I.      Quotations
II.     Worldviews, Land, Treaties, and Boundaries
III.    Preliminary Events
IV.   The War of 1760-61 (Cherokee War)
V.    Interim Period 1762-1775
VI.   Cherokees in the Revolutionary War
VII.   After the Treaties of 1777
VIII.  Relationships, Alliances, & Key Events
Attakullakulla, John Stuart, Oconostota, Andrew Jackson, Yonaguska, Sequoyah, New Echota, Civil War, Treaties
IX.  Cherokee Missions
First Missions, British Missions, Moravian Missions, Presbyterian Missions, Baptist Missions, Other Mission Efforts
X.  East Tennessee
Cuming and Priber, Land West of the Mountains, A Flood Tide of Immigration, Watauga Settlements, Origin of Chickamaugans, State of Franklin, Armed Mass Chaos on the Frontier, John Sevier
XI.  The Removal
Forced Migration, Chronology of Forced Migration
XII.  Sources

Cherokee Prayer Initiative (main page)

 Dragging Canoe in 1775 after elder chiefs had signed treaty ceding much land in Kentucky and Tennessee:
    " You have bought a fair land, but there is a black cloud hanging over it. You will find its settlement dark and bloody."

Onistositah in 1777:
    "When we enter ...treaties with our brothers, the whites, their whole cry is more land! ...
    You say: why do not the Indians till the ground and live as we do? May we not , with equal propriety, ask: Why do not the white people hunt and live as we do? ...
    The great God of Nature has placed us in different situations. It is true that he has endowed you with many superior advantages; but he has not created us to be your slaves. We are a separate people!"

Duc Francois de La Rochefoucauld, a traveler among the Cherokee about 1791:
"The whites are in the wrong four times out of five."

Thomas Jefferson in 1794:
    " You will unite with us, join in our great councils...and we shall all be Americans...your blood will run in our veins and will spread with us over this great continent."

Secretary of War in 1794:
    "Until the Indians can be quieted on this point, and rely with confidence on the protection of their lands by the United States, no well-grounded hope of tranquility can be entertained."

Andrew Jackson in the 1820's:
    "They have neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement. Established in the midst of another and superior race...they must necessarily yield...and ere long disappear."

Andrew Jackson to congressmen of Georgia:
    "Build a fire under them. When it gets hot enough, they'll move."

Elias Boudinot from "An Address to Whites", 1826:
    "What is an Indian? Is he not formed of the same materials with yourself? For 'of one blood God created all the nations that dwell on the face of the earth.' Though it be true that he is ignorant, that he is a heathen, that he is a savage; yet he is no more than all others have been under similar circumstances. Eighteen centuries ago what were the inhabitants of Great Britain? ...
    Yes, methinks I can view my native country, rising from the ashes of her degradation, wearing her purified and beautiful garments, and taking her seat with the nations of the earth....
    I ask you, shall red men live, or shall they be swept from the earth? ...They hang upon your mercy as to a garment. Will you push them from you, or will you save them? Let humanity answer."

Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1876:
    "Observance of the strict letter of treaties with Indians is in many cases at variance with their own best interests and with sound public policy."

Henry Dawes after touring Indian Territory in 1887, describing Cherokees:     " There is not a pauper in that nation, and the nation does not owe a dollar. It built its own capitol...its schools and hospitals. Yet the defect of the system was apparent. They have got as far as they can go, because they hold their land in common....There is no selfishness, which is at the bottom of civilization."

Chief Sitting Bull after touring Europe with Cody's Wild West Show, about 1880:     "The white man knows how to make everything, but he does not know how to distribute it....The love of possessions is a disease with them. They take tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich who rule. They claim this mother of ours, the earth, for their own and fence the neighbors away."

Redbird Smith, Keetowah, on traditional native religion, 1918:
    "This religion does not teach me to concern myself of the life that shall be after this, but it does teach me to be concerned with what my everyday life should be."

Cherokee Jimmie Durham, at Tellico Dam congressional hearings, 1978:     "Is there a human being who does not revere his homeland, even though he may not return? ...In the language of my people...there is a word for land: Eloheh. This same word also means history, culture, and religion. We cannot separate our place on earth from our lives on the earth, nor from our vision nor our meaning as a people. We are taught from childhood that the animals and even the trees and plants... are our brothers and sisters. So when we speak of land, we are not speaking of property, territory, or even a piece of ground upon which our houses sit and our crops are grown. We are speaking of something truly sacred."

Eduardo Galeano, 1988:
 "From capitalism's point of view, communal cultures...are enemy cultures."

Ronald Wright in Stolen Continents, c. 1992:
    "The problems were those which arise wherever a stable, collective system and one based on expansion and individual profit collide. It was, for instance, impossible to run a store or plantation profitably without violating the ethic of reciprocity fundamental to most Amerindian societies. To obtain respect in the native world, people had to redistribute wealth; for esteem in the white world, they had to hoard it. To a Cherokee, sufficient was enough; to a white, more was everything."

Wilma Mankiller, principal chief, in her State of the Nation address, 1990:
    "Despite everything that's happened to our people throughout history we've managed to hang on to our culture, we've managed to hang on to our sense of being Cherokee...
    When people ask where I want the Cherokee Nation to be in the twenty-first century I always tell them I want to enter the twenty-first century ...not on anybody else's terms but on our own terms. "
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"The Indians and all other people who may be discovered by Christians, are by no means to be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, even though they be outside the faith of Jesus Christ; and that they may and should, freely and legitimately, enjoy their liberty and the possession of their property; nor should they be in any way enslaved; should the contrary happen, it shall be null and void and of no effect."
- Papal Bull Sublimis Deus of Pope Paul III - 1537, The Native North American Almanac

"One thing more I would lay to their Consideration, That by intestine Quarrels and Annimosities they loose the essential Badge of Christianity and so can never be Instruments to propogate the Gospel amongst the Heathen, who will never be won to the Gospel of Peace by the Banner of War."
- John Archdale, Proprietor of Carolina 1705-1708 in Description of Carolina

"Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, for their Defender is strong; he will take up their case against you." - Proverbs 23:10, NIV

"There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers." - Proverbs 6:16-19, NIV

"It can be no disadvantage to you, for the Indians to trade altogether at the Forts, our Design being to keep you amongst them, under Pretense of Trade, to give an Account of their Actions, and what News they are pleased to send, as you have already done."
- Commission of the Indian Trade of Carolina, to Theophilus Hastings, trader among the Cherokees, July 1716, Journal Of The Commission

"While the English thought little of Indian rights to land, the latter were equally regardless of the rights of the former to moveable property.""The land which could support one savage in his mode of living, is capable of supporting five hundred under proper cultivation."
- Ramsay, History Of South Carolina, Vol. 1

"We are poor people depending on the woods for our support and without the means of redressing ourselves but by violence which we do not chose to use against our brothers."
- Unknown Cherokee in 1766 Indian Boundary in the Southern Colonies by DeVorsey

"The man above is head of all, he made the land and none other, and he told me the land I stand on is mine and all that is on it.... But I will not love (covet) it.... as we are going to make a division, I want to do what is right and fair. The price the white people give for the land when they buy it is very small, they give a shirt, a match coat and the like which soon wears out, but the land lasts always."
- Ustanaka in 1767 Indian Boundary In Southern Colonies by DeVorsey

"I hope all that is past will be forgotten. The sun is down, and the morrow is a new day."
- Skiagusta of Keowee to Governor Glen, conference in Charlestown, 1751, Ninety Six

"Let us not, however, violate our faith, or the laws in hospitality, by imbuing our hands in the blood of those who are now in our power; they came to cement a perpetual alliance with us. Let us carry them back to their confines; and then take up the hatchet and endeavor to exterminate the whole race of them."
- Attakullakulla, Cherokee Chief, addressing the Cherokee Council; protecting Byrd and Randolph, white commissioners, after an ambush by white settlers in Virginia, 1755, History Of The Cherokee Indians

"The traders cheat us in spite of everything !"
- Attakullakulla to Governor Glen, Charlestown, 1754, Bass, Ninety Six

"We are now brothers of the people of Carolina. One house covers us all, and the Great King is our common father.""We and our wives and our children are children of the Great King, and we will obey him as such. [ holding up a young boy ] I bring this child that when he grows up he may remember what has been agreed to and tell it to the next generation, and that so it may be handed down forever."
- Attakullakulla to Governor Glen, Meeting at Saluda Old Town, 1755. The Governor agreed to build a fort in the Overhills Towns. Ninety Six

"They are a shame to humanity and a disgrace to Christianity; by their iniquitous and foolish conduct they changed the idea of superior valour, honor, and discretion the Indians had been used to form of the English into a general contempt and dislike. The savages daily saw themselves cheated .. their women debauched, and their young men corrupted."
- Dr. Milligan, 1755, quoted in Red Carolinians- about traders

"You, Oconostota, and all with you shall return in safety to your own country. It is not my intention to hurt a hair on your heads."
- Governor Lyttleton in Charleston, October, 1759, two months before he ordered the seizure of 28 Cherokee headmen who were then confined at Fort Prince George, and later massacred in their jail cell, Bass, Ninety Six

"And we have now the pleasure, sir, to fatten our dogs with their carcasses, and to display their scalps, neatly ornamented, on top of our bastion."
- Captain Francis to Governor Lyttleton after Cherokees besieged the fort at Ninety Six but were driven back, 1760, Ninety Six

"There are faults on both sides, and if both parties were heard I fancy the Indians would have been worse used.""The Indians have for many years been accustomed to call Charleston 'the town of lies', it is impossible to give the Indians a worse conception of the province than they already have."
- Colonel James Grant, 1761, Oligarchs

"I served as a volunteer in Grant's expedition against the Cherokees in 1762. Then I learned something of British cruelty which I always abhorred."
- Andrew Pickens, autobiographical sketch written years later, Ninety Six

"He desires all people here will remove blocks that may obstruct the path to and from Chotih. He says the beloved headman of Chotih sits under a white flag, and wishes to preserve it from blood, and any one who may make it otherwise will be found out."
- Watts, interpreter, quoting Attakullakulla at the Congress of Four Southern Governors ; Augusta, Georgia 1763, Journal Of The Proceedings

"He says, some time ago twas cloudy, all was darkness, but now it is clear; and he hopes all will be forgiven, and then nothing offensive shall be repeated: the great King George, in pity, hath taken them into favour, and as the day is bright and clear, he hopes it will be so on the path."
- Sallouih, Young Warrior of Estatowa, through interpreter, Congress of Four Southern Governors; Augusta, Georgia 1763, Journal Of The Proceedings

"Your experience has taught you ... that you cannot do without the white people.""And now we take this opportunity to confirm you in your security, by assuring you ... that all treaties will be carefully examined, and punctually observed, and you may depend on strict justice being done to you."
- Governors' Reply, Augusta 1763, Journal of the Proceedings

"American policy toward the the Indians was the direct descendant of British policy. The aborigines were to be tolerated until their title could be extinguished as painlessly as possible.  - Chapman Milling, Red Carolinians

"Between the treaty of Hopewell in 1785 and the mockery perpetrated at New Echota in 1835, no less than seventeen treaties were enacted between the federal government and the Cherokee nation. In more than three fourths of these the Indians ceded land. Always the remainder of their country was"guaranteed forever". The eternity was, on the average, a period somewhat exceeding four years. In these treaties the desired results were obtained by the most questionable methods, including reservations for certain influential chiefs,"silent considerations", false promises, actual bribes, thinly veiled threats."
- Chapman Milling, Red Carolinians

"The Great Spirit, when he made the earth, never intended that it should be made merchandise."
- Sosehawa, Seneca, The Trail of Tears, Gloria Jahoda

"They died of European enlightenment - hard work, diseases, and an unaccustomed diet."
- Bruce W. Miller - Chumash, A Picture of Their World

"I am glad you are come. When I was in England I desired that some one would speak the Great Word to me. I will go up and speak to the wise men of our nation, and I hope they will hear."
- Tomochichi, Yamacraw Chief, to John Wesley who had accompanied Oglethorpe to England in 1734

"Why, these are Christians at Savannah. Those are Christians at Frederica. Christians get drunk! Christians beat men! Christians tell lies! Me no Christian !"
- Tomochichi, later, to John Wesley, British Travelers Among The Southern Indians - 1660-1763, by J. Ralph Randolph, 1973

"Nations, like individuals, reap exactly what they sow; they who sow robbery reap robbery. The seed-sowing of iniquity replies in a harvest of blood.

"The Indian is the only human being within our territory who has no individual right in the soil. He is not amenable to or protected by law."

"It may be doubted whether one single treaty has ever been fulfilled as it would have been if it had been made with a foreign power."

"Our Indian wars are needless and wicked."

"The Cherokees and other tribes received the Indian Territory as a compensation and atonement for one of the darkest crimes ever committed by a Christian nation."

"We shall have to regain the confidence of our Indian wards by honest dealing and the fulfillment of our promises. Now the name of a white man is to the Indians a synonym for 'liar'."

"With justice, personal rights, and the protection of law, the Gospel will do for our Red brothers what it has done for other races - give to them homes, manhood, and freedom."
- H. B. Whipple, Bishop of Minnesota, preface to A Century of Dishonor, by Helen Jackson, 1880

"The conduct of the United States Americans toward the natives was inspired by the most chaste affection for legal formalities.... It is impossible to destroy men with more respect to the laws of humanity."
- Alexis de Toqueville, American Holocaust by David E. Stannard

"Look upon your hands! They are stained with the blood of your relations."
- Benjamin Franklin, A Century of Dishonor by Helen Jackson

"Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."
- Thomas Jefferson, Cherokee Tragedy by Wilkins

"Cherokee blood, if not destroyed, will win its courses in beings of fair complexions, who will read that their ancestors became civilized under the frowns of misfortune, and the causes of their enemies."
- John Ridge, Cherokee Tragedy by Wilkins
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II. WORLDVIEWS, LAND, TREATIES, AND BOUNDARIES

In looking at the history of Cherokees and European settlers, it is helpful to consider the differing worldviews that caused such a clash of cultures.

Cherokees subsisted by using land in two ways. From spring to fall, they were agriculturalists. Corn was the main crop, but they also cultivated a variety of vegetables and were known for their fruit orchards. In the fall and winter months, they hunted game. Like other southeastern tribes, they were territorial and claimed certain hunting lands as their own. However, they had no concept of individual land ownership. Even the cultivated lands, which surrounded their towns, were held in common and worked by the group.

They had a strong sense of group consciousness, which is the reason they did not understand Americans rebelling against their own people. It is evident that they had a clear understanding of covenant relationship. The words of Attakullakulla are reminiscent of Jonathan's words to David or Ruth's words to Naomi in scripture.

In contrast, the Europeans came from different nations and often settled in communities with others of the same group. A settler from Germany might have identified himself as German, but it is unlikely that he felt any group-consciousness or loyalty as a"white European."

The"rugged individualism"exhibited by white settlers was a relatively new ideology in Europe. Reflecting that individualism, the first Lowcountry plantations and Upcountry farms tended to be isolated.

One of the greatest differences between the two groups was in their beliefs about land. Europeans brought their ideas about individual ownership of land and private property. They also had a belief, which can be traced back to Europe, that uncultivated land was not being properly used and therefore subject to confiscation. This belief is reflected in the term"improved land."Martin Luther and other writers of the sixteenth century placed high value on a man holding private property.

Europeans were"land hungry"because, in many cases, they had been pushed out of their nations by political or religious oppression. The law of primogeniture was still in effect in England, and some who migrated were the younger sons of nobles as they could not inherit land.

It should also be pointed out that historians have characterized both Celts and Franks, ancestors of the European settlers, as covenant- breakers. This thought brings up some disturbing questions regarding the spiritual heritage of white Americans and leads to some obvious conclusions regarding treaties.

The difference in ideas partially accounts for the conflict over hunting lands. Other factors which must be admitted were the greed of whites and the 'lawlessness"of some Upcountry settlers, a recurring theme in colonial writings.

Much of the discussion of treaties, land cessions, and boundaries will focus on the Long Canes area for several reasons. The early treaties were made between the Cherokee Nation and South Carolina. The boundary of North Carolina was not determined until 1772; but prior to that date, land north of the Reedy River in present Laurens County was considered to be North Carolina. Some of this"North Carolina"land located northeast of the Reedy River would have been Catawba Land, never claimed by Cherokees anyway. One of the earlier objections of the Assembly to building Fort Prince George was that they did not know if it would be within South Carolina territory.

Cherokees considered the Long Canes Creek area to be some of their best hunting land. Whites saw it as fertile and highly desirable for cultivation.

There is evidence that the first cession of Cherokee land was a small strip along the Saluda River after a treaty of 1721. There may have been another cession of land between the Tugaloo and Seneca Rivers in 1734, but the fact is not well-documented. A law passed by South Carolina in 1739 prohibited direct purchase of native land.

The first major land cession to the colony was given in return for promise of protection by the English, to be accomplished by the building of forts in Cherokee country. These forts would also be trading centers. The treaty was negotiated by Governor Glen and signed February 12, 1747. It ceded all land southeast of Long Canes Creek, which runs through present McCormick and Abbeville Counties.

The boundary was never marked or surveyed. By the 1750's, there were land surveys and white settlers west of the creek. Whites called the Little River, west of Long Canes, the"Northwest Fork of Long Canes."

One source states that as early as 1747 Glen and two other commissioners, supposedly acting on behalf of the colony, purchased land to the west of Long Canes because settlers were already there. Only the Lower towns were paid.

The Cherokees protested the illegal white settlement. In addition, Old Hop, one of the principal chiefs, complained in 1752 that the cession had been made without the consent of the entire tribe and that only the Lower towns had been compensated for the land.

Conflicts with the French continued, and in 1753 the Cherokees demanded that the governor keep his earlier promise to build a fort. The Assembly voted only a very small amount of money for the construction of Fort Prince George as they had voted only a conditional approval in 1752. Their stipulation was that Glen purchase the land between Long Canes and the Keowee River.

