ᏣᎳᎩ
Tsalagi (Ch/Jah-lah-gee) = Cherokee
Chickamauga Cherokee
Dragging Canoe was one of the
Cherokee tribe’s most devoted chiefs.
He angrily opposed the terms of the deal
in which the Cherokee Nation signed away some of their valuable land to the whites and received very little in return. He broke away from the Cherokees in 1776, forming an aggressive wing of the tribe known as the Chickamauga Cherokees.
Dragging Canoe strongly recommended that the patriotic Cherokees part from the tribe. After this episode, they settled at various places along the main stream in the south known as the Chickamauga Creek. Therefore, it was appropriate to call them Chickamaugans. Dragging Canoe was the son of the famous narrator, Chief Attakullakulla. For his headquarters, Dragging Canoe chose the site of an ancient Creek village on the Chickamauga near present day northeastern Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Many well-known chiefs joined him, Chief Ostenaco being among them. This old Indian had fought side by side with George Washington on the Virginia frontiers and knew him intimately. He knew not only our first President but also men such as Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. The Chickamauga feared that the expansion of the United States spelled doom for the Cherokees and believed that by engaging in war they were protecting their territory the only way they could.
After the American Revolution, the majority of Cherokees favored peace and agreed to give up all lands east of the Appalachians. But a small band of warriors, called ‘Chickamauga’ were unwilling to accept a truce and moved their families to northeastern Alabama. Tecumseh, who was much younger than Dragging Canoe, had a Creek Indian mother and believed that the Creeks would help their Chickamauga brothers in the north. He went south to see the Creeks, Chickasaw, Cherokees and Choctows. He was there for two years. When he returned north, William Henry Harrison had burned the peace town to the ground. Fighting continued on both sides until 1785, with the most stubborn resistance coming from a recalcitrant group of Cherokees who seceded after the Carolina cession in 1777 and established themselves first on Chickamauga Creek and later on the Lower Tennessee River.
These diehards became known as ‘The Chickamauga of the Five Lower Towns’... (Cherokees of the Old South, Malone, pg. 10) Hence, the political division between the Cherokee Nation and the Chickamauga Indians occurred as a result of the Carolina land cession and the overall concern of the Chickamauga was that the end of Cherokee independence was coming. The split, which occurred between the Cherokee Nation and the Chickamauga, was political and represented a fundamental shift in international policy. The Chickamauga favored continued conflict with the United States in an attempt to maintain their land base and independence, whereas some influential elements of the Cherokee National Council took a more conciliatory position.
In fact, the Chickamauga never laid down their arms. In 1790, the Chickamauga fought General Harmon in the north and less than a year later fought General Clair. They continued the fight into Alabama and Florida. At Fort Mims, two thousand Chickamauga helped Chief Red Eagle take the Fort and after the fall of Horseshow Bend, many moved into Florida. The United States government also recognized the Chickamauga as a separate political entity in the Treaty of 1817 (7 Stat. 156) in which the prologue stated “the establishment of a division line between the upper and lower towns”.
The Chickamauga people were historically known as the lower town Cherokees.
The two main Chickamauga Chiefs, Dragging Canoe (Tsiyugunsini) son of Attakullakulla and John Watts (Kunokeski) were relatives of Cherokee Nation Principle Chief Moytoy (Amahetai) and may have been advised to leave the Nation so that the Cherokee Nation’s residents would not be drawn further into a full scale war with the Americans.
From 1777, the Chickamauga were not an official part of the governance and policy structure of the Cherokee Nation, and through their external military policy,
the Chickamauga were an independent Cherokee political entity although not an entity with which the majority of the Cherokee Nation’s residents were opposed.
Cherokee story - Indians in Arkansas
There have been many very notable and honored Chiefs that lived in the Arkansas Territory. Some have claimed Dangerous Man from the Cherokee legend of the Lost Cherokee resided in Arkansas for a time, however we will stick to what we know as fact, as that is usually the best policy when doing legitimate research.
