We, being labeled as the merciless, savage Indians, beast of prey that only wolves differ in shape, is a unconscionable title, from the Declaration of Independence and George Washington.
We are Tiscamogee from Ahmayeli, the mist in the water by Nelhonuh, when the earth divided. We are Eshheeloarchie, Keepers of the Sacred Fire. We are of the Mobililan race and speak Erati. We are the defenders of our homeland. We are Chickamauga! Being Chickamauga is not a character deficiency, but a consciousness of our identity with rights to Indian title and claims without interference from non-Chickamauga. In Elk v. Wilkins, 1884, it was ruled that Indians from within the territorial limits of the United States are member of and owing immediate allegiance to, one of the Indian tribes. We, Chickamauga by law and blood, owe immediate allegiance to our tribe.
We are a separate and distinct People of no recent origin. We possess the essential elements of the laws enjoyed and exercised by our ancestors.
It is recorded in the US War Department Records, September 13, 1792, John Sevier to Tennessee Gov. William Blount: Notification of divide in Cherokee Nation, five Lower Towns declare war. With this information, we refer to Montoya v. US, 1901. Congressionally ratified, President George Washington’s Fourth Annual Message to Congress identify the Chickamauga. On November 26, 1792, Secretary of War, Henry Knox ordered Tennessee Gov. William Blount to end the conflict with Chickamaugas. The evidence of our existence is rich in the National Archives. Those that make the allegations we do not exist do so with in appropriations in research methods showing ethical lapses to create detrimental research, a form of collective punishment toward the Chickamauga identity, creating cultural amnesia.
Oppositional research will show the change of names of Cold Water Town (Amauhyaji), Running Water (Amogayunyi), Nickajack (Nikutsegi), Mussel Shoals (Dagunaya), Big Island (Amoyeli Equa), Nashville (Dagunawelohi), and names of People such as Dragging Canoe (Tsiyugansini), Tahlonteeski (Ataluntiski), and Attakullakulla (Adagalkala). The change of identity, history and culture swayed by documented fraud does not abandon truth.
Tennessee had miscegenation laws from 1741-1977. 25 US Code § 181 rules the rights of white men, not otherwise a member of any tribe of Indians who may not, after August 9, 1888, marry an Indian woman, member of any Indian tribe in the United States, or any territories, August 9, 1888, chap. 818 § 1, 25 Stat. 392.
Does not a Supreme Court ruling have effect? Mitchell v. United States, 9 Pet. 711 (1835), all prior transactions in the territory were superior in title to subsequent title derived from the United States. The Treaty of July, 1775, claims this land belongs to the Cherokee People for the rest of time, so how can the state of Tennessee legally confiscate the James Bigby reservation #13 in December, 1820 and then, through legislative act of August 22, 1822 sell this reserve land? How can Sam Houston sell Indian land west of the Mississippi and have the deed filed in Nashville, July 6, 1831?
The state of Tennessee has no jurisdiction in Indian offenses or affairs according to The State v. Foreman, 16 TN 256 (1835). The ruling followed the Johnson V. McIntosh decision on the idea of conquest. The Treaty of Sycamore Shoals, March 14,1775, under the British Comden-Yorke opinion of 1757, rejects aboriginal title territory seized by plunder was valid. Again, Supreme Court ruling, Fleming v. Page, 1850, also ruled conquest does not stand.
The historical societies of Tennessee counties record Indian families. These are official histories recorded in my area: Dotson – Brown family, 1897, John Hatcher family, 1820, George Melton family, Chief Eagle Feather, 1949, William Rodgers family, 1908, Samuel and Sally Scott, 1829, Pulaski Hooper family, 1900, Curtis and Smith families.
The reminder of many removals, miscegenation laws, lack of representation and the guarantee of parsonage and good neighborhood are continually and currently being ignored. The history is being distorted. The Tennessee Blue Book, The History of Tennessee, 2017-2018, Tre Hargett, Sec. of State, dedicated to Gov. Bill Haslam of Tennessee, page 557, “James Robertson organized a strike force that invaded the Chickamauga country burned the Renegade Lower Towns.” This action violated US War Department orders. One of the powder horns on display at the William Whitley house is inscribed, “I am your horn, the truth I love, a lie scorn. Fill me with the best powder, I’ll make your rifle crack the lowder (sp). See how the dread terrifik (sp) ball make Indians bleed and Tories fall.”
On September 10, 1908, the Rodger’s family, Tumbling Creek, Humphreys County, TN, testified before the Indian Commission that they were Cherokee by blood and Nedra Harris, Big Cabin, OK, affirmed this. This family is 3rd cousins to William Boudinot, going back to Elias Boudinot who was killed in 1839 by Riley W. Keys and Jackson Rattling Gourd. We are aware of the history, the fears and the threats of being Chickamaugas.
