This is why the Spanish Governors Miro and Francisco Luis Hector, baron de Carondelet never made treaties with the Overhill (cherokee nation). They only made treaties with the Chickamauga, lower-town, (Cherokee Nation as the Spanish called them)
American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, From the First Session of the First to the Third Session of the Thirteenth Congress, Exclusive: Commencing March 3, 1789, and Ending March 3, 1815
Letter from the Little Turkey to Governor Blount, dated 5th June, 1793.
FRIEND AND BROTHER: •
'
I am now to inform you of all that has passed l1ere of late amongst us. A few days before our meeting with the Northward Indians, I received two talks upon paper, one from the Chickasaws, the other from the Choctaws, with their token of friendship; that is, beads, which was very good talks, desiring of us all, if possible, to keep peace With all the States of America, and all white people,·and hold them all fast by the hand, which pleased me very much, and which I am determined to do as long as it is in my power; and if, the Creeks or Northward Indians send or deliver any bad talks to us, not for us to mind them, nor to take hold of them, but to abide and remember the talks we hear and receive from our oldest brothers, the white people; which I sent them my talk back, and thanked them for their advice to me, and was glad to hear both nations thought and was of the same mind as myself. Now my friend I shall acquaint you with our meeting with the Northward Indians. But it is too long to put on paper; what is not wrote here I refer you to my friend John Thompson. When we all met I told all my people for every man to speak his mind freely, and not for them to think one thing and speak another; if any of them was for war let them say it publicly, and them that was for peace let them say it; now was the time for all of us to speak. As soon as I had done, the head-man of the Northwards got up and gave out his talk from thirty-three different nations, which was long, and not pleasing to me; I sat still to hear what answers my own people would give; they got up one after another, and every head-man delivered their talks to them, which pleased me very much. It then was the last; I got up and told how they had served us twice before now, encouraging us to break out war with the white people, and you would assist us; we did so twice.
All the time we were at war, where was there a man of you ever offered to come to our assistance? Now you want to deceive us the third time; but don't you think now we are to be deceived again by your talks. You tell us you are at war with the white people, and you have plenty of goods and ammunition amongst you, and we might have the same amongst us. I now ask you how we should be supplied; you say we might go or send for it. I now tell you it is too far for us to go where they lived, and we could not make it ourselves; they said we might apply to the Spaniards; it was not far off. I told them they were strangers to me, to the chief of our nation, and was a lying, deceitful, treacherous people, and not real white people, and want few I have seen of them looked like mulattoes, and I would never have anything to say to them. After I had told him a great deal more about other things which is not wrote here, which my friend will acquaint you of, the head-man of the Northwards got up, when he found we were all for peace and said: He did not now want us to go to war, but for us all to be on our guard against the white people encroaching on us, taking our land from us, and when he wanted us to break out war, he would let us all know when to take up the bloody hatchet. I told him we head-men were all for peace, and to have no war, neither with white people nor red but wanted peace with all which was best for us all to do and abide by.
You may be assured both the Spaniards and these very Northward talks that was given out all over the Creek nation, which created a great confusion amongst them, which had like to turned out to very bad consequences, and would had it not been for the Mad Dog of the Tuckaubatchees, ,who is a good man and sent me in a good talk to keep peace if possible as he wants to do, and not to give ear nor to take no notice of the Northward Indian's talk, which I have sent my talk back to him; I would not take hold of it as some of the Lower Creeks had done, for they were glad of the Spaniards' talk, and the Northwards, and killed some people, and would have done a great deal more, only the Mad Dog interposed, and I hope has put a stop to it; that it will not come to an open war,which would be very bad; but he says it is impossible for him to keep all the foolish mad young men from stealing horses, and killing white people, and this disturbance that exists in the Creeks, was the reason of my not answering yours, and our father's, the President's, kind invitation to go and see him this summer. Now I will acquaint you with my reason likewise; if all the head-men here was to go, perhaps it would be of very bad consequence; when we are all gone, perhaps some of our foolish young men, like the Creeks, might take the Northward talks and go and do mischief after we were gone; which we have concluded to stay until every one is settled in their mind, and we hear the Creeks and Georgia people have settled all their disturbances; and then I will let you know when we are ready to go with you to Philadelphia to see our father. And one great reason for our not going this summer is, corn being so scarce amongst us, that we are obliged to buy every grain we eat at a very dear rate, and what little we get are obliged to go at least one hundred and forty or fifty miles for it. I expect in three or four days our hoeing will be done for the first time; then I shall set off a corn hunting, and when I return I expect to come home naked, being obliged to give all my own clothes, as well as my woman's for corn, and not me alone, for there is three or four more as poor as myself. Now, my friend, you may always look to hear the truth from me, for you shall never hear a lie, and all news that is of any consequence I would be glad you will write me, and let me know how you like our proceedings with the Northward Indians, and conclude with my being your friend and brother.
