The treaty of Sycamore Shoals was one of the most important treaties in American existence. It opened up the west for expansion when the colonist didn't even know how far the west went. It laid the groundwork for the removal by greatly diminishing the power of the Ani Yunwiya. It accomplished this by dividing a political power in the southeastern woodlands by causing a divide between the Overhill Tsalagi and the Tsikamagi (Tiscamogee). To understand how this occurs, you have to look at the man behind the Transylvania Company.
Richard Henderson was born in Virginia in1735, and sometime around age ten, he moved with his family to North Carolina.He went on to pass the bar exam and was certified to practice law. In 1763Henderson started appearing in lawsuits before a county clerk in Salisbury by the name of Squire Boone. He soon formed a friendship with Squire Boone's son Daniel. Later when in 1763, the French and Indian War concluded, Henderson met with John Williams, Thomas, and Nathaniel Hart. The four men formed Richard Henderson and Company for the speculation in western land for colonization.They then hired Daniel Boone as a hunter, but his real mission was to scout and survey.
In March of 1768, Richard Henderson became Justice of the Salisbury District. Later in the fall of 1768, the Treaty of Fort Stanwick was signed.The Treaty of Fort Stanwick is where the Iroquois Confederacy ceded all claims to lands south of where the Ohio River meets the Tennessee River. Only the Tsalagi laid claim to this land at this point. Now, this leads one to wonder if this started the wheels turning in the minds of the men of the Richard Henderson Company because, after his term ended in 1773, Henderson retired from the bench and went back into private practice for a short time. On August 27thof 1774, Richard Henderson and Company reorganized into the Louisa Company. It lasted only a few months because early the following year they reorganized the company as the Transylvania Company. By the end of that same month, word had reached Governor Josiah Martin of North Carolina.
On February 10th, he issued a proclamation against Richard Henderson in which he referenced The Royal Proclamation of 1763. This proclamation made settling west of the Appalachian Mountains illegal, calling the area west of the mountains Indian Reserve. This did not stop Henderson and the others, as they continued their designs on the Tsalagi land. On March 14th of the same year, representatives from the Transylvania Company met with the Tsalagi council. Members from the Watauga settlement were there, including John Sevier, James Robertson, and Isaac Shelby. People from the Transylvania Company were Richard Henderson, Thomas Hart, John Williams, Nathaniel Hart, and James Vann as an interpreter. The Tsalagi chiefs there were Oconostota, Attakullakulla, and Tsiyugunsini (Canoe he is dragging it). The council talks lasted three days, and several Tsalagi chiefs refused to sign Attakullakulla, Tsuyugunsini, Tuckasee, Terrapin, and Tanasee Warrior. Daniel Boone supplied whiskey to the Tsalagi.
According to the book, The Cherokees and Their Chiefs: In the wake of Empire, when the treaty is signed, James Vann is helping Oconostota and Raven Warrior sign the treaty because of drunkenness. In his deposition to the Virginia government about the purchases of land from the Indians, John Reid states that he did witness the Tsalagi chiefs drunk on the night after the signing. Reid also mentions that when the deeds were presented to the Tsalagi chiefs to sign,Oconostota asked Henderson to read him the land boundaries put forth in the deed, but Henderson refused. He wanted to wait until the deeds were signed then read them to the gathered Tsalagi.
In autumn of 1775, James Hogg found references to the Camden Yorke decision of 1757 that assigned title to lands in India having been conquered or given to the British government by treaty. Hogg then attempts to apply the law to the Transylvania Purchase. It didn't work because the opinion as written explicitly mentions the East India Company. Combine that with the Proclamation of 1763, and the fact that Virginia and North Carolina both voided the Sycamore Shoals Treaty. With all this, it seems clear that this treaty was illegal. This treaty also opened up the settlement of Kentucky and Tennessee, and if it is illegal then the lands acquired by this purchase still belong to the Tsalagi. In the end, Tsuyugunsini told Henderson" You have bought a fair land, but you will find its settlement dark and bloody."
It was a promise, and it was kept.
http://npshistory.com/publications/usfs/region/8/daniel-boone/history/chap8.htm
http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/1800
http://www.nativehistoryassociation.org/dragging_canoe.php
https://smithdray.tripod.com/draggingcanoe-index-9.html#talk
https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/187677
https://allthingsliberty.com/2021/07/the-cherokee-american-war-from-the-cherokee-perspective/
The Cherokees and Their Chiefs: In the wake of Empire by Stanley W. Hoig