Bird
Town only at harvesttime. Otherwise the pattern was a familiar one, with
the typical reservation family tending five to ten acres and using methods
little different from those of the preceding century. ¹

Despite the limited amount of arable land, the Cherokee council voted
in 1929 to spend $5,000 of tribal funds during each of the next five years

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