Cherokee military history
The
Traditional military leadership
Before the 18th century, Cherokee political leadership (much like that of the neighboring
War of the Cherokee and Chickasaw with the Shawnee (1710)
Around 1710 the Cherokee and the
The Cherokee allowed another group of Shawnee to pass through their territory to settle on the
Tuscarora War
Except for limited trading contact, the Cherokee were relatively unaffected by the presence of European
The first army, commanded by John Barnwell, campaigned in North Carolina in 1712. By the end of the year a fragile peace existed, and the army dispersed; no Cherokee were involved in the first army. Hostilities between the Tuscarora and North Carolina broke out soon afterwards.
In late 1712 to early 1713, a second army from South Carolina fought the Tuscarora. At the start, this army commanded by Colonel James Moore consisted of 33 Carolina militiamen and over 900 native warriors of various tribes. As the campaign progressed through North Carolina, Moore's army was reinforced to over 100 militiamen and native troops dwindled to over 700 warriors. Like the first army, the second depended heavily on the Yamasee and
Destruction of Chestowee
The Tuscarora War also marked the rise of Cherokee military power, demonstrated in the 1714 attack and destruction of the Yuchi town of Chestowee (in today's Bradley County, Tennessee). English traders Alexander Long and Eleazer Wiggan instigated the attack with deceptions and promises, although there was a preexisting conflict between the Cherokee and the Yuchi. The traders' plot was based in the Cherokee town of Euphase (Great Hiwassee), and primarily involved local Cherokees.
In May 1714, the Cherokee destroyed Chestowee. Surviving inhabitants who were not captured fled to the
Yamasee War
In 1715, as the Tuscarora War was winding down, the Yamasee War broke out and a number of tribes launched attacks in South Carolina. The Cherokee participated in some attacks, but were divided over which course to take. After South Carolina's militia drove off the Yamasee and the Catawba, the Cherokee became pivotal; South Carolina and the Lower Creek tried to enlist Cherokee support. Some Cherokee favored an alliance with South Carolina and war on the Creek, and others favored the opposite.
The impasse was broken in January 1716, when a delegation of Creek leaders was murdered at the Cherokee town of
In 1721 the Cherokee made their first cession of land to the British, selling the South Carolina colony a small strip of land between the Saluda, Santee and Edisto rivers. Moytoy of Tellico was chosen as "Emperor" by the elders of the principal Cherokee towns in 1730 at Nikwasi. Alexander Cumming had requested this to gain control of the Cherokee. Moytoy agreed to recognize King George II of Great Britain as protector of the Cherokee. Seven prominent Cherokee (including Attakullakulla) traveled with Cumming to England, and the Cherokee delegation spent four months in London. Their visit resulted in the 1730 Treaty of Whitehall, an alliance between the British and the Cherokee. The journey to London and the treaty were important to future British-Cherokee relations, but the title of Cherokee Emperor had little influence with the tribe. Although Moytoy's son Amouskosette tried to succeed him as "Emperor" in 1741, the power in the Overhill country had shifted to Tanasi and then to Chota.
The Cherokee "empire" was essentially ceremonial, with political authority remaining town-based for decades afterward, and Cumming's aspirations to play an important role in Cherokee affairs failed.[6] In 1735, the Cherokee were estimated to have 64 towns and villages and 6,000 fighting men. In 1738-39, smallpox was introduced to the country by sailors and slaves. An epidemic broke out among the Cherokee (who had no natural immunity), and nearly half their population died within a year; hundreds of others, disfigured by the disease, committed suicide.[citation needed]
War with the Muskogee-Creeks
The conflict between the Cherokee and the Muscogee was over disputed hunting grounds in what is now North Georgia, lasting from 1753 to 1755. It culminated in victory for the Cherokee after the Battle of Taliwa.
Anglo-Cherokee War (1759–61)
After hearing reports of French fort-building plans in Cherokee territory (as they had Fort Charleville at the Great Salt Lick, now
War with the Chickasaw and major land cessions in 1763
After their success against the Muscogee, the Cherokee turned their attention west, to the hunting grounds of the Chickasaw in what is now northeast Alabama from 1758 to 1769. After eleven years of intermittent warfare, they were defeated at the Battle of Chickasaw Old Fields.
Watauga Association
Following the 1771
Transylvania Purchase
In response to the first attempt by
In 1775 a group of North Carolina speculators led by Richard Henderson negotiated the Treaty of Watauga at Sycamore Shoals with
Dragging Canoe, chief of Great Island Town (Amoyeli Egwa) and son of Attakullakulla, refused to accept the deal: "You have bought a fair land, but there is a cloud hanging over it; you will find its settlement dark and bloody".[10] The governors of Virginia and North Carolina repudiated the Watauga treaty, and Henderson fled to avoid arrest.