This does not rule out Dangerous Man, however the evidence suggests his people lived in southwestern Texas and not Arkansas, so we will leave that issue and go forward. Sometime around 1775, the Chickamauga drove off the French from the lead mines in Southeast Missouri, this was done for the purpose of gaining access to the lead itself which was needed for war. This in fact was very important to the Spanish as they then made overtures to the Cherokee to move West of the Mississippi to settle in Spanish lands as a way to keep the French in check, and to act as a buffer between Spanish interests and French Louisiana whom still maintained a strong presence there with the fur trade and several outposts. The Cherokee however did not immediately move to the region, as it was still the hopes of many Chickamauga to drive off the settlers from their traditional hunting lands in the east. This ideal changed however in the year 1785 where several Chickamauga Chiefs signed what has become known as the Hopewell Treaty that year. This treaty demanded that the Cherokee Nation come under no other sovereign other than the United States of America. While some Chickamauga Chiefs signed, there were many that refused to give up their own sovereignty to be under the "protection" of the United States. For many Cherokees, this treaty was unacceptable and they chose to leave Old Nation lands rather than be forced to accept the terms of the treaty. The facts are that the United States was in immediate breach of this treaty from the begining and nothing was done to curtail the settlement of lands that they promised they would protect from the invasion of the settlers. Within a very short time it was very apparent to the Cherokee that the Americans were not interested in stopping settlement of the lands regardless of what the treaty said. Springfrog being disgusted at the outcome of the terms of this treaty, then removed from his traditional home and took many families West of the Mississippi to settle in the Arkansas Territory that he was familiar with from his visits in years past. These circumstances marked the beginning of voluntary removal of Cherokee Indians from the old lands in the east to the Arkansas Territory that spanned a period of over 50 years! The first documented Cherokee village in Arkansas was in the year 1785 on the White River. This was none other than Dustu's Village whom was also known as the famous ball player Chief Springfrog. Springfrog was a very active man and was known to act as both scout and friend to James Audubon. Springfrog was born in a cabin in Hamilton County TN around the year of 1754, and his birth-place may still be visited today and is known as Springfrog's Cabin. Sometime later around 1795 Chief Duwali whom was the chief of Hiwasee Town in North Carolina arrived and began living on the St. Francis River. These Cherokee whom lived in this area were forced to leave in 1811 due to a massive Earthquake and flooding which made the Mississippi River and its tributaries run backwards. Duwali then moved his people to the White River for a short time, then moved his people to the south banks of the Arkansas, then later removed to Texas sometime around 1819. Sometime around 1809, Talontuskee along with Chief Takatoka settled about 300 Cherokees on the White River, while others such as Duwali moved further south and west to live south of the Arkansas River in North Central Arkansas. Tahloteeskee as he is sometimes known was the uncle of Geroge Guess and became the principal Chief of the villages south of the Arkansas sometime around 1813. Among this growing group of Cherokees was also Walter Webber whom came to the area roughly at the same time around 1809. Walter Webber later became third Chief after 1824. Walter Webber's wife was the sister of Stand Watie. John Jolly whom was the brother of Talontuskee, emigrated to the Arkansas Territory in the year 1817 and later became Chief sometime around 1818. Tahchee whom was also known as Captain William Dutch was an early Old Settler and was famous for fighting the Osage. Tahchee later became a scout for the United States and was the spokesperson for the Indians during the councils for the 1835 Camp Holmes Peace Treaty. Tahchee died in 1848 after being active in Western Cherokee politics and serving as third Chief in his later years in Texas. Among these early years of emigration, there were many Indians living in these lands whom came to the area after several wars with the whites in the east. Among those who came to the lands to live among the Cherokee were the Shawnee whom had also been in confederation in previous years with the Chickamauga in the resistance to fight white settlement of Indian lands. Among these Indians was Peter Cornstalk who was the son of the famous Chief Cornstalk of the Great Shawnee Nation. Peter Cornstalk and his Brother John were half Chickamauga Cherokee through their mother. Peter later became the Principal Chief of the Cherokees living at the mouth of Spring Creek where my 3rd Great Grandfather Isaac Weaver held the first legal land grant as recognized later by President Franklin Pierce in that exact location. Spring Creek was an area with a very large village of Cherokees, and there were also numerous Shawnee whom lived in this area.
From:
James Mooney,
Robert Conley,
and John Ehle's books.
Dragging Canoe' Timeline
1776 March 1 Dragging Canoe went to Mobile AL to escort 2 British Commissioners,
Cameron (Dragging Canoe's adopted brother), to bring a pack train to the
Cherokee back to Chota & give the British line regarding the upcoming American
Revolution. Dragging Canoe was in full agreement.
April Back at Chota. Alexander Cameron advises Indian neutrality because there
were Loyalists among whites - Indians wouldn't know the difference. Cameron &
Stuart sent letters to whites in the area. Text was altered to promote
anti-Indian sentiment (fear of attack).
Delegation of northern Indians, predominantly (but not totally) Shawnee
(Cornstalk?), came to Chota requesting a Cherokee alliance against the American.
Raven of Chota led an attack against the Carter Valley sentiments - burned
houses, but Americans had withdrawn. Nancy Ward, a "Beloved Woman of the
Cherokee, having been a warrior in her day, forewarned the Americans.
Abram of Chilhowee led the attack against Fort Watauga where Sevier was at the
time. Laid siege, nothing happened, so the Cherokee withdrew.
Dragging Canoe went against the Holston River settlements, including the Eton
Station fort, but the Americans, forewarned by Nancy Ward, were prepared and
successfully defended themselves. The Cherokee attacked, Dragging Canoe got shot
through both legs; his brother, Little Owl, also got hit.
The Cherokee withdrew for lack of numbers.
**Elders, including Oconostota, wanted to capitulate and offered a reward of 100
pounds on the heads of Dragging Canoe and Alexander Cameron.
No record of known attempts on their lives.
The Cherokee Council sent a message that Dragging
canoe's faction were no longer citizens of the Cherokee Nation.**
Dragging Canoe responded by saying the peaceful Cherokee were nothing more than
"Virginians and Rogues," withdrawing from the area and moved with his people
closer to the Chattanooga area. Joined by survivors of the Lower Towns of South
Carolina. ****This is where he joined forces with the Chikamaka.
It is not known for sure when they wandered into the Tennessee Valley,
but after this union they become the Powerful tribe known today by the anglicized
name "Chickamauga."**** 1776 July 700 Chikamaka attacked two American forts in
North Carolina: Eaton's Station and Fort Watauga.
Both assaults failed, but the raids set off a series of attacks by other Cherokee and the
Upper Creek on frontier settlements in Tennessee and Alabama. The Wataugans, led by
their popular and soon-to-be-famous Indian fighter John Sevier, repulsed the onslaught
and swiftly counter-attacked. With the help of militia from North Carolina and Virginia,
they invaded the heartland of the Cherokee and put their towns to the torch.
John Sevier's son later married into the Cherokee Nation.