Cherokee Renascence in the New Republic by William G. McLoughlin ISBN-13:978-0691006277
During the 1820's the Cherokee Council began to develop a special code of laws to regulate black slaves in the nation, a practice parrallled (sic) the development of black codes in most of the surrounding states. But racial prejudice against blacks had been growing for some time. One of the earliest recorded examples of racial consciousness among the Cherokees was in 1793 when Chief Little Turkey was explaining during the guerrilla wars why he would never ally his nation with the Spanish. He found Spaniards closer to blacks in appearance and behavior that to "Real white people," he said. Spaniards were swarthy in complexion :and what few I have seen of them looked like mulattoes, and I would never have anything to say to them."
By 1825 the younger generation of mission-educated cherokee leaders, who had never known a time when blacks were treated as equals, were happy to be able to say to whites that their nation, unlike their Seminole and Creek neighbors, "there is hardly any intermixture of Cherokee and African blood." Or, as John Ridge put it in 1826, "There is a scanty instance of African mixture with the Cherokee blood, but that of the white may be as 1 to 4, occasioned by intermarriages." Young Ridge wanted to indicate that Cherokees and whites were allied in the nation in the honorable status of matrimony, while whatever mixture there was of African blood had occurred illicitly between scandalous Cherokee slaveholders and female slaves.
Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples by Jack D. Forbes ISBN-13: 978-0252063213
In 1793 a prominent Cherokee leader, Little Turkey, declared that the Spaniards were not "Real white people, and what few I have seen of them looked like mulattoes, and I would never have anything to say to them" This statement, designed to please Anglo-Saxon ears, is perplexing only if we conceive of the term "mulatto" as referring to the narrow mixture of Black African and European Caucasian. The "Spaniards" of Florida and Louisiana were, of course, largely mixed with Arawak-Carib and North American native ancestry as well as with Black African and North African.
The American Indian Past and Present by Roger L Nichols ISBN-13: 978-0471003960
The early attitude of Indians toward Negroes is obviously of great importance. To some extent, it has been dealt with, but conclusions have differed. Laurence Foster and James Johnston are certain that the early feeling of Indians was one of friendliness. On the other hand, some students, mainly Southern historians, stress hostility. As a matter of fact, a great deal of hostility seems to have existed in the eighteenth century. In 1752, the Catawba Indians showed great anger and bitter resentment when a Negro came among them as a trader. Perhaps the Cherokee had the strongest color prejudice of all Indians. Even the Spaniards were not " White" enough for them. In 1793, Little Turkey, a prominent chief, declared that Spaniards were not "real white people, and what few I have seen of them looked like mulattoes, and I would never have anything to say to them." According to John Brickell, an early eighteenth century reporter Indians had a "natural aversion to the Blacks." In 1763, George Milligen Johnston, a South Carolina physician, opined that this hostility was mutual and spoke of the "natural Dislike and Antipathy, that subsists between them [Negroes] and our Indian Neighbors." But the Southern historians have not explained why Indians disliked Negroes.