Atagâ'hï, The Enchanted Lake - Cherokee

Westward from the headwaters of Oconaluftee river, in the wildest
depths of the, Great Smoky mountains, which form the line between North
Carolina and Tennessee, is the enchanted lake of Atagâ'hï, "Gall place."
Although all the Cherokee know that it is there, no one has ever seen it,
for the way is so difficult that only the animals know how to reach it.
Should a stray hunter come near the place he would know of it by the
whirring sound of the thousands of wild ducks flying about the lake, but
on reaching the spot he would find only a dry flat, without bird or
animal or blade of grass, unless he had first sharpened his spiritual
vision by prayer and fasting and an all-night vigil.

Because it is not seen, some people think the lake has dried up long
ago, but this is not true. To one who had kept watch and fast through the
night it would appear at daybreak as a wide-extending but shallow sheet
of purple water, fed by springs spouting from the high cliffs around.
In the water are all kinds of fish and reptiles, and swimming upon the
surface or flying overhead are great flocks of ducks and pigeons, while
all about the shores are bear tracks crossing in every direction. It is
the medicine lake of the birds and animals, and whenever a bear is
wounded by the hunters he makes his way through the woods to this lake and
plunges into the water, and when he comes out upon the other side his
wounds are healed. For this reason the animals keep the lake invisible
to the hunter.

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Atagahi -The Secret Lake - Cherokee

Somewhere in the high ridges of the Great Smokies there was believed to
be a lake called Atagahi, the Secret Lake. Few people had heard of it,
and this is a story of a young Cherokee brave and his sister who
enjoyed the secret of this beautiful lake nestled in the Great Smokies.

Utani placed his bright, shiny, new knife on the ground next to his new
moccasins and admired the gleaming of the blade in the sun. He was a
young Cherokee brave, rather tall for his age but very powerfully built
and with sharp penetrating black eyes. He was too busy admiring the
glint of the metal in the sun to notice the approach of Netani, his sister,
until the shadow of her body crossed the knife blade and shut off the
sun.

"Get out of the way of the sun," cried Utani. "You are blocking the
rays from shining on my knife.,, Netani made no effort to move and so
Utani repeated his request.

Netani could not understand Utani's demand that she move, but he was
her big brother and so she must- obey. As she stepped aside she inquired
of Utani why he watched so intently the blade of his knife in the sun.

Utani, of course, now being a man, did not want to give a childish
answer such as, "I am watching the blade shine in the sun." So he quickly
gave another answer: "I am receiving a message from the sun."

"What sort of message?" asked Netani.

Oh, the sun is telling me where Atagahi is and maybe if I study the
blade long enough the sun will tell me just where to find it."

This Utani thought, would satisfy his little sister. But her curiosity
was too great, and she asked that Utani take her to the secret lake,
Atagahi.

Now, Utani realized he had gone a little too far in his bragging; but
being very stubborn, he refused to tell his sister that he really could
not find the secret lake by looking at the knife blade in the sun.
Utani made up his mind that he would have to find the secret lake, Atagahi.
He rose and placed his knife carefully in his belt and, taking his
sister's hand, started toward the ridges of the Great Smokies. For two
hours, Utani and Netani climbed higher and higher into the mountains; but
as the day wore on, Utani began to feel a bit frightened, for they were
a long way from home and had come upon nothing that looked like a lake.
Finally Netani stopped a few feet behind Utani and called out.

"Let us rest here for a while, big brother. I am getting tired. Besides
it is late and I am hungry. Let us go back to the village and look
tomorrow."

Of course, Utani secretly thought that was a wonderful idea, for he was
tired and hungry too. He agreed to follow his little sister's idea.

As he grasped his sister's hand to start home, his foot kicked a small
stone which rolled off the side of the trail and down a small
embankment of earth and landed at the bottom with a splash. Utani and Netani
looked at each other with great surprise and then carefully stepped to the
edge of the path. Utani pushed aside the branches that grew along the
side of the trail, and they both peered down into the waters of a
beautiful blue green lake nestled among the trees and rocks that hid it from
human eyes along the trail. They had found it! They had found Atagahi!
It was fast growing dark, so the two children decided to return to
their village and come back the following day to the secret lake. When they
returned to their village the older braves wanted to know where they
had been. Netani said, "We looked at Utani's knife blade in the sun, and
the sun told us where to find Atagahi."

The older Cherokee braves all laughed and laughed very loudly. But
Netani and Utani did not laugh , for they knew where Atagahi was and they
could go there any time they pleased. They never told anyone their
secret, but every once in a while if you looked very carefully up the trail
into the mountains, you might see two Indian children kicking stones
off the side of the trail.