Today in Chickamauga History - September 6
1792, September 6: Extracts of Correspondence on Indian Affairs About the 25th of August the lower Town Cherokees held a talk & were but too unanimous for
War.
The Chiefs of the Cherokees sent a letter by him to Genl Pickins with assurances of their Attachment to the U. States & his own Person. as also of their entire disapprobation of the conduct of the lower Towns.
The lower town Cherokees will be assisted by the Creeks & about 40 Shawanees—the whole probable number abt 400.
The causes of these hostile measures he ascribes to Spanish machinations—of this he has no doubt—A letter at one of the Public meetings of the Indians, upon the return of John Watts from Pensacola gave assurances of supplies of Arms and Ammunition to regain their former situation; for that the Spaniards took pity on the Indians.19
The Cherokees as well as the Creeks commit depredations & deserve to be punished—that is the Young & unruly parts of them—the Chiefs to a man (except double head) want to live in peace & friendship with us —The Creeks are at the bottom of the evil. He will forward a state of the 4 Southern Nations & will be as particular as his information will allow him—Sends a list of the Killed & wounded in his territory since the Month of Jany 1791.
To—The little Turkey—13th & 14th of Sepr 1792.
Assures him, that the Upper Cherokees, if they remain at home and do not join the lower Towns, may live in Peace, & securely.
That he has heard of the war party being stopped by the Bloody fellow, Glass & Jno. Watts.
That the Party who had Assembled for War was not stopped so much by the Bloody fellow, Glass & Jno. Watts as by Unanecata who returned from Knoxville just as they had Assembled. That the Headmen of the other towns sent talks to the 5 lower towns to suspend their hostilities until their Corn was ripe lest the White people should come & destroy it, and they, thereby be unable to stand both hunger& cold—But the Red Bird does not know whether this advice proceeded from policy to defer—or willingness to proceed at a more eligable season
The Piemingo party of the Chicasaw Nation, which is much the strongest, repeatedly assured him, & Genl Pickins, that if war took place between the U. States & the Creeks & Cherokees (wch they were sure would be the case) that they wd join the U. States—& that the Spaniards were urging those two Nations to acts of hostility agt this Country.
Encloses the information of Joseph Derague and Richd Findleston—which he thinks may be relied on[.] Letters from the Little Turkey, Chief of the Cherokees. The Boot, and the two Interpreters of the U. States—viz.—James Carey & Jno. Thompson. inform that the 5 lower towns of the Cherokees have declared war against the U. States
Little Turkey—The 5 lower towns will go to war the 8th of this month by themselves; without the consent of the Nation—You may know the good from the bad—do not come to war against the good.
The Spaniards have given them ammunition and Guns, Hatchets Knives &ca—and told them not to go to war, but to keep them in reserve by them. You may blame no body for all this but the Spaniards—We look on you to be our friend—we have done all in our power to keep the lower towns from War—but they threaten us if we write or give any information to strip & perhaps kill us—but I will give informn Notwithstanding—Let me know if we may remain in safety that are disposed for Peace.
The Indians on the Big River—or 5 lower towns will on the 8th of this month fall on the Settlements but what part he knows not—this is the truth—The bad Indians want the Whites to fall on the peaceable Indians & will endeavor to effect this—The Creeks will do their part. The Spaniards are to blame. They have given the Indians Guns, Hatchets & Knives, but not to go to War with, but to keep as a reserve.
This moment arrived from the Cherokee Nation—Many of the Cherokee chiefs at Chota informed him that the 5 lower towns had, to the number of 600, actually gone to War against the U. States and were determined to give a severe blow somewhere. 100 of them well mounted Watts Comr of the whole. 100 Creeks included. Other parts of the Nation are disposed to Peace. Observe that the 5 lower towns, spoken of, on the Tennessee are composed of the 12 lower ones on it & in the vicinity. The P.S. explains this—into no more than five.