The fort was completed in 1753, and the deed for the purchase of land was later described by Glen. He said that the colony was granted the land on which the fort was constructed, the surrounding area for cultivation and grazing, and land for a road from Fort Prince George to the Long Canes area and Ninety Six.

This signed deed, or treaty, of 1753 and the treaty of 1755 have been the subject of much confusion on the cession of land. The 1753 deed only granted land for a road between the two rivers.

The treaty of 1755 was an attempt by Glen to place the Cherokees more firmly under English sovereignty as he still feared that the French would win their loyalties. It also included a grant of land for Fort Loudon and Fort Moore and may have restated the Fort Prince George land grant. One author expressed the opinion that it was vaguely and deceptively worded to trick Cherokees out of more land. Some scholars have suggested that the pledge of allegiance to the king was a total surrender of their lands. Glen himself said that the Treaty of Saluda added"near 10,000 people to his majesty's subjects and above 40,000,000 acres to his territories,"referring to land that extended to the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. This statement could be interpreted either way.

However if the English colonists believed that land had been ceded, they did not attempt to follow up with surveys or marking boundaries. If it had been a valid agreement to cede all of the land, then subsequent discussions of boundaries in the treaties of 1761, 1777, and 1816 would have been irrelevant.
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So Long Canes Creek remained the legal boundary until the treaty of 1761 ending the war. In the final form, it stated that Cherokees could not hunt below a boundary forty miles southeast from Keowee. Unfortunately, the boundary was not marked, and what the Cherokees understood about the boundary is unclear.

The whites believed it to be a line beginning at the mouth of the Keowee over to the path at a point forty miles from the river, and north into the mountains. Both groups knew, however, that the Little River area had been opened to white settlement. During 1762, one thousand new families settled in the Long Canes area.

At the Augusta Congress of Native Americans and Governors in 1763 both Attakullakulla and Salouih, speaking for the Cherokees, complained of their reduced hunting land and mentioned the Long Canes settlers. The governors replied that settlement was allowed by the 1761 treaty. Both chiefs agreed that the settlers could remain but that whites should not move any closer to their towns.

Alden (see sources) has said that there was additional discussion, not recorded in the official journal, about the boundary which remained unmarked. At that time, the closest settlers were about sixty miles from Keowee. So the governors would not agree to the chiefs' demand, but that statement was apparently misunderstood in the interpretation process. The boundary issue remained unsettled.

After more problems with white encroachment, the Cherokees requested in 1765 that the boundary be marked. South Carolina was allowing surveys east of the theoretical line but closer than the Cherokees thought the line to be. North Carolina was granting land as far back as the mountains. Colonial leaders wanted the boundary to be a"natural"one. Bull, or possibly Stuart in a later discussion, proposed to the Cherokees that a line be run that would include all existing white settlement, which is exactly what was done. The Cherokees agreed but wanted to wait until John Stuart returned from Florida.

It was apparently with good cause that they trusted John Stuart because he upheld their position more than once in defending rights to the land.

The line was marked in spring of 1766 by Cameron, Wilkinson, Pickens, who was a surveyor, and a party of Cherokees. It ran from the Savannah River, starting at a point ten miles above Rocky Creek, northeast through DeWitt's Corner and stopped at the Reedy River. Land to the north of the Reedy was still claimed by North Carolina. The Cherokees burned trees on both sides, creating a belt fifty feet wide.

One of the Cherokees made a speech relinquishing the land and wished that it would be fruitful for the whites, in effect pronouncing a blessing over it. He also reminded them of their responsibility not to hunt on native land.

The process was repeated in 1767 for the North Carolina border with Governor Tryon participating in the first part. The line was run north from Reedy River to the top of Tryon Mountain. At that point, it was deemed impractical to attempt to mark the line over mountains. It was agreed that the line proceeded from Tryon Mountain northeast to Chiswell's Mines in Virginia. Then Tryon issued a proclamation ordering all whites beyond the line to vacate.

The line marked in 1766 remained the boundary until the treaty and land cession of 1777. The Treaty of Holston made with the United States in 1785 only confirmed the existing 1777 boundary for South Carolina.

III. PRELIMINARY EVENTS

When English colonists first came to South Carolina in the late 1600's, Cherokees occupied the northwest portion of the area with their hunting lands extending roughly to the fall line. There was no initial conflict over land as the early colonists settled in the Lowcountry near the coast, using the rivers for transportation.

However, trade with Cherokees and other tribes quickly became important, and the trading path was established from the Upcountry to Charles Town, as it was originally named. The city was the major"gate"for trading goods. [ F]

The Old Keowee Path passed near the towns of Orangeburg, Ridge Spring, Ninety Six, Coronaca, and Cokesbury, and was used as early as 1707.(G) [HG] In that year, John Archdale wrote that Charlestown traders traveled up to"one thousand miles into the continent". (HG) There were four other main paths: the Creek Path, from Charlestown to Augusta; the Catawba Path, from Charlestown to Camden, to King's Mountain, and into North Carolina; the Virginia Path, which skirted the Blue Ridge from Georgia into Virginia; and the Wilmington Path, or King's Highway, which was along the coast from Charlestown to Wilmington. At first these paths were hardly more than eighteen inches wide. Later they were wide enough for pack horse trains and cattle drivers. They eventually became the first roads into the Upcountry. (G) The rapid profits in the Indian trade seemed to attract irresponsible men of questionable character. (HG) One author has said that they were a"shame to humanity and a disgrace to Christianity."(SC) Because of the competition and abuses by the traders, the colony passed an act to regulate the trade in 1707. [I]

At one time there were 300 traders who operated out of Carolina and brought back up to 75,000 deerskins per year. [F] The best skins were sent to England and Germany. After some years of competition, the government used legal means to keep Virginia traders out by requiring that all licenses be obtained from the Commission in Charlestown. Georgia later used the same tactic to keep out the South Carolina traders. (JS) Traders were the first whites into the Upcountry, and the cattle drivers followed close behind. They herded horses and cattle between areas of grazing land and drove them to market in the fall. Along the cattle trails they built cowpens as places to spend the night, which later became towns. There is some evidence that unscrupulous men representing themselves as missionaries came into the Upcountry in the early days and caused conflict. (HG)

In the 1600's there was almost constant warfare between the Cherokees and Creeks, whose territory was to the west in present Georgia. [F] The British, French, and Spaniards all played the tribes against each other and competed for their loyalties. [F] According to the writings of that time by Timberlake, the French were more polite in their dealings, and Native Americans were often disgusted by the"pride of the English officers". [ R]

The slave trade was also a source of problems. In war, victorious tribes took prisoners from their foes and sold them to the Europeans as slaves. Many of them remained in the colony. However, the Cherokees initiated hostilities with the colonists in 1715 when they learned that Cherokee captives had been sent to the West Indies as slaves. This conflict was resolved without bloodshed after the"long march"into their territory. The Convention of Tugaloo followed, and a treaty was signed in early 1716, with an agreement to send guns and soldiers to assist the Cherokees against other tribes. [F] [O]

The first land cession came in 1721 with a treaty. They agreed to give up a small strip of land between the Saluda, Santee, and Edisto Rivers for an end to the slave problem and promises concerning trader abuse. [F] [HC]

Sir Alexander Cumming traveled to Carolina in 1730 after his wife had a dream that he should bring Christianity to Native Americans. It is not known if he accomplished this purpose, but he visited the Cherokees after first accumulating unpaid bills in Charlestown. He heard rumors of the French trying to instigate an uprising and decided to intervene. Inviting Cherokees from other towns, he planned and presided over a feast at Keowee to the English king. (G) Then he invited six or seven chiefs, including Attakullakulla, to accompany him to England to visit King George. (G) (HG) (S) In London they received gifts and attention and signed a treaty guaranteeing friendship with the English and exclusive trading rights in their lands. (JS) (G) (HG) They also pledged their allegiance to the king. (S)

In 1738, a smallpox epidemic ravaged the tribe, killing half of a population of at least 15,000. [F] [HC]

Around 1746 the English colonists learned that French agents were competing for trade in the Overhill area and promising to build and occupy a fort .[F] So they proposed building two forts - Fort Prince George near Keowee, the principal Lower town, and Fort Loudon to be built near the principal Overhill town of Chota. [F] [96] Governor Glen met with the Cherokee headmen in 1746 at Ninety Six, and in 1747 his agent and thirty four headmen met at Keowee and signed a treaty or deed granting thousands of acres of land south of Long Canes Creek to the colony. The creek was established as the boundary. [96] [R]
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Negotiations on the forts continued, interrupted by a Cherokee-Creek War of 1750-1752. [96] The Creeks destroyed the towns of Echay, Old Estatoe, Tugaloo, Aconnee, Tamassee, and Cheohee. Some of the displaced Cherokees went to Toxaway and Estatoe and others to the Middle towns. Finally Fort Prince George, an earthen fort, was built in 1753, and Fort Loudon in 1756, after another treaty in 1755 concluded by Glen. [96] [F] [BH] [HC] [RH]

With much fanfare, he had the Cherokees pledge total allegiance to the crown, smoked the peace pipe, and gave each chief a scarlet suit with all accessories. (SC) Fort Loudon became a trade center but was difficult to supply because goods had to be sent over the mountains from Fort Prince George. [F]

The treaty of 1755 was signed by Old Hop, the Overhills chief. The leadership of the tribe had passed to him after the death of the Old Warrior of Keowee. [96] [BH] The treaty also gave permission to build Fort Moore which was later completed in 1758 under Governor Lyttleton's administration. [HC]

By the early 1750's there were white settlers in the Upcountry, some on Cherokee land. Indian raids became more frequent, and trader abuses increased. Native women were being raped, and chiefs protested the sale of rum to their young men. Traders had even shortened the yardsticks used for measuring skins. Governor Glen sent the chiefs steel yardsticks. [BH] Traders, Cherokees, and white settlers were killed in the violent clashes. [96] [BH]

Mary Cloud survived the massacre of her family in 1751 on Cloud's Creek, a branch of Little Saluda. She lived to describe the trauma of witnessing the deaths of four family members. In response, settlers built small blockhouses, or forts with palisades, in which several families could gather for protection. [96]

Four Cherokees were killed in 1757 near the Little Saluda River, probably by local whites for their bundles of skins. The bodies were scalped and mutilated. The Lower towns asked the governor to investigate and sent him mixed beads, black and white, signifying hostile intentions. [R]

Keeping their promise to the English to protect the frontiers, Cherokee warriors went to Virginia to fight alongside them against the French. They were not well-treated nor paid. Some of them had lost their horses in the fighting and stole horses from white Virginians on the way home in 1758.

The whites retaliated and killed some of the warriors, which greatly infuriated the tribe. One account states that forty Cherokees were killed, and another gives the number as twelve or fourteen. [R] [F] [RH] [HC]

The Calhoun family moved from Waxhaw to Long Canes Creek in 1756 or 1758 and settled on the west side. [96]

Early in 1759, Stuart, Indian Superintendent, called all traders into Fort Prince George for protection as the situation escalated. [O] Warriors from Settico, an Overhill town, killed and scalped fourteen settlers on the Yadkin and Catawba Rivers in NC and SC. [96] [R] Other warriors from Estatoe, a Lower town, scalped three settlers on the Broad River. [96] The Lower towns remained the most friendly, still hoping for peace. The problem was worsened by the insolent behavior of the soldiers at Fort Prince George. Cotymore, the commander, and two of his officers raped a number of Cherokee women in their own homes while their husbands were away on a hunt. This actually happened a second time before the war started. [R] [JS]

Governor Lyttleton began preparing for war by mustering fourteen hundred militiamen at the Congarees and by sending John Stuart with seventy men to reinforce Fort Loudon. [R] [96] Some historians have questioned his wisdom and have compared his policies unfavorably to those of Glen, who was known as a skilled negotiator. [O] [96]

In October 1759 Oconostota, war chief from the Overhill towns, arrived with a peace delegation in Charlestown. He was accompanied by thirty one headmen, including Tistoe of Keowee and Salouih, the Young Warrior of Estatoe. Tistoe asked for ammunition as he had been refused by Cotymore, the commander of Fort Prince George, and trade had been suspended by the governor. [R] [96] Lyttleton also refused and broke off peace talks, while assuring Oconostota that he would not hurt a hair of their heads. [96]

Actually, the Council would not allow Lyttleton to continue negotiations since the Overhill towns were not represented. Four of the Council members, including Bull, wanted to detain hostages in Charlestown with a demand for final satisfaction from the Cherokees. That plan was overruled. [JS] Lyttleton himself escorted the Cherokees back to their territory with fourteen hundred militiamen. Round O, a friendly chief, and his men were forced to accompany the troops. [JS] The governor stayed at the Congarees for a month before marching to Ninety Six to gather supplies. At one of those two places he arrested twenty eight of the headmen to be taken as prisoners to Fort Prince George after four of Round O's men escaped to warn the Cherokees. [JS]

The headmen were housed in a room there intended for six soldiers. [O] [R] [96]

Attakullakulla, a mid-level chief, was a friend of Lt. Governor Bull and other whites. He went to the fort and arranged for the release of Oconostota, Tistoe, and Salouih, the Young Warrior, and two braves took their places. One had killed white settlers. [O] [R] [F] Some of the chiefs signed a treaty agreeing that the hostages would be held until warriors who had killed whites were delivered to the fort. There is some question about the authority of the chiefs to sign such an agreement under Cherokee law. [JS] [S] This agreement would have been consistent with an earlier demand by Lyttleton that every Cherokee who had killed settlers be turned over to the colonists. Other chiefs were later released, seven in all, and twenty two hostages remained imprisoned. [F] [R] [BH] After the treaty, Lyttleton reopened trade. [JS]

At this time, smallpox was rampant among the Cherokees, the soldiers, and in Charlestown. [O] Oconostota retained a bitter hatred because of his unjust imprisonment. [JS]

Lyttleton returned to Charlestown and was welcomed as a hero. [R] A few months later, in April 1760, Lyttleton was appointed governor of Jamaica and left the Carolina colony, leaving William Bull II acting governor. [O] [BH]

Outraged over the detention of their headmen, Cherokees surrounded Fort Prince George and cut it off from outside communication and supplies. At a nearby trader's house, they killed fourteen traders in January 1760. One account gives the number as twenty four. [R] [96]

Also in January Saloiuh, the Young Warrior of Estatoe, gained entrance to Fort Prince George on the pretext of a hostage exchange for four murderers. He did not deliver the murderers, and two hostages escaped in the confusion. His men managed to get concealed weapons in to the hostages. [JS]

On February 1, 1760 Cherokees attacked one hundred fifty settlers on Long Canes Creek, who were mostly Ulster Scots. They were attempting to escape to Augusta in wagons and were ambushed crossing the creek. The brutal attack left between twenty three and fifty five settlers dead, including members of the Calhoun family. Days later nine children were found in the area still alive although some of them had been scalped. [R] [BH] [96]

Warriors also attacked settlements along the Bush River, the Saluda River, and Raburn Creek, burning houses along the way and killing twenty seven at Raburn Creek. The home of Jacob Brooks on the Bush River was not burned, and settlers gathered there for defense. [R] Near the mouth of the Bush River, settlers had also gathered at the stockaded home of William Turner. [96] Settlers built palisades at Musgrove's Mill, Fort Otterson on the Tyger, Fort Lyles on the Broad, Gordon's on the Enoree, Wofford's Fort on Fair Forest Creek, and Fort Thicketty on Thicketty Creek [96]

With ambush apparently planned, Oconostota appeared on the opposite side of the river from Fort Prince George on February 16 and requested a meeting with Cotymore, the commander. [HC] When Cotymore appeared with three others, the chief, with bridle in hand, told him that he wanted to catch a horse and have a white man accompany him"to Carolina"to speak to the governor about the release of the hostages. [R] Cotymore answered that he could not have a horse and that he would try to find someone to accompany the chief. [R]

Oconostota swung his bridle over his head in a signal to warriors concealed in brush along the bank. Twenty five or thirty fired on Cotymore and the other three, wounding all of them. Cotymore died two or three days later. [96] [R] [HC] Cherokees stormed the fort but were driven back. [HC] A soldier named Davis pursued them but returned to the fort as they hid on a hill overlooking and near the river. The warriors continued to fire on the fort with rifles all day, and soldiers shot the cannon into Keowee town. [R]

Inside the fort, soldiers were ordered to put the hostages in shackles. Some of them had concealed weapons and fought back, wounding at least one soldier with a knife. [R] [96] The soldiers, infuriated over the attack on Cotymore, killed all the hostages, some of whom may have been in shackles. [500] They"butchered them to death in a manner too shocking to relate"according to Miln who was then in command. He tried to restrain them but could not, and did not punish them because they were still defending the fort. [R]

All of the hostages were killed. [ All Sources] The massacre possibly occurred early in the day just after the attack on Cotymore. [ BH] [HC] [96] Some sources do not state the number of hostages; some give the number as twenty two [HC] [BH] ; one source [96] states that it was twenty eight.

