In 1838, the United States government deported more than 16,000 Cherokee Indian people from their homelands in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, and thousands perished during the forced relocation known as the Trail of Tears, a result of the 1830 Indian Removal Act. The Cherokee people of Nantahala Town in the lower Nantahala River Valley opposed the Treaty of New Echota and sought to avoid mandatory emigration to Oklahoma. When federal troops and state militia came to the mountains to capture Cherokees in June 1838, most of the people of Nantahala Town fled into the hills. Led by Oochella, they evaded the troops for months by hiding in the rhododendron thickets, or “laurel hells,” that choked the Nantahala River gorge. Fearing that Oochella’s band might turn to guerilla warfare, the army returned in September and captured dozens of Cherokees, including Tsali and his extended family. After Tsali, his sons, and sons-in-law killed two of their captors and escaped, the military sweep intensified. Tsali and his band were ultimately brought in by other Cherokee fugitives who feared the manhunt would grow into full-scale war. After Tsali, Nantayalee Jake, Lowen, and Big George were executed in late November, the troops granted amnesty to the remaining fugitives and withdrew, ending Cherokee removal in North Carolina. Oochella and many of his followers joined the Qualla Cherokees and helped found the Wolf Town community, which survives as a modern township of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.