William Holland Thomas (February 5, 1805 – May 10, 1893) was an American merchant and soldier. 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. Although it was later claimed by his daughter, Sarah Thomas Avery, that he was principal Chief after Yonaguska's death (in Sara Thomas Avery, "William Holland Thomas," North Carolina University Magazine May 1899), it has since been shown that he was not the