Cherokees besieged Fort Prince George for several months. [F] With the murder of the hostages, there was no longer a Cherokee peace party, and the war had begun. [96] [HC] [O] [R] 1
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IV. THE WAR OF 1760-1761
 

The Cherokee War consisted of two more campaigns against the Cherokee Nation. Governor Bull's overall strategy was to subdue the Cherokees but leave their nation intact as a buffer between the colony and the French and Creeks. As a result, some of his decisions appear harsh. At other times he was fair and even merciful to Cherokees. [O]

Raising an army was a problem. The government was in debt, and the requested help from Virginia colony did not materialize. Although they were closer to the Overhill towns, they did not attack them as Bull requested nor did they help with the defense of Loudon. [O] At this time the population of Carolina numbered more blacks than whites. The Lowcountry planters were reluctant to leave their homes for fear of slave insurrection. [O] In addition, one account says that they were not very good or experienced soldiers. [R]

The Upcountry men had similar concerns for the protection of their homes and families with the beginning of hostilities. Bull had more confidence in British regulars than in the militia. [O] He also encouraged Catawbas, Creeks, and Chickasaws to attack the Cherokees and tried to bribe them with gifts in exchange for loyalty. He proposed raising the reward for scalps to fifty pounds. The Council reduced it to thirty-five pounds. [O]

In the early months before Lyttleton left for Jamaica, Cherokee warriors killed twenty soldiers in a skirmish near Franklin, North Carolina. [500] On March 3 two hundred warriors attacked Gouedy's Fort at Ninety Six and fired on it for twenty-four hours. Militiamen under the command of Captain James Francis defended the fort and drove the warriors back. Francis wrote the governor that they had the"pleasure ... to fatten our dogs with their carcasses."[R] [96]

The Cherokees continued killing and burning in the Saluda valley. They eventually captured as many as sixteen whites who had fled into the woods for safety. They shot and scalped a man at Brook's Fort, and the militia charged out of the fort to kill and scalp two warriors. [R] [96]

Realizing the importance of defending Ninety Six to control the path, Lyttleton made it a permanent base with Francis in command, and gave his men the pay and provisions of provincial troops. In addition, the colonial government authorized the formation of seven companies of rangers with higher pay and horses provided. When they also raised the pay of the provincial troops to equal that of the rangers, recruitment increased for both groups. Colonel Richard Richardson was placed in command of the provincial troops. The troops patrolled the roads between Orangeburg and Ninety Six. Lyttleton then sent ammunition and men to Musgrove's and Audrey's forts and to Fort Turner and Fort Dryer near the Congarees. He ordered Richardson and his men to Ninety Six. [96]

Old Hop died in 1760, and Kanagataucko was chosen emperor over Attakullakulla, who had lost popularity because of his loyalty to the English. [JS]

In March Cherokees attacked and laid siege to Fort Loudon at the order of the upper chief, Oconostota. When Attakullakulla could not restrain the attack, he retired to the woods. [JS] The commander, Captain Paul Demere, had cut rations in an effort to hold out. Bull sent two emissaries with paint and ribbons for the native women, and the soldiers were able to barter for at least two weeks worth of food. He and Montgomery were gravely concerned about the garrison at the fort and did not believe they could be relieved because of the isolation. [O] [F] Governor Bull had asked for help from the British commander for North America, Sir Jeffrey Amherst, who sent Colonel Archibald Montgomery with twelve hundred men, Highlanders and Royal Scots. [500] [BH] [96]

They arrived in the spring of 1760, gathered the militia, and marched from Monck's Corner to the Lower towns by June 1. [BH] At the Congarees, they were joined by three hundred fifty provincial troops commanded by Richardson and friendly Native Americans and"half breeds". [96] [R] The expedition was hindered by rain and a lack of good maps, which Bull tried to correct. Montgomery's instructions were to"chastise the Cherokees quickly and severely."[O] Montgomery and his men attacked the town of Estatoe first and proceeded to burn it, Sugartown, Quacoratchie, Toxaway, and Keowee. They crossed the river on June 24 and destroyed the remainder of the Lower towns, burning cornfields and granaries and cutting down orchards. They killed about sixty Cherokees and took forty prisoners. They relieved Fort Prince George and sent messengers to the Middle towns to see if the chiefs wanted to sue for peace. The offer was refused. The chiefs would not send a delegation because Welsh, a trader among them, told them they would all be killed. [JS] [R] [96] Montgomery's men built Oconee Station, one of three guardhouses. [G] From Oconee Mountain the troops then went up the path to War Woman Creek and turned northward at Rabun Gap into the Little Tennessee Valley. They were ambushed six miles from the sacred town of Echoe and near present Franklin, Tennessee. Twenty soldiers were killed and seventy-six wounded, and Montgomery was forced to retreat back along War Woman Creek. Passage through the mountains was difficult, and they were attacked twice. They reached Fort Prince George on July 1 and marched the next day to Ninety Six. Returning to Charlestown, Montgomery boasted that he had"chastised"the Cherokees. [96] [R] [O] With the retreat of Montgomery, Demere had no choice but to begin talks to arrange terms of the surrender of Fort Loudon. Oconostota agreed to allow the soldiers to march unhindered back to Fort Prince George in return for the fort and all the ammunition. [96] [R] They surrendered the fort and began the journey. At this point, the Cherokees discovered concealed ammunition under the floor of the fort and evidence of a cannon and other arms which had been thrown into the river. [R] [HC] Seeking vengeance, the Cherokees attacked the soldiers' camp at Tellico plains the next morning, wounding Demere and killing twenty-eight others. [R] [96] [HC] This number was later reported as equal to the number of hostages killed at Fort Prince George. [O] [F]

They scalped Demere and burned him alive, forcing the surviving soldiers to watch. [96] One account states that eventually eighty more of Demere's men were killed. The remaining soldiers were made prisoners. Stuart had been seized by Onatoy, the brother of Round O, and persuaded the chief to take him to Attakullakulla at Tomotley. He was still a hostage, and Attakullakulla gave up all of his possessions to gain Stuart's release. [JS] There is evidence that Stuart was a friend of Oconostota as well as Attakullakulla. [96] [R] [HC] Montgomery left four hundred men, Royal Scots, at the Congarees at Bull's urging and returned to New York with the rest of the British troops. [BH] [96] [R]

He had reported that there were no Cherokee settlements left within one hundred sixty miles of Ninety Six. [O] This statement would imply that he had destroyed all of the Middle and Valley towns as well as Lower towns, which other accounts do not seem to support. Before he learned of the massacre of Demere and the others, Bull had sent a message to Oconostota that persuaded him to call off a planned siege of Fort Prince George and the selling of the three hundred English prisoners to the French, with whom the chief had ties. [O] In September two chiefs, Wolf of Keowee and Corn Tassel arrived in Charlestown with messages from Oconostota. Bull was too ill to see them, and they met with the Council. They left with a proposal for an exchange of prisoners. [O] In November the colonists learned that Salouih, the Young Warrior of Estatoe, had"taken up the bloody hatchet"and was dancing the war dance. [O] The war of 1760 had cost 75,000 pounds sterling. The House of Commons was slow to vote funds to pay the militia. [O] With news of the massacre, Bull began planning the next campaign and asked for authority to reorganize the troops. [96] [O]

A new regiment of provincial troops was raised with Thomas Middleton, Henry Laurens, John and William Moultrie, Isaac Huger, and Francis Marion among the commissioned officers. Andrew Pickens was a volunteer. [96] [R] Many Chickasaws, Choctaws, and a few Catawbas also fought with the colonists against the Cherokees. [R] [HC] [500] Bull's original plan was to"reduce the Cherokees by want,"and he deliberately chose the winter months when leaves would be off the trees and they would be suffering from the cold. [O]

He again asked for help from Amherst, who sent Colonel James Grant back to Carolina with twelve hundred British troops in January 1761. Grant had served under Montgomery. [96] [BH] [O] In his command was a company of Mohawks and Stockbridge Indians led by Captain Quintin Kennedy. [JS] Governor Bull sent Laurens with money to North Carolina to recruit troops. [O] In January he went to the Council to obtain warm clothing for Cherokee prisoners being held in Charlestown. He also complained to Grant that the female prisoners were being abused almost daily by the British troops at the main guardhouse. Because Grant was unable or unwilling to prevent the abuse, the Council moved the females to the armory. [O] Five hundred fifty rangers were sent to Fort Prince George in March with provisions. They disgraced themselves with"wild and disorderly"conduct, lost one hundred twenty five horses, and were driven off by the Cherokees. [O] Negotiations continued for prisoner exchange, and one hundred thirteen English were released by May, seventy of them soldiers. [O]

Governor Bull had obtained six thousand pounds from the assembly to buy goods for ransom. He also removed Miln, who was unpopular, from the command of Fort Prince George and replaced him with Lachlan McIntosh. [JS] Grant and his men moved slowly up the path, collecting supplies. He was also waiting for spring to be sure there would be grass to feed the horses and cattle. [JS]

In March he camped at Moncks Corner and sent Major Moultrie to collect provisions and build a stronger stockade around the fort at Ninety Six. Then they advanced, reaching Ninety Six on May 14, 1761. By then Grant commanded between two thousand six hundred and two thousand eight hundred men. They marched into Fort Prince George May 27. [96] [HC] Upon arrival, Grant was met by seventy Cherokees asking for his protection because they were starving. [O] He was also met by Attakullakulla who asked for time to go to the chiefs and plead for peace. [HC] [R]
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Grant refused to negotiate unless all prisoners from Loudon were released and the warriors laid down arms. [JS] He began a rapid march toward the Middle towns, although ten percent of his troops were ill. [O] [HC] At a gap in the mountains near Echoe, just two miles from the site of the ambush of Montgomery's men, he met a similar fate on June 10. The battle lasted about three hours, with about sixty men killed on each side, and the Cherokees were defeated. [HC] [96] [R] One source [R] states that they burned the town of Estatoe the next day, but other sources do not support a Middle town of that name. Another source [96] reveals that Grant moved to Echoe, which had been burned in 1760 by Montgomery, and left Middleton and one thousand troops to guard supplies. For the next thirty three days, Grant and his men burned fifteen Middle towns. They also burned crops and stored grain, cut down orchards, and slaughtered livestock. [F] [O] [500] [R] [96] Grant estimated that they had destroyed fourteen hundred acres of crops. [R] [O] [500]

One author has called his march"Sherman-like."[SC] His report to Bull, later relayed to the Board of Trade, was that"all the Indians on the middle, lower, and back settlements are drove into the mountains to starve."[96] [O] This included about five thousand Cherokees. [500] [R] There is a story that even years later Cherokee women would drive straying livestock out of their cornfields by crying"Grant! Grant!"[R] Francis Marion wrote that it caused him grief to carry out orders to burn the crops in the"mourning fields", knowing that they were"staff of life"to the Cherokees. [F] Grant did not attempt to invade the Overhill towns but returned to Fort Prince George, spending the summer there. Then he moved to Ninety Six, allowing the troops to rest until October 1761. [96] Attakullakulla and othe r headmen came to Fort Prince George to sue for peace but could not agree to Bull's proposed terms, communicated by Grant. Grant wanted Oconostota to meet with them in person, but the great chief refused his requests because he feared for his life. [JS]

So Grant sent Attakullakulla to Charlestown to talk to Bull directly. [96] [R] [O] Bull met him the first time at Shem Town, north of Charlestown, because of yellow fever in the city. [O] He greeted the chief as a friend and smoked the peace pipe with him. They signed a preliminary treaty which Attakullakulla took back to the nation to have approved. [O] The assembly had proposed two requirements in addition to Bull's terms. The first was a return of all white renegades within the nation. The second, mistakenly copied into the treaty when Bull was ill, was a promise that Cherokees would not travel below Twenty Six Mile Creek without proper authorization. [JS]

Since all of the hostages held by the English were Lower towns people, they felt more pressure to comply with the demands. [S] Attakullakulla returned with Kettagusta, chief of Chota and brother of Oconostota. He was escorted from Goose Creek to Charlestown by John Stuart and Henry Laurens. Attakullakulla protested the boundary of Twenty Six Mile Creek, saying that they needed the hunting land. The limit was changed to Forty Mile River. Trade was reopened at Keowee. [JS]

The final treaty was signed at Bull's Ashley Hall plantation in a small cabin built by his grandfather Stephen. The chiefs dined with Bull at his home there. He requested warm clothing for them before they returned to the nation. [O] The treaty ended the Cherokee War but set a new border forty miles from the Keowee. The Cherokees gave up much of their hunting lands in South Carolina. [96] Bull knew that the negotiated terms of peace, reflecting a policy of"limited war", might not seem honorable by European standards. [O] [SC]

The Assembly, in favor of"total war", later stated that"the only thing that will have any Effect to bring these Savages to a firm and lasting Peace is to destroy as many of their People as we can."[SC] One author has written that Indian Wars caused an extreme brutality in otherwise"kindly, devout, and genteel"whites. He quotes historian David Ramsay,"That fierce and bloody war (Cherokee) tainted the principles of many of the inhabitants, so as to endanger the peace and happiness of society. ... [Whites] acquired such vicious habits that when the war was over they despised labor and became pests of society, creating in the backcountry a constant state of anarchy, disorder and confusion."[P]
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V. INTERIM PERIOD 1762-1775

At the time of the 1761 treaty, Attakullakulla persuaded officials to name his friend, John Stuart, Indian Superintendent. [F]

White settlers poured into the newly-gained territory, but all courts and law enforcement officials were in Charlestown. This problem led to the Regulator War but also effected the Cherokees."Lawless"whites settled on their land and stole their horses. [R]

In November 1763, the governors of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, and the Lt. Governor of Virginia met at Augusta with headmen from five tribes. The headmen were allowed to state grievances, to which the governors responded. A final document was signed by twenty headmen, the four governors, and John Stuart, the superintendent. [J]

The two concerns of the Cherokees were the fact that the trade arrangement with South Carolina was inconvenient, and that there were white settlers on their hunting land. Attakullakulla and the Young Warrior, representing their people, agreed that white settlers could stay near Long Canes Creek, but that they should come no farther. [J] (For further discussion, see II WORLDVIEWS)

The complaint about trade was that the post at Keowee was too far away to be convenient for some of their towns. After the war, the colony, by royal decree, had taken over trade with the Cherokees as a public monopoly and established the post at Keowee. This decision was made to avoid the violence that resulted from abusive traders. [R] [J]

The governors replied that the arrangement was by royal decree and could not be changed. No private trade licenses could be issued by South Carolina. [J]

The decree was later repealed in 1764, and private trading was again allowed. The Council passed more restrictive regulations in 1767 in an attempt to prevent abuses. [R]

By 1764 there were many"squatters"on Cherokee land. The Young Warrior complained to Governor Bull who ordered that they be driven off by force and their huts
burned. [O] [R]

Around 1765 a young German, Daniel Hammerer, went to live among the Cherokees to take the Gospel to them and to establish a school. The Lower townspeople built a home and school for him and provided food. [JS] The colonies of South Carolina and Virginia supported him for four years. When this funding ended, he settled at Long Canes with a few of his Cherokee students. [R]

By 1768 Oconostota and Salouih, the Young Warrior, were attempting to make land cessions to individuals, in spite of the fact that the proclamation of 1763 and prior South Carolina law made it illegal. In 1768 and 1769, there were at least three attempts in which Cameron, Dr. Walker and Andrew Lewis, Edward Wilkinson, David Ross- a Virginia trader, and Richard Pearis and Jacob Hite were involved. Cameron and Pearis were attempting to obtain land for their sons, whose mothers were Cherokee. In each case, Stuart opposed the cessions. Pearis and Hite were prosecuted in 1769 by James Simpson, attorney general, under the 1739 South Carolina law. [JS]

The motivations for the chiefs seemed to be the depletion of game, which would have devalued the land for them, and the rising debt accrued with traders. After the 1762 law concerning public monopoly, prices on goods were lower. As the return on skins decreased, the traders extended more credit. By 1770, the Cherokees were heavily in debt. They owed one trader, Edward Wilkinson, eight thousand pounds. [B]

In 1771 the Cherokees ceded a tract of land in Georgia, later known as"New Purchase"with the intention of canceling their debts to traders. The Cherokees and traders surveyed it together. Stuart, and even Cameron, opposed it. Governor Wright of Georgia, however, was in favor of it and traveled to London to present the proposal to the Board of Trade and to the crown. [JS] [B]

White settlers began to pour into the area before the cession was officially recognized. North Carolina Quakers had previously settled on Little River, and"lawless"whites, sometimes called"Crackers,"were along the Ogeechee. [B]

One complication was that the land being ceded was also claimed by the Creeks by previous conquest. The Creeks were initially angered by this attempt, but by 1772 the Creek traders had gained their agreement. The area was mostly hunting land not occupied by either tribe. [JS]

By 1773 the crown had approved the deal. In June 1773 at another Congress in Augusta, the Creeks officially joined the Cherokees in ceding the land. The new boundary was marked that year. [JS] [B] William Bartram, the Philadelphia naturalist, traveled among the Cherokees in 1776. He described the town of Seneca, built since the war, with homes on both sides of the Keowee River. The town house and chief's house were on the western side. As he traveled through the Lower towns area, he saw ruins and few inhabitants. No Cherokees lived in the old town of Keowee, and Fort Prince George was no longer a fort but a trading post. Riding into the Middle towns area, he also saw deserted villages. [R]

In 1775, John Stuart, the superintendent, wrote Alexander Cameron, his deputy, about safeguarding the loyalty of the Cherokees to the British. Cameron's reply was intercepted and caused great alarm to the revolutionists. In the aftermath, Stuart fled to Pensacola.