1776 At the outbreak of the American Revolution, lives father up north Knoxville way,
moves families down river to Chickamauga, and Chattanooga & Running Water
with the Creeks ... Upper & Lower Towns.
[At the beginning of the year Dragging Canoe wanted to attack the American
whites, and vice versa. However, most of the Cherokee were opposed to war.
British didn't want Indians involved. A Letter was copied and faked, with
derisive comments about Indians added. Copies were circulated to stir up
anti-British hate among Indians. Dragging Canoe was very militant. He led an
attack against whites. Rather than capitulate with the older men, he and other
warriors (1000 warriors and families,) moved south to Chattanooga with the
Chikamaka Creeks and became the war some Chikamaka waging war against the
settlers for the next twenty years. A Confederacy involving numerous tribes and
Tory allies is formed.] 1776 September Americans destroyed more than 36
Cherokee towns killing every man, woman and child they could find.
[Rather than killing all the Indians, impromptu slave auctions on site were
held to raise money for the White militia by selling Native women & children. ]
1777 Unable to continue resistance, the Cherokee in the area asked for peace.
The Treaties of DeWitt's Corner (May) and Long Island (or Holston) (July) were
signed at gunpoint and forced the Cherokee to cede almost all of their remaining
land in the Carolinas. 1777 Summer Dragging Canoe led raids against American
settlers as far up as southern Virginia - killing whites whenever they could find
them & burning houses.
1778-79 Most Cherokee fighters (made up of many half-bloods & mixed-bloods,
predominantly a white mix - French, English, Irish, Spanish & American-born
whites, Cherokee, Shawnee, Creek, and free Blacks) went to Georgia to join the
British forces in the Georgia campaign 1776-82 Cherokee under Dragging Canoe
joined the side of Great Britain in the American Revolution against encroaching
white settlement.
Cui Canacina or Tsiyugunsini (Dragging Canoe) and the Chikamaka refused the
Overhill Cherokee Treaty and kept raiding the new settlements. At the outbreak
of the Revolution, the Cherokee received requests from the Mohawk, Shawnee, and
Ottawa to join them against the Americans, but the majority of the Cherokee
decided to remain neutral in the white man's war. The Chikamaka, however,
remained at war with the Americans and formed an alliance with the Shawnee and
numerous other Northern Indian Nations. 1779 Evan Shelby attacks & burns 11
Chikamaka towns between the Knoxville and the Chattanooga area while
Dragging Canoe was in Georgia. Upon learning of this,
Dragging Canoe & men come back, Cameron with British arms also.
At this time a Shawnee delegation came down to see if the burning of the towns
had broken the Cherokee resistance. Dragging Canoe assured them that he would
keep fighting.
Alexander Cameron recorded Dragging Canoe's speech, "We are not yet conquered."
A group of Cherokee went to the Shawnee to fight with them and to assure
consolidation of will. Likewise, a group of Shawnee, including Tecumseh's
widowed mother, her son, Tecumseh, a boy, and his triplet brothers, including
the later White Prophet, came down. Their older brother fought with distinction,
but was killed a few years later in the raid on Nashville.
Dragging Canoe again moves Chikamaka this time to the region between Chattanooga
and The South Cumberland Plateau. He resides in Lower Town of Running Water;
Breath established Nickajack by Nickajack Cave - across the river from Little
Cedar Mountain.
THERE WERE SEVERAL TOWNS, CAMPS AND VILLAGES. SOME WERE KNOWN AND DOCUMENTED
AND OTHERS WERE NOT. SOME OF THESE NOT DOCUMENTED ARE NOW KNOWN TO US & SADLY
SOME ARE FORGOTTEN BECAUSE OF OUR NEED TO ASSIMILATE IN ORDER TO ACCOMPLISH OUR
NUMBER ONE GOAL:
LAND PRESERVATION 1780 Dragging Canoe rescued the British Col.
Brown in the American Siege of Augusta. Returned home.
The Chikamaka remained hostile and renewed their attacks against western
settlements in Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky. Continued his resistance,
attacks Nashville against Cumberland settlements.
1781 July After more fighting, the forced second Treaty of Long Island of
Holston confirmed the 1777 forced cessions and then took more Cherokee land.
1782 The English give up the war effort and sued for peace. Dragging Canoe
established contact with the Spanish in Florida and British in Canada and
Detroit. 1785/6 Treaty of Hopewell (SC) - The Cherokee thought this would be
the end of the settlers' invasion of Cherokee land. Within 3 years bitter fighting
had erupted as settlers continued to move into the Cherokee Nation. This treaty is
the basis for the term "Talking Leaves," the name of the tribe's written language.
The Cherokee felt that written words were like leaves, when they were
no longer of use they withered and died.
1790 Chikamakas continued action with the Shawnee in the Ohio Valley: the Ohio
Chikamaka 1790-94 "Little Turtle's War" of the Miami in the Ohio Valley with the
Wyandot, Delaware, Hurons, Mohawks and Dakota. After their initial victories,
from here they had the unofficial encouragement of the Spanish governments of
Florida and Louisiana and continued attacking American settlements. One of these
incidents almost killed a young Nashville attorney/land speculator named Andrew
Jackson, which may explain his later attitude regarding the Cherokee.
1791 January Chikamaka Chief Glass/"Catawba Killer" captured James Hubbard and
16 men building a blockhouse at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and released them with a
warning not to return. 1791 November 4 Combined force of Chikamaka, Creek,
Asshinnabe (Chippewa), Shawnee, Delaware, Iroquois, Miami, Wyandot and
Dakota totally annihilated the forces of American Gen. Arthur St. Clair at the
Wabash River in Indiana. "St. Clair's Defeat" - the biggest (number of whites killed)
united Native triumph in history. (Bigger than Little Big Horn...Custer's demise.)
