By BARBARA R. DUNCAN
By June of 1776 Cherokees, backcountry settlers, and colonial governments were all moving closer to war. In Philadephia on June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress authorized the creation of a Continental Army, under the command of George Washington. Not only the official government, but colonists in the backcountry west of the Appalachians prepared to fight. In the Cherokee Overhills, a delegation of “northern Indians” visited Chota, requesting an alliance for war against the “Long Knives,” their name for Virginians and by extension, all Americans.
The illegal settlers in Cherokee country, the “Wataugans” included about 100 families living on or near the Watauga River. They had been warned repeatedly by the colonial authorities and by the Cherokees and to leave or be removed, but they stayed. Henry Stuart, Indian agent, wrote to them guaranteeing that the British Army would protect them, and would even pay for their livestock if they declared loyalty to Great Britain and left Cherokee land.
The Wataugans ignored his offer and forged a letter with Henry Stuart’s signature. In this letter they falsely said that all the Cherokees, the British militia, and groups of Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws were about to attack the frontiers of Virginia and North Carolina. No such force was assembled, but their letter reached representatives of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Thomas Jefferson believed them, and included this information in the Declaration of Independence as evidence of King George III’s misdeeds, referring to the “merciless Indian savages.” In reality, Henry Stuart advised the Cherokees not to harm women, children, or any British subjects, and not to cross the boundary line—the crest of the Appalachians.
In the Cherokee Overhills, a delegation of northern Indians—14 chiefs from the Mohawks, Delawares, Ottowas, Nantucas, and Shawnees- came to ask for the Cherokees’ help.
The Mohawk emissary spoke shortly after they arrived. He explained that their journey took much longer than usual because they had to take a 300-mile detour. Their hunting grounds, once full of deer and buffalo, were now occupied by white men with weapons and forts. And they found traces of large groups of whites with horses and cattle on the road “from Holston to Kaintuckee.” This was on Cherokee land, on the trail that was opened to wagon traffic by Boone and his axe men the year before, immediately following the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals. Warriors of Chota painted the flagpole and poles in the townhouse red and black for war, and people began assembling.
Henry Stuart, Indian agent for the British, had arrived earlier and was greeted with an Eagle Tail Dance. Alexander Cameron was present; he was the Indian agent living in the Lower Towns, married to a Cherokee woman and the adopted brother of Dragging Canoe. White traders were also present, many of whom had Cherokee wives and children. Cherokees were present “from different parts of the nation,” which would have included Lower, Middle, and Valley Towns as well as the Overhills. Some from every town were painted black for war.
When the large council began, the Mohawk emissary, speaking for the Six Nations, brought out a white and purple wampum belt.
I suppose there is not a man present who cannot read my talk. The white beads are my people, who were at peace. The black beads are the Long Knives, who came into our towns without provocation, and killed our people, and the son of our greatly Beloved Man, Sir William Johnson. The strings of black and white wampum are our people who were killed.
What is the case of my people one day may be the case of any other nation another day. My people the Mohawks are fighting the Long Knives. They have sent me to secure the friendship of all Nations of Indians, for the interests of all red men are one. The red men must forget their quarrels amongst themselves, and turn their eyes and thoughts one way. I now offer you this belt, and if my brothers the Cherokees agree with what I have said, let them take it.
The belt was given to Dragging Canoe, and he accepted it.
Then the Ottawa representative spoke, bringing out a white belt with purple designs. He expressed a desire for friendship with all their red brothers. He said that while they were constantly at war with each other, their common enemies were taking advantage of them. They hoped that every nation would quit their quarrels and join in common cause. He said the French in Canada would assist them. He presented the belt to Dragging Canoe, who accepted it. A young man from the Delaware Nation spoke much the same, and gave a belt of white wampum, which was received by the Raven.
Finally the last speaker began: Cornstalk, leader of the Shawnee people. He brought a war belt of purple wampum nine feet long and six inches wide, covered in vermilion (red paint.)
In a few years, the Shawnees, from being a great nation, have been reduced to a handful…The lands where but lately we hunted close to our nation are thickly inhabited and covered with forts and armed men…It is plain there is an intention to extirpate us.
But it is better to die like men than to diminish away by inches…Our cause is just and we hope the Great Being who governs everything will favor our cause.
Now is the time to begin. There is no time to be lost, and if we fight like men, we might hope to enlarge our bounds…We intend to carry our talks through every nation to the southward, and any nation that refuses to be our friend on this occasion will forever hereafter be considered our common enemy. We will fall on them all when affairs with the white people are settled.
This belt was given to and accepted by Dragging Canoe. For several minutes no one spoke or moved to show support, which was done by laying hold of the belt. Then a head man from Chilhowie took the belt and began singing the War Song. All the northern Indians and the young Cherokee men “from all parts of the nation” joined in the chorus. The Cherokees were going to war.
Sources
J.P.Brown. Old Frontiers; the Story of the Cherokee Indians from Earliest Times to the State of Their Removal to the West, 1838. (Kingsport, Tennessee: Southern Publishers, 1938) https://archive.org/details/oldfrontiersstor0000brow/mode/2up.
Colin G. Calloway, The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
Henry Stuart, “Letters August 25, 1776” In North Carolina Colonial Records Volume 10, Pages 763-785.
Anthony F.C. Wallace. Jefferson and the Indians; the Tragic Fate of the First Americans. (Boston: Belknap/Harvard University Press, 2001.)
