Chickamauga History from Beginnings Part 2

Below you will find a small amount of the history we have been able to document over years of research into the historical Identity of the Chickamauga and the differences with the Cherokee. This is a compilation work and intended for the use documenting the Academic Research requested by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in 2019.

The United States Pleads with the Cherokee to Stop the Chickamauga

The United States in an effort to stop the Chickamauga raids asked the Cherokee reign them in. The response was we don't control them do as you the white wish, as found in the aforementioned letter from Joseph Martin to Henry Knox. The leadership didn't volunteer the fact that Oconostata and Council voted to banish Dragging Canoe and allied families from the tribe. It would have been viewed as Oconostata being the cause of a thirty-year war. This is the second time this has happened. The assassinations of the twenty-four lower town Chiefs at Fort Prince George was the first betrayal of Oconostata “Pro French” to the lower towns. What the Cherokee did was to attempt to tighten its relationship with the United States by providing intelligence on the families involved and their village locations. Several expeditions were conducted by various officers to locate the lower towns bases of operation. But the shoals of the Tennessee river prevented farther penetration into the lower Appalachians. Not to mention constant attacks by the upper creek and other tribes in the area. Dragging Canoe had to seek permission from the Creek leadership Big Mortar to establish towns in that territory. It was granted. If not for the family ties it would not have happened. These ties going back to Big Mortar an Upper Creek Chief.

The Over Hill Complain to the United States

The Overhill began to complain to the United States that the Lower Town people were more profitable in negotiations than they were. The Lower Towns simply took advantage of the trading system of the deep south with Spain. Whereas the Overhill were locked into an existing network with heavy competition. Oconostota's long laid plan to control trade in the south was eroding. Leading to the young chiefs' rebellion over his pro French ideas.

The over hill Cherokee began assisting the U.S. via Colonel John Sevier through Nancy Ward the Cherokee beloved woman. According to the Jefferson Papers, she visited his camp and provided the locations of Dragging Canoe’s towns and how to identify Chickamauga via weapons and so forth (Spanish). There are family ties at work here we are very familiar with due to our extensive genealogical work on the associated families. This was one of three betrayals she carried out. This resulted in the killing of several leaders, elder men, woman, and children. Several are documented to have been sold into slavery. Coyatee was 130 dead alone! This began the genocide and the wedge that has forever divided our common family ties. Nancy Ward should have said nothing according to family and clan law. 

Additional Land Cessions

The Cherokee continued to sell land in North Carolina and Tennessee. They were headquartered at Chote in northern Tennessee. While we of the Lower Villages were headquartered at Ostanalee for generations. Two separate councils. We are also noted for objecting to a single person rule of leadership the United States was pushing for. We wished to maintain our traditional form of governing ourselves. This means that chiefs or headmen from multiple villages made up the councils. We have many chiefs they have one. This is true to date. 

The Overhill Abandon their Capital at Chote

The Overhill having sold the land out from under themselves. They once again go on the offensive abandoning Chote. Now with the surge of Cherokee refugees from TN, NC, and VA, they begin executing lesser leaders in Ostanali. They planned and formed a coup to take over the lower town government. Several of the more prominent leadership were spared. Within a very short period of time with the new leadership established they founded New Town later renamed New Echota. This served as their new capital. They had to do something quickly because there was no way they could maintain control of north Georgia being if spread out. So they consolidated their wealth and center of power at New Echota. Everyone knew who was of what family lines. Those refugees they created had to go somewhere. Right on top of us. The old families were at a disadvantage due to many choosing to move to Spanish territory later known as Arkansas. We couldn't fight back with our families and leadership divided. We had spent the better part of two generations fighting multiple fronts. As history shows just a few short years later the Cherokee sell the lands of the Creek in Georgia (Treaty at Augusta) and a couple of years later the whole thing through a treaty obtained fraudulently known as the Treaty of New Echota 1835. 

Collusion to Defraud Natives in Georgia

The Federal Government colluded with the State of Georgia to defraud Native Americans in Georgia. This is evident with the Federal government making the Compact of 1802 with the State of Georgia to remove Indians “at a time when the chose to remove”, yet the treaties were still made. We were not a party to this compact. Is It binding? 