Another letter from London was intercepted and published in a Philadelphia newspaper in summer 1774. It reported that men in power in England wanted an Indian war as a means of humbling the colonies. [O]

William Henry Drayton spoke to a delegation of Cherokee chiefs at the Congarees in September 1775 to try to explain the conflict with England and persuade them to side with the revolutionists. He was not successful. The Council sent a detachment of thirty men to Seneca to arrest Cameron who was living among the Cherokees. Not disclosing their purpose, three officers were invited into the town for a meeting. The Cherokees, however, must have been wise to the plan because they attacked the officers and the detachment at the same time. In the skirmish, men were killed on both sides. [R]

In the early summer of 1776, Edward and Preston Hampton, who lived near the boundary and five miles northeast of present Greer, went into the nation to try to win Cherokees over to the side of the revolutionists. Many were their friends. They were taken as prisoners but managed to escape. A young man named Hite was killed by a band of warriors. [HG]

Secret messengers had traveled among the Loyalists to tell them to mark their homes to be safe from the Cherokees. The sign was a skinned pole wrapped with white cloth and was called a"passover". Even this sign did not prevent the later death of Captain Ford, a well-known Loyalist, and the capture of his daughters. [HG] For the Cherokees, it was difficult to understand how one part of a people, the English, could fight others of their own group. John Stuart, their long-time friend, persuaded them to pledge support to the British in 1775. This decision charted their course in the American Revolution. [HC]
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VI. CHEROKEES IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR THROUGH 1777

The British plan for the southern colonies was a simultaneous offensive with their allies, the Creeks and Cherokees, attacking white settlements when the British fleet arrived. The fleet was first prevented from landing at Charlestown in June. Then word came in July 1776 that the British had landed at the Cape Fear River, and the news was sent from Charlestown up the path. [96] One of the first attacks was at Long Canes at the plantation of Aaron Smith, killing several members of his family. The regiment at Ninety Six was called out, and men gathered their families into forts. Some in the Upcountry fled to the Lowcountry. [96]

Arms and ammunition were extremely scarce. [R] In present Greenville County, warriors attacked the Hite family, killing Colonel Hite and his children and taking his wife captive. They killed John Miller and Mr. Orr trying to cross the Tyger River. Other victims were the Hannon family near present Landrum, and Mr. Bishop near Shiloh Church in present Spartanburg County. Three of his children were captured. [HG] Captain Howard, who lived near the North Carolina border, gathered a small company of men in a blockhouse there. Led by Schuyuka, a friendly Cherokee, through an unfamiliar gap, they marched five miles unto North Carolina where warriors were encamped in a mountain gap. They surprised their enemy, and many Cherokees died in the"Battle of Round Mountain"and were buried there. The site is near present Tryon. [HG] The Cherokees moved back across the border through the northwest part of present Spartanburg County. Troops commanded by a Colonel Thomas overtook them, and there was a skirmish near Paris mountain. The Cherokees killed some of their prisoners, including Mrs. Hite. Others, including the Ford girls, were released. Thomas had men watching the plantation of Richard Pearis, which was nearby. He was a Loyalist and suspected of aiding the Cherokees as they had been moving toward his plantation before the skirmish.

On July 16 Thomas took possession of the Pearis property including all cattle and horses. Soldiers burned his house, mill, and trading post. They captured his wife and children who were Cherokee, and alternately confined them and then forced them to march up to twenty miles a day in the heat with very little food. The captives were released at Augusta, far from home and among strangers. [HG] Also in July, Major Andrew Williamson and Francis Salvador of Coronaca in present Greenwood County led forty militia men toward the nation. They camped near DeWitt's Corners at Barkers, or Hogskin, Creek to gather more men. On July 16 the number had increased to four hundred fifty. [96] [R] Ludley's Fort, near Robbins Creek, (or Lindley's Fort on Rabun Creek) was attacked on July 15 by a group of Cherokees and Loyalists who had painted their faces. They were driven back. Thirteen Loyalists were captured and sent to Ninety Six. [R] [HG] Before August 1, Williamson commanded one thousand one hundred fifty one men. They moved to DeWitt's Corners and entered the Cherokee nation there. They moved up the path to the Keowee River with the goal of attacking Seneca. [R] [96] Williamson and his men crossed the river at dusk on August 1 but were ambushed by Cameron and other white Loyalists disguised as Cherokees. They fell back across the river, and Salvador was killed in the battle. The next morning they crossed the river again to find the town deserted. They burned everything, including six thousand bushels of corn. [R] [96] Williamson camped at Twelve Mile River, and on August 4 he sent a detachment to destroy Sugar Town, Soconee, and Keowee. From the previous record of Bartram, it appears that Keowee Town had been deserted for a while. Williamson led a group on August 8 and destroyed Estatoe (Old Estatoe?) and Tugaloo. [R] [S] On August 10 or 12 Williamson and his men were surprised by Cherokees who engaged them in a"ring fight", one of their tactics. This occurred near the town of Tamassee, possibly on Cheohee or Tamassee Creek. Pickens led and won the battle, killing either sixteen [R] or eighty three [96] Cherokees. On the 11th they destroyed Brass Town, and on the 12th Tamassee, Cheowee, and Eustaste. [R]

Moving toward the Blue Ridge, they burned Jocassee and Estatoe. [96] One account [96] states that Williamson may have reversed direction, going south to Tugaloo to destroy it last. At least two thousand acres of growing corn were burned. [R] In August Thomas Sumter had been sent with fifteen hundred pounds to recruit men along the Catawba and Wateree Rivers. On September 12 he rejoined Williamson along with two hundred seventy riflemen. [96] Major Samuel Jack took command of forces in Georgia after a Cherokee attack. He burned all the Lower towns in Georgia between the Tugaloo and Chattahoochee Rivers. [R] [96]

An attack of Fort Watauga (in present Tennessee) planned for July 21, 1776 was largely a failure due to the advance warning of white settlers by Nancy Ward of Chota. After a three week siege of the fort, the Cherokees gave up. About twenty five died on each side, and a young boy, Samuel Moore, was burned at the stake by Cherokees. A white woman prisoner was saved from death by Ward. [HC] [96] Also in July, Cherokees attacked white settlements along the Catawba River in North Carolina. General Samuel Rutherford led the North Carolina militia of two thousand four hundred whites and a few Catawba allies. From September 1-18, 1776, his army destroyed thirty six Middle towns. [R] [96] [HC]

Colonel William Christian commanded the Virginians at Fort Patrick Henry near Long Island in the Holston River. In October 1776 they attacked and burned Tuskeegee and at least three other Overhill towns. [96] [F] [R] In the meantime, Williamson and his men advanced along War Woman Creek and turned north at Rabun Gap toward the Little Tennessee River. They marched to Connutee and found that Rutherford had already been there. They rejoined Rutherford September 18 or a few days afterward. [R] On September 19 they advanced along the Coweechee River to the"Black Hole", a horseshoe-shaped meadow surrounded by mountains. There they were ambushed and engaged in another"ring fight"with six hundred Cherokees. Captain Edward Hampton led a company of men who routed the warriors from their cover. They fled, and many were killed. It was said that he avenged the earlier massacre of his family members. [96] Williamson and Rutherford marched toward the Hiwassee River and destroyed the Valley towns, burning every house. In one town, ninety houses were burned. The soldiers also destroyed all crops and carried off deer skins and other valuables. The impoverished Cherokees were forced to turn to the Creeks or the Overhill towns. [R] The Middle towns of Tomotley and Little Tellico were burned. [96]

The peace town of Chota, or Echota, located south of Little Tennessee River and near Fort Loudon, was spared. [R] After burning towns along the Hiwassee, Williamson turned south to the Nacoochee Valley of Georgia. He ordered Sumter to burn Frog Town on the Chestatee River along with the crops of corn and peas in the valley. The next day Sumter's men burned the capital of Little Echota on the headwaters of the Chattahoochee River. [96] Only a few Cherokee towns were left. [R]

By one account, [HC] fifty towns had been burned. Another [96] gives the number as thirty two. The South Carolina troops marched home, reaching Ninety Six on October 8. [96] Two separate treaties ended hostilities with the Cherokees. The first was signed on May 20, 1777 at DeWitt's Corner by headmen from South Carolina and Georgia. They ceded all but a small strip of land in South Carolina, but were permitted to remain on the ceded land"by political indulgence". They rebuilt many Lower towns in present Oconee County. [R] The second treaty was signed on July 20, 1777 at Long Island on the Holston River by headmen of Virginia and North Carolina. They ceded all land east of the Blue Ridge. [R] [HC]

With the two treaties, the tribe ceded five million two hundred sixty four thousand acres. [HC] The Cherokees also promised to remain neutral for the remainder of the revolution. 2
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VII. AFTER THE TREATIES OF 1777

The Overhill towns became crowded with refugees from the burned out Middle towns. [F]

Several hundred of the young warriors, led by Chief Dragging Canoe, could not accept the terms of peace. They migrated westward and settled along Chicamauga Creek, near present Chattanooga. They built the Chicamauga towns, and a British agent established his headquarters there. [HC] [96] [R] They were joined by an older chief, Outacita, and a young chief - Young Tassel, also known as John Watts. Neither of these chiefs was active in leading the tribe at that time. [HC]

This group became known as the Chicamaugas.

James Robertson, the first American agent to the Cherokees, was stationed at Echota. In 1779 he learned of a planned attack on whites at Holston by the Chicamaugas. With five hundred men, he attacked and destroyed the eleven Chicamauga towns. They destroyed one granary with twenty thousand bushels of corn. [HC] [F]

The Chicamaugas began planning another attack but were again prevented in their efforts. In December 1780 Colonel John Sevier and three hundred"mountain men"attacked and destroyed the Overhill towns of Tellico, Echota, Citico, Chilhowee, Hiwassee, Chestowee, Toqua, and others. Nancy Ward and her family were taken as prisoners but placed under the protection of Joseph Martin. [F]

The Chicamaugas moved farther down the Tennessee River, to the foot of Lookout Mountain and built the"Five Lower Towns". They were Lookout Town - near present Tiftonia, Tennessee; Crow Town - near present Stevenson, Alabama; Long Island - near present Bridgeport, Alabama; Runningwater - near present Haletown, Tennessee; and Nickajack - near present Shellmound, Tennessee. [R] [F] [HC]

They were joined by discontented Creeks, Shawnees, and white Loyalists. Dragging Canoe and his men continued raids on white settlements. [HC] [R]

The Long Island Treaty of 1781 was one of a few that did not require a cession of land. Old Tassel and Nancy Ward were present for the signing and spoke in favor of peace. [F] [HC] Ward and her son adopted orphans from Echota. [F]

Sevier attacked and raided towns again in September 1782.[HC] The Overhill Cherokees suffered severe hunger from 1781 to 1783. [F]

In South Carolina, Cherokees were living in the Upcountry in the rebuilt Lower towns. The British sent"Bloody Bill"Cunningham and his men to persuade the Cherokees to stage an uprising. There is evidence that many of the massacres of 1781 by Cunningham and"Bloody Bill"Bates were part of this campaign. Bands of Loyalists and Cherokees attacked blockhouses and white settlements, ruthlessly killing everyone they found. [R]

Andrew Pickens and his regiment had been ordered to patrol the Cherokee frontier in November 1781. They were joined by Georgia militia men and advanced into the nation. They destroyed thirteen towns in Oconee County, killed forty Cherokees, and took forty prisoners.[R]

Near Tamassee, and along Tamasee Creek, Pickens led in a final victory over Cherokees in a"Ring Fight."According to legend, he set fire to the canebrake around them. The exploding sound of the burning cane caused the warriors to flee because they thought reinforcements had arrived. [G] [R]

A Loyalist named Waters had settled among the Cherokees on Hightower River at the mouth of Long Swamp Creek in Georgia. Here they collected plunder taken from revolutionists, including slaves. In September 1782 Pickens and his men, along with Georgians commanded by Elijah Clarke, moved against the Cherokees remaining in Georgia. After crossing the Chattahoochee River, they destroyed several towns along the river [ rebuilt after 1776 ?] . [R]

A delegation, headed by Terrapin, met with Pickens and told him that they would turn over Waters and his men. Six of his men, already in Cherokee hands, were surrendered to Pickens. Waters, however, eluded capture. On October 8 Clarke captured twenty four slaves at Ustanali. [R]
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On October 17, twelve chiefs and two hundred warriors met with Pickens and Clarke at Selacoa and agreed to"temporary terms of peace", to be ratified by the tribe. They surrendered all of their land between the Chattahoochee and Savannah Rivers to the state of Georgia. The permanent treaty was signed May 1783 in Augusta. [R]

In 1784 Cherokees were complaining of white settlers from North Carolina on their lands between the Tugaloo and Keowee Rivers, apparently the small strip north of the 1777 treaty line. The government evicted the squatters. Georgia tried to claim the ceded land south of the treaty line, but the dispute was settled in favor of South Carolina. [R]

The Treaty of Hopewell was signed in November 1785 at the Hopewell Plantation of Pickens, not far from Seneca. Several strips of land in Tennessee were returned to the Cherokees. One main goal of the treaty was to establish boundaries. That goal was compromised by Article V which stated that whites could not settle on Cherokee land but exempting those already settled in the fork of French Broad and Holston Rivers. The treaty side-stepped the issue by referring the matter to Congress. [A]

There was apparently no change in the 1777 boundary previously established in South Carolina. This was the first treaty between the Cherokee Nation and the United States. [R] In 1818 Joseph McMinn, U.S. Cherokee agent, interpreted article III of the treaty, which promised government protection to the tribe, as meaning that the U.S. would choose the means of protection. In this case, McMinn's proposal for protection was relocation into compact towns of six hundred forty acres or removal to lands west of the Mississippi River. [A]

The conflict between whites in Tennessee and the Chicamaugas continued with Cherokee raids and retaliation. John Watts led a raid upon settlements in 1786, and Sevier followed up by burning three Valley towns, including Hiwassee. [F]

He led a second expedition against Valley towns after eleven members of the Kirk family had been killed near Knoxville. Treacherous whites agreed to a meeting but killed Abraham and Old Tassel, two chiefs. The Cherokees then massacred twenty eight at Gillespie's Station in October. [F] [R]

Whites remained on land between Holston and French Broad Rivers, called Watauga or Franklin, although part of it had been returned to the tribe in the 1785 treaty. The whites defied government attempts to enforce the treaty and resisted the Cherokees who had also been given the right to use force against them by the 1785 agreement. [ R] [F]

In an official report of 1790, President George Washington stated that five hundred white families were living on Cherokee land. [R]

About 1786 the Cherokee capital was moved from Echota to Ustanali [ near present Calhoun, Georgia ] when Old Tassel, the principal chief, died. [F]

Governor Blount of Tennessee called a meeting with chiefs at White's Fort [present Knoxville]. In July of 1791 they signed the Treaty of Holston in which Cherokees were given the right to punish injustices against them under their own law. The treaty also ceded a large tract of land in North Carolina and Tennessee, already occupied by squatters. When the tribe later complained to the federal government that the treaty had been signed under threat, their annuity was increased to $5000. [R] [F]

Violence continued in 1792 with Georgians killing three Cherokees and burning a town. A party of Cherokees retaliated by killing a family of eight. [R]

The Chicamauga towns declared war, and a mixed party of Cherokees, Creeks, and Shawnees attacked Buchanan's Station, near present Nashville, in September 1792. The attack was led by John Watts but repulsed by whites. [R]

A party of militia men ambushed and shot members of a native delegation who were to meet with Governor Blount in May 1793. One Chickasaw was killed. Blount's men were also threatened, but they persuaded the militia not to kill them or the other natives. [R] [F]

The next month Captain John Beard and fifty six men went to Echota, wounded Hanging Maw, killed his wife, and burned his house. A town chief and other Cherokees were killed. A court martial later acquitted Beard. [R]

Two hundred whites invaded the Middle towns in the summer of 1793, burned six towns, killed fifteen, and took prisoners. [R]

Creeks and Cherokees under the leadership of Watts and Doublehead attacked Cavitt's Station Blockhouse, near Knoxville, in September 1793. Watts attempted to prevent the killing of women and children, but all were massacred. [R]

Sevier then led seven hundred men into the nation, and they burned the town of Ustanali. [R]

Raids continued, usually against individual families. From 1791 to 1794, two hundred whites were killed, and two thousand horses were stolen. [R]

The Upper towns, under Hanging Maw's leadership, still tried to preserve peace. They assisted the government in the capture and execution of a Creek who had killed John Ish, causing conflict between the two tribes. [R]

Hanging Maw convinced Blount in 1794 to build a blockhouse on Cherokee land to protect them. The Tellico Blockhouse became a military and trading post. [F]

The Chicamauga towns remained allied with the Creeks and harbored some of them who had killed whites in a boat attempting to cross the Tennessee River. [R]

Colonel Whiteley of Kentucky and Major Ore of Tennessee gathered five hundred fifty men and left Nashville on September 7, 1794. Five days later they crossed the Tennessee River and attacked and burned Nickajack. They killed between two and three hundred families. Eighteen prisoners were taken, mostly young women. A mile up the river, they also destroyed Runningwater and killed the inhabitants. [R]

The expedition had been conducted"unofficially"as Governor Blount had given strict orders against any offensive. Judge Haywood said"It seemed as if everyone was tired of being scalped and robbed and cooped up in stations ... revenge was sweet, and they stole it."[R]

Doublehead and Watts, representing the remaining Five Lower Towns, or Chicamauga Towns, met with Governor Blount at Tellico Blockhouse in November 1794 to discuss terms of peace. Even after this, whites murdered a friendly hunting party on the Cumberland Road. Blount kept his promise and evicted squatters from land between the Cumberland Mountains and the Clinch River. [R]

Missions were established among the Cherokees in the early 1800's. They included Spring Place on land given by James Vann, Brainerd on Chicamauga Creek in Chattanooga, Carmel near Oothcaloga, and Creek Path near Guntersville, Alabama. The missions tried to protect the rights of Cherokees from"greedy"Georgians. [F]

In 1796 many of the former refugees from the Keowee and Tugaloo Rivers in South Carolina were living at the headwaters of the Coosa River in northeastern Alabama. They had concentrated in Willstown and were associated with the Chicamauga towns. [R]

On March 22, 1816, after previously meeting with President Madison, chiefs signed a treaty in which four million acres were returned to them, and $25,600 in damages awarded. The government was granted the right to build roads in the nation, and the Cherokees could operate taverns. [R]

On the same day a second treaty was signed which ceded the last of Cherokee land in South Carolina for $5000. [F] [R]

Migration to Arkansas began with the Treaty of Hopewell in 1785. By 1817 two or three thousand Cherokees had resettled. This group became the Western Band and probably included descendants of the Lower town people of South Carolina. The Eastern Band at that time numbered 12, 544. [R] 1
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VIII.  RELATIONSHIPS, ALLIANCES, & KEY EVENTS

ATTAKULLAKULLA
-Attakullakulla was also called Little Carpenter because of his skill at negotiating and making alliances. He visited London with Coming and was almost always loyal to the British. [ Could this name have Masonic overtones? ]
-Chief Old Hop was his uncle. He was lame.
-Nancy Ward, the gighau or beloved woman, was his niece.
-Ada Winn is related to Nancy Ward
-Dragging Canoe was his son. He survived smallpox in 1739. He rebelled against the elder chiefs and eventually withdrew from the nation because he was opposed to further land cessions. He and his followers formed the Chicamauga Towns. In 1777 Dragging Canoe killed David Crockett, his wife and children. Two of David's sons, Joseph and James, were taken prisoner and kept for 17 years. David was the grandfather of David of the Alamo.

