Noccalula

Noccalula statue at Gadsden's Noccalula Falls Park

Noccalula is a name attributed to a Cherokee maiden who, according to legend, jumped to her death at what is now called Noccalula Falls. As popularly retold, Noccalula's grieving father renamed the falls for her, and some claim that she still haunts the area below.

Variations of the story are common to hundreds of locales in the United States, and were especially popular in the decades following the Indian Removal, as indigenous peoples became the stuff of stories and romantic associations for wilderness features carried great narrative power. As Mark Twain observed sardonically in Life on the Mississippi, "There are fifty Lover's Leaps along the Mississippi from whose summit disappointed Indian girls have jumped"^1..

Stories

Origin of name

The use of "Noccalula," "Nochalula" or "Nahcullola" as a name for the cataract appears as early as the 1860s in print, and was used in parallel with the English "Black Creek Falls". It is possible, at least, that the name is Cherokee (Tsalagi) in origin. A large waterfall in Georgia is called "Amicalola", said to derive from the Tsalagi ᎠᎹᎤᎦᎴᎸᏱ (a-ma u-qwa-le-lv-yi), signifying a place where water (ᎠᎹ or a-ma) tumbles or thunders.^2. Another possibility is that the name was invented in modern times to foster an association between the falls and Indian times. One author suggests that a local promoter coined the name from what he baselessly claimed were the Cherokee words for "black" and "falls".^3.

Romance

An early version of the maiden's story appeared in 1867 in the pages of the Cherokee Advertiser and/or the Gadsden Times. That writer identified the maiden as "Efoladela", pawned off by her father to Creek chief "Ortus Micco" as part of a territorial bargain. In grief for the loss of her future with her lover, "Laniska", Efoladela leaps into the gorge and is buried there. The writer identifies Laniska as Pathkiller, who became principal chief of the Cherokee in 1811.^4.

In 1888, author John Witherspoon DuBose described the natural beauty of "Nochalula Falls" and ascribed to them "all the wild beauty that they had in days of yore, when the Indian legend tells us, that the beautiful star, Alivilda, of the Cherokee tribe, leaped over them to avoid going with the Creek chief to his distant wigwam."^5.

From there, subsequent retellings added romantic details. Anne Mathilde Bilbro's version, published in the early 1900s, is the one most referenced. It was published as a pamphlet in 1937 and has reappeared in brochures for Noccalula Falls Park since its 1946 establishment. Bilbro apparently used legends told by old families in the area as sources. Whether it came from those sources or from her own mind, Bilbro may have been the the first to identify the girl's name as Noccalula in print. In her version, she characterizes the Cherokee tribe as gentle and erudite, contrasting them with the fierce Creeks whose chief had offered a rich price for the girl. With the prospect of achieving peace and claiming a rich reward, Noccalula's father hardened his heart, promised her hand to his enemy, and banished the brave she loved. In grief, the girl glumly allowed herself to be arrayed in her wedding finery before being pulled away by the sound of the waterfall, and soon succumbing to death as an escape from her troubles. In this version the tragedy re-awakened the father's love and he named the waterfall in her memory.^6.

Retellings

Later authors, such as Tracy Lay and Mary Lister have also penned versions of the story based on Bilbro's. It was Lister's version that first included references to Noccalula's ghost inhabiting the gorge.^7. Sue Allen Davidson and Bruce Stephens included a dramatic retelling of Noccalula's story in the script for their outdoor pageant, "God's Highway: The Coosa River Story", which was performed by the Coosa River Drama Association at the park's amphitheater each summer from 1985 to 1989.

A musical composition, "The Legend of Princess Noccalula" was commissioned from Anniston native John Craton in 2005 by the Dutch ensemble Het Consort. Birmingham filmmaker Steve Pridmore is working on a feature film starring Emma-Lillita Hunter as the vengeful ghost of Noccalula.