A Government Divided Major Ridge and John Ross

There were two primary parties or factions involved. One was the Ross party and the other was the Ridge Party. Ross was arguing against removal and was the head of the government. We would not call it legitimate based on the continued executions of lower town chiefs and the previous events at Oostanali. However, we need to understand that the boundary was described previously in the Supreme Court case Cherokee Nation Vs. Georgia, and Worcester vs Georgia 31 US 515 1832. The Boundary was established in the Treaty of 1817 & 1819 as it applied in Georgia. Many lower town people had left for Arkansas under Double Head and his brother Talonteske both were guiding groups there. There the refugees established their own Council and Government. Today they are called Old Settlers. Georgia having overstepped its authority for years began selling Creek and Cherokee land to its own citizens beginning in 1828. Major Ridge and a very few others traveled to his sons' home in Tennessee. There they voted Ridge in as the chief of the Cherokee. How is it possible for a group of people to elect a chairman, president or chief, outside of the Cherokee Nation? We have a jurisdictional issue here! Well understood at the time due to the treaty boundaries under discussion.

The Cherokee Constitution clearly indicates the election process. They then begin meeting with officials at New Echota and in Washington D.C. expressing their desire to quickly ratify a new treaty with the United States ceding all the lands in the east. Meanwhile, Ross is gathering signatures of some 15,000 Cherokee opposing removal and the treaty. The United States took any treaty they could get with anyone's signatures and ratified it. But never explaining the nature under which it was acquired. 

The United States Fails to provide the Protection it Guaranteed to the People

Oddly enough in Article 12 of the treaty of 1835 one will notice that Cherokees only, as stated had the right to become citizens of the state they resided in, except Georgia. What of those who chose to remain with the majority being in Georgia. Before the federal government steps in as was requested for several years earlier. The State militias carried out terrorism all over the Cherokee territory. Not just in Georgia but Tennessee and North Carolina as well. Under what Article of the State or Federal constitution gives any state militia the right to take and retain territory on behalf of a State? They did the dirty work, the Feds stepped in after the fact, not because of our complaints of abuses, but that gold was conveniently rediscovered at Dukes Creek and later Dahlonega. Spain was mining gold there from the late1500s until 1711 when English explorers reported that the location of the mines had been found. The Cherokee was not involved, until the later years. Gold mining was well known for centuries in this area. But this was used as if it were a new discovery and justify an illegal occupation and takeover of the territory. In 1833 the city was named Talonega by the Georgia General Assembly on December 21, 1833, the name was changed from Talonega by the Georgia General Assembly on December 25, 1837, to Dahlonega, which means yellow in Cherokee. That's odd! Georgia legislatively founded a city within treaty boundary more than two years before any treaty was signed by anyone!

The Attorney General of the United States justified Georgia’s actions in a letter to John Ross going back to the Cherokee siding with the British, even though the United States made a treaty in 1817 and 1819 that specifically stipulated in the Treaty with the Cherokee 1819, Article 6 the Cherokee boundary. Both the Cherokee Nation vs Georgia and the Worcester case of 1835 expressly stated we have our own boundaries and that neither Georgia nor anyone else can enter without the Cherokee Governments consent. Georgia passed legislation creating counties and providing for a land lottery. So, we have the land sold to Georgia citizens by the state of Georgia long before any treaty, secondly, they are legislating cities most preexisting but changed the names, then we have reserves as outlined in the Treaty of 1819 that write wishing to keep their land to the Indian Agent and are told their land will be included in the Land Lottery. Now we have 31counties in Georgia as they exist today under a clouded title. The exact same thing happened in Tennessee. Except the US government granted land to revolutionary war officers and soldiers as payment for their service in the Revolutionary War. Whether a state or the federal government carries out the act the end result is the same clouded title and land acquired by means of fraud.

Georgia's Land Lottery Sells Land Under Treaty to State Citizens

In July 1790, Congress passed a law which forbids states and individuals from dealing with tribes and from buying Indian lands. This law is still in effect today. The United States Constitution in Article I, the United States Constitution accomplishes the goal of excluding states and individuals from Indian affairs by stating that only Congress has the power “To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes.

The land lottery served several purposes but the primary one was to use the state citizens to invade the territory while the State claims it can’t stop them. The purpose of the 1785 treaty 7 stat 18 was to stop the Chickamaugas from killing state citizens trespassing within treaty boundaries. Had most of the veteran warriors not left for Arkansas history may have turned out differently. Those who remained were not willing to lose everything by picking up the hatchet so to say. We gave our word not to retaliate and we kept it. For that keeping of a promise, the Georgia guard rapes our country as well as our women as the federal government turned a blind eye. As Andrew Jackson said “Let Chief Justice Marshall enforce it” Those who guaranteed us protection in every treaty failed in that obligation. Much to the dismay of the people. So as the Indian removal Act was legislated as a voluntary removal Georgia made it a forced removal.