JOHN STUART
-He was British agent to the Cherokees at the time of the revolution. He was a Mason and married to a Cherokee.
-Attakullakulla rescued him from Ft. Loudon before the other white hostages were killed. He was friend of both Attakullakulla and Oconostata at one time.
-He appointed two Scots as agents - Alexander Cameron, who was related to him by marriage, and John McDonald. Both men married Cherokee women.
-Koowestoowee, or John Ross, was McDonald's grandson.
-Jesse Bushyhead, Baptist minister, was a descendant of Stuart.

OCONOSTOTA
-He was a convert of the French Jesuit priest Priber before 1840. He advocated an alliance with the French which placed him in opposition to Attakullakulla in the early days of their leadership.
-He survived smallpox in 1739 and carried the scars and bitterness toward the English because of it.
-Later he was a friend of Stuart and a member of St. Andrew's Society in Charleston.
-Onitositah, also called Old Tassel or Corn Tassel, was his trusted advisor.

ANDREW JACKSON
-Origins of removal policy appear in Jefferson's administration. One of his reasons for the Louisiana Purchase was for Native Americans to have a place to go if they could not assimilate into white culture.
-Jackson was known for his savage acts in the Creek War of 1813. David Crockett [see ATTAKULLAKULLA] served under his leadership and was present when they burned a house over the heads of warriors and then ate the roasted potatoes from the cellar.
-Junaluska, John Ross, and Ridge, the father of John Ridge all fought on Jackson's side in the Creek Wars. Junaluska saved his life.
-He negotiated a treaty in 1814 that not only took land from the Creeks in Alabama but also 2 million acres from Cherokees.
-Junaluska went to Washington before removal to appeal at a personal meeting with Jackson who impatiently dismissed him. Junaluska later said that he wished he had not saved his life.

YONAGUSKA
-He opposed the entrance of missionaries into his area. He insisted that his people drink no alcohol.
-William Thomas Holland was his white adopted son. He was a Christian and brought missionaries, teachers, bibles, and hymnals into the tribe.
-Tsali was a shaman who initiated the "Cherokee Ghost Dance" in 1811 after a vision of the maize goddess, called "Mother of the Nation", who told him she would come back to the tribe if he drove out the whites. In August of 1811 there was a comet in the sky for weeks and an earthquake in December in Cherokee territory.
-Thomas helped federal soldiers find and capture Tsali.

SEQUOYAH
-He was the son of Wurteh and Nathaniel Gist, a prominent white from Virginia and not married to his mother. He was named George Gist at birth and was raised by his mother in the Overhills.
-Wurteh was the sister of chiefs Doublehead, Onitositah, and Pumpkinhead.
-Nathaniel Gist was sent by G. Washington to the Cherokees in the 1750's to enlist their help against the French. They responded and fought but were not paid or provided with supplies. Returning home through Virginia they stole horses from whites which escalated the frontier conflicts.
-The treaty of 1777 reserved the Great Island of Holston for Gist, a Tory. However, he switched sides and fought with the Continental army. He never occupied the island or used it for treaty councils.
-After inventing the Cherokee alphabet, Sequoyah was acknowledged by his white family.
-He was among the Old Settlers who first migrated across the Mississippi River.
-Doublehead killed one of his wives, who was pregnant, in a drunken rage. One of Vann's wives was her sister and wanted revenge.
-Doublehead was killed by Ridge who invoked the blood law for ceding land without tribal consent. Doublehead was subject to bribes.

NEW ECHOTA
-Treaty Party - John Ridge, Stand Watie, and Elias Boudinot signed the treaty of New Echota in 1835 in Boudinot's home on the square of the Cherokee capital. When Boudinot decided for removal, his house and land were taken out of the list for Georgia Land Lottery.
-Elias Boudinot, one sixteenth white, was a Christian and newspaper editor. His name at birth was Kuhleganah Watie. He attended mission schools and married Harriet Gold, a Protestant white. Her family in Cornwall, Conn. burned her in effigy and closed the mission school there.
-Elias Boudinot was the nephew of the Ridge and cousin of John Ridge.
-Ridge married Sehoyah, a chief's daughter. He acquired land and slaves and had 1000 peach trees. He wanted the best education for his children but rejected the gospel.
-Ridge opposed land cessions initially and was the honored killer of Doublehead, who had sold his people's land for a bribe. He later accepted and supported the idea of removal.
-John Ridge was educated at mission schools also and married Sarah Northrup, the daughter of white missionaries. Her family disapproved. He became a Christian and went back to cities on the East Coast to raise money for the conversion of Cherokees.
-Stand Watie was the brother of Elias Boudinot.
-John Ross [ see JOHN STUART ] was one sixteenth Cherokee but admired and identified with full-bloods. He led the National Party that opposed removal but he later asked to lead in the process to protect his people. He was married to Quatie, a full-blood, who died on the Trail.
-Joseph Vann and his family also opposed removal.
-By 1837 the Ridges, Waties, and Boudinots had gone to Indian Territory. John Ridge and Elias Boudinot were killed there after the Trail by unknown Cherokees invoking the blood law against selling tribal land without consent. Stand Watie managed to escape.
-John Q. Adams [ not a Mason?] opposed the Treaty of New Echota. So did Henry Clay. They were both political rivals of Andrew Jackson.
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CIVIL WAR
-Ross and Watie, usually in opposition to each other, now joined together to support the Confederacy. Ross made a difficult decision that he saw as necessary to the survival of the tribe.
-Evan Jones, Baptist minister and abolitionist, opposed slavery and Watie's position.
-Albert Pike- Mason, Little Rock lawyer, and Mexican War veteran, was also a "friend of Indians", especially Watie. In 1861 the Confederacy commissioned him as emisary to the Cherokees to persuade them toward support.
-Watie commanded Confederate Cherokees and was the last general to surrender to the Union.
-Cherokees lost land because of their support for the Confederacy.

TREATIES
  Although they had no written language yet themselves, copies of treaties were important to the Cherokees of the 18th century.
  They dictated letters to whites for translation and asked for copies of treaties and other English documents to check later with a translator.
  In 1752 Old Hop referred to a copy of the Great King's Talk in the town council house. This was probably a copy of a 1730 treaty or some document from the time of the visit to London with Coming.
    At Saluda Old Town in 1755, Attakullakulla gave Gov. Glen wampum and brushed the floor with feathers to signify the cleansing of blood. He asked for a written transcript of the proceedings.
    On two occasions Attakullakulla said that feathers were symbolic of the words of Cherokees just as paper had meaning for the whites.
    At the end of the Cherokee War he made reference to feathers for the second time. In signing the treaty at Bull's house in 1761, he spoke of the Great King's Talk. This was probably the same document mentioned earlier by Old Hop.

IX.  CHEROKEE MISSIONS

FIRST MISSIONS
Adair says that there were coverts by the French in the colonial period. In 1736 French traders came from Ft Toulouse [ Montgomery, Ala ] into Cherokee towns to win their allegiance. Priber, a Jesuit, came with them, and some were converted – among them Oconostota. Priber proposed an odd plan of communal living and govt. He was captured by English traders in 1739 and never returned.
        His influence continued with some who supported the French. This put Oconostota in opposition to Attakullakulla who had visited London and was loyal to the British. It was Priber converts who accused the English of deliberately transmitting smallpox germs with trade goods. [ French traders would have had a vested interest.]

BRITISH MISSIONS
 there were efforts among Native Americans by the SPG [Anglican ] , but they lost interest in the work after 1754. A Rev. Martin attempted to evangelize but met much resistance. Two societies, from New England and Scotland, decided to work together and were funded by a Virginia society. They sent John Martin., a Presb. Minister, to the Overhill Towns in 1758. He was away when Wm. Richardson, also Presb., came to join him. Oconostota refused to allow him to preach, and he left for a pastorate in SC.
       Samson Occom, a Native American preacher, was delayed in the ordination process when the Cherokee war started. He never was able to minister among his people. [ Remember the Lost Yemassee Prince who was being trained to minister but disappeared when the Y war began? ]
        After the war, some chiefs, probably influenced by Timberlake, sent an appeal to London for another minister. John Hammerer, funded by Virginia Assembly, went to the Overhill towns in 1763. Attakullakulla accompanied and welcomed him. He had little success and accepted an invitation in 1765 by the Lower Towns to establish a mission and school near Fort Prince George. South Carolina Assembly funded this for 3 years and discontinued support. Hammerer moved his school to Long Canes for a while and then moved to Savannah.

MORAVIAN MISSIONS
throughout the 18th century there was much opposition to the gospel among chiefs, the gatekeepers. Yonaguska, who opposed the entrance of missionaries, was once presented a copy of one of the Gospels in Cherokee. He read it and remarked that it was a good book and wondered why the whites did not follow it.
        In North Carolina Moravians had an early work among the Cherokee, but the only fruit they saw was one warrior and his wife baptized in 1773.
Whites, especially English, seemed to equate the gospel with their concept of "civilization" which included schools and learning to read English. Finally Cherokee chiefs began to see the benefit that education was to whites, and that it seemed to give them advantage. On those grounds, Chief Arcowee welcomed a presentation of two Moravian missionaries to the council in 1798. He expressed his belief that their sacred book had also given them secrets to be able to conquer the Native Americans, and he wanted instruction in it too. He assured them that the Great Spirit revealed himself to the Cherokee in many ways and that their souls did not need saving.
The Moravians proposed a school but also told him that they were concerned about the souls of the Cherokee and would preach the gospel. Doublehead opposed them because they would need land and would charge the students for board. Generally,full-bloods opposed it and mixed-bloods supported it. Put to a vote, the proposal passed. For the first time, missionaries had tribal permission to work among Cherokee.
The first school was at Spring Place in 1801, on land given by Vann. He had no intention of becoming a Christian, but he wanted his children educated. The Moravians ran into problems, however, because they moved so slowly, working with only a handful of children. They painstakingly worked on constructing student residences in their own design. These were not completed even after 2 years had passed. Also, they made no effort to learn the Cherokee language. So in 1803 tribal leaders declared that the Moravians had not kept up their part of the agreement and considered asking them to leave.

PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONS
 Into this difficult situation came Rev. Gideon Blackburn, a Presbyterian minister. He addressed the council and proposed schools, telling the chiefs that he would not preach. His intent was to teach students to read along with scripture and hymn memorization. Then they could make their own decisions.
The chiefs agreed and apparently allowed the Moravians to stay as well. Blackburn received govt funds per the Treaty of Holston and toured the country soliciting the additional money needed. In 1804 he built a log school in the Overhills.
The first week he welcomed 21 Cherokee students and said that they were "promising geniuses". At a council also attended by white visitors, he presented his "Little Cherokees" in 1805. They entered singing hymns, two by two and dressed in white. They read and recited scripture. Sevier was there and said that he was emotionally impacted by their presentation.
Blackburn apparently learned some of the language and encouraged the revision of tribal law to do away with the "blood for blood" tradition. His work ended when he was later caught with a boatload of alcohol to supply to the Cherokee. The schools were closed in disgrace about 1810.
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BAPTIST MISSIONS
Humphrey Posey, Baptist minister, came to Valley Town in North Carolina in 1817, but his work did not last long. Evan Jones, who was Welsh, started ministry there again in 1821 and in Notley, 16 miles to the southwest. He was the only missionary of his time to master the Cherokee language. Duncan O'Bryant was a Baptist minister at Tinsawattee, 60 miles south in Georgia, in 1822.
The first Native American Baptist minister was a full-blood, Kaneeda, who was converted and ordained through Jones' ministry in 1829. Jesse Bushyhead, a descendant of John Stuart, was also ordained in 1830.
Cherokee membership in Baptist churches grew by 500% in the 1830's, mostly due to the influence of Jones. He was able to persuade many full-bloods to become believers. He was an abolitionist and opposed to the lifestyle of many of the mixed-bloods.
He later accompanied the tribe to Indian Territory and actually helped reorganize the secret Keetowah Society in 1859, ostensibly to preserve tradition. This was probably a political move to support the Union and oppose slavery on the eve of Civil War.
North Carolina – Prior to 1839, most of the converts lived along Valley River rather than in Quallatown. Jesse Bushyhead was pastor of a mission church at Amohee.
Yonaguska had little respect for the gospel because of the behavior of some whites and kept ministers out in his area. The picture changed with his death in 1839.
His white adopted son, William Holland Thomas, became tribal leader. He was a Christian and personally exhorted the Cherokee to believe. He provided many bibles and hymnals in the Cherokee language. He stated that in the 1840's there were 103 in Quallatown who were "Sabbath school teachers and scholars".
The Methodist Episcopal Church started the Echota mission church at Soco Creek, and soon there were several Native American preachers there.
Some Cherokee Christians were syncretic. Enola, or Black Fox, was a Methodist preacher and an active conjurer as well. His approach, representative of other Cherokee, was to take what seemed good from each belief system.
One aspect of white culture imposed by Thomas and the missionaries was male dominance and limiting females to the household. Cherokee society had previously been matrilineal, and these ideas changed the traditional role of Cherokee women who had been used to exercising authority in their homes and in tribal decisions. Eventually the shift in thinking to individual owning of property led to inheritance through the father's line.
Whites continued to believe that education was necessary for Native Americans to understand Christianity. In the latter part of the 18th century, Quakers took over the administration of schools for the Eastern Band. They established day schools at Cheoah, Big Cove, Macedonia [site of the old Echota mission], and at Snowbird Gap in Graham Co. Their most important accomplishment, however, was the training school at Cherokee with day students and boarders who were male and female. Although most Cherokee believers were Baptist or Methodist fundamentalists, they got along with the Quakers who did not try to pressure them into accepting their doctrines.

OTHER MISSION EFFORTS
The Brainerd mission schools started in 1817 on Chicamauga Creek. Unlike the Moravians, they stressed equal education for females. The instructors treated the students "like sons and daughters". Other schools were established at Taloney [Carmel ], Wilstown, Haweis, Candy's Creek, Etowah, and Creek Path. Samuel Worcester, one of the instructors, became very important later in the removal history of the tribe.
Brainerd and Moravian schools continued until removal. One Moravian mission was located at Oochgeelogy, 15 miles south of Spring Place.
Methodists had mission schools in 1825 in Wills Valley, Oostanaula, Coosawattee, Mt. Wesley, Ashbury, Chatooga, Sullacoie, Neeley's Grove, and Conasauga. John Ross and other leaders were Methodist.
By 1826 there were 18 Cherokee mission schools partially supported by the federal govt and partially by Cherokee themselves and churches, including Presb., Baptist, Moravian, and Methodist. Some claimed that the mission schools contributed to the de-culturization of the tribe.

X.  EAST TENNESSEE

        The land of eastern Tennessee, at the lower end of the Appalachian chain, was the sacred homeland of 18th century Cherokees and thousands of their ancestors. The mountain ridges and valleys of their settlements and hunting lands became one of the main battlegrounds of clashing European and native cultures.
        What made this land unique? One author, Page Bryant, has stated that the Great Smoky Mountains are the oldest on earth. Geologists might disagree but would concur that they are the oldest on the North American continent. Bryant further identifies these mountains as a place of healing and a "unique ecosystem" that is one of the most prolific and biologically diverse on earth, with 1500 species of flowering plants, 150 of which are rare, and over 4000 non-flowering ones. Historian Wilma Dykeman points out that certain insects are only found in eastern Tennessee. Although Bryant is a New Age practitioner with conclusions that drastically depart from scriptural truth, she seems to have rightly recognized the uniqueness and redemptive purpose of God's creation in these mountains. [SP]
        Cherokees called them the "Great Blue Hills of God" and clung to them as land where ancestors were buried. White Europeans were overwhelmed by mountain beauty beside fertile river valleys and began to covet the land.
        Only the most astute Tennessee historian could be considered an expert on the changing patterns of land claims and jurisdictions of the 1700's and 1800's. A general overview, however, may be helpful. The purpose of this section is to identify people involved, key events of history and apparent motivations and underlying causes.