1791 - Treaty of Holston signed. Includes a call for the U.S. to advance
civilization of the Cherokees by giving them farm tools and technical advice.
1792 February 17 Chikamaka Chief Glass and Dragging Canoe's brother, Turtle At
Home, waylaid the John Collingsworth family near Nashville, killing the father,
mother, and a daughter, and capturing an eight-year-old girl. Returning to
Lookout Town (near Trenton, Georgia), they held a scalp dance, grinding one of
the scalps in his teeth as he performed. Dragging canoe, recently returned from
Mississippi after meeting with Choctaws, celebrated the occasion so strenuously
that he died the following morning, age ±54. John Watts of Will's Town (near
Fort Payne, Alabama), became the new Chikamaka leader of the united war effort.
Chikamaka resistance continues - led a big campaign against settlements in
Nashville (Buchanan Station 1793) and in upper east Tennessee led the combined
Cherokee-Creek attack at Cavett's Station in 1793 in which there were no white
survivors.
Dragging Canoe
Dragging Canoe, Cherokee war chief
by George Ellison
Historian E. Raymond Adams has maintained that the warrior with the curious name of Dragging Canoe was “the greatest military leader ever produced by the Cherokee people.” A review of Dragging Canoe’s military career doesn’t reveal many great victories that he led, but it does indicate that he was a clever and resourceful military leader who was able to sustain significant “dark and bloody” opposition to white settlement for many years.
Born about 1740 in one of the Overhill Towns in east Tennessee, Dragging Canoe was the son of the Attakullakulla, perhaps the greatest diplomat ever produced by the Cherokees. Denied permission by his father to participate in a war party against the Shawnees, the youth hid in an overturned canoe where he knew a portage by the party had to take place. Impressed by his tenacity, Attakullakulla gave him permission to go on the war party if he could carry the canoe over the portage. Unable to lift the heavy vessel, he began dragging it along the portage. The cheering warriors began to chant “tsi-yu gansi-ni!” which means, “He is dragging the canoe!” From that time, he was known as Dragging Canoe.
In time, Dragging Canoe became the leader of a small band of warriors known as the Chickamaugas, a diverse group who resisted white settlement in Tennessee for almost 20 years. Shortly before the outbreak
of the American Revolution in the spring of 1775, Richard Henderson signed the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals with the Cherokees led by Attakullakulla. This privately negotiated treaty ceded central Kentucky and northern Middle Tennessee to Henderson. The enraged Dragging Canoe correctly advised the whites that, “You have bought a fair land, but there is a black cloud hanging over it. You will find its settlement dark and bloody.”
Dragging Canoe concluded that the opening of the war provided an opportunity to strike the remote white settlements. He planned a three-pronged attack: one contingent struck the Watauga and Nolichucky settlements; another struck Carter’s Valley; and Dragging Canoe himself led the battle at Island Flats, where he was wounded. The settlers suffered heavy losses but the arrival of reinforcements proved too much for the Cherokees.
The most anti-white Cherokees, led by Dragging Canoe, Bloody Fellow, Young Tassel, and Hanging Maw, moved into several abandoned Creek towns, including Citico and Chickamauga along Chickamauga Creek, and began calling themselves Chickamaugas after the “river of death.” By this time the Chickamaugas, who had started out as dissatisfied Overhill Cherokees, included many Creeks, Shawnee, French “boatmen,” some blacks, and several Scots traders. The Shawnee warrior Cheesekau and his younger brother, Tecumseh, who himself would later lead anti-white uprisings, also lived with them.
In 1779, the British provided the Chickamaugas with supplies as preparation for a major raid on the east Tennessee settlements. However, Evan Shelby and 900 Virginia and North Carolina troops descended the Tennessee River and surprised the Chickamaugas. The whites burned the villages and seized the supplies.
Shortly thereafter, Dragging Canoe moved the group to the more defensible sites at Running Water and Nickajack in Tennessee, Lookout Mountain in Georgia, and Long Island and Crowtown in Alabama.
At that time Dragging Canoe made a speech to a group of visiting Shawnees that was in reality designed to rally the spirits of his own warriors: “Our nation was surrounded by them [the white settlers]. They were numerous and their hatchets were sharp; and after we had lost some of our best warriors, we were forced to leave our towns and corn to be burnt by them, and now we live in the grass as you see us. But we are not yet conquered.”
True to his word, Dragging Canoe led the Chickamaugas in a strike at the Cumberland settlements in middle Tennessee and destroyed Mansker’s Station in 1779. In April 1780, they attacked Fort Nashborough (Nashville) but lost the battle of the Bluffs. In December 1780, they lost 80 men to forces under John Sevier at Boyd’s Creek near the Little Tennessee River.
Throughout the 1780s, the Chickamaugas kept the Cumberland settlements in turmoil. They even attacked Fort White (Knoxville) in 1788. Then, in 1792, they struck at Buchanan’s Station, just four miles south of Fort Nashborough. Travelers between east and middle Tennessee were forced to travel north via the Wilderness Trail. And even there, some 100 white deaths occurred.
On Feb. 29, 1792, the day after a victory celebration, Dragging Canoe died suddenly. The leadership of the renegade opposition group was passed to Young Tassel. The Chickamaugan movement initiated by Dragging Canoe did not finally end until Andrew Jackson’s victories over the Red Stick Creeks in the 1813-14 Alabama campaign.
