|
#REDIRECT [[Chickamauga Cherokee]]
'Chickamauga' or 'Chickamauga-Cherokee' was a term used by whites to differentiate between the pro-British [[Cherokee]], led by [[Dragging Canoe]], and those abiding by the peace treaties signed in 1777 at DeWitt's Corner with [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] and [[South Carolina]] and at Fort Henry with [[Virginia]] and [[North Carolina]], allegedly ending Cherokee support of the [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] in the [[American Revolution]].
The Chickamauga wars were really a continuation of the Cherokee struggle against the encroachment of the colonials which had broken out into open warfare in 1775, in large part over anger at the Henderson purchase of the Kain-tuck-ee land between the [[Cumberland River]] and the [[Ohio River]] in the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals, a concern shared by many other tribes, especially the [[Shawnee]], with whom the Cherokee shared those lands as hunting grounds.
==The secession of the "Chickamauga"==
In mid-1776, the Shawnee had sent a delegation to meet with the Cherokee council at [[Muscle Shoals]], calling for united action against those they called the Long Knives, the squatters who settled and remained in Kain-tuck-ee, or as they called it [[Transylvania (colony)|Transylvania]]. The only Cherokee leader who accepted was Dragging Canoe ("Tsiyugunisini" in Cherokee).
Dragging Canoe, chief of Great Island town and son of [[Attacullaculla]], Principal Chief of the Overhill Cherokee on the [[Little Tennessee River]], refused to recognize the treaties of 1777, and gathering those of like mind from the Overhill, Valley, and Hill towns, migrated to what is now the [[Chattanooga, Tennessee]] area. At the site where the Great Indian War and Trading Path, one of the most important of the ancient highways crisscrossing the interior of the continent east of the [[Mississippi River]], they established what was later known as "Old Chickamauga Town" under Big Foot on the Chickamauga River (South Chickamauga Creek) across from the later Brainerd Mission, where the successor of John Stuart as superintendent of Indian affairs, Colonel Brown, and his assistant John McDonald set up their headquarters. Dragging Canoe himself lived at Chickamauga, and it was for this reason those of his faction were called Chickamauga by the whites.
In addition to Chickamauga, the so-called dissidents set up three other settlements on the Chickamauga River: Toqua, at the mouth, Opelika, a few miles upstream from Chickamauga town, and Buffalo Town at the headwaters of the river in [[North Georgia]]. Other towns were Cayuga on Hiwassie Island; Oonelace, halfway between Cayuga and the later Harrison; Ooltewah, under Ostenaco (on Ooltewah Creek, near [[Ooltewah, Tennessee]]); Sawtee, under Dragging Canoe's brother Little Owl (on Laurel Creek); Citico, along the creek of the same name; Tuskegee, under Bloody Fellow (on the north bank of the [[Tennessee River]] at the foot of Williams' Island); and Stecoyee, on the opposite side of the river from Tuskegee. It is important to note that though neither they nor the other Cherokee ever considered themselves anything other than Cherokee.
The land used by the Chickamauga-Cherokee was once the traditional ___location of many former towns of the [[Creek people|Muskogee]], and according to Cherokee legend came into the possession of the Cherokee after the Battle of Talliwa in 1755. However, the Muskogee tribes had actually withdrawn much earlier to leave a buffer zone between themselves and the Cherokee. In fact, when the colony of Carolina first began trading with them in the late 1600's, the westermost settlements of the Cherokee were the twin towns of Tellico (Talikwa, same as [[Tahlequah]]) and Chatuga at the current site of [[Tellico Plains, Tennessee]].
Many Cherokee, resentful of the white settlers who were moving into Cherokee lands, and sympathetic to the Chickamauga cause, joined the ranks of Dragging Canoe's followers. In addition, the Cherokee towns and villages of Hiwassie, Tennessee, Chestowee, Ocoee, and Amohee in the vicinity of Hiwassie River joined in several operations, as did the Lower Cherokee in North Georgia who'd been forced there from their previous homes in South Carolina by the Treaty of Dewitts' Corner. The [[Yuchi]] living on Pinelog, Conasauga, and Chickamauga creeks likely provided support as well.