Second Cherokee War
In 1776 the Shawnee chief Cornstalk led a delegation from the northern tribes to the southern tribes and met with Cherokee leaders at Chota, calling for united action against those whom they called the Long Knives. At the end of his speech he offered his war belt, and Dragging Canoe (Tsiyugunisini) and Abraham of Chilhowee (Tsulawiyi) accepted it. Dragging Canoe also accepted belts from the Odawa and the Iroquois, and Raven of Chota Savanukah accepted the Lenape war belt.
The Middle Towns were to attack South Carolina, the Lower Towns Georgia, and the Overhill Towns Virginia and North Carolina. The Overhill Cherokee was disastrous, particularly for those under Dragging Canoe against the Holston settlements because the settlers had been warned by Beloved Woman Nancy Ward. Abraham of Chilhowee could not take Fort Watauga, and Savanukah did no real military damage. After the failed raids, Dragging Canoe led his warriors to South Carolina to join the Lower Towns attack.
North Carolina sent 2,400 troops, including Rutherford's Light Horse cavalry, to scour the Middle Towns; South Carolina and Georgia sent 2,000 men to attack the Lower Towns. More than fifty towns were destroyed; houses and food were burned, orchards destroyed and livestock slaughtered. Hundreds of Cherokees were killed, and survivors were sold as slaves. Virginia sent a large force and North Carolina sent volunteers to the Overhill Towns. Dragging Canoe, who had returned with his warriors, ordered the Cherokee towns burned, women, children and the elderly moved south of the Hiwassee River and the Virginians ambushed at the French Broad River. Oconostota advocated peace at any price, supported by the rest of the older chiefs.
Dragging Canoe and his followers moved southwest as those from the Lower Towns poured into North Georgia. The Virginia force found Great Island, Citico (Sitiku), Toqua (Dakwa), Tuskegee (Taskigi), and Great Tellico deserted, with only the older chiefs remaining. Christian, commander of the Virginia force, limited the reprisal in the Overhill Towns to the burning of deserted towns. In 1777 the Cherokee in the Hill, Valley, Lower, and Overhill Towns signed the Treaty of Dewitt's Corner with Georgia and South Carolina and the Treaty of Fort Henry with Virginia and North Carolina, agreeing to stop warring and ceding the Lower Towns in return for protection from attack.
Cherokee–American wars
Dragging Canoe and his band migrated to the area near present-day
Because of Chickamauga Cherokee activity, frontiersmen, colonies and states launched punitive raids against the Cherokee (usually the Overhill Towns). However, large forces invaded the Chickamauga area in 1777 and destroyed all eleven towns. After another invasion in 1782 Dragging Canoe and his people moved further west and southwest to what became known as the Five Lower Towns, west of the Cumberland Mountains and below the navigation hazards in the Tennessee River Gorge. Because of their new location and additional populations from the Lower Towns people, he and his people began to be known as the Lower Cherokee. Their headquarters was not invaded again until the final year of the wars.
Around this time that Dragging Canoe, now based in Running Water Town (Amogayunyi, present-day Whiteside, Tennessee), began to cooperate with the Upper Muscogee—usually as separate forces but sometimes combining for large operations. The Shawnee and other northern tribes were allies, and the Shawnee sent warriors to fight with his band. Chiksika and his younger brother, Tecumseh, were members of a Shawnee war party which remained for nearly two years. The Cherokee responded in kind, sending warriors north.
As Dragging Canoe and his fellows in the other southern tribes were forming a coalition to fight the Americans with the aid of the British, the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783. He went south to Pensacola, receiving support from the West Florida Spanish to continue his war and maintaining relations with the British governor at Detroit.
The 1788 murder of Old Tassel, headman of the Overhill Cherokee and chief of the Cherokee, and several other pacifist chiefs invited by the State of Franklin, outraged the Cherokee. More joined the Chickamauga Cherokee in their raids or carried out raids of their own. Franklin sent a large force to invade the Five Lower Towns, which was defeated at the foot of Lookout Mountain. Dragging Canoe raised an army of over 3,000 Cherokee and Muscogee which split into war bands, some of which were hundreds strong.