Dragging Canoe was one of the
Cherokee tribe’s most devoted chiefs.
He angrily opposed the terms of the deal
in which the Cherokee Nation signed away some of their valuable land to the whites and received very little in return. He broke away from the Cherokees in 1776, forming an aggressive wing of the tribe known as the Chickamauga Cherokees.
Dragging Canoe strongly recommended that the patriotic Cherokees part from the tribe. After this episode, they settled at various places along the main stream in the south known as the Chickamauga Creek. Therefore, it was appropriate to call them Chickamaugans. Dragging Canoe was the son of the famous narrator, Chief Attakullakulla. For his headquarters, Dragging Canoe chose the site of an ancient Creek village on the Chickamauga near present day northeastern Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Many well-known chiefs joined him, Chief Ostenaco being among them. This old Indian had fought side by side with George Washington on the Virginia frontiers and knew him intimately. He knew not only our first President but also men such as Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. The Chickamauga feared that the expansion of the United States spelled doom for the Cherokees and believed that by engaging in war they were protecting their territory the only way they could.
After the American Revolution, the majority of Cherokees favored peace and agreed to give up all lands east of the Appalachians. But a small band of warriors, called ‘Chickamauga’ were unwilling to accept a truce and moved their families to northeastern Alabama. Tecumseh, who was much younger than Dragging Canoe, had a Creek Indian mother and believed that the Creeks would help their Chickamauga brothers in the north. He went south to see the Creeks, Chickasaw, Cherokees and Choctows. He was there for two years. When he returned north, William Henry Harrison had burned the peace town to the ground. Fighting continued on both sides until 1785, with the most stubborn resistance coming from a recalcitrant group of Cherokees who seceded after the Carolina cession in 1777 and established themselves first on Chickamauga Creek and later on the Lower Tennessee River.
These diehards became known as ‘The Chickamauga of the Five Lower Towns’... (Cherokees of the Old South, Malone, pg. 10) Hence, the political division between the Cherokee Nation and the Chickamauga Indians occurred as a result of the Carolina land cession and the overall concern of the Chickamauga was that the end of Cherokee independence was coming. The split, which occurred between the Cherokee Nation and the Chickamauga, was political and represented a fundamental shift in international policy. The Chickamauga favored continued conflict with the United States in an attempt to maintain their land base and independence, whereas some influential elements of the Cherokee National Council took a more conciliatory position.
In fact, the Chickamauga never laid down their arms. In 1790, the Chickamauga fought General Harmon in the north and less than a year later fought General Clair. They continued the fight into Alabama and Florida. At Fort Mims, two thousand Chickamauga helped Chief Red Eagle take the Fort and after the fall of Horseshow Bend, many moved into Florida. The United States government also recognized the Chickamauga as a separate political entity in the Treaty of 1817 (7 Stat. 156) in which the prologue stated “the establishment of a division line between the upper and lower towns”.
The Chickamauga people were historically known as the lower town Cherokees.
The two main Chickamauga Chiefs, Dragging Canoe (Tsiyugunsini) son of Attakullakulla and John Watts (Kunokeski) were relatives of Cherokee Nation Principle Chief Moytoy (Amahetai) and may have been advised to leave the Nation so that the Cherokee Nation’s residents would not be drawn further into a full scale war with the Americans.
From 1777, the Chickamauga were not an official part of the governance and policy structure of the Cherokee Nation, and through their external military policy,
the Chickamauga were an independent Cherokee political entity although not an entity with which the majority of the Cherokee Nation’s residents were opposed.
Cherokee story - Indians in Arkansas
There have been many very notable and honored Chiefs that lived in the Arkansas Territory. Some have claimed Dangerous Man from the Cherokee legend of the Lost Cherokee resided in Arkansas for a time, however we will stick to what we know as fact, as that is usually the best policy when doing legitimate research.