The main targets of Chickamauga attacks were the [[Watauga River|Watauga]] and [[Holston River]] settlements in upper [[East Tennessee]] (as well as the later [[State of Franklin]]), those Cumberland, and isolated stations in between, along with ambushes of parties travelling along the Tennessee or the local sections of the many ancient trails that served as "highways" such as the Great Indian Warpath (from Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]] to northeastern [[Canada]]), the Cisca and St. Augustine Trail (from [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]] to the French Salt Lick at [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]], the Cumberland Trail (from the Upper Creek Path thru Lookout Valley to the Ohio Valley and [[Great Lakes]] thru [[Cumberland Gap]]), and the Nickajack Trail (from Nickajack, Tennessee to [[Athens, Georgia]]). However, this did not preclude their attacking targets in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
==Reaction==
In 1778-1779, [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]] and [[Augusta, Georgia]] were captured by the British, who supplied Dragging Canoe's band with guns and ammunition, and together they were able to gain control of parts of interior South Carolina and Georgia. In 1779, Virginia launched a counterattack under Evan Shelby, destroying the eleven towns in the Chattanooga area and most of their food supply. The towns, however, were soon rebuilt and occupied by their former inhabitants.
Dragging Canoe responded to the Shelby expedition with punitive raids, which led to Virginia Governor [[Thomas Jefferson]] to send an expedition of seven hundred Virginians and North Carolinians against him in December, 1780. Although charged to scrupulously observe the distinction between friendly and militant Cherokees, the force, led by [[Arthur Campbell]] and [[John Sevier]] became anxious as they approached the Chickamauga towns, and turned on the friendly Cherokee, claiming that they were wolves in sheep's clothing. They burned seventeen neutral towns, including the ancient "peace town" and capital of the Overhill Cherokee, [[Chota (Cherokee town)|Chota]]. They also destroyed 50,000 bushels of corn, killed 29 men, most of whom offered no resistance, and took 17 prisoners.
==Migration and expansion==
In September 1782, an expedition under Sevier once again destroyed the Chickamauga towns, and instead of rebuilding as they did before, Dragging Canoe and his fellow leaders chose relocation westward, establishing what whites called the Five Lower Towns downriver from the various natural obstructions in the ten-mile stretch of the [[Tennessee River]] known as "the Narrows", the most famous which was "the Suck", or the "Kettle", although a sizable party of Chickamauga warriors followed Turtle-at-Home, another of Dragging Canoe's brothers, who left the area and headed north to live and fight with the Shawnee.
The Five Lower Towns included Running Water in the current [[Marion County, Tennessee]], where in Dragging Canoe made his headquarters, Nickajack, five miles down the Tennessee River in the same county, Long Island on the Tennessee just above the Great Creek Crossing, Crow Town on the Tennessee at the mouth of Crow Creek, and Lookout Mountain Town at the current site of [[Trenton, Georgia]] in [[Dade County, Georgia]]. Tuskegee, at the foot of Williams Island, was reoccupied as a lookout post by a small band of warriors to provide advance warning of invasions.
Cherokee continued to migrate westward to join the Chickamauga, whose ranks were further increased by runaway slaves, fugitive whites, Muskogee, [[Coushatta|Koasati]], Kaskinampo, Yuchi, and [[Shawnee]], as well as a band of [[Chickasaw]] living at what was later known as Chickasaw Old Fields, across from [[Guntersville, Alabama|Guntersville]]. Later Chickamauga major settlements included [[Willstown]] ("Titsohili") near the later [[Fort Payne, Alabama|Fort Payne]]; Turkeytown, where the Upper Creek Path crossed the [[Coosa River]] near Center, Alabama; and Creek Path, near at the intersection of the Great Indian War and Trading Path with the Upper Creek Path at Guntersville. This expansion came about largely because of the influx of Cherokee originally of the Lower Towns of South Carolina and northeast Georgia later living in North Georgia in such towns as Coosawatie, Etowah, Ellijay, and Ustanali, among others, who fled the depredations of expeditions such as those of Sevier. Cherokee from the Middle, or Hill, Towns also came, a group of whom established a town named Itsati at the mouth of South Sauta Creek on the Tennessee. Another town, Coosada, was added when its inhabitants of Koasati and Kaskinampo origin joined Dragging Canoe's confederation.