Four more years of frontier warfare ensued. Dragging Canoe returned to his hometown in 1792 after a long diplomatic trip in which the Lower Muscogee and Choctaw accepted his invitation to join the war; the Chickasaw declined. After a large dance at Lookout Mountain Town (Utsutigwayi or Stecoyee, present-day
He was succeeded as leader of the Lower Cherokee by Old Tassel's nephew, John Watts, assisted by Bloody Fellow and Doublehead. Watts quickly renewed the alliance with Spain through West Florida and shifted his headquarters to Willstown (present-day Fort Payne, Alabama). The next year, he sent a delegation to Knoxville (capital of the Southwest Territory) to seek a peace. This delegation (which included his deputy, Doublehead) was attacked. Watts raised an army of over one thousand Cherokee, Muscogee and Shawnee. Although they were thwarted at Knoxville, they destroyed several smaller settlements along the way. Activities at one, Cavett's Station, set in motion rivalries which would dominate Cherokee affairs into the 19th century.
The following autumn (1794) General Robertson, military commander of the Mero District (as the Cumberland River settlements were called) in the Southwest Territory received word that the Lower Cherokee and Muscogee planned large-scale attacks on his region. He sent a large force of U.S. army regulars, Mero District militia and Kentucky volunteers south. The force destroyed Nickajack, one of the Five Lower Towns, and Running Water without warning. Most of the towns' population was at a stickball game several miles south, at Crow Town.
That incident and the defeat that summer of the army of their northern allies under the Shawnee
After the wars
After the peace treaty, the Lower Cherokee leaders dominated national affairs. When the original
The Lower Cherokee had their governmental seat at Willstown, in the Lower Towns (south of the Hiwassee River, along the Tennessee to the northern border of the Muscogee nation and west of the Conasauga and Ustanali in Georgia). The Upper Towns were north and east, between the Chattahoochee and Conasauga.
The seat of the Upper Towns was at Ustanali (near Calhoun, Georgia). It was also the titular seat of the nation, with former warriors James Vann and his protégés, The Ridge (formerly known as Pathkiller) and Charles R. Hicks—the Cherokee Triumvirate—their leaders (particularly of the younger, more-acculturated generation). The leaders of these towns were the most progressive, favoring acculturation, formal education and modern farming methods. Cherokee settlements in the highlands of western North Carolina, known as the Hill Towns with their seat at Quallatown, and the lowland Valley Towns (with their seat at Tuskquitee) were more traditional. So was the Upper Town of Etowah, inhabited mainly by full-bloods and the nation's largest town.
When the Cherokee Nation began to be pressured to migrate westward across the Mississippi, Lower Cherokee leaders were the first to leave; the remaining Lower Towns leaders, including Young Dragging Canoe and Sequoyah (George Guess), were the strongest advocates of migration. The domination of the nation's external affairs by former warriors lasted until an 1808 revolt by the young Upper Towns chiefs, which unseated Black Fox and the Glass until the reunification council at Willstown the following year abolished regional councils.[11][12]
Alliance with USA against Mvskokee/Creek 1814
The
American Civil War
Eastern band
Out of gratitude to William Holland Thomas, the western North Carolina Cherokee served in the American Civil War as part of what became known as the Thomas Legion of Cherokee Indians and Highlanders. Thomas' legion consisted of infantry, cavalry, and artillery. The legion mustered about 2,000 Cherokee and white men to fight for the Confederacy, primarily in Virginia; their battle record was outstanding.[13] Thomas' legion and the Western District of North Carolina, under Brigadier General John Echols (of which it was the only effective unit), surrendered after capturing Waynesville, North Carolina on May 9, 1865 when they learned about Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House. The decision to surrender was Echols', the senior commander; Thomas wanted to keep fighting. They agreed to cease hostilities if they could keep their arms for hunting. Brigadier General Stand Watie, commanding officer of the First Indian Brigade of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi and Principal Chief of the Confederate Cherokee, demobilized his forces under a cease-fire agreement with the Union commander at Fort Towson (in Choctaw Nation territory) on July 23, 1865.
Western bands
The Civil War was devastating for the Western Cherokee, who fought on both sides. After their forced
Because of Native alliances with the Confederacy, the
Cherokees, Muscogee Creeks, and Seminoles joined Union regiments organized by William A. Phillips of Kansas. They fought in Missouri, Arkansas and at Honey Springs and Perryville in the Cherokee Nation.[14] Most Cherokee traditionalists supported the abolition of slavery, opposed the South and formed an association known as the Pin Indians, identifying themselves with a pair of crossed pins under their coat lapels.[15]
Principal Chief John Ross tried to keep the Cherokee Nation out of the war, issuing a proclamation of neutrality in 1861.
