PRL Serials

According to legend, the indian chief was over seven feet tall and ruled a tribe of Catawbas who had lived in what is now known as Ladoga, NC. The Chief commanded respect, even from settlers who mostly avoided his people, who the settlers feared as murderous giants. They proved to be a very necessary ally to settlers during a particularly harsh winter that decimated a local township. The chief and his people offered food to the beleaguered survivors who had not adequately planned for the season and the Catawbas, against the reservations of some, were saviors to the white settlers. The settlers were happy with their new found alliance with the intimidating tribe and there was relative peace for a time. But peace does not last forever, and the story goes that eventually the settlers tried to occupy the lands of the Chief’s tribe, which led to all out war. Many of the Chief’s people died in the struggle over land, some managed to escape with their lives. But not the Chief, who refused to cede his home to the so-called friends who had disrespected their unity. The settlers bound the Chief to a pine tree while they burned everything that had belonged to the Chief’s people. He was forced to watch the destruction of his home and then left to die, tied to the pine. They say that every day when it rose, the Chief fixed his eyes on the sun and chanted the song to the three witches, who would only rise if offered a gift, and when summoned would wreak havoc at the whim of the man who had given the gift. After about a week tied to the tree, the settlers decided to kill the Chief. As the sun rose on what was to be his last day, the chief chanted the song to the witches and their spirits rose before him, accepting the gift of his eye sight.  Soon the settlers were besieged by the horrors of the three witches: the red eagle made a feast of the settlers’ children, the white rabbit laid waste to all of the settlers’ crops, and the white buffalo gored and trampled any settler who tried to fight back. They say the Chief smiled with his eyes wide open and unseeing until the screams of the settlers died away, and then he died.