“The less a man talks, the fewer lies he tells,” was a saying that Emma Bell Miles attributed to Joe Winchester in “The Spirit of the Mountains,” her 1905 book set on Walden’s Ridge.
Among Winchester’s favorite tales was the story of his friend Salola (“Squirrel” in Cherokee), with whom he camped and hiked over a period of six years. Both were woodworkers and blacksmiths who made tools, implements, and in Salola’s case, weapons.
Most likely their friendship began after the Civil War. In the spring of 1848, Charles Lanham met Salola living among 800 Cherokees and a smaller number of Catawbas in Qualla Town (now Cherokee, N.C.). He described Salola as “quite a young man [with] a remarkably thoughtful face. He is the blacksmith of his nation, and with some assistance, supplies the whole of Qualla Town with all their axes and plows; but what is more, he has manufactured a number of very superior rifles and pistols, including stock, barrel and lock, and he is also the builder of grist mills, which grind all the meal his people eat. A specimen of his workmanship… may be seen at the Patent Office in Washington, where it was deposited by Mr. [William] Thomas; and I believe Salola is the first Indian who ever manufactured an entire gun.”
Considering that Salola had never received instruction and used a flint-stone for an anvil and a water-blast for a bellows, Lanham wrote, “his attainments must be considered truly remarkable.” At that time Salola spoke only Cherokee and communicated with his Catawba wife in a language of their own. “He is a most worthy man,” Lanham concluded, and “an honor to the country.” Today Salola’s .28 caliber percussion pistol made of wood, brass and steel is displayed at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
Salola gained national attention again in 1852, when an article that William H. Thomas, the “white chief” of the Eastern Band, submitted to the Asheville News was reprinted in the New York Daily Times. Salola had captured a dark-colored rattlesnake with 10 rattles and two forked horns about three quarters of an inch long on its head that he described as “a king among snakes of its species.”