MOONF.Y] PEACE TOWNS AND lOWNS OK KEKl'OE 2U7 



thence smithwe.st, crossing Ocoee river near it.s niDUtli, i)aiising south of Clevelaml, 

 through the present Ooltewah and across Chickaniauga creek into Georgia and 

 Alabama. 



According to Timberlake (Memoirs, with iii;i]i, ]7i>5), tlie trail crossed I, iltle Ten- 

 nessee from Echota, northward, in two places, just al)ove and below Four-mile 

 creek, the first camping place lieing at the jun<-tion of Ellejoy creek an<l Little river, 

 at the old town site. It crossed Holston within a nule of Fort Robinson. 



According to Hutchins (Topographical Description of America, p. 24, 177S), the 

 road which w'ent thniugh Cumberland gap was the one taken by the northern 

 Indians in their incursions into the "Cuttawa!' country, and went from Sandusky, 

 on I.,ake Erie, by a direct path to the mouth of Scioto (where Portsmouth now is) 

 and thence across Kentucky to the gap. 



(20) Peace towns and towxs of refit.e (p. 51): Towns of refuge existed among 

 the Cherokee, the Creeks, and probably other Indian trilies, as well as among the 

 ancient Hebrews, the institution being a merciful ])rovision for softening the harsh- 

 ness of the primitive law", which recjuired a life for a life. We learn from Deuteron- 

 omy that Moses appointed three cities on the east side of Jordan "that the slayer 

 might flee thither which should kill his neighbor unawares and hated him not in