CUMING AND PRIBER
        Dykeman sees the early contact of two Europeans as having far-reaching influence in future relations with the Cherokees. Although both were eccentric, they were visionaries with some intent to bring the gospel. [T]
        The first was Sir Alexander Cuming whose wife dreamed that he would take the gospel to natives in America. In honor of his visit, a great ceremony was held at Tellico in 1730 and Cherokees knelt and pledged allegiance to the king of England. It was there that Cuming extended the invitation for Cherokees to visit London. The net effect of Cuming's trip into Cherokee country, rather than evangelization, was a bond of friendship to the British. Attakullakulla, who went to London as a young man, remained a British supporter all of his life. [T]
        The second visionary was Christian Priber, a Saxon scholar who came to live in the Overhill towns in 1736. He was not French and not a Jesuit priest as some have believed. He promoted a perfect society, a "Kingdom of Paradise" based on equality but tending toward a type of communal living and property ownership in which there was no marriage contract and children belonged to the tribe. In spite of his strange ideas, there is evidence that some were converted to Christ. He believed that Cherokees should be free to trade with either the French or English. Oconostota's openness to friendship with the French was a direct consequence of Priber's influence. [T]
        Priber dressed like a Cherokee and learned the language. He compiled a dictionary and notes on culture. In 1743 he was captured and imprisoned by the British who saw him as a threat. Unfortunately, he died in prison and his writings disappeared. [T]

LAND WEST OF THE MOUNTAINS
        Prior to the French and Indian War, the map of 1754 showed all land west of the Appalachians claimed by France. The peace agreement at Paris in 1763 placed all land east of the Mississippi in British hands. Land west of the river was given to the French, who in turn gave it to Spain, an ally in the war. Later France and Spain were allies with American patriots in the rebellion against Britain. The 1783 Treaty of Paris ending the war also granted Spain the land west of the Mississippi. [AP] Spain attempted to claim control of navigation of the entire Misissippi watershed, reaching all the way to the Holston River in Tennessee. These decisions led directly to later intrigues when Spanish emissaries attempted negotiations for alliances alternately with Cherokees and then with white Franklin settlers. [AT]
        The peace agreement of 1763 satisfied just about everyone except the Native Americans, to whom the land west of the Appalachians really belonged. Although they had fought alongside Europeans, no one consulted them over the peace treaty. Those in the Ohio valley who had allied with the French were completely resistant to the imposition of British sovereignty. [AT]
        In response to the concerns of traders and Native Americans, King George hastily issued the Proclamation of 1763, forbidding settlement west of the Appalachians. The document prohibited colonial governors from granting land over the boundary and also prohibited voluntary land sales to individuals, reinforcing earlier colonial law against private land sales. [AT] [AP]
        The Proclamation had little or no effect on white colonists who believed that they had fought for the land in the recent war. [AP] It was not enforced. According to "Spark's Writings on Washington", even George Washington admitted that the Proclamation was intended only to appease Native Americans and not to stop migration. [AT] Governor Dunmore of Virginia deliberately ignored it and granted Shawnee land as bounty land to war veterans. [AN]
        To complicate matters further, the land of northeast Tennessee was hunting land, not occupied by any native towns. Cherokee Overhill towns were located to the south in the Tennessee River valley. Land near the Holston River was jointly claimed by Cherokees, Chickasaws, and by the Six Nations Confederacy of the New York area. So the cession of land to the British crown in the Treaty of Fort Stanwyx of 1768 set the southern boundary at the Holston River. It was signed by chiefs of the Six Nations, but they were not perceived as having exclusive right to cede Tennessee land. Cherokees had not relinquished their claim to that land. [AT] [V] [ET]
        Adding to the confusion during the 1760's was the fact that the boundary lines of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia had not been finally determined. Land north of the Holston was originally thought to be Virginia territory. [AT]
        European traders and explorers had entered northeast Tennessee early in the 1700's. Colonel Bird and other Virginians built a fort opposite Long Island of the Holston as early as 1758. [AT] Virginia concluded a treaty there with Oconostota in 1761, but the provisions of that treaty remain unclear. [GW]
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A FLOOD TIDE OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
        Farther south the British had built Fort Loudon in 1756 near the Cherokee capital of Chota to protect trading interests. [AT] [ET] Attakullakulla signed a land "grant" in 1757 for 15 square miles of land south of the Tennessee River to Patrick Jack. [AT]
        The 1763 Treaty of Paris released a flood of white settlers across the mountains, with as many as 1000 wagons passing through Salisbury, North Carolina. [AP] Governor Tryon appointed a commission in 1767 to mark the Cherokee boundary and purchase lands of whites already over the line. [AT]
        Some whites crossed the Appalachians after the 1768 Fort Stanwyx Treaty. [AT] When Regulators were defeated at the Battle of Alamance by Governor Tryon's troops, many of them fled over the mountains and settled illegally on Cherokee land. [OM] [V]
        A pattern was being set of illegal white settlement, confusion over colonial jurisdiction, delays in authorities marking boundaries, and gaining title to Cherokee lands, either by coercion or bribes to willing chiefs, after the fact of white occupation.
        The 1768 Treaty of Hard Labor set the Cherokee boundary line east of the land in question. By the 1770 Treaty of Lochaber, Virginia purchased an additional 30 mile wide strip of Cherokee land. Donelson marked the new boundary line in 1771, but controversy remains on the question of the inclusion of the Tennessee Holston land in the purchase. [ET] [V] [JS]

THE WATAUGA SETTLEMENTS
        John Sevier migrated to the Holston area in 1769 and built "Watauga Fort" near present Elizabethton. [OR] James Robertson and 16 families settled there in 1770. [TH] [AT] The Carter's Valley Settlement, in present Hawkins County, was established around 1771, the same year that Jacob Brown and a few families settled on the Nolichucky River. [V]
        Cameron and Stuart, British agents among the Cherokees, were alarmed at the migration of as many as 8000 whites into Northeast Tennessee by 1772 and ordered them off the land. [OR] [AT] [GW] There is some evidence of another treaty with Virginia in 1772, possibly setting the boundary at the Holston River. [AT] [V] At any rate, some of the Cherokees were willing to lease land around the Watauga River for 8 years, and the whites stayed. [JS] [AT] Brown was apparently unable to secure a similar lease and retreated temporarily to the Watauga settlement. [V] In an early attempt at self-government, whites formed the Watauga Association the same year. [TH] [ET]
        The Treaty of Sycamore Shoals was signed in 1775 on the Watauga River. It was actually an agreement for a very large and questionable land sale of £2000 plus £8000 considerations to Daniel Boone and Richard Henderson, land speculators who formed the Transylvania Company. The document was signed by only three chiefs, including Oconostota who had originally made an impassioned speech against it. The land was between the Cumberland and Kentucky Rivers, situated in Kentucky and Tennessee. It is likely that some of this land was also claimed by Shawnees and Chickasaws. [AT] [OM] [ET]
        Within a few days, the settlers of Watauga and Carter's Valley had also made purchases of their settled land, as well as Jacob Brown on the Nolichucky. [V] [AT]
        Another dissenting voice at the Sycamore Shoals gathering was that of Dragging Canoe, son of Attakullakulla who signed the agreement. He spoke against it and then uttered his dark "curse", that the whites would obtain the land at the price of their own blood. [AT] [OM]
        Virginia and North Carolina "annulled" the agreement but "granted" Henderson 200,000 acres in the Cumberland area. [T] The desire for large tracts of land would continue to motivate white Tennessee settlers. William Blount and his brother owned over 1 million acres. John Sevier never achieved it, but he kept trying to obtain the Muscle Shoals land until he died. [TH] [T]
        Within one month of the Sycamore Shoals agreement, the American Revolution began. This conflict did not make sense to the Cherokees, as they believed the colonists to be one people, speaking one language. [AT] However, a simultaneous event was the withdrawal of Dragging Canoe and his group who opposed land cession. Unprecedented in the Cherokee nation, a group who spoke the same language broke away from the main group. [T]
        The Cherokees, influenced by Stuart, Cameron, and chiefs who had opposed the 1775 purchases, allied with the British and fought against the rebel patriots. Cherokee attacks on white settlers had an element of revenge and drew a response of massive retaliation in which the Lower and Middle towns were virtually destroyed. [OM] [ET] [F] [AT]
        Reduced to poverty and forced to negotiate terms of peace, Cherokees signed the Treaties of Long Island [also called Avery's Treaty] and DeWitt's Corners in 1777. These documents contained an agreement of Cherokee neutrality in the revolution and ceded more land in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. [V] [ET] [AT] [F] The Overhill towns were crowded with refugees from Middle towns. [F]

THE ORIGIN OF CHICKAMAUGANS
        Dragging Canoe's group refused to accept the terms of peace and moved west to Chicamauga Creek, east of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, and established the Chicamauga towns. They were joined by Cherokee refugees from the Lower towns, Shawnees, Creeks, and white outlaws. [F] [ET] Cameron and Stuart supplied the Chicamaugans with ammunition and encouraged their continuing attacks against white settlers. [F] Evan Shelby led an expedition that destroyed the Chicamauga towns in 1779. Later the Chicamaugas moved west of Lookout Mountain and formed the Five Lower towns. [GW] [F] [ET] [AT]
        John Sevier led in the Battle of King's Mountain and then continued to attack Cherokee towns throughout the revolution. He was called the "greatest Indian fighter in the southwest". [F] [FB] Sevier was Huguenot, but many of the Wataugans were Scotch Irish, fiercely independent and used to fighting for survival. [T]
        The 1783 Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolution. The Continental Congress urged North Carolina to cede "western lands" to its jurisdiction. [AP] [FR]
        Land speculators, led by Blount, pushed the "Land Grab Act" of 1783 through the North Carolina legislature. The purpose was to obtain money from land sales before the cession. A land office opened, 4 million acres sold in 7 months, and the fortunes of several future Tennesseans were established. [T] [FR] Some of the land was granted to war veterans. [AT]
        North Carolina ceded eastern Tennessee to Congress in 1784, pending a final acceptance. Most of the ceded land was still claimed by Cherokees, Creeks, and Chickasaws. [FR] When the state leaders learned that they would not be repaid by Congress for Indian expeditions, they revoked the cession. [ET] [T] [FR]
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THE STATE OF FRANKLIN
       Frustrated by the uncertainties and feeling abandoned by North Carolina, the former Regulator Wataugans formed the State of Franklin in 1784. Thus began a 4-year attempt at self-government for a group that would experience conflict with North Carolina, Cherokees, Continental Congress, and ultimately among themselves as two of their leaders, Tipton and Sevier, faced each other in armed conflict. In the end, even Sevier submitted to the authority of North Carolina, probably to qualify for elected office. [FR]
        The Cherokees found the concept of the two opposing governments of Franklin and North Carolina confusing, to say the least. [T] The Franklinites invited Cherokees to Dumplin Creek in June 1785, but Old Tassel sent Ancoo in his place. Ancoo signed a treaty but apparently did not understand that he was ceding land. [GW] Old Tassel protested the treaty to Governor Martin of North Carolina, claiming that Franklinites did not even mention the land cession. [OM]
        In response, the Continental Congress appointed a commission to assert federal authority in establishing a boundary with the Cherokees. The Treaty of Hopewell, signed in November 1785, was drawn up by Martin and Blount of North Carolina, who opposed the Franklinites. The gathering in South Carolina was attended by Old Tassel and Nancy Ward, who addressed the commissioners in favor of peace. [FR] [R]
        The treaty had the effect of returning some lands to the Cherokees, and certain Georgia and North Carolina representatives protested that these lands had been legally ceded for war veterans. [R] The treaty protected whites in the Cumberland settlement by setting the boundary outside of their lands. 3000 whites in the area of the Holston were protected and left in an uncertain state to be decided later by Congress. [R] [FB]
        The 5000 Franklinites living west of the French Broad on land covered by the Dumplin Creek Treaty were expected to remove from the land or lose the protection of the United States. A further provision allowed Cherokees to retaliate "legally" if settlers did not move. So the same government that would later enforce a wholesale Cherokee removal made this lame and ineffective gesture that would sanction the violence in eastern Tennessee for years to come. [FR] [GW]
        Franklinites ignored the Treaty of Hopewell, and violence followed. Each little white "fort" or station turned into a bloody battleground along with Cherokee towns. [OM] Much of the violence was committed by the Chicamaugans while the older chiefs tried to remain neutral. [GW] [OM] In spite of their friendly intentions, the Overhill chiefs led by Old Tassel were forced to sign the Treaty of Coyatee in 1786, guarded by a force of 200 Franklinites with rifles. This treaty ceded land between the French Broad and Tennessee to the State of Franklin. [GW] [OM]
        In 1789, North Carolina ratified the U. S. Constitution and ceded her "western lands" of Tennessee to Congress. [OM] This time they accepted, forming the "Territory South of the Ohio". William Blount was appointed governor. [T] [AT]

ARMED MASS CHAOS ON THE FRONTIER
        In 1788 the betrayal and murder of 3 chiefs by Franklinites under a flag of truce sent shock waves throughout the tribe and into North Carolina. Old Tassel, Abram, and Abram's son were killed to retaliate for the death of the white Kirk family. Major James Hubbard facilitated this awful event, and Sevier was absent, burning Hiwassee with his militia. Historians disagree on the issue of Sevier's foreknowledge and responsibility for the murders. [GW] [AT]
        After a report from Secretary of War Knox to the President on the deterioration of relations with the Cherokees, Washington summoned them to a meeting at White's Fort on the Holston in 1791. 1200 Cherokees attended along with 40 chiefs, including Doublehead, Dragging Canoe, Bloody Fellow, and John Watts. [GW] More land was demanded, and Watts spoke bitterly of the death of his uncle Old Tassel and the futility of resisting the whites' demands. Some chiefs wanted to see the President himself but reluctantly signed the agreement which ceded an additional 2,500,000 acres. [OM] [FB] Some whites were dissatisfied with the treaty because it strengthened the provision of Cherokee retaliation against illegal settlers and left some land in Cherokee possession, which whites claimed by right of the Fort Stanwyx Treaty and Henderson's purchase. [AT]
        Hanging Maw attempted to keep peace, but the violence of the Chicamaugans continued. After the towns of Nickajack and Runningwater were ruthlessly destroyed, Doublehead and Watts signed a peace treaty at Tellico in 1794. [GW] [R]
        The area at the headwaters of the French Broad and Pigeon Rivers was signed over to whites in 1798. [FB] The Great Island of the Holston and land between the Duck and Tennessee Rivers were ceded in an 1806 treaty accomplished by alleged secret bribes to Doublehead, Tahlonteskee, and James Vann. Doublehead was killed by The Ridge in 1807 for his treasonous act of making a land cession without tribal consent. [GW]
        Additional Tennessee land was ceded by treaties of 1816 and 1819. The rationale for the 1819 treaty was that it was in the best interest of Cherokees to move farther west to protect them from lawless whites. [RA] This logic brings up the obvious question of the integrity of a government that could enforce laws against Cherokees but could not, or would not enforce restraints against lawless whites.
        The treaty also proposed that Cherokees should adopt an agricultural lifestyle, hunt no longer, and own land individually. Thus they could be "prosperous and happy" and avoid removal to land west of the Mississippi. [RA] But in 1819 the course was being set, and even Cherokees who adopted white ways and became successful farmers and plantation owners would not escape the events of the 1839 Removal.

JOHN SEVIER
BACKGROUND - the Proclamaton of 1763 prohibiting settlement across the mountains came at the beginning of attitudes of rebellion to the crown. Many defied it, including 1000 wagon loads of families that came through Salisbury North Carolina going west in 1765. The problems progressed through the Revolution and the period of the Articles of Confederation when there was still no strong central government. Lines of authority and boundaries were confused, and the treaties seemed to add to that problem. At least one treaty was secret, and chiefs were bribed to cede land. Cherokees also leased land to white settlers.

    Into a void created by the absence of enforcing authority stepped the most rebellious elements of white and Cherokee cultures to compete for the same land. There were atrocities on both sides with women and children being murdered. Captives often became slaves.

CHEROKEES- Doublehead and Dragging Canoe were chiefs who led a group of younger hot-headed warriors and did not want to give up any more land. They found themselves opposing the older chiefs who had seen the effects of war on the tribe.
Although they may not have started the conflict, the tribal law of "blood for blood" and their honor as warriors required retaliation. Both were capable of great violence. Doublehead also proved himself capable of taking bribes and was killed by Ridge for ceding land without the consent of the entire tribe.

    The Treaty of Hopewell gave the Cherokees the right to retaliate against those who settled illegally on their land.

    Some of the earliest white settlers in the 1760's may not have known they had crossed a boundary line, but the Donelson survey of the North Carolina and Virginia border in 1771 showed the illegal settlements clearly. Many of the whites who came were "Regulator" types who were used to taking law into their own hands. Some actually preferred having no courts and sheriffs to enforce laws. In the 1770's they tried to blame the Cherokee attacks on the influence of the British rather than their encroachment.

John Sevier was a charismatic but controlling leader, intent on getting what he wanted at any cost. He defied both US and North Carolina authority. At one point, he even went to the Spaniards in Florida in an attempt to "secede " and join Franklin State to them. Franklin had two rival governments for a while.
    He led in the treachery of summoning the chiefs Old Tassel, Hanging Maw, and Abram for a talk and then killing them. This act was unconscionable to the Cherokees as ambassadors were considered sacred .[ For the same reason, the murder of the chiefs at Fort Prince George caused much outrage.] For this act, Sevier was arrested and imprisoned by the governor of North Carolina.
    He was a key figure in the Battle of King's Mountain and at Musgrove's Mill. Shortly after King's Mountain, one of his sons was killed in a skirmish with Cherokees. Another of his young children was killed by Cherokees in a raid on a blockhouse.
    Later he became the first governor of Tennessee and was subsequently elected to Congress. Just before his death he was appointed by Monroe as ambassador to help settle a boundary dispute between Georgia and Creeks.
    One last story will illustrate the extremes in his personality. While conducting military raids, he had said that Cherokee children were "nits that make lice" and that they should be "exterminated". In 1805 he was present at the council house when Rev Blackburn brought in his "Little Cherokees", dressed in white, to read, recite scripture, and sing hymns. Afterward he approached Blackburn to shake his hand and, with tears on his face, said " I have often stood unmoved amidst showers of bullets from Indian rifles, but this effectually unmans me. I see civilization taking the ground of barbarism, and the praises of Jesus succeeding the war whoop of the savage."
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XI. THE REMOVAL

THE FORCED MIGRATION
Could anything have saved the Cherokees from the fate of 1839?