Another allied settlement was Coldwater at Muscle Shoals, a mixed settlement of Cherokee and Muskogee at the mouth of Coldwater Creek on the Tennessee River, whose warriors, while not actually part of the Chickamauga, often fought alongside them. Initially, they got their arms and other supplies from a group of [[France|French]] traders on the [[Wabash River]] in the north, some of whom lived among them and fought with them, particularly against the settlements on the Cumberland River. Though this town was destroyed in 1787, it was soon reoccupied with the infamous Doublehead as its leader, who brought it into closer association with the Chickamauga.
==After the Revolution==
Following the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]], the Chickamauga turned to the [[Spain|Spanish]] for support, trading primarily through Pensacola and Mobile while dealing diplomatically with St. Augustine. They still maintained communications and some trade with the British at Detroit, however.
Eventually, Dragging Canoe realized that the Chickamauga could not carry on the fight by themselves, and that the only solution for the various Indian nations to maintain their independence was to unite in an alliance against the Americans, and in addition to fighting alongsided the Hiwassie and Lower Cherokee began to participate in actions with the Muskogee, Chickasaw, Shawnee, [[Choctaw]], even the [[Delaware tribe|Delaware]].
The murder of two Overhill chiefs, Old Tassel and Abraham, while under a flag of truce during an embassy to the State of Franklin, angered the entire Cherokee nation and resulted in those previously reluctant taking the warpath, an increase in hostility that lasted for several months.
In early 1789, a party of Shawnee came from the north, led by Chiksika ([[Cheeseekau]]), a leader contemporary with the famous [[Blue Jacket]] and brother of the later leader [[Tecumseh]]. Based out of Running Water, where Chiksika's Cherokee wife and daughter lived, they participated in and sometimes lead raids and other actions, in one of which Chiksika was killed, resulting in Tecumseh becoming leader of the small Shawnee band, and, therefore, one of the leaders among the Chickamauga as well, gaining his first experiences as a leader in warfare. His band remained until late 1790, then returned north.
In the summer of 1791, a delegation of Chickamauga under Dragging Canoe's brother Little Owl travelled north to meet with the Indian leaders of the [[Northwest Indian War]], chief among them Blue Jacket of the Shawnee and [[Little Turtle]] of the [[Miami tribe|Miami]]. While there they participated in the decisive encounter known as [[St. Clair's Defeat]], and when they returned south, they brought with them a party of thirty Shawnee under the leadership of one known as the Shawnee Warrior, along with Turtle-at-Home and at least some of the other warriors who'd accompanied him.
==Death of "the savage Napoleon"==
By the time of Dragging Canoe's death in 1792, the resistance of the Chickamauga-Cherokee had led to grudging respect from the settlers. His death came March 1 of that year following an all-night celebration of a just-established treaty of alliance with the Chickasaw in [[West Tennessee]]. He was succeeded as leader by John Watts, along with Bloody Fellow and Doublehead, who continued Dragging Canoe's policy of Indian unity with further alliances the the Muskogee and Choctaw in addition to continuing the one with the Chickasaw.
In September 1792, both the Shawnee Warrior and Little Owl died during a raid on a settlement on the Cumberland River known as Buchanan's Station.
==End of the "Chickamauga wars"==
The Treaty of Tellico Blockhouse finally ended the conflicts in 1794, and while ceding yet more land, led to a period of relative peace in the 19th century.
Counting the previous two years of open Cherokee fighting as British allies, the Chickamauga wars lasted nearly thirty years, one of the longest-running Indian vs. USA conflicts, often overlooked for its length, its importance at the time, and its influence on later native American leaders. It was, in fact, because of the continuing hostilities that following the Revolution one of the only two permanent garrisons in the territory of the new country was placed at Fort South West Point on Long Island on the Holston River, the other being [[Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania)|Fort Pitt]]. No less underrated is Dragging Canoe's abilities as a war leader and diplomat, and even today he is scarcely mentioned in texts dealing with conflicts between "Americans" and "Indians".
==Aftermath==
Following the peace treaty, there was no further separation of the main Cherokee and the so-called Chickamauga-Cherokee. In fact, the leaders of the former Chickamauga were dominant in national affairs. When the national government of all the Cherokee was organized, the first two persons to hold the office of Principal Chief, [[Little Turkey]] and [[Black Fox (chief)|Black Fox]], had previously served as warriors under Dragging Canoe, as had the first two national Speakers, Doublehead and Turtle-at-Home.
