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The Chickamauga Nation has academically proven it is a federally recognized tribe which has been excluded through an oversight from federal servicing. They are academically verified as being an indigenous people with their religion and culture originating in the Southeast Ceremonial Complex. Academic verification of the Fourth Annual Address of George Washington which specifically identifies them and describes their possession of the Five Lower Towns thus acknowledging them and acknowledging their treaty lands. Their numerous years of receiving annuities from the United States, numerous treaties their Chiefs signed including the Treaty of 1785, the Hopewell Treaty, and sixteen (16) other Treaties which specifically identifies them and provides them with land held in reserve; and finally, they have never been terminated by the United States government.
Chickamauga are historically misplaced because they have been historically combined with the Cherokee. Historically, the Chickamauga were trading partners with France, Spain, England, and the Colonies. Here is where the misunderstanding takes place for the Chickamauga: They have been identified by the United States as Cherokee because they spoke a trade dialect of Cherokee. This led to their misidentification in the 1700s and 1800s as Creek, Red Stick Creek, Cherokee, Lower Town Cherokee, Immigrant Cherokees, Western Cherokee, Arkansas Cherokee, Renegade Band of Cherokee, and a handful of lesser names. The naming and renaming of the Chickamauga by Europeans was eventually taken up by their blood enemy, the cherokee.
It is impossible to understand who the Chickamauga are without understanding they are first, aboriginal with a culture and religion most associated with their origins in the Late Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian eras. Second, anthropologically they are associated with the religion and culture of the Ceremonial Mound Complexes throughout the central and southern North American continent. The Ceremonial Mound Complexes ranging from Spiro, Oklahoma, Cahokia, Illinois, northern Georgia, and the Tennessee River Valley do have similarities in religion, culture, pottery, effigies, and architecture of which almost all of the Southeast Woodland peoples claim in part or the whole.
It is the current anthropological understanding that the Chickamauga are best classified as having an aboriginal, Southeast Woodland descent who became more organized in the Late Woodland period retaining their identity through the Mississippian, Muskogean, and Mobillian periods inclusive of contact and present. The anthropological underpinnings provide one additional item that is often overlooked in traditional understandings of the Chickamauga. The Chickamauga are NOT ethnically Cherokee. The Chickamauga are ethnically of Mississippian, Muskogean, and Mobillian descent while the Cherokee are of Iroquoian, Huron, and Erie descent.1 Most of the confusion comes as the British and Colonists combined the two disparate people into a single entity in eighteenth century because the Chickamauga spoke a dialect of trade called Southern Cherokee. Ultimately combining the two as, “of all the Cherokees of the other” in the Treaty of 1785, the Hopewell Treaty in which at least 3 of the signers signed as Chickamauga.2 The Treaty gave permission for the Cherokee to punish anyone entering their treaty lands without permission. The United States promised their military would keep colonists from becoming settlers in Treaty lands.
Editorial Note: The Chickamauga never considered themselves to be Cherokee. While the United States combined them, mostly for treaty purposes, the two could never be combined because of their vast ethnic, cultural and religious differences. Return Meigs, the Cherokee agent who oversaw the U.S. interests in the Chickamauga moving west played a pivotal role in continuing the association with the name Cherokee. Because the Cherokee played a significant role in assassinating, pillaging, and murdering the Chickamauga, the Chickamauga find it repulsive to be called Chickamauga Cherokee. One Chief from Tennessee says it is tantamount to calling a Jewish Person a Jewish Nazi.
Tennessee and Georgia (1700s)
As descendants of the Southeast Woodlands, the Chickamauga are of mixed ethnicity having intermarriages with mostly Spanish, French, British, Colonists, Creek, Choctaw, Seminole, Chickasaw and Cherokee. It is of great interest that the Chickamauga never imagined they would disappear as a people because of intermarriage. The Chickamauga Chief, Bloody Fellow proclaimed, “even should they themselves become white by intermarriage not a drop of Indian blood would be lost; it would be spread more widely but not lost.”3 Then and now the Chickamauga take this into account when they proclaim they are full-blood.
The 1700’s play a pivotal role in Chickamauga history. While the French and Spanish missionaries came to teach the “Indians” about the God of the Bible, the Chickamauga held onto their own ancient religion passed down from generation to generation. They were taught by the priests and missionaries in 1 Samuel 15:23 “For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and defiance is like wickedness and idolatry.” The Chickamauga understood divination (witchcraft) and knew from their religion that witchcraft is a capital offense and those practicing witchcraft must be put to death.
The missionaries also taught the that the God of the Bible hated the sin of moving ancient boundary markers. The Chickamauga identified treaties with the white men as setting boundary markers that are to remain in place. Deuteronomy 19:14 states “You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, established at the start in the inheritance you will receive in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.” Proverbs 22:28, “Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have set.” Proverbs 23:10, “Do not remove the ancient landmark, nor enter the fields of the fatherless, for their Redeemer is mighty; He will plead their cause against you.”