 In many ways, they had some of the best leaders in the history of the tribe. Although these leaders were well-educated and could walk in a white world, they had Cherokee hearts and were committed to their people, their land, and to preserving their language. Some were Christians, and most were men of integrity. If any leaders were equipped to represent their people in the face of the hardness and duplicity of the U.S. government, these men were.
 They took the responsibility seriously, traveling to Washington many times. Even in the most divisive days of Ross Party and Treaty Party, there were remarkable incidences of leaders trying to work together.
 Perhaps the leaders were controlling or self-serving at times, but even the allegations against the New Echota signers of taking bribes have remained unproven. It is true that the members of the Treaty Party had plenty of operating capital once they reached Arkansas. Stand Watie could offer $25,000 reward in gold for the identity of his brother's murderer. Boudinot and the Ridges were well compensated for their property in the East, but this should have been the right of every Cherokee.
 The efforts to remain on their land did not fail because their leaders were not prepared or committed. Eventually, however, the determination of Andrew Jackson and his men overcame the leaders. All of them, including John Ross, came to the conclusion that the loss of their land would be inevitable.
 The migration did not occur because the Cherokees themselves failed. Many had followed the implied rules set by the government for living among whites. Many Cherokees adopted "white" agriculture and lifestyle, including slavery. Many became Christians, received formal education and learned English. The leaders formed a more structured government with a written constitution and a Supreme Court. "Civilization" should have guaranteed their place in the land, but the government changed the rules.
Cherokees did not migrate because the missionaries among them failed. These missionaries showed their hearts and intentions in signing the document of unity and support for the Cherokees in 1830. Some put their own safety and families in jeopardy. Two of them, Samuel Worcester and Elizur Butler, went to prison for defying the Georgia government.
 The missionaries had also followed the government rules. In fact, the American Board of Foreign Missions had partnered with the U.S. government as agents of "civilization". The facilities at Brainerd and other missions were paid for by the federal government. In their zeal and ethnocentricity, the missionaries made the mistake of de-valuing Cherokee culture as they taught "civilization".
 However, in the process, the government also authorized and facilitated evangelization of the Cherokee nation. The missionaries were zealous to proclaim salvation through faith in Christ. Agents may have later regretted the partnership when missionaries defied the Georgia government and many Baptist converts opposed signing any treaty.
 The missionaries living among Cherokees were not the only voices raised to support them remaining on their land. In 1830, 1832, and in 1835, congressmen, Supreme Court Justices, Evarts of the American Board, and others spoke up for Cherokees.
 If the Yazoo Land Fraud had not occurred, leading to the 1802 Georgia Compact of Union, maybe Cherokees could have stayed in their original homeland. The 1802 Compact was an agreement between the U.S. government and the state of Georgia. While the document currently occupies a place of obscurity, it was important prior to 1839.
 It was quoted as supporting evidence both by proponents and opponents of removal. The reason for this curious contradiction was a sort of contingency clause that the U.S. government would obtain title to Native American lands and pay for their migration west of the Mississippi "in accordance with the just rights of those tribes" and  "as soon as can be peaceably obtained on reasonable terms".
 The state, believing that her part of the bargain had been fulfilled in turning over western lands and taking responsibility for the "Orphan Strip", put pressure on the federal government in the early 1800's to obtain the native lands. The Compact was referenced by President Monroe in 1825, Secretary of War Eaton in 1829, and President Jackson in 1829 in favor of removal.
 Thomas Jefferson negotiated the Compact and may have written the text for it. Whatever was intended by the "contingency clause", it implied at least some acknowledgment and respect for native rights. Supreme Court justices thought so too. Smith Thompson, in a dissenting opinion in 1831, cited it as evidence of Cherokee sovereignty. Justice John Marshall cited it in the majority opinion of Worcester vs. the State of Georgia in 1832. But the voices arguing for "states rights" seemed to be louder.
 What if Andrew Jackson had not been elected president? Would Cherokees have kept their land? What if no one had been willing to sign the New Echota Treaty? Would there have been another treaty? Who would have been authorized to negotiate?
 It is likely that there would have been another treaty. John Ross had offered to sell the land for $20 million. Then later he agreed to sign a treaty with the Senate setting the price, but he backed out.
 He was principal chief and leader of the Council. John Ridge, Major Ridge, and David Vann resigned from the Council after threat of an impeachment trial. However, at the fall Council of 1835, five Ross supporters and five Ridge men signed an agreement that they would negotiate a treaty but would not agree to $5 million. Ross, Boudinot, and John Ridge were signers.
 Ross wanted John Ridge and Watie with him in the twenty man delegation to Washington in December.
 Back home, Major Ridge and Elias Boudinot signed the treaty agreeing to $5 million. It is unclear why they would sign without waiting to hear from the delegation in Washington.
 In Washington, John Ridge also signed after learning that his relatives had signed and that the delegation would not be heard in Washington. Perhaps all three men gave up, but their signatures went against the agreement with Ross, two months earlier, to hold out for more money.
 New Echota has been called an unauthorized treaty. It might be more accurate to say that the signers did not have authority to sign it without the other members of the Council, or of the Washington delegation. The signers must have had some authority to negotiate for the Cherokee Nation, or Ross would not have actively recruited their participation in October or in December.
 Could the Cherokees have kept their land if the deposits of gold in Georgia had remained a secret?
 Some Cherokees in North Carolina did keep their land through the efforts of their determined "white chief", William Holland Thomas. To circumvent state law, he had to hold title to their lands in his own name for protection.
 Theodore Frelinghuysen and Helen Jackson were right. The Cherokees lost their original homeland because a nation that would have called itself Christian had forgotten to "act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God" (Micah 6:8), had chosen to "move ancient boundary stones" (Proverbs 23:10), and "build cities by crime and bloodshed" (Habakkuk 2:12). Frelinghuysen appealed to the Christian conscience of the U.S. in 1830 before the fact, and Helen Jackson wrote about it after the fact.
The determined and able Cherokee leaders met the opposition of U.S. and Georgia leaders who were willing to use power to take their land and justify it with an explanation of good will. Stand Waite was also right - although others may have participated, tthe crime was committed by the U.S. government.
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 Once the treaty was signed and ratified by the Senate with a majority of only one vote, it provided the "legal" ground for removal. The course was set, and Cherokees really started on their sorrowful Trail early in 1836.
 White Lottery winners were already taking over their lands. Ross continued to attempt negotiations in Washington to buy more time. By 1838 fear and uncertainty hung over the Cherokee Nation. They did not know whether they should plant crops or make preparations to go.
 The U.S. Commander had ordered that every kindness be extended as Cherokees were taken from their homes. In many cases, especially with the Georgia Guard, the order was ignored. In effect, some were torn from their homes with no time to gather extra clothes, blankets, or provisions. Families were separated.
 Conditions in the detention camps were terrible - crowded and unsanitary. Some soldiers were abusive. So many died on the first summer trip that John and Lewis Ross obtained permission to put Cherokee "conductors" in charge of the journey.
 No one knows exactly how many Cherokees traveled the Trail. Estimates range from 12,000 to 17,000. Ross estimated 13,150. No one knows how many died in detention camps. Estimates ranged from 300 to 2000.
 The government compiled statistics of deaths on the Trail, obtained from 13 "conductors". The total was 424. The statement that 2000 died on the Trail, widely publicized and accepted in New England at the time, was attributed to Elizur Butler. He had attended one group, and 40 died. However, instead of multiplying that number by 13 as an estimate (520), he later stated categorically that 2000 died.
 Even using the lower figures, it was a tragic and traumatic event touching every family. Challenges and further injustices awaited them in Indian Territory. Division continued to plague the Nation for a while.
 They arrived with a resolve to rebuild their lives, families, towns, churches, schools, and tribal government. They were so successful that Helen Jackson could write in glowing terms in 1876 of their recovery and progress.
 One statement of John Ridge is worth repeating: "Cherokee blood, if not destroyed, will win its courses in beings of fair complexions, who will read that their ancestors became civilized under the frowns of misfortune, and the causes of their enemies." (Cherokee Tragedy, Wilkins) The story of the forced migration is still challenging the Christian conscience of a nation.
 

CHRONOLOGY OF THE FORCED MIGRATION

1735 - Colony of Georgia established with land policies to encourage the disadvantaged to settle as small farmers. No slaves or grants over 50 acres were initially allowed.[CG]

1771- Cherokees and Creeks ceded 60 miles along the Savannah, claimed by both, to pay debts to traders. The Indian Superintendent protested and later complained about the character of the white settlers from NC and VA -"lawless and disorderly vagrants". He called them "Crackers".[B] [NG]

1789- George Washington said that it would take 50 years for Indians to be citizens. The exact year for his prediction would be 1839. [JE]

1782- Treaty of Long Swamp- Cherokees ceded more land along the Savannah, north of the 1771 cession.[NG]

1785-Combined Society was formed. It was a secret society, connected to the Yazoo Land Companies, whose stated purpose was to obtain land from GA for speculation.[NG]

1789- Gov. Telfair of GA sold 20 million acres of western land, in current Alabama and Mississippi, to Yazoo Companies of SC, TN, and VA. The deal fell through when they paid with worthless paper money.[NG]

1790's- A growing community of illegal white settlers in present Fannin Co. was tolerated by the Cherokees.[NG]

1793-Ridge, Charles Hicks and James Vann were the young Cherokee chiefs who would support formal education and the adoption of European ways for their people.[NG]

1795- Gov. Mathews of GA signed the Yazoo Act, which sold up to 50 million acres of western land to speculators for 1 cent an acre. Votes for the bill had been openly bought and sold on the floor of the state legislature.[NG]

1796- Yazoo Act was rescinded after a storm of protest, with legislators resigning and speculators being run out of the state. GA refunded 60% back to purchasers. However, many third party purchasers refused the state settlement and continued to claim the land. All records were burned on the capitol steps.[NG]

1801- Moravians established a mission among the Cherokees at Spring Place. They did not receive government funds. Margaret Vann, wife of James, would be their first convert.[JE]

1802- Thomas Jefferson wanted the GA western lands as well as the Louisiana Purchase lands [finalized in 1803]. Part of his motivation was to provide a western homeland for Native Americans who wanted to move.[JE]

1802-Compact of the Union between United States and the State of Georgia. The state sold western lands south of the Tennessee River, along with the problems of unsettled land claims, for $1,250,000. They were required to take responsibility for the "Orphan Strip", an area along the French Broad settled by outlaws. It is now in NC.
 The state also received a conditional promise- that the federal govt would obtain title to Indian lands "as soon as can be peaceably obtained on reasonable terms." The occupants would be "removed" at U.S. govt expense.This promise would become the subject of much future controversy.
 The United States received the western lands along with the problems created by the Yazoo Land Fraud. An 1810 Supreme Court decision settled the issue, requiring the U.S. to pay $4.3 million to the claimants. In a statement reminiscent of Israelites keeping faith to the deceptive Gibeonites, Chief Justice Marshall said that even a contract concluded by fraud could not be invalidated.[NG] [JE] [GGR] [500]

1803-Louisiana Purchase

1803-First Georgia Land Lottery of former Creek land. The system was devised in response to the Yazoo Land Fraud.[GGR]

1804- The Wofford Tract in northeast GA was sold to whites with James Vann acting as agent.[NG]

1805-The Federal Road was completed across the Cherokee Nation. Certain chiefs, including Doublehead, received bribes for permission to build it. Many of the businesses that sprang up along it - ferries, inns, and taverns, were run by whites or mixed-blood Cherokees.[NG]

1806-Ridge, Hicks, and Vann planned the murder of Doublehead according to unwritten  Blood Law. In addition to selling land for bribes, he had beaten to death one of his wives. She was Vann's sister-in-law. Ridge shot Doublehead in a tavern.[JE] [GJ]

1808- Charles Hicks resigned as assistant to Return Meigs, the U.S. agent, because of Meigs' method of obtaining treaties by bribery.[JE]

1810- The American Board of Foreign Missions was formed by Congregationalists in New England, descendants of Puritans. Their goal was the evangelization of all unreached people within one generation. They opposed slavery and supported Indian rights.[JE] [CM]

1811- New Madrid earthquakes shook the central U.S. Cherokee chiefs went to Spring Place to inquire of the missionaries about the spiritual significance.[JE] [WM]
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1813- Cherokee chiefs had offered to fight against the British in the war of 1812. Andrew Jackson enlisted them to fight in the Creek War. Major Ridge, John Ross, Charles Hicks, and Junaluska fought alongside Jackson, Sam Houston, Daniel Boone, and Holston whites.[JE] [NG]

1813-Charles Hicks had become a Christian. He preached and read scripture in the Cherokee camps during the war. Cherokees admired Jesus for enduring pain without protest or showing weakness.[JE]

1814- Creeks who had lost the war were forced to cede much land, including the southern third of GA. Cherokees also claimed up to 2 million acres of this land in the area of the Lower Towns, and they were shocked to learn that they were required to give up their claims too.[JE] [NG]

1816- Cherokees sent a delegation to Washington to argue their claims to land demanded by Jackson  [included in the Treaty of Ft. Jackson of 1814] that was in northeastern AL. Sec. of War Crawford and Pres. Madison upheld their claims. Ridge and Ross signed two treaties in April 1816. One ceded the last of the land in SC, in an apparent trade-off. One set the boundary of Creek-Cherokee land south of the Lower Towns, recognizing Cherokee claim to the AL land and excluding it from the 1814 Treaty of Ft. Jackson.[JE] [NG]

December, 1816- Some Cherokee chiefs attended a Chickasaw treaty council led by Andrew Jackson and signed a treaty ceding some of the AL land that Madison had returned. Among the signers were Sequoyah and path Killer. Some of the ceded land was claimed jointly by Chickasaws.[JE] [NG]

1816-American Board report on the Cherokees stated its goals - "to make the whole tribe English in their language, civilized in their habits, and Christian in their religion." By 1825 the Board had realized the error of using only English. They voted funds for scripture translation, already in progress, and sent Samuel Worcester, a capable linguist.[CM]

1817-Brainerd Mission was established near present Chattanooga by the American Board. The site was purchased by Meigs, U.S. agent, and buildings were paid for with government funds. The government supported evangelization, and the missionaries were also directed to assimilate Cherokees into white culture.[CM]

1817- Charles Hicks was elected assistant principal chief. Major Ridge was principal chief. John Ross was assistant to Meigs, and they owned a store together. Ross translated for the Council and the missionaries.[JE]

1817- A large group of Cherokees migrated to Arkansas, joining the few already there.[JE]

1817- Treaty to cede eastern land in exchange for title to western land for Old Settlers, Cherokees who had chosen to migrate. Those who wanted to remain on eastern land could become U.S. citizens and receive a "reservation" of 640 acres. The citizenship offered gave them the dubious status of "free persons of color".
 Among the eastern chiefs signing were Saunders, Lowrey, Adair, and Going Snake. John Jolly was among the western chiefs signing. Andrew Jackson, who also signed, bribed some of the eastern chiefs. Ridge and Hicks refused to attend.[JE]

1818- American Board received criticism from pastors in the South for teaching black children to read.[JE]

1818- Sam Houston was hired as a federal agent to register Cherokees to migrate west. He failed at the job. Jackson and John Jolly, who favored removal, had procured the job for him. Houston had run away from home as a boy and lived among the Cherokees, adopted by Jolly. Missionaries opposed Houston in his efforts.[JE]

1819- Charles Hicks and eleven other chiefs, including John Ross and his brother Lewis, went to Washington authorized to negotiate the sale of all eastern lands in exchange for an equal western homeland if the govt was adamant. They secretly assured the missionaries that they would negotiate a "reservation" of the Brainerd property.
 Joseph McMinn, the U.S. agent, did not demand all of the land. There was conflict concerning the number of Cherokees who had migrated, with the govt apparently inflating the numbers to gain more eastern land. John and Lewis Ross led the discussion, insisting on lower numbers.
 Even so, they ceded 4 million acres of land, mostly in NC. The cession also included some in GA, some in AL, and 1.5 million acres in TN.
 John and Lewis Ross each received a 640 acre "reservation". John C. Calhoun, Sec.of War and negotiator, was later very involved in gold mining in GA.[JE] [NG] [CM]

1820- The Council, led by Ridge, formally passed a law forbidding any person to sign a treaty ceding land, under penalty of death. Only the Council could authorize land sales.[JE] [NG]

1821- Sequoyah had perfected his Cherokee syllabary, using 86 symbols to write the language.[JE]

1821-John Ridge and Elias Boudinot returned from boarding school in Cornwall, Connecticut. Boudinot had been supported by a benefactor of the same name and a U.S. govt scholarship. Both men would later marry young women from white Christian Connecticut families. [JE] [CM]

1823- George Troup became governor of Georgia. He increased the pressure on the federal government and the Cherokees to force them to migrate west.[NG]

1823- The state sent representatives to the Council and openly offered bribes to chiefs to cede land. Creek Chief William McIntosh, first cousin to Troup, also tried to persuade them.[JE]

1824-The gospel of John had been translated into Cherokee from Greek by Atsi, or John  Arch, who was Cherokee. Hundreds of copies, handwritten in the syllabary, were circulating in the Nation.[CM]

1825- David Brown, a Cherokee man educated in boarding schools, had translated the entire New Testament from Greek. His copy was also handwritten in the syllabary.[CM]

1825-Samuel Worcester was assigned to Brainerd by the American Board. Part of his job would be a refinement of Brown's New Testament. Brown was a new believer, and there were problems with the book of Matthew.
 Worcester was 8th generation of ministers, and he had a particular connection to Brainerd. His uncle, Samuel Worcester, as secretary of the ABF, had visited, died, and was buried there.
 Cherokees called Worcester A-tse-nu-sti, the Messenger, because he had important things to say.
 He was a gifted linguist, and his children were bilingual. However, he never felt    confident enough to preach in Cherokee. Evan Jones was the only missionary of his day to completely master the language and preach in Cherokee.[CM]

1825-Pres. Madison thought voluntary removal was the best policy and that Cherokees could be persuaded. The conditions should be "satisfactory to themselves and honorable to the United States."[JE]

1827-Whites discovered gold in GA. The Cherokees had known about it for a while.[GGR]

1827- Charles Hicks and Path Killer had died. At the Council, also attended by Georgia representatives, Major Ridge and John Ross presented a new constitution, which was adopted. Similar to the U.S. constitution, it committed the Cherokees to "a nation under God". New Echota was established as the capital, and a printing press was ordered.[JE]

1827- John Ross was elected principal chief with George Lowrey, his relative, as assistant. Ross had moved from Ross's Landing to New Echota.[JE]
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1828 - Andrew Jackson was elected president. His wife died two days later. Cherokees were not citizens and could not vote in the election.[JE] [GGR]

1828- The Georgia Assembly said that the Cherokee Constitution was "unconstitutional", passing a bill to extend state law over the Cherokees " to secure.. to them the enjoyment of civil rights". They prohibited them from mining their own land and also voted a law that any person discouraging removal would be fined $500 or imprisoned.[R] [GGR]

1829-Miners poured into the Nation, setting up illegal mining operations. Much of the capital for large mining operations would originate overseas.[GGR]

