22 MYTHS OF THK CHERDKEE [eth. an.-j.19 



Ohio, thov yet, according to Haywood, expressl}' disclaimed theauthor- 

 sliip of the very iiuinerou.s mounds and petrogh'phs in their later home 

 territory, asserting that these ancient works had exhibited the same 

 appearance when they themselves had first occupied the rooion.' This 

 accords with Bartram's statement that the Cherokee, although some- 

 times utilizing the mounds as sites for their own town houses, were as 

 ignorant as the whites of their origin or purpose, having only a gen- 

 eral tradition that their forefathers had found them in much the same 

 condition on first coming into the country. ■ 



Although, as has been noted, Haywood expresses the opinion that 

 the invading Cherokee had overrun and exterminated the earlier 

 inhabitants, he says in another place, on halfbreed authority, that 

 the newcomers found no Indians upon the waters of the Tennessee, 

 with the exception of some Creeks living upon that river, near the 

 mouth of the Hiwassee, the main body of that tribe being established 

 upon and claiming all the streams to the southward.^ There is 

 considerable evidence that the Creeks preceded the Cherokee, and 

 within the last century they still claimed the Tennessee, or at least 

 the Tennessee watershed, for their northern boundary. 



There is a dim l)ut persistent tradition of a strange white race pre- 

 ceding the Cherokee, some of the stories even going so far as to locate 

 their former settlements and to identify them as the authors of the 

 ancient works found in the country. The earliest reference appeal's 

 to be that of Barton in 1797, on the statement of a gentleman whom 

 he quotes as a valuable authority upon the southern tribes. "The 

 Cheerake tell us, that when they first arrived in the country which 

 they inhabit, they found it possessed by ceiiain 'moon-eyed people,' 

 who could not see in the day-time. These wretches they expelled.'' 

 He seems to consider them an albino race.' Haywood, twenty-si.x 

 years later, says that the invading Cherokee found "white people" 

 near the head of the Little Tennessee, with forts extending thence down 

 the Tennessee as far as Chickamauga creek. He gives the location of 

 three of these forts.. The Chei'okee made war against them and 

 drove them to the mouth of Big Chickamauga creek, where they 

 entered into a treaty and agreed to remove if permitted to depart in 

 peace. Permission being granted, they abandoned the country. Else- 

 whei'e he speaks of this extirpated white race as having extended into 

 iLentucky and probably also into western Tennessee, according to the 

 concurrent traditions of different tribes. He describes their houses, 

 on what authority is not stated, as having been small circular structures 



1 Haywood, Nat, and Aborig. Hist. Tennessee, pp. 226, 234, 1823. 

 -' Bartram, Wm. , Travels, p. 365: reprint, London, 1792. 

 " Haywood, op. cit., pp. 234-237. 

 * Barton, New Views, p. xliv, 1797. 



