William Holland Thomas

William Holland Thomas (February 5, 1805 – May 10, 1893) was an American merchant, lawyer, politician and soldier. He was the adopted son of Cherokee Chief Yonaguska and, while previously believed to have become a Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, has more recently been discovered after review of Cherokee documents by his descendant and avid researcher Elizabeth Avery Thomas that he was viewed as an esteemed friend of the Cherokee and was eventually appointed as the legal representative for the Eastern Band at the State and federal levels. Thomas was a Confederate Colonel who led the Thomas' Legion of Cherokee Indians during the American Civil War.

Background Thomas was born on Raccoon Creek, two miles (3 km) just outside what is now Waynesville, North Carolina. His mother's family, the Colvards, came from English immigrants who settled in Culpeper, Virginia. On his father's side he was related to President Zachary Taylor. It is believed that his father Richard drowned shortly before his son's birth.

He was the son of Temperance Thomas (née Colvard) and Richard Thomas, who died before he was born. He was raised by his mother on Raccoon Creek outside present-day Waynesville, North Carolina. At the age of 13 he was apprenticed to Felix Walker's store and trading post. There he learned to speak Cherokee and was befriended and later adopted by the chief/headman of the local Cherokees, Yonaguska. He was later adopted into the tribe as a whole. In April 1839, a dying Yonaguska picked Thomas as his successor as Principal Chief of the Qualla Cherokee, though this was disputed with Salonitah (aka Flying Squirrel), who also laid claim as Principal Chief. Officially, Salonitah is recognized as the second Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI).

Thomas became a successful merchant and was a lifelong ally of the Eastern Cherokee. In 1819, Yonaguska had made the prescient decision to separate his group from the authority of the Cherokee Nation. The Qualla Cherokee became "citizenized" (they were under the authority of the state of North Carolina, but without the full rights of white citizens). In 1830, Will Thomas became the agent/attorney for the Qualla Cherokee. As the U.S., under President Andrew Jackson, pushed for full removal of the Native peoples of the Southeast, Will Thomas helped the North Carolina Cherokees resist removal by buying land for them. After a Cherokee man named Tsali (aka Charley) and his sons killed soldiers who had rounded them up for removal, Will Thomas acted as an intermediary between the Qualla Cherokees and the U.S. Army and helped find Tsali's hiding place. After the Cherokees executed Tsali, the Qualla Cherokee were granted the right to remain on their ancestral lands. The state of North Carolina, however, would continue to try and remove them, and Thomas represented the tribe in resisting those efforts. While it was his adopted father, Yonaguska, who planned and prepared the way for the Qualla Cherokees to remain east, Will Thomas worked in support of his adopted father's plan for decades after Yonaguska's death. With his own funds and those provided by the Cherokee, he bought land in North Carolina to be used by the Cherokee. Much of this property is now included in Qualla Boundary, the territory of the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee.

During the Civil War, Thomas served as a colonel in the Confederate States Army. He led Thomas' Legion of Cherokee Indians and Highlanders.