1829-In June Jackson addressed a letter to the Cherokees, advising that they migrate west. In December he addressed Congress, advocating complete removal of all eastern tribes.[JE] [GGR]

May 1830-Jackson pushed the Indian Removal Act through Congress. It authorized the federal govt to proceed with the policy and appropriated $500,000 toward it. The act prohibited the violation of existing treaties.
 Many voices opposed it, including Sen. Everett of Mass., Henry Clay of Kentucky, Daniel Webster, and Davy Crockett. Sen. Theodore Frelinghuysen of New  Jersey spoke against it for three days.
 Everett said that they were making a mockery of former treaties and that Jackson might as well burn them on the capitol steps.
 Jeremiah Evarts of the American Board wrote twelve editorials on the "Indian cause", published in many newspapers including the Phoenix. [JE] [CM] [GGR] [D]

1830- Federal troops were sent to GA to evict miners from Cherokee land. [GGR]

1830- Georgia passed laws that Cherokees were incompetent to bring suit against or testify against whites, and that whites could not live in the Nation without an oath to uphold state law, the latter aimed at missionaries. [GGR] [CM]

December 1830- Moravian, Congregationalist, Baptist, and Presbyterian missionaries met at New Echota to sign a resolution supporting Cherokees. Methodists had already signed a similar document.[GGR]

1831- Pony Clubs, bands of lawless whites, had stolen 500 head of cattle in the Nation and had even made an attempt on the life of John Ross. They rode at night, burning and stealing, but there were also murders.[GGR]

1831-Because of a technicality in the way a case was filed, the Supreme Court ruled against the Cherokees, saying that they could not bring suit against the state.[D] [NG]

March 1831- The State of Georgia arrested several missionaries, including Worcester, but was forced to release them.[GGR]

July 1831-Eleven missionaries were arrested for refusing to take the state oath. Worcester had gone to Brainerd for safety, leaving his family with the Boudinots at New Echota. He returned in July when his newborn baby died, and he was arrested. Col. Nelson of the GA Guard released him when he learned the circumstances.[CM]

September 1831- Trial of the missionaries. Nine of them took the offer to leave the state and protect their families. Samuel Worcester and Dr. Elizur Butler were sentenced to four years hard labor and marched to the penitentiary.
 Evarts, ABF director, wrote them, encouraging them to submit to persecution as much good would be accomplished, such as calling forth the prayers of God's people, and encouraging the Cherokees.
 Their wives were able to visit in Nov. when Boudinot raised money for expenses. They found the two prisoners busy, cheerful, and admired by other inmates.
 Cherokees were not allowed to visit but often stood in sight at the edge of the woods, showing their support; or they brought cooked game.
 Both men were released, but not immediately, after a favorable Supreme Court ruling. This ruling prompted Jackson's famous response - that Justice Marshall had ruled and he could enforce it. The missionaries were imprisoned 16 months.  In 1996 the State of Georgia officially pardoned the two. [CM] [JE]

1832-Congress received a petition from 6000 citizens supporting the Cherokee cause.[JE]

1832-Andrew Jackson caused confusion by upholding Georgia's right to "nullify" the  Supreme Court decision of 1832 and then turning around and opposing Calhoun and nullification in SC. In GA, two parties were formed- the Troup Party opposing Jackson and the Union Party supporting him.[GGR]

1832-John Ridge was in Washington negotiating. Greene of the American Board and Chester, an attorney retained by them, advised John that they believed that further opposition to removal was futile. John returned home convinced, and soon his father was also convinced. Their change of position infuriated John Ross.[JE]

July 1832- John Ross was principal chief. The Council, under his leadership, decided to cancel scheduled elections and keep the present leaders. The Ridges argued against it.[GGR]

1832- Under pressure from Ross, Boudinot resigned as editor of the Phoenix. Ross appointed Elijah Hicks, a brother-in-law.[JE]

1832-Land Lottery - lands that were still held by Cherokees were illegally incorporated into GA counties and surveyed into lots to be raffled. Persons holding tickets were entered in a drawing. If a ticket was drawn, the holder could purchase a plot of land for a nominal fee. Gold lots were small, only 40 acres in size.
 In 1832, 18,000 gold lots and 35,000 land lots were raffled. Over 200,000 obtained tickets.
 Veterans were favored with two chances. Certain persons, such as felons, Cherokees, and known Pony Club members were excluded.[GGR]

1832-Bogan, a lottery official, was impeached for corruption. He had drawn certain lots for himself, including the home of Major Ridge, valued at $40,000.[GGR]

1832-Gov. Lumpkin granted the right to Boudinots and Ridges to stay in their homes in spite of their lands being included in the lottery. This was designed to give them time to negotiate a treaty. Cherokees accused them of conspiring with state leaders.[JE]

1832- At the suggestion of John Ridge, John Ross and James Vann headed a delegation to Washington. They were offered $3 million for all eastern lands excluding NC. They refused. Ross said that the gold was worth more than that, probably $20 million. [CM] [JE]

1833-More debates in Council. Over the next year other leaders, including John Walker, David Vann, James Starr, and Andrew Ross, John's brother, would attempt to negotiate in Washington. They often did not agree with Ridge or John Ross.
 John Ross wanted a compromise to keep part of the land. Ridge believed that this solution would keep them surrounded by whites and unprotected.[JE]
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1834-Council- violent disagreement over removal and threatened impeachment of Major Ridge, John Ridge, and David Vann. John Walker and Dick Jackson, returning home to TN, were ambushed and shot by Ross men. Walker died, and his father threatened Ross. Ross traveled with bodyguards for a while.
 Emily Meigs, Walker's widow, held two funerals - one traditional Cherokee and one Masonic.[JE]

October 1832-Council - Ross refused to prosecute the three for impeachment or to clear their names. They resigned from the Council and formed a rival Council [became the Treaty Party] with the support of Boudinot and 83 other Cherokees, many of the best educated of the tribe.[JE]

February 1835-John Ross and the Treaty Party were both in Washington for negotiations. Ross wanted to keep some of the Georgia land but was ignored with his request.
 John Ross proposed the sale of all land for $20 million. Jackson and Sec. of War Cass refused. Ross then proposed selling all the land with the Senate setting the price. His hope was to purchase a homeland in Mexico. To this end, he made initial contact with the Mexican consul.
 The Senate countered with the offer of $5 million. Ross began to back out of his position by saying that the matter should be decided by the Council.
 Cass and Jackson refused and resumed negotiations with the Treaty Party. [JE] [CM]

February 1835- Rev. John F. Schermerhorn, retired Dutch Reform minister, was appointed U.S. agent. Cherokees called him 'Devil's Horn".[JE] [GJ]

1835 -John Ross called for a day of prayer for the Nation. Evan Jones called his people in Valley Towns to repentance for slavery.[JE]

March 1835 - Treaty Party returned home with a preliminary treaty containing the same terms as the final New Echota document. Ridge had helped Jackson draft a "Letter of Friendship" to Cherokees.[JE] [GGR]
 

1835-Petitions and memorials poured into congress to "keep faith with the Cherokees."[CD]

July 1835-Council - John Ridge and John Ross each spoke and were cordial to each other. Schermerhorn also spoke. There was little support for the proposed treaty, especially among the full-bloods. [JE]

1835 -Georgia Guard seized the Phoenix printing press. [RW]

Fall 1835- John Ridge held a public green corn dance at his home. When Ross supporters tried to plan their own dances, the GA Guard broke them up. Ridge ended up with a crowd of dancers.[JE]

Fall 1835- Council at Red Clay opened with prayer and hymns in Cherokee. After three days, they reached a compromise. Five Ross men and five Ridge men signed an agreement that they would negotiate a treaty but would not accept the Senate's offer of $5 million. It was signed by John Ross, John Ridge, Charles Vann, and Elias Boudinot. [GGR] [JE]

October 1835- John Ross prepared to lead a delegation of 20 to Washington. Major Ridge was in ill health, and Boudinot's wife had recently died. Both declined to go, but John Ridge and Stand Watie accepted.  Schermerhorn called a meeting at New Echota for the same time.[JE]

November 7, 1835 - John Ross and Howard Payne, a journalist, were arrested by GA Guard at Ross's home in TN. They were taken to Spring Place and imprisoned in a room with two corpses, those of Cherokees who had been executed.
 John Ridge went to Spring Place to help with their release. He spoke at length with Ross and the commander. On the 16th Ross was released and his papers returned.[JE]

November 19, 1835- Payne was released, and he returned to Ross's home to begin writing again. One of his editorials stated that most Cherokees wanted to remain, become citizens of AL or TN, and that they were being tricked by the U.S. govt.
 John Ridge read it while traveling to Washington and was disturbed enough by what he perceived to be untruth to resign from the delegation.
 Ross persuaded him to remain, but their efforts were to no avail. Jackson and Cass refused to see them, telling them to return and negotiate with Schermerhorn. [JE]

December 1835 - Schermerhorn went ahead with his meeting at New Echota while the others were in Washington. In spite of promising blankets for all who attended, only 300-400 showed up.
 The final document was signed 12 /29 /1835 at Boudinot's house. All hesitated to be first. John Gunter stepped forward, and Andrew Ross, John's brother, was next. Major Ridge and Boudinot signed, having made previous statements that they would be signing their death warrants.
 On 12 /30 the Council present unanimously approved the treaty and sent it to Washington with Major Ridge. John Ridge and Stand Watie signed it. Ross and his supporters refused. [JE]

May 1836 - The Senate ratified New Echota Treaty, passing it by one vote. John Quincy Adams denounced it as an "eternal disgrace upon the country".[CM] [RW]

1836 - John Ross returned to Washington to try to buy time. He talked to Sec. of War Joel R. Poinsett, who held that position at least through 1838.[GG]

1836- Ross sent a memorial to Congress with 16,000 names protesting the treaty. Some have questioned if there were 16,000 adults at the time. Gen. Wool was rebuked by Pres. Jackson for helping send the memorial.[CM] [JE]

1836- Gen. Wool arrested Evan Jones. To help in a dangerous situation, Jones cooperated with Wool in collecting guns from Cherokees. Wool released him and told him not to preach inflammatory ideas. He and his wife moved just outside the Cherokee boundary in TN and opened a school.[JE]

1830's - The number of Baptist Cherokees increased 500%, most of them in the NC and GA mountains.[JE]

1836- Sam Houston, now Pres. of Texas, sent memorials to Washington on behalf of the Cherokees.[JE]

1837-Wool attempted to enforce a prohibition on sale of alcohol to Cherokees and soldiers. The state of Georgia protested. Increasingly sympathetic to Cherokees, Wool asked to be relieved of his command the same year. Winfield Scott replaced him and acted with some mercy in ignoring reports of Cherokees hiding in NC caves.[JE] [GJ]

1837-Banking crisis and economic panic in the U.S.[JE]

1837-John Ridge, Elias Boudinot, Samuel Worcester and 600 others left for Arkansas.[JE] [GJ]

May 1838- Gen. Winfield Scott proceeded with the gathering of Cherokees from their homes. They were taken to removal forts and eventually to three larger detention camps. Many were treated with abuse, especially by GA Guard.
 Scott spent all day at the Hiwassee camp to see that his orders were being followed. The Cherokees refused food for several days. Scott wrote that when they finally accepted it, he observed GA Guard members serving it, some with tears in their eyes.[JE] [NG]

Summer 1838- Because the Tennessee River was low, the original plan of the water route had to be changed. One group had gone, and Ross was concerned about the death rate. He persuaded Scott to allow Cherokees themselves to be in charge of removal. He and his brother Lewis, traders, received the contract to purchase wagons and supplies. The War Department was outraged at Scott's arrangements.[JE]
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1838- Conditions in the detention camps were terrible with overcrowding and disease. Vendors selling alcohol or food items surrounded them, competing for the little money Cherokees had left. They also sold to the soldiers.
 Jesse Bushyhead encouraged and led prayer in the stockades. [JE] [IR] [NG] [GJ]

November 4, 1838 - The last of the Cherokees left the stockades, moving west. They had been divided into 13 detachments, each with a "conductor". The Cherokee Light Horse Patrol went along, and some soldiers accompanied them - not to be in charge but to help. It was one of the coldest winters on record with days of rain followed by snow and bitter cold. One eighth of those who went on the Trail were African American.[JE] [GGR]

June 22, 1839 - Unknown to John Ross, three large assassination parties among his supporters "invoked the Blood Law", although an 1829 version required indictment and trial first. At about the same time, they ambushed and killed Major Ridge, Elias Boudinot, and John Ridge. John was brutally murdered in his own yard, with his wife and children watching.
 Samuel Worcester had been with Boudinot, and he sent a warning to Stand Watie, who escaped.[JE] [GJ] [CM]

1839 - Stand Watie killed John Foreman, one of the murderers, in a hand to hand fight.[JE]

1839 -U.S. agents accused John Ross of protecting the murderers.[JE]

1839 - John and Lewis Ross filed claims of $500,000 in additional removal expense caused by delays. They had been paid $66 per Cherokee in 1838, based on estimates. Poinsett and Pres. Van Buren denied the claim.
 Ross also pressed claims for the value of improvements on the eastern lands - buildings, churches, tribal govt offices, the printing office, and ferries.[JE] [GGR]

1840- Act of Union and a new constitution for the Cherokees.[CM]

1840's- Gold in the Georgia field began to "play out" just a few years after the Cherokees were forced out.[GGR]

1841-Pres. John Tyler agreed to pay the claim to the Ross brothers. It would be paid out of Cherokee annuity funds. [JE]

1845 -James Starr, a treaty signer, was assassinated. [Genealogy, George M. Bell, Jr.]

1845 - Bell, Adair, and Stand Watie escaped assassination by fleeing to Rusk Co, Texas.[Genealogy]

1846 - Chiefs called a fast day to pray about tribal division. Sequoyah repeatedly urged the parties to call an amnesty.[CM] [GJ]

1846- Treaty with the U.S. to unite the tribe and compensate for losses. [RW]

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XII.  SOURCES

[A]  The American Indian and the United States, a Documentary History Volume IV, 1973.
[AN]  Carl Waldman, Atlas of the North American Indian, 1985.
 [AP]  The American Pageant by Thomas A. Bailey and David M. Kennedy, 1983.
[AT]  J. G. M. Ramsey, Annals of Tennessee, 1853, reprint 1967
[B]  Louis DeVorsey, Jr., The Indian Boundary In The Southern Colonies, 1763-1775, 1961, 1966.
[BH]  Louis Booker Wright, South Carolina, a Bicentennial History, 1976.
[CD]   Helen Jackson, Century of Dishonor, 1880, 1994
[CG]   Kenneth Coleman, Colonial Georgia, a History, 1976
[CM]  Althea Bass, Cherokee Messenger, 1936
[CW]  Theda Perdue, Cherokee Women, 1998
[D]  Frances Paul Pruchka, Documents of United States Indian Policy, 1975,1990
[EB]  John R. Finger, The Eastern Band of Cherokees, 1984
[ET]  Somerset, Encyclopedia of Tennessee, 1993.
[F]  Vicki Rozema, Footsteps of the Cherokees, a Guide to the Eastern Homelands of the Cherokee Nation, 1954.
[FB]  Wilma Dykeman, The French Broad, 1955.
[FR]  Dave Foster, Franklin, the Stillborn State, 1994.
[G]  South Carolina, A Guide to the Palmetto State, WPA Writer's project, 1940, 1976.
[GG]  George R. Gilmer, Sketches of Some of the First families of Upper Georgia, of the Author and the Cherokees, 1926
[GGR]  David Williams, Georgia Gold Rush, 1993
[GJ]  Gloria Jahoda, Trail of Tears, 1975
[GS]  George Gilman Smith, The Story of Georgia and the Georgia People, 1901
[GW]  Grace Steele Woodward, The Cherokees, 1963.
[HC]  Emmett Starr, History of the Cherokee Indians and Their Legends and Folk Lore,1921.
[HG]  James M. Richardson, History of Greenville County South Carolina, Narrative and Biographical, 1930, 1980.
[I]  Journal of the Commission of the Indian Trade - 1710-1718 South Carolina Department of Archives and History,1955, 1983.
[IR]  Grant Foreman, Indian Removal, 1932,1972
[J]  Journal of the Proceedings of the Southern Congress, at Augusta, in 1763.
[JE]  John Ehle, Trail of Tears, 1988
[NG]  North Georgia Resource Center Website, internet
[JS]  John R. Alden, John Stuart and the Southern Colonial Frontier,1944.
[O]  Kinloch Bull, Jr., The Oligarchs in Colonial and Revolutionary Charleston,1991.
[OM]  Alderman, The Overmountain Men, 1970.
 [OR]  William Fitch, Origin, Rise, and Downfall of the State of Franklin, 1910.
[P]  Bernard Bailyn, The Peopling of British North America, 1986.
[R]  Chapman J. Milling, Red Carolinians, 1940.
[RA]  James L. Douthat, Robert Armstrong's Survey Book of Cherokee Lands, 1993.
[RH]  David R. Ramsay, History of South Carolina, Volume 1, first published in 1809.
[RW]  Ronald Wright, Stolen Continents, 1992
[S]  William Webster Adams, "The Lower Towns of the Cherokee Nation" Sandlapper, Year end 1991.
[SC]  Lewis P. Jones, South Carolina: A Synoptic History For Laymen, 1971.
[SP]  Page Bryant, The Spiritual Awakening of the Great Smoky Mountains, 1994.
[SW]  John R. Swanton, The Indian Tribes of North America, 1952
[T]  Wilma Dykeman, Tennessee: a History, 1984.
[TH]  Tennessee Historical Commission Publications, posters, various copyright dates.
[TM]  Thomas Mails, Cherokee People, 1992
[V]  A. P. Foster, The Volunteer State: a School History, 1936.
[WM]  William G. McLoughlin, Cherokees and Missionaries, 1984
[96]  Robert D. Bass, Ninety Six, 1978.
[500]  Alvin M. Josephy, 500 Nations: an Illustrated History of North American Indians, 1994.