This does not rule out Dangerous Man, however the evidence suggests his people lived in southwestern Texas and not Arkansas, so we will leave that issue and go forward. Sometime around 1775, the Chickamauga drove off the French from the lead mines in Southeast Missouri, this was done for the purpose of gaining access to the lead itself which was needed for war. This in fact was very important to the Spanish as they then made overtures to the Cherokee to move West of the Mississippi to settle in Spanish lands as a way to keep the French in check, and to act as a buffer between Spanish interests and French Louisiana whom still maintained a strong presence there with the fur trade and several outposts. The Cherokee however did not immediately move to the region, as it was still the hopes of many Chickamauga to drive off the settlers from their traditional hunting lands in the east. This ideal changed however in the year 1785 where several Chickamauga Chiefs signed what has become known as the Hopewell Treaty that year. This treaty demanded that the Cherokee Nation come under no other sovereign other than the United States of America. While some Chickamauga Chiefs signed, there were many that refused to give up their own sovereignty to be under the "protection" of the United States. For many Cherokees, this treaty was unacceptable and they chose to leave Old Nation lands rather than be forced to accept the terms of the treaty. The facts are that the United States was in immediate breach of this treaty from the begining and nothing was done to curtail the settlement of lands that they promised they would protect from the invasion of the settlers. Within a very short time it was very apparent to the Cherokee that the Americans were not interested in stopping settlement of the lands regardless of what the treaty said. Springfrog being disgusted at the outcome of the terms of this treaty, then removed from his traditional home and took many families West of the Mississippi to settle in the Arkansas Territory that he was familiar with from his visits in years past. These circumstances marked the beginning of voluntary removal of Cherokee Indians from the old lands in the east to the Arkansas Territory that spanned a period of over 50 years! The first documented Cherokee village in Arkansas was in the year 1785 on the White River. This was none other than Dustu's Village whom was also known as the famous ball player Chief Springfrog. Springfrog was a very active man and was known to act as both scout and friend to James Audubon. Springfrog was born in a cabin in Hamilton County TN around the year of 1754, and his birth-place may still be visited today and is known as Springfrog's Cabin. Sometime later around 1795 Chief Duwali whom was the chief of Hiwasee Town in North Carolina arrived and began living on the St. Francis River. These Cherokee whom lived in this area were forced to leave in 1811 due to a massive Earthquake and flooding which made the Mississippi River and its tributaries run backwards. Duwali then moved his people to the White River for a short time, then moved his people to the south banks of the Arkansas, then later removed to Texas sometime around 1819. Sometime around 1809, Talontuskee along with Chief Takatoka settled about 300 Cherokees on the White River, while others such as Duwali moved further south and west to live south of the Arkansas River in North Central Arkansas. Tahloteeskee as he is sometimes known was the uncle of Geroge Guess and became the principal Chief of the villages south of the Arkansas sometime around 1813. Among this growing group of Cherokees was also Walter Webber whom came to the area roughly at the same time around 1809. Walter Webber later became third Chief after 1824. Walter Webber's wife was the sister of Stand Watie. John Jolly whom was the brother of Talontuskee, emigrated to the Arkansas Territory in the year 1817 and later became Chief sometime around 1818. Tahchee whom was also known as Captain William Dutch was an early Old Settler and was famous for fighting the Osage. Tahchee later became a scout for the United States and was the spokesperson for the Indians during the councils for the 1835 Camp Holmes Peace Treaty. Tahchee died in 1848 after being active in Western Cherokee politics and serving as third Chief in his later years in Texas. Among these early years of emigration, there were many Indians living in these lands whom came to the area after several wars with the whites in the east. Among those who came to the lands to live among the Cherokee were the Shawnee whom had also been in confederation in previous years with the Chickamauga in the resistance to fight white settlement of Indian lands. Among these Indians was Peter Cornstalk who was the son of the famous Chief Cornstalk of the Great Shawnee Nation. Peter Cornstalk and his Brother John were half Chickamauga Cherokee through their mother. Peter later became the Principal Chief of the Cherokees living at the mouth of Spring Creek where my 3rd Great Grandfather Isaac Weaver held the first legal land grant as recognized later by President Franklin Pierce in that exact location. Spring Creek was an area with a very large village of Cherokees, and there were also numerous Shawnee whom lived in this area.
From:
James Mooney,
Robert Conley,
and John Ehle's books.
Dragging Canoe' Timeline
1776 March 1 Dragging Canoe went to Mobile AL to escort 2 British Commissioners,
Cameron (Dragging Canoe's adopted brother), to bring a pack train to the
Cherokee back to Chota & give the British line regarding the upcoming American
Revolution. Dragging Canoe was in full agreement.
April Back at Chota. Alexander Cameron advises Indian neutrality because there
were Loyalists among whites - Indians wouldn't know the difference. Cameron &
Stuart sent letters to whites in the area. Text was altered to promote
anti-Indian sentiment (fear of attack).
Delegation of northern Indians, predominantly (but not totally) Shawnee
(Cornstalk?), came to Chota requesting a Cherokee alliance against the American.
Raven of Chota led an attack against the Carter Valley sentiments - burned
houses, but Americans had withdrawn. Nancy Ward, a "Beloved Woman of the
Cherokee, having been a warrior in her day, forewarned the Americans.
Abram of Chilhowee led the attack against Fort Watauga where Sevier was at the
time. Laid siege, nothing happened, so the Cherokee withdrew.
Dragging Canoe went against the Holston River settlements, including the Eton
Station fort, but the Americans, forewarned by Nancy Ward, were prepared and
successfully defended themselves. The Cherokee attacked, Dragging Canoe got shot
through both legs; his brother, Little Owl, also got hit.
The Cherokee withdrew for lack of numbers.
**Elders, including Oconostota, wanted to capitulate and offered a reward of 100
pounds on the heads of Dragging Canoe and Alexander Cameron.
No record of known attempts on their lives.
The Cherokee Council sent a message that Dragging
canoe's faction were no longer citizens of the Cherokee Nation.**
Dragging Canoe responded by saying the peaceful Cherokee were nothing more than
"Virginians and Rogues," withdrawing from the area and moved with his people
closer to the Chattanooga area. Joined by survivors of the Lower Towns of South
Carolina. ****This is where he joined forces with the Chikamaka.
It is not known for sure when they wandered into the Tennessee Valley,
but after this union they become the Powerful tribe known today by the anglicized
name "Chickamauga."**** 1776 July 700 Chikamaka attacked two American forts in
North Carolina: Eaton's Station and Fort Watauga.
Both assaults failed, but the raids set off a series of attacks by other Cherokee and the
Upper Creek on frontier settlements in Tennessee and Alabama. The Wataugans, led by
their popular and soon-to-be-famous Indian fighter John Sevier, repulsed the onslaught
and swiftly counter-attacked. With the help of militia from North Carolina and Virginia,
they invaded the heartland of the Cherokee and put their towns to the torch.
John Sevier's son later married into the Cherokee Nation.
1776 At the outbreak of the American Revolution, lives father up north Knoxville way,
moves families down river to Chickamauga, and Chattanooga & Running Water
with the Creeks ... Upper & Lower Towns.
