J56 ANTIQUITIES IN TENNESSEE. 



This portion of the Chaouanon nation was, during its occupancy of northern 

 Georgia and Alabama, involved in several bloody wars ; and it was finally defeated 

 and driven nortliward by the Cherokees. They were closely related to, if not 

 identical with, the lichees, who claimed to be the oldest inhabitants of the country, 

 and spoke a language different from the Muscogulgee. 



In the beginning of 1600, the Chaouanons occupied an extensive tract of country 

 reaching from the southern shores of Lake Erie to the mouth of the Savannah 

 Eiver; and they were subsequently pressed by the Iroquois in the northeast, by the 

 Cherokees and South Carolina Indians in the south and east, and by the Chicka- 

 saws on the west. They were finally expelled from the vaUey of the Cumberland 

 by the Cherokees and Chactaws about 1700-1714. 



Through long series of years, the Iroquois pursued the Chaouanons with relent- 

 less cruelty, and destroyed immense numbers of this comparatively peaceful and 

 agricultural people. The valleys of the Ohio and Cumberland Rivers were selected 

 by the fierce and cruel Iroquois, as the great highways for the advance of their 

 war parties against the Indian nations of the west and southwest; and thus, by their 

 geographical position, the Cliaouanons were subjected to continuous inroads and 

 perpetual wars, and were compelled to abandon the country in large numbers and 

 colonize with the Illinois, as early as the visit of La Salle in 1682. This remarkable 

 people occupied, at an early period, the most conspicuous position among the 

 Indian nations, whose ancient seats were within the present limits of the United 

 States, and established for themselves a more remarkable civil organization, and 

 acquired a higher degree of influence, than any other race of American aborigines, 

 except those of Mexico and Peru. 



The Iroquois stood for nearly two centuries, during the period of European coloni- 

 zation, with an unshaken front, against the desolations of war, the blighting influences 

 of foreign intercourse, and the still more fatal encroachments of a restless and 

 advancing border population. After the healing of their internal dissensions, and 

 the formation of the League^ the Iroquois developed a system of universal aggres- 

 sion, and in their thirst for military glory and political aggrandizement, made the 

 forests of North America resound with human conflicts, from New England to the 

 Mississippi, and from the confines of the Great Lakes to the banks of the Tennessee. 

 With the possession of firearms, received from the Dutch after the discoveries and 

 settlements of 1609-1615, commenced not only the rapid elevation, but the abso- 

 lute supremacy of the Iroquois over other Indian nations. In 1643 they expelled 

 the Neuter nation from their ancient seat. In 1653 they exterminated the Eries, 

 occupying the south side of Lake Erie. In 1670 they completed the subjugation 

 and dispersion of the Adirondacks and Hurons, and turned their arms against 

 the Ni;w England nations. And in 1680, they invaded the country of the Illinois, 

 having previously to this date, ravaged the country of the Chaouanons, and, both 

 before and after this date, having turned their arms against the Cherokees upon 

 the Tennessee, and the Catawbas of South Carolina, and having carried their con- 

 quests even to the banks of the Mississippi. It is well established that, for a cen- 

 tury at least, the Iroquois were involved in an almost uninterrupted warfare ; and, 

 at the close of this period, they had subdued and held in nominal subjection, all 



