Louisiana and Aaron Burr 173 



the isolated settlements on the Cumberland. The 

 Chickamauga towns were right at the crossing 

 place both for the Northern Indians when they 

 came south and for the Creeks when they went 

 north. Bands of Shawnees, who were at this time 

 the most inveterate of the enemies of the frontiers- 

 men, passed much time among them ; and the Creek 

 war parties, when they journeyed north to steal 

 horses and get scalps, invariably stopped among 

 them, and on their return stopped again to exhibit 

 their trophies and hold scalp dances. The natural 

 effect was that the Chickamaugas, who were mainly 

 Lower Town Cherokees, seeing the impunity with 

 which the ravages were committed, and appreciating 

 the fact that under the orders of the Government 

 they could not be molested in their own homes by 

 the whites, began to join in the raids; and their 

 nearness to the settlements soon made them the 

 worst offenders. One of their leading chiefs was 

 John Watts, who was of mixed blood. Among all 

 these Southern Indians, half-breeds were far more 

 numerous than among the Northerners, and when 

 the half-breeds lived with their mothers' people they 

 usually became the deadliest enemies of their fathers' 

 race. Yet, they generally preserved the father's 

 name. In consequence, among the extraordinary 

 Indian titles borne by the chiefs of the Creeks, Cher- 

 okees, and Choctaws the Bloody Fellow, the Mid- 

 dle Striker, the Mad Dog, the Glass, the Breath 

 there were also many names like John Watts, 

 Alexander Cornell, and James Colbert, which 



