138 The Winning of the West 



the savages, while, on the other hand, he suppressed 

 so far as lay in his power, any outbreak against the 

 authorities, and tried to inculcate a feeling of loy- 

 alty and respect for the National Government. 5 He 

 did much in creating a strong feeling of attachment 

 to the Union among the rough backwoodsmen with 

 fwhom he had thrown in his lot. 



Early in 1791 Blount entered into negotiations 

 with the Cherokees, and when the weather grew 

 warm he summoned them to a treaty. They met 

 on the Holston, all of the noted Cherokee chiefs and 

 hundreds of their warriors being present, and con- 

 cluded the treaty of Holston, by which, in consid- 

 eration of numerous gifts and of an annuity of a 

 thousand (afterward increased to fifteen hundred) 

 dollars, the Cherokees at last definitely abandoned 

 their disputed claims to the various tracts of land 

 which the whites claimed under various former 

 treaties. By this treaty with the Cherokees, and 

 by the treaty with the Creeks entered into at New 

 York the previous summer, the Indian title to most 

 of the present State of Tennessee was fairly and 

 legally extinguished. However, the westernmost 

 part was still held by the Chickasaws, and certain 

 tracts in the southeast by the Cherokees; while 

 the Indian hunting grounds in the middle of the 

 Territory were thrust in between the groups of 

 settlements on the Cumberland and the Holston. 



On the ground where the treaty was held Blount 

 proceeded to build a little town, which he made the 



8 Robertson MSS., Blount to Robertson, Feb. 13, 1793. 