It is the making of treaties and breaking of treaties in the 1700s and 1800s that leads to the perceived annihilation of their Muskogean ways of life. First, the Chickamauga were involved in the Whitehall Treaty of 1730 as the British included the Chickamauga as Cherokee. From the Whitehall Treaty of 1730, "That the Cherrokees shall not suffer their people to trade with the white men of any other Nation but ye English, nor permit white men of any other Nation to build any forts, cabins, or plant corn amongst 'em, or near to any of ye Indian towns, or upon the lands which belong to the Great King, and if any such attempt shall be made, you must acquaint the English Governor there with, and do whatever he directs, in order to maintain and defend the Great King's right, to the country of Carolina."4
Again, in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 the British reaffirmed that the lands west of the Appalachians were held in reserve for the Native Americans.5 The Transylvania Purchase or the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals in 1775 is in complete violation of the Whitehall Treaty of 1730 and the Royal Proclamation allowing colonists to take land held in reservation for the Indian.
1792 was a monumental year for the Chickamauga in the War Department Records. The Treaty of Holston had become a flash-point for the more traditional Chickamauga. John Sevier to Secretary of War William Blount notifying him that the five Lower Towns had declared war on the United States and there was a divide in the Cherokee nation.6 Blount in writing to Bloody Fellow (Chickamauga Chief),“admits President failed to meet promises he made to Cherokees by keeping settlers from encroaching on Cherokee land but denied any settlement happened after the treaty was signed. Advised that Bloody Fellow keep Cherokees from entering Cumberland and Blount will keep white settlers from moving farther west.”7 Henry Knox writing to Governor Edward Telfair of Georgia, “Intelligence from Gov. Blount states that five hundred warriors from Chickamaga (sic) towns and some banditti Upper Creeks plan hostilities against the U.S. and will strike the Cumberland settlements. Authorized Governor to make defensive preparations.”8 Knox, “provides Blount with his assessment of the situation with the southern Indians and projected additions to the military establishment in the South. . .Blount is asked to take whatever action is needed to end conflict with the Chickamaugas.”9
In late October and Early November of 1792, Congress and the President of the United States get involved in the Chickamauga Issue. Secretary of War, Henry Knox sends a letter to Henry Lee, the Governor of Virginia, stating, “Congress to discuss war and peace with Chiccamagas (sic). Only defensive action by state to be taken in dealing with Indians.”10 President George Washington, federally recognizes the Chickamauga and even stipulates their lands during his fourth Annual Address to Congress.
“Apart of the Cherokees, known by the name of Chickamagas, inhabitating five Villages on the Tennesee River, have been long in the practice of committing depredations on the neighbouring settlements.
"It was hoped that the treaty of Holstin, made with the Cherokee nation in July1791, would have prevented a repetition of such depredations. But the event has not answered this hope. The Chickamagas, aided by some Banditti of another tribe in their vicinity, have recently perpetrated wanton and unprovoked hostilities upon the Citizens of the United States in that quarter. The information which has been received on this subject will be laid before you. Hitherto defensive precautions only have been strictly enjoined and observed.
It is not understood that any breach of Treaty, or aggression whatsoever, on the part of the United States, or their Citizens, is even alleged as a pretext for the spirit of hostility in this quarter. (sic)"11
Moving ancient boundary markers and breaking treaties is the recurring theme perpetuated against the Chickamauga. Their desire to remain a traditional Native American people was being challenged not only by the United States but by rogue land speculators enticing state militias and volunteer militias to drive the Natives from their ancestral lands. In 1794, the military and the state militias took matters into their own hands when it came to the Chickamauga. William Blount to the Chiefs, “and others of the Cherokees in which he cites a long list of depredations by the Indians on innocent whites, including women and children. He warns the chiefs that the violence must stop and the terms of the Treaty of Holston followed or the whites will retaliate with no regard for the age or sex of their victims.”12 Blount, “Letter from William Blount, Governor of Southwest Territory, to Double-head, Chief of the Lower Cherokees. Blount warns Double-head that General Logan of Kentucky has raised a "large army of volunteers, unauthorized by Government, to invade and destroy the Lower Cherokee towns." General Logan's reasoning behind the illegal attack is that the Lower towns have provoked violence on the frontier, and stolen horses and black slaves. Double-head and the Cherokee are allies of the United States. Blount advises that Double-head immediately return all prisoners, negroes, and horses, so the people of Kentucky will not attack.”13
General James Robertson could easily be the subject of a doctoral dissertation. He was brutal in his dealings with the Chickamauga. In 1794 General Robertson informs Major Ore that he is to defend the district of Miro against a large party of Creeks and Cherokees of the Lower towns. Ordered to "destroy the Lower Cherokee towns... taking care to spare women and children, and to treat all prisoners, who may fall into your hands, with humanity, and thereby teach those savages to spare the citizens of the United States, under similar circumstances."14 James McHenry to the House of Representatives, “Cantrill requested compensation for services provided related to expedition in Cherokee nations country. Cantrill ordered by General Robertson to destroy two Indian towns (Running Water and Nickajack). Secretary of War did not sanction event.”15 Blount to Logan, “After having corresponded with Double-head, Chief of the Cherokees, Governor William Blount of Southwest Territory orders that General Benjamin Logan immediately desist from attempts to invade Lower Cherokee towns, who are in a state of peace with the United States. Rogue elements of the military had previously destroyed the friendly Cherokee towns of Nickajack and Running Water.”16