One of these detrimental reminders are used in universities in Tennessee. A book, Tennessee State of the Nation, 4th Edition, Larry H. Whitaker and W. Calvin Dickson, 2006, Cengage Learning, ISBN1-1334-4202, page 3, states “As the Chickamauga Chief Dragging Canoe had warned they would []“a dark and bloody ground” as one Tennessee writer phrased it. Every acre was paid for in blood land. When all the Indians were dead or ethnically cleansed as refugees to the west.” A Tennessee University has admitted to ethnic cleansing of the Chickamaugas in 1794. The prevailing lack of history, or distortion of, will have you believe Jesse Duncan was the first white man to die in Tennessee in 1765. Historians forget that whites were killed at Ft. Loudon in 1761. James Mooney, Bureau of Ethnology anthropologist, recognizes Chickamaugas and the National Park Service excavation #40MR5 in Monroe County, Tennessee identities Chickamaugas in official reports. Historians failed to inform you that the Cherokee National Council politically purged the Chickamaugas as undesirable citizens with no representation. The Tennessee Magazine, a Meriwether Lewis Electric Cooperative publication, has articles on history for kids riddled with misinformation and sways the public to stereotype the Indians. This creates genocidal and racist literature affecting our children and the public.
The Chickamaugas have not been terminated. According to The Doctrine of Unmistakability, federal and state governments cannot contract away or otherwise surrender the attributes of sovereignty except in unmistakable terms. Transfer of governmental sovereignty cannot be inferred from silence in a contract.
A resolution for the recognition of the Historical Native American Indian Tribes of Tennessee was passed by the Tennessee Commission of Indian Affairs, March 4, 2006, Nashville, TN. Number 7 is about the time of the American Revolution. A War Chief known as Dragging Canoe and his followers did separate from the Cherokee Nation and form a new tribe known as the Chickamaugas; and they established new towns in the lower Tennessee and Sequatchie River Valleys, both within Tennessee and the neighboring states of Georgia and Alabama.
St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, McEwen, TN, has recorded in their History, page 3: A group of Cherokee Indians settled one mile west of McEwen in 1930.
On June 20, 2010, Mark Green, Plaintiff, lobbyist for Cherokee Nation, a federally serviced Indian Corporation established in Oklahoma, filed suit in Tennessee opposing the recognition of remnant tribes in Tennessee. Article VI of the US Constitution rules the Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state. An Act of Congress, April 26, 1906, 34 Stat. 137, rules that Cherokee Nation no longer exists as a distinct political entity. The issue was made clear in United States v. Cherokee Nation, 202 US 101, Jan 16, 1906, and referenced the Act of 1902, July 1st where the term Indian or band separates from the body politic of the Nation.
Julie L. Reed, August 24, 2010, professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and member of the Cherokee Nation, testified in the Green v. Tennessee Indian Commission suit that if the Indians who remained were not on the Trail of Tears, they lost their heritage. A CN member cannot make policy without the consent of the Department of Indian Affairs, 2012. She is not a permanent CN resident and has separated from the jurisdiction of the Cherokee Nation (of Oklahoma). She does not live in a distinct Cherokee Nation (of Oklahoma) community. Nor can she contract away or otherwise surrender attributes of sovereignty except in unmistakeability terms. She also did not have an executor document to represent the Cherokee Nation. Transfer of governmental sovereignty cannot be inferred from silence in a contract. They are not the original Cherokee government only successors of interest, as stated by Larry Echohawk, during his tenure as the Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The Office of the Attorney General of Tennessee returned the decision to the Honorable Jay Reedy on the opinion request concerning Cherokee/Chickamauga treaty rights. It declined to issue an opine, April 15, 2016, of the involvement of the Tennessee Indian Commission into the affairs of Indians in Tennessee. The problem is the Tennessee Indian Commission violated Montana V. United States, 1983. Many of the people on the Commission were from out of state Tribes or were not Indian.
The NAIA in Tennessee is not currently under control of any and all actions of any Indians in this state. They are a corporation run by out of state Indians, some Federally recognized and determine the policies and procedures which the state follows. They repudiate any movement in TN on the actions by us to claim any historical identity or current residency.
The timeline of Chota, TN, shows in the Records of the War Department, June 5, 1788: to Andrew Pickens, Chota and 6 towns left so Creek and whites can fight. Records show they moved to Georgia. Documents of United States Indian Policy, by Francis Prucha, shows the report of Henry Knox, July 18,1788, on the white outrages against Indians which violates the Hopewell Treaty of 1785. In 1979, Sequoyah v. TVA, 480 F. Supp. 608, (E.1), TN, 1979 was filed in behalf of Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee for the return of land at Chota and TVA won the lawsuit. Presently, HR3599 in the US Congress working on granting Chota, Tennessee back to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Land Acquisition. The Chota people went to Georgia, not North Carolina. They are not the same people. The US Supreme Court ruled March 1, 1886, that the Cherokee in North Carolina had dissolved their connections with the Cherokee Nation and ceased to be a part of it when they refused to accompany the main body at the time of removal. If the land is to be turned over to anyone outside the state of Tennessee, it should be returned to those who went to Georgia and the time of abandonment, not those from North Carolina.
These are only a few of the issues the Chickamauga in Tennessee face daily. The historical negationism and the deliberate mistranslating of factual historical events are of high importance so our identity, treaty rights, intellectual property, etc., will be given the honored legacy of truth for our People and the general public.