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.