Doublehead (Chuquilatague; d. 1807) was a leader of the Chickamauga, the Cherokee who had separated from the rest of the tribe during the Revolutionary War and had established what became known as the Lower Towns of the Cherokee—Nickajack, Running Water, Long Island, Crow Town, Lookout Mountain Town—located on or near the Tennessee River near the junction of the Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee borders. He was known for his fierce opposition to and recurrent attacks on white settlers, both during and after the Revolutionary War. In June 1794 he accepted an invitation to visit GW in Philadelphia and while there agreed to a peace treaty, signed on 26 June, in which the Cherokee affirmed the 1791 Treaty of Holston and the 1785 Treaty of Hopewell and which raised the tribes’ annuity from $1,500 to $5,000 (see JPP, 309–10; Kappler, Indian Treaties, 2:33–34; Heard, Handbook of the American Frontier, 1:94–95, 136–37).
Chickamauga chief Glass (Tauquotihee; d. 1819) was a fierce opponent of American encroachment on Indian land during and after the Revolutionary War, but he adopted a more pacific attitude in 1794 when he signed the Tellico Blockhouse peace treaty. After efforts to halt white settlement on Cherokee lands failed, he became an advocate of Cherokee removal to lands west of the Mississippi (see Heard, Handbook of the American Frontier, 164–65, 355–56).
Cotetoy (Coteatoy) was a Chickamauga Indian (see Brown, Old Frontiers, 273). According to Glass’s report to Blount of 10 Sept., which also was enclosed in Blount’s letter to Knox of 15 Sept., Gen. James Robertson “said that there had been a great deal of blood spilt in his settlement, and that he would come and sweep it clean with our blood” (see ASP, Indian Affairs, 1:280).
Blount’s letter to Knox of 22 Sept. has not been identified. One of the enclosed petitions was probably from Jane Gillespie Brown, the widow of Revolutionary War veteran Col. James Brown (1738–1788). While moving from their home in Guilford County, N.C., to settle near Nashville in 1788, the Brown family was attacked near Nickajack by several Chickamauga Indians. Colonel Brown and two sons were killed, and Mrs. Brown and the five remaining children were captured and dispersed throughout the southern tribes. By 1790 all of them had been released or ransomed, except George Brown who remained a prisoner of the Creek Indians until 1798 (see Brown, Old Frontiers, 272–75).
Breath, a Chickamauga chief from Nickajack, was killed during a militia attack against the Lower Towns on 13 Sept. 1794 (see ibid., 632). Charley, a Chickamauga from Running Water, may have been known as Fool Charles or Captain Charley (see ibid., 291). The report of Breath and Charley was enclosed in Blount’s letter to Knox of 7 Oct. (ibid., 293).
John Taylor, who was part Cherokee, often aligned himself with the Chickamauga. See Blount’s favorable assessment of Taylor in his note of 26 Sept. 1792, ibid., 291. Tahlonteskee (d. 1819), a Chickamauga chief and brother-in-law of Doublehead, accompanied John Watts to the 1792 meeting with Spanish officials at Pensacola (see note 19). Although a fierce opponent of American expansion in 1792, Tahlonteskee later cooperated with U.S. officials in obtaining Cherokee land and peacefully accepted the Cherokees’ removal west of the Mississippi in the early nineteenth century. Young Dragging Canoe, the son of a Chickamauga war chief of the same name who had died in March 1792, also accompanied Watts to the meeting with Spanish officials at Pensacola in 1792.
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-11-02-0164
1794, September 6: Campaign against Creeks and Cherokees - General Robertson informs Major Ore that he is to defend the district of Mero against a large party of Creeks and Cherokees of the Lower towns. Ordered to "destroy the Lower Cherokee towns. - http://wardepartmentpapers.org/s/home/item/47869
1839, September 6: – Cherokee delegates meeting in Tahlequah, the new capital, composed mostly of National Party adherents but including a few Treaty Party members and some Old Settlers as well, sign a constitution for the reunited Cherokee Nation drafted by William Shorey Coody and signed by John Ross for the Latecomers and John Looney for the Old Settlers. John Ross becomes Principal Chief of the united Cherokee Nation.