Many of the former Chickamauga warriors returned to several of the original settlements of the Chickamauga and re-established the towns in the Chattanooga area along with completely new ones, and several others in [[North Georgia]] (including, most notably, Etowah, a town of mostly full-blood traditionalists that became the largest), and joining with the remnant of the Overhill towns on the Little Tennessee River were referred to as the Upper Towns, with their center at Ustanali in Georgia and with the former Chickamaugas [[James Vann]] and [[Major Ridge]] as their top leaders, along with George Lowery, Dick Justice, The Glass, John McLemore, and others. The majority of the former Chickamauga, however, remained in the towns they inhabited in 1794, with their seat at Willstown, and were known as the Lower Towns. The settlements of the Cherokee remaining in the towns of western North Carolina were known as the Hill Towns, with their seat at Qualla, and the Valley Towns, with their seat at Tuskquitee.
==The Scots==
The traders and British government agents who'd been dealing with the Cherokee prior to the Revolution either migrated with the "Chickamaugas" or else moved to coastal areas from which they could better aid their allies, and after the Revolution ended, worked with Spain instead to keep them supplied. Nearly all of them were of [[Scottish people|Scottish]] (especially from the [[Scottish Highlands]]) or [[Scots-Irish]] extraction, men such as Alexander Cameron, and included John McDonald, John Clement Vann, Daniel Ross, John Stuart, John Walker, William Buchanan, James Grant, John D. Chisholm, John Rogers, John Benge, and William Thorp, among many others. See [[Scottish Indian trade]].
==Tecumseh's return==
Before beginning his great campaign in 1811, Tecumseh returned to his former Cherokee allies, who were then in the midst of a religious revival led by the prophet Tsali, who had earlier fought with the Chickamauga and was later executed for violently resisting Removal in 1838, which is referred to by Mooney as the "Cherokee Ghost Dance" movement. In his meeting with the national council at Ustanali, many of the leaders were moved enough to support his cause, until the former Chickamauga warrior Major Ridge spoke even more eloquently in rebuttal. Tecumseh nevertheless drew forty-seven Cherokee warriors into his retinue, and when he returned north following his embassies to the tribes of the Southeast, they went with him. There is speculation that it was they or their descendants who began the [[Mercer County, Ohio]], community of Chattanooga.
==Origin of the word "Chickamauga"==
According to James Mooney, the word "Chickamauga" is more properly spelled Tsikamagi in Cherokee, and had long been the name of at least two places: a headwater creek of the [[Chattahoochee River]], and the region around South Chickamauga Creek near present-day Chattanooga, Tennessee, but Mooney was told that the word is not Cherokee. He states that Chickamauga may be derived from Shawnee, and indeed there is a small town and a channel on the coast of North Carolina near [[Cape Hatteras]] called Chickamacomico, meaning "dwelling place by the big water", which is also the name of a river in [[Maryland]], both areas having originally been inhabited by tribes speaking variations of the Algonquin family of languages, of which Shawnee is one example. Anthropologist and ethnohistorian E. Raymond Evans, however, states that "The name comes from the Cherokee attempt to say Muskogee "Chiaha Olamico" which means 'The Upper Chiefdom'", and that "Tsika-magi was the way the Cherokees attempted to pronounce the Muskogee words."
==References==
*Eckert, Allan W. "A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh". (Smithfield Publishers, 1995).
*Klink, Karl, and James Talman, ed. "The Journal of Major John Norton". (Champlain Society, Toronto, 1970).
*McLoughlin, William G. "Cherokee Renaissance in the New Republic". (Princeton University Press, 1992).
*Mooney, James. "Myths of the Cherokee and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee". (1900. Reproduced Charles and Randy Elder-Booksellers, Nashville, 1982).
*Moore, John Trotwood and Austin P. Foster. "Tennessee, The Volunteer State, 1769-1923, Vol. 1". (Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1923).
==External links==
* [http://www.rootsweb.com/~itcreek Creek Nation Indian Territory]
[[Category:Cherokee tribe]]
[[Category:Native American tribes]]
|