Historicizing

Using the 1867 story of Efoladela as their starting point, researchers Danny Crownover, Jerry Jones, Rex Thornton and Charley Freeman dug through records in several states in the early 1990s. They identified her with a daughter of "Little Turkey", principal Cherokee chief from 1788 to 1804^8..

In 1789, Little Turkey's daughter was captured and ransomed by John Sevier near the Flint River in Georgia. Following the treaty, Little Turkey's clan settled in Turkey Town in present-day Etowah County. The researchers claim that the chief offered his daughter as a prize in a ball game played during the Green Corn Festival sometime before 1795. Ortus Micco (called "Opie"), a Creek chief who lived near what is now Rainbow City, claimed the victory. Rather than marry Opie, the girl slipped away to the falls where she had spent time with her true love, and there took her life. These events were supposedly corroborated by local Indians and borne out by carvings at the site^9..

Another historicized version also references carvings at the base of the gorge which, when "translated" reveal the the truth of the story. This telling dates the historic event to 1827^10.. In general, petroglyphs found in Cherokee lands are presumed to antedate their arrival, or to be the scrawlings of bored hunters. Ethnologist John Mooney found no evidence of the Cherokee using pictograms or carvings as a means of communication or commemoration^11.. There is no published record of an archeological study of such carved images from Black Creek Falls.

Notes

1. Twain-1883
2. Mooney-1919
3. Mooney-1919
4. Cherokee Advertiser-1867
5. DuBose-1888
6. Bilbro-n.d.
7. Bolton-1958
8. Back-1994
9. ibid.
10. Goodson-2002

References

• M. A. H. (December 25, 1851) "Historical Traditions of Tennessee". The American Whig Review Vol. 15. New York: Wiley & Putnam, pp. 235
• Cherokee Advertiser (1867), paraphrased by Russo, Juniper in "The Truth About the Noccalula Falls Legend" - accessed March 10, 2011
• "Black Creek Falls" (February 12, 1869) Gadsden Times (verse), qtd. in part in Jones-1989
• Twain, Mark (1883) Life on the Mississippi. Boston, Massachusetts: James R. Osgood & Co.
• Dubose, John Witherspoon (1888) "Gadsden" in Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical" Birmingham: Smith & DeLand, p. 354
• Mooney, James (1902) Myths of the Cherokee". Washington DC: Bureau of American Ethnology
• Bilbro, Annie Mathilde (n. d.) "The Legend of Princess Noccalula". rpt. by Noccalula Falls Park - accessed March 10, 2011
• Mooney, James (1919) letter to W. P. Lay. (Mooney was an ethnographer and expert on Cherokee culture at the Bureau of American Ethnology. The letter is in the Noccolula collection at the Gadsden Public Library) - cited in Jones-1989
• Bolton, Clyde (April 20, 1958) "Spring Recalls Noccalula's History" Gadsden Times
• Crownover, Danny K. (1983) "Black Creek". Local history collection. Gadsden Public Library. cited in Jones-1989
• Jones, Jeffery Ray, et al. (1989) Noccalula: Legend, Fact and Function. Collinsville: Jeffrey & Jones Gang, Inc. ISBN 0962195006
• Back, Sharon Freeman (January 15, 1994) "Historians find truth in legend of princess" Gadsden Times
• Crownover, Danny K. and Jerry B. Jones (February 1, 1994) "Research on Noccalula Falls" Gadsden Times
• Goodson, Mike (2002) Gadsden: City of Champions. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing ISBN 0738523755
• McDougald, Michael H. (November 20, 2005) "Tale of Noccalula comes full circle" Rome News-Tribune
• Rozema, Vicki (2007) Footsteps of the Cherokees: A Guide to the Eastern Homelands of the Cherokee Nation. 2nd ed. Winston-Salem, North Carolina: John F. Blair ISBN 9780895873460

External links

• The Legend of Princess Noccalula" at Noccalula Falls Park website
• The Truth About the Noccalula Falls Legend website
• Noccalula film on Facebook.com