[At the beginning of the year Dragging Canoe wanted to attack the American
whites, and vice versa. However, most of the Cherokee were opposed to war.
British didn't want Indians involved. A Letter was copied and faked, with
derisive comments about Indians added. Copies were circulated to stir up
anti-British hate among Indians. Dragging Canoe was very militant. He led an
attack against whites. Rather than capitulate with the older men, he and other
warriors (1000 warriors and families,) moved south to Chattanooga with the
Chikamaka Creeks and became the war some Chikamaka waging war against the
settlers for the next twenty years. A Confederacy involving numerous tribes and
Tory allies is formed.] 1776 September Americans destroyed more than 36
Cherokee towns killing every man, woman and child they could find.
[Rather than killing all the Indians, impromptu slave auctions on site were
held to raise money for the White militia by selling Native women & children. ]
1777 Unable to continue resistance, the Cherokee in the area asked for peace.
The Treaties of DeWitt's Corner (May) and Long Island (or Holston) (July) were
signed at gunpoint and forced the Cherokee to cede almost all of their remaining
land in the Carolinas. 1777 Summer Dragging Canoe led raids against American
settlers as far up as southern Virginia - killing whites whenever they could find
them & burning houses.
1778-79 Most Cherokee fighters (made up of many half-bloods & mixed-bloods,
predominantly a white mix - French, English, Irish, Spanish & American-born
whites, Cherokee, Shawnee, Creek, and free Blacks) went to Georgia to join the
British forces in the Georgia campaign 1776-82 Cherokee under Dragging Canoe
joined the side of Great Britain in the American Revolution against encroaching
white settlement.
Cui Canacina or Tsiyugunsini (Dragging Canoe) and the Chikamaka refused the
Overhill Cherokee Treaty and kept raiding the new settlements. At the outbreak
of the Revolution, the Cherokee received requests from the Mohawk, Shawnee, and
Ottawa to join them against the Americans, but the majority of the Cherokee
decided to remain neutral in the white man's war. The Chikamaka, however,
remained at war with the Americans and formed an alliance with the Shawnee and
numerous other Northern Indian Nations. 1779 Evan Shelby attacks & burns 11
Chikamaka towns between the Knoxville and the Chattanooga area while
Dragging Canoe was in Georgia. Upon learning of this,
Dragging Canoe & men come back, Cameron with British arms also.
At this time a Shawnee delegation came down to see if the burning of the towns
had broken the Cherokee resistance. Dragging Canoe assured them that he would
keep fighting.
Alexander Cameron recorded Dragging Canoe's speech, "We are not yet conquered."
A group of Cherokee went to the Shawnee to fight with them and to assure
consolidation of will. Likewise, a group of Shawnee, including Tecumseh's
widowed mother, her son, Tecumseh, a boy, and his triplet brothers, including
the later White Prophet, came down. Their older brother fought with distinction,
but was killed a few years later in the raid on Nashville.
Dragging Canoe again moves Chikamaka this time to the region between Chattanooga
and The South Cumberland Plateau. He resides in Lower Town of Running Water;
Breath established Nickajack by Nickajack Cave - across the river from Little
Cedar Mountain.
THERE WERE SEVERAL TOWNS, CAMPS AND VILLAGES. SOME WERE KNOWN AND DOCUMENTED
AND OTHERS WERE NOT. SOME OF THESE NOT DOCUMENTED ARE NOW KNOWN TO US & SADLY
SOME ARE FORGOTTEN BECAUSE OF OUR NEED TO ASSIMILATE IN ORDER TO ACCOMPLISH OUR
NUMBER ONE GOAL:
LAND PRESERVATION 1780 Dragging Canoe rescued the British Col.
Brown in the American Siege of Augusta. Returned home.
The Chikamaka remained hostile and renewed their attacks against western
settlements in Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky. Continued his resistance,
attacks Nashville against Cumberland settlements.
1781 July After more fighting, the forced second Treaty of Long Island of
Holston confirmed the 1777 forced cessions and then took more Cherokee land.
1782 The English give up the war effort and sued for peace. Dragging Canoe
established contact with the Spanish in Florida and British in Canada and
Detroit. 1785/6 Treaty of Hopewell (SC) - The Cherokee thought this would be
the end of the settlers' invasion of Cherokee land. Within 3 years bitter fighting
had erupted as settlers continued to move into the Cherokee Nation. This treaty is
the basis for the term "Talking Leaves," the name of the tribe's written language.
The Cherokee felt that written words were like leaves, when they were
no longer of use they withered and died.
1790 Chikamakas continued action with the Shawnee in the Ohio Valley: the Ohio
Chikamaka 1790-94 "Little Turtle's War" of the Miami in the Ohio Valley with the
Wyandot, Delaware, Hurons, Mohawks and Dakota. After their initial victories,
from here they had the unofficial encouragement of the Spanish governments of
Florida and Louisiana and continued attacking American settlements. One of these
incidents almost killed a young Nashville attorney/land speculator named Andrew
Jackson, which may explain his later attitude regarding the Cherokee.
1791 January Chikamaka Chief Glass/"Catawba Killer" captured James Hubbard and
16 men building a blockhouse at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and released them with a
warning not to return. 1791 November 4 Combined force of Chikamaka, Creek,
Asshinnabe (Chippewa), Shawnee, Delaware, Iroquois, Miami, Wyandot and
Dakota totally annihilated the forces of American Gen. Arthur St. Clair at the
Wabash River in Indiana. "St. Clair's Defeat" - the biggest (number of whites killed)
united Native triumph in history. (Bigger than Little Big Horn...Custer's demise.)