In 1863 the Cherokee Nation abolished
20th century
Cherokees have served in both world wars. About 600 Cherokee and Choctaw served in the
Admiral Joseph "Jocko" Clark, an Oklahoma Cherokee, was a highly decorated admiral in the United States Navy for his command of aircraft carriers during World War II. Clark's rank was the highest achieved by a Native American in the US military.[23]
Second Lieutenant
21st century
The United Keetoowah Band Lighthorse Color Guard is composed of the band's military veterans. According to band chief George Wickliffe, "If you're Native American, you're going to fight harder. That's the kind of track record the Keetoowah Cherokee veterans have. You fought harder because this is your country". Veterans are honored at the Eastern Band's annual fall festival.
See also
Notes
- ^ Sturtevant, 346
- ^ Vicki Rozema, Footsteps of the Cherokees, pp. 10–11.
- ^ La Vere, David (2013). "Col. James Moore". The Tuscarora War: Indians, Settlers, and the Fight for the Carolina Colonies. University of North Carolina Press.
- ISBN 0-300-10193-7.
- ^ Oatis, pp. 187–8
- ISBN 0-253-33985-5.
- ISBN 978-1-469-62122-7.
- ^ Rozema, pp. 17–23.
- ^ Watauga Petition Archived 2009-06-09 at the Wayback Machine; Ensor Family Pages.
- ^ Evans 1997, p. 179.
- ^ McLoughlin, pp. 33–167.
- ^ Wilkins, pp. 28–51.
- ^ Will Thomas. "History and culture of the Cherokee (North Carolina Indians)" 2007-03-10
- ^ a b c d Britton, Wiley. "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War”, Civil War Home, retrieved 21 Sept 2009
- ^ a b Conley, p.174
- ^ Conley, 175
- ^ "We are all Americans", Native Americans in the Civil War. Fort Ward Museum and Historical Site. (retrieved 21 Sept 2009)
- ^ Gesick, John. Nineteenth-Century Practices, Twenty-First Century Decisions. Humanities and Social Sciences Online. March 2009 (retrieved 21 Sept 2009)
- ^ Conley, 177
- ^ Native Americans in the U.S. Military. Naval Historical Center.(retrieved 16 Sept 2009)
- ^ Meadows, 71
- ^ Ambrose, p. 144
- ^ "Admiral Joseph Clark" Archived October 5, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Cherokee Heritage Center Education, (retrieved 16 Sept 2009)
- ^ Billy Bob Walkabout, Second Lieutenant, United States Army. Arlington National Cemetery. (retrieved 16 Sept 2009)
- ^ "United Keetoowah Band Honors Tribal Veterans" Archived April 13, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees, retrieved 18 September 2009
- ^ Head Staff Profiles. Austin Powwow. (retrieved 18 September 2009)
References
- Ambrose, Stephen E. D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II, Simon and Schuster, 1994. ISBN 978-0-671-67334-5.
- Conley, Robert J. The Cherokee Nation: A History, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8263-3234-9
- Evans, E. Raymond. "Notable Persons in Cherokee History: Ostenaco", Journal of Cherokee Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 41–54. (Cherokee: Museum of the Cherokee Indian, 1976).
- Evans, E. Raymond. "Notable Persons in Cherokee History: Bob Benge". Journal of Cherokee Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 98–106. (Cherokee: Museum of the Cherokee Indian, 1976).
- Evans, E. Raymond. "Notable Persons in Cherokee History: Dragging Canoe". Journal of Cherokee Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 176–189. (Cherokee: Museum of the Cherokee Indian, 1977).
- Finger, John R. Cherokee Americans: The Eastern Band of Cherokees in the 20th Century. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1991).
- McLoughlin, William G. Cherokee Renascence in the New Republic, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. ISBN 978-0-691-00627-7.
- Meadows, William C. The Comanche code talkers of World War II, Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0-292-75274-0.
- Rozema, Vicki. Footsteps of the Cherokees: A Guide to the Eastern Homelands of the Cherokee Nation, John F. Blair Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-0-89587-346-0.
- Oatis, Steven H. A Colonial Complex: South Carolina's Frontiers in the Era of the Yamasee War, 1680–1730, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-8032-3575-5.
- Sturtevant, William C., general editor and Raymond D. Fogelson, volume editor. Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast. Volume 14. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2004. ISBN 0-16-072300-0.
- Tortora, Daniel J. Carolina in Crisis: Cherokees, Colonists, and Slaves in the American Southeast, 1756–1763. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015. ISBN 1-469-62122-3.
- Wilkins, Thurman. Cherokee Tragedy: The Ridge Family and the Decimation of a People, New York: Macmillan Company, 1970. ISBN 978-0-8061-2188-8.
- United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KZ6N-98B : accessed 06 Jan 2014), Lige Meadows, 1917-1918; citing Memphis City no 4, Tennessee, United States, NARA microfilm publication M1509, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d); FHL microfilm 1877500.