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TENNESSEE

HISTORICAL MAGAZINE

Vol. 4

MARCH, 1918

No. 1

INDIAN WARS AND WARRIORS OF THE OLD

SOUTHWEST, 1730-1807.

(Copyright, 1918, Albert V. Goodpasture.)

CHAPTER I.

ATTAKULLAKULLA AND OCONOSTOTA.

The Cherokees adhere to the English; some of their warriors killed by the Virginians; they take satisfac tion in the Carolinas; Governor Lyttleton declares war against them; their peace envoys are imprisoned, and subsequently massacred; Colonel Montgomery's campaign against their Middle towns. 1730-1760.

The Cherokee Indians first became known to the white man in 1540, when the daring Spanish adventurer, Fernando De Soto, entered their country in his fruitless search for gold. They were the mountaineers of the south, and held all the Alleghany region from southwest Virginia to northern Georgia, their principal towns being on the headwaters of the Savannah, Hiwassee, and Tuckasegee, and upon the whole course of the Little Tennessee River, grouped in three main settlements, known as the Lower towns, the Middle or Valley towns, and the Overhill towns. Their hunting ground, whose boundaries were vague and shadowy, and in many places contested, may be said, in a general way, to have embraced all the extensive domain encircled by the Ohio and Tennessee rivers, including the blue grass regions of Kentucky and Tennessee which the Indians called the "dark and bloody ground."

Their men were large, tall, and robust; in complexion somewhat lighter than the men of the neighboring tribes; while some of their young women were nearly as fair and blooming as European maidens. Their dispositions and manners were grave and steady; their deportment dignified and circumspect. In conversation they were rather slow and reserved, yet frank

'Myths of the Cherokee. By James Mooney, p. 14.

and cheerful; in council, secret, deliberate, and determined. Like all true mountaineers, they stood ready to sacrifice every pleasure and gratification, even life itself, to the defense of their homes and hunting grounds.2

Early in the struggle between France and England for commercial and territorial supremacy in America, the French conceived the scheme of detaching the Indians from England by means of a strong cordon of military posts, extending through the Ohio and Mississippi valleys from Canada to Louisiana. In 1714 they built Fort Toulouse, on the Coosa River, a few miles above the present Montgomery, Alabama. From this southern stronghold they rapidly extended their influence among the neighboring tribes until it was estimated that three thousand four hundred warriors, who had formerly traded with Carolina, had gone over to France, two thousand were wavering, and only the Cherokees could be considered friendly to the English.3

To check this growing influence of the French, Governor Nicholson, of South Carolina, held a treaty of peace and commerce with the Cherokees in 1721. Afterwards the Royal government took the matter up with a view of drawing them into a closer alliance. For this purpose Sir Alexander Cumming was sent to the Cherokee Nation in the spring of 1730, and met the chiefs of all their towns in the council house at Nequassee, on the Little Tennessee River, near the present town of Franklin, North Carolina. He so impressed them by his bold bearing and haughty address that they readily consented to all his wishes, acknowledging themselves, on bended knee, to be the dutiful subjects of King George. He nominated Moytoy, of Tellico, to be their emperor, a piece of trumpery invented by Governor Nicholson nine years before, which was wholly without effect, as the Cherokee Nation made no pretense to a regular government until nearly one hundred years later. However, it was agreed to, and they repaired to their capital, Tennessee, a few miles above the mouth of Tellico, on the Little Tennessee River, where a symbol, make of five eagle tails and four scalps of their enemies, which Sir Alexander called the crown of the nation, was brought forth, and he was requested to lay it at the feet of his sovereign on his return."

"Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulgees or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Choctaws. By William Bartram, pp. 482-3.

'Mooney's Myths of the Cherokee, p. 35.

'Opinions of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Tennessee. The State vs. James Foreman, Nashville, 1835, pp. 34-5.

"Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee, pp. 46-7; Drake's Indians of North America, 15th edition, pp. 366-7.

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