1791 - Treaty of Holston signed. Includes a call for the U.S. to advance
civilization of the Cherokees by giving them farm tools and technical advice.
1792 February 17 Chikamaka Chief Glass and Dragging Canoe's brother, Turtle At
Home, waylaid the John Collingsworth family near Nashville, killing the father,
mother, and a daughter, and capturing an eight-year-old girl. Returning to
Lookout Town (near Trenton, Georgia), they held a scalp dance, grinding one of
the scalps in his teeth as he performed. Dragging canoe, recently returned from
Mississippi after meeting with Choctaws, celebrated the occasion so strenuously
that he died the following morning, age ±54. John Watts of Will's Town (near
Fort Payne, Alabama), became the new Chikamaka leader of the united war effort.
Chikamaka resistance continues - led a big campaign against settlements in
Nashville (Buchanan Station 1793) and in upper east Tennessee led the combined
Cherokee-Creek attack at Cavett's Station in 1793 in which there were no white
survivors.
Dragging Canoe
Dragging Canoe, Cherokee war chief
by George Ellison
Historian E. Raymond Adams has maintained that the warrior with the curious name of Dragging Canoe was “the greatest military leader ever produced by the Cherokee people.” A review of Dragging Canoe’s military career doesn’t reveal many great victories that he led, but it does indicate that he was a clever and resourceful military leader who was able to sustain significant “dark and bloody” opposition to white settlement for many years.
Born about 1740 in one of the Overhill Towns in east Tennessee, Dragging Canoe was the son of the Attakullakulla, perhaps the greatest diplomat ever produced by the Cherokees. Denied permission by his father to participate in a war party against the Shawnees, the youth hid in an overturned canoe where he knew a portage by the party had to take place. Impressed by his tenacity, Attakullakulla gave him permission to go on the war party if he could carry the canoe over the portage. Unable to lift the heavy vessel, he began dragging it along the portage. The cheering warriors began to chant “tsi-yu gansi-ni!” which means, “He is dragging the canoe!” From that time, he was known as Dragging Canoe.
In time, Dragging Canoe became the leader of a small band of warriors known as the Chickamaugas, a diverse group who resisted white settlement in Tennessee for almost 20 years. Shortly before the outbreak
of the American Revolution in the spring of 1775, Richard Henderson signed the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals with the Cherokees led by Attakullakulla. This privately negotiated treaty ceded central Kentucky and northern Middle Tennessee to Henderson. The enraged Dragging Canoe correctly advised the whites that, “You have bought a fair land, but there is a black cloud hanging over it. You will find its settlement dark and bloody.”
Dragging Canoe concluded that the opening of the war provided an opportunity to strike the remote white settlements. He planned a three-pronged attack: one contingent struck the Watauga and Nolichucky settlements; another struck Carter’s Valley; and Dragging Canoe himself led the battle at Island Flats, where he was wounded. The settlers suffered heavy losses but the arrival of reinforcements proved too much for the Cherokees.
The most anti-white Cherokees, led by Dragging Canoe, Bloody Fellow, Young Tassel, and Hanging Maw, moved into several abandoned Creek towns, including Citico and Chickamauga along Chickamauga Creek, and began calling themselves Chickamaugas after the “river of death.” By this time the Chickamaugas, who had started out as dissatisfied Overhill Cherokees, included many Creeks, Shawnee, French “boatmen,” some blacks, and several Scots traders. The Shawnee warrior Cheesekau and his younger brother, Tecumseh, who himself would later lead anti-white uprisings, also lived with them.
In 1779, the British provided the Chickamaugas with supplies as preparation for a major raid on the east Tennessee settlements. However, Evan Shelby and 900 Virginia and North Carolina troops descended the Tennessee River and surprised the Chickamaugas. The whites burned the villages and seized the supplies.
Shortly thereafter, Dragging Canoe moved the group to the more defensible sites at Running Water and Nickajack in Tennessee, Lookout Mountain in Georgia, and Long Island and Crowtown in Alabama.
At that time Dragging Canoe made a speech to a group of visiting Shawnees that was in reality designed to rally the spirits of his own warriors: “Our nation was surrounded by them [the white settlers]. They were numerous and their hatchets were sharp; and after we had lost some of our best warriors, we were forced to leave our towns and corn to be burnt by them, and now we live in the grass as you see us. But we are not yet conquered.”
True to his word, Dragging Canoe led the Chickamaugas in a strike at the Cumberland settlements in middle Tennessee and destroyed Mansker’s Station in 1779. In April 1780, they attacked Fort Nashborough (Nashville) but lost the battle of the Bluffs. In December 1780, they lost 80 men to forces under John Sevier at Boyd’s Creek near the Little Tennessee River.
Throughout the 1780s, the Chickamaugas kept the Cumberland settlements in turmoil. They even attacked Fort White (Knoxville) in 1788. Then, in 1792, they struck at Buchanan’s Station, just four miles south of Fort Nashborough. Travelers between east and middle Tennessee were forced to travel north via the Wilderness Trail. And even there, some 100 white deaths occurred.
On Feb. 29, 1792, the day after a victory celebration, Dragging Canoe died suddenly. The leadership of the renegade opposition group was passed to Young Tassel. The Chickamaugan movement initiated by Dragging Canoe did not finally end until Andrew Jackson’s victories over the Red Stick Creeks in the 1813-14 Alabama campaign.