Follow the Money

Let's look back at why the Chiefs treated the land away that wasn't theirs and how this led to some very wealthy Cherokee families. Annuities, each time a treaty was made many of the chiefs were given an annuity every year. Often op to 2000 dollars. Sign two or more treaties over ten years and you are doing very well relative to the average Cherokee. 2000.00 dollars in 1840 is equivalent to 57,600.00dollars. The average farm laborer could expect to make .80 cents per day that's292.00 dollars per year. With some chiefs getting multiple annuities some would have been making the equivalent today of over one hundred thousand per year. That's a pretty good incentive to sell out your own people. Instantly you are six times wealthier than the average person. This is how Vann, Ross, and others-built mansions of their day. Instead of taking the five dollars or so per person for immigrating, our families kept their farms and tried to hold onto their land. The Ridge and Ross faction never paid those who remained. They kept the money. Complaints were made on the disbursements or lack of but it was pocketed. 

The Purging of Families

The U.S. government paid those claiming to be in leadership, they were to disperse the funds. Cherokee Nation NC. filed suits over the years and won. Our families were purged from the rolls. They then passed laws there that anyone outside of the newly formed Cherokee Nation was no longer citizens. This allowed them to retain the disbursement intended for those who remained east. Today tribes purge rolls in an effort to increase individual proceeds from casino operations. The person is accused of some minor crime and the whole family is removed from their rolls. 

Will Holland Thomas wrote many letters to the Congress and war department. He exposed the profiteering of the Ross family and associates made during and after the removal. Will Thomas was the spokesperson for those who remained in the mountains of NC. He became chief and was the adopted son of Drowning Bear. His letter outlined how in 1850 how Ross divested those remaining in the east of their allotments. He also notes that he cannot speak for those remaining in Georgia but that the members appointed to the Indian claims commission were changed out three different times due to the granting of too many claims. It was noted that the claims originating from Georgia were denied at a rate beyond that of other states. This is also apparent in the Guion Miller Rolls with those accepted and rejected. It is often found in the affidavits listed in the series of books Cherokee by Blood that blood family members are accepted while a sister and or brother is rejected. We know today that the determination was often made based on the applicant's reference to being associated with those in North Carolina or not. It is not yet clear on the intent of this determination other than to reduce government expenses paid out to claimants. Several studies have shown that the original valuation on land and improvements was one-third of the actual value. This became apparent as people applied to the Indian Claims Commission explaining the differential in valuation and expense the government expected. Other rolls in the 1870's county by county in North Georgia gives us a picture of how many families are documented and remained in Georgia. 

We Remain Chickamauga

We are who we are and remain Chickamauga. There are those families who took the oath to Georgia but there are many times that amount who for generations wanted nothing to do with the United States or the State of Georgia. The thought process was and to some degree is If they find you to be a descendant of an Indian someone or the state will either kill you and family, take your land in the courts or force you to leave the state or take you away by force. With the memory of genocide and entire villages repeatedly burned over multiple generations than a forced removal dividing families not to mention laws against Indians remaining on the books until 1996 there is a reason for a stigma that only we as descendants of those atrocities can understand. This is what we are taught as children generation after generation.

How We Remained

Our families, well established in their communities only saving grace was they were more often than not the pillars of the communities. Cherokee planters as called. When the militias and the federal troops come in they need corn lots of it. Who owns the grist mills sawmills and the blacksmith shops as well as the mercantile businesses whose names still appear on them today? The US officers knew not to destroy those homes families and farms because their mission depended on those supplies. In many cases, they may have taken what they wanted but often they ordered subordinates to protect the resources. This necessity is how we remained here in our own territory to this day. 

Many families remained having become mixed-blood particularly in the area that became Habersham County. This was the location of the Wofford Settlement. It was supposed to be outside of the treaty boundary but was found to be inside. For an entire generation, people complained about white families moving in. Well, they just became part of the community.

McGivillary did from time to time run newcomers off according to his reports. Many just returned to be ordered to leave again. Interestingly we find that during the removal one never finds a family of Indians being rounded up from that part of the state. If one lived outside of the boundary you were safe. It turned out to be a kind of no man's land. General Winfield Scott had enough to deal with managing controversy. It was Gilmer county where things were most threatening. Many flat refused to leave and many hid in the mountains all along the North Georgia border. Rumors began to circulate that the Indians were not going to remove but begin killing every white person they could find. This was a fabricated rumor. The history of Union County Georgia makes references to several totally different unrelated groups of Indians in that county after the removal. Winfield Scott also made the statement that it was not militarily feasible or cost-effective to go deep into the mountains expending men and resources over some four hundred people. They would deal with it next year. Some did give up and turned themselves in. Many simply remained in areas there was little militia or military presence in northeast Georgia. Others made it into North Carolina joining those at Qualla.