Here are the FACTS: The Chickamauga ARE NOT cherokee
Item Number One is specific in that it states "All of the Cherokees." There is only one historically accurate way to interpret this wording since there are Chickamauga, Creek, Shawnees, Catawba, and cherokee in attendance at this meeting, it can only be interpreted as all of the cherokee speakers or all of those who speak cherokee since any other interpretation would not fit the historical context of the agreement.
1. The 1785 Treaty 7 Stat. 18, the Hopewell Treaty States:
" Treaty of Hopewell 7 Statute 18 November 28, 1785
November 28, 1785
Articles concluded at Hopewell, on the Keowee, between Benjamin Hawkins, Andrew Pickens, Joseph Martin, and Lachlan M'Intosh, Commissioners Plenipotentiary of the United States of America, of the one Part, and the Head-Men and Warriors of all the Cherokees of the other.
The Commissioners Plenipotentiary of the United States, in Congress assembled, give peace to all the Cherokees, and receive them into the favor and protection of the United States of America, on the following conditions:
ARTICLE I.
The Head-Men and Warriors of all the Cherokees shall restore all the prisoners, citizens of the United States, or subjects of their allies, to their entire liberty: They shall also restore all the Negroes, and all other property taken during the late war from the citizens, to such person, and at such time and place, as the Commissioners shall appoint.
Item Number Two must also be understood in the linguistical context as 7 Stat 18. Therefore the appropriate interpretation is that the Chickamauga, who are inhabiting the 5 Lower Towns on the Tennessee River are the ones being described, not a faction of the Cherokee.
2. George Washington in his 4th Annual Address to Congress states,
"A part 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."
When Items Number 1 and 2 are taken together with the archaeological evidence that Historically, Culturally and Religiously that the Chickamauga have been in the Southeast Woodlands of the Mississippi Rivers since about 600 - 800 CE as Mound Builders as participants in the Southeast Ceremonial Complex it is impossible to conclude that the Chickamauga are cherokee.
When Items 1 and 2 are taken together along with the 73 Volume Jesuit Relations documenting of the existence of the cherokee being the Erie people from the Lake Huron and Lake Erie regions of Canada and kicked out of the Iroquoian Confederacy after the Beaver Wars and did not exist in the Southeast Woodlands prior to the mid to late 1670's it is impossible to mistake the two peoples as the same.
The Chickamauga are also evidenced in the Arkansas Historical Society's "The Promised Land." The author of the book also clearly is influenced by the United States' usage of the term cherokee to describe the Chickamauga. While the author starts off correctly identifying the Chickamauga, he quickly transitions over to the word "cherokee" since it is what is being used by the Cherokee Indian Agent, military, and United States government in dealing with the Chickamauga continuing the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Chickamauga.
It is not the fault of the Chickamauga that the United States proves itself ignorant and incapable of correctly identifying the Chickamauga from the cherokee as though it was intentional in promoting the policy of the United States to eradicate the Chickamauga from the face of the earth.
Item 3 Arkansas Historical Society's The Promised Land
EDITORIAL: By this point in the book, the author is becoming lazy and transitioning over to the term cherokee instead of the appropriate identification of Chickamauga.
