54 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [f,th.ann.19 



were negotiated by eoinmissioner.s from the four states adjoining the 

 Cherokee country, the territory thus acquired being parceled out to 

 South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee/ 



While the Cherokee Nation had thus been compelled to a treaty of 

 peace, a very considerable portion of the tribe was irreconcilaljly hos- 

 tile to the Americans and refused to be a party to the late cessions, 

 especially on the Teimessee side. Although Ata-kullakulla sent word 

 that he was ready with five hundred young warriors to fight for the 

 Americans against the English or Indian enemy whenever called upon, 

 Dragging-canoe (Tsivu-gunsi'ni), who had led the opposition against 

 the Watauga settlements, declared that he would hold fast to Caiueron's 

 talk and continue to make war upon those who had taken his hunting 

 grounds. Under his leadership some hundreds of the most warlike 

 and implacable warriors of the tribe, with their families, drew out 

 from the Upper and Middle towns and moved far down upon Tennes- 

 see river, where they established new settlements on Chickaniauga 

 creek, in the neighborhood of the present Chattanooga. The locality 

 appears to have been already a rendezvous for a sort of Indian ban- 

 ditti, who sometimes plundered boats disabled in the rapids at this 

 point while descending the river. Under the name ''Chickamaugas" 

 they soon became noted for their uncompromising and never-ceasing 

 hostility. In 1782, in consequence of the destruction of their towns 

 by Sevier and Campbell, thej^ abandoned this location and moved 

 farther down the river, where they built what were afterwards known 

 as the "five lower towns," viz. Running Water, Nickajack, Long- 

 Island. Crow town, and Lookout Mountain town. These were all on 

 the extreme western Cherokee frontier, near where Tennessee river 

 crosses the state line, the fii'st three being within the present limits of 

 Tennessee, while Lookout Mountain town and Crow town were 

 respectively in the adjacent corners of Georgia and Alabama. Their 

 population was recruited from Creeks, Shawano, and white Tories, until 

 they were estimated at a thousand warriors. Here they remained, 

 a constant thorn in the side of Tennessee, until their towns were 

 destroyed in 1794." 



The expatriated Lower Cherokee also removed to the farthest west- 

 tern })order of their tribal territory, where they might hope to be 

 secure from encroachment for a time at least, and built new towns for 

 themselves on the upper waters of the Coosa. Twenty years after- 



1 Royce, Cherokee Nation, in Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. 150 and map, 1SS8; Ramsey, 

 Tennessee, pp. 172-174, 1853; Stevens, Georgia, ii, p. 144, 1859: Roosevelt, Winning of the West, i, p. 

 306, 1889. 



- Ramsey, op. eit., pp. 171-177, 185-186, 610 et passim; Royce, op. cit., p. 1.50; Campbell letter, 1782, 

 and other documents in Virginia State Papers, iii, pp. 271, .571, 599, ISH'i, and iv, pp. 118, 286. 1884: 

 Blount letter, January 14, 1793, American State Papers: Indian Affairs, i, p. 431, 1832. Campbell says 

 they abandoned their first location on account of the invasion from Tennessee. Governor Blount 

 says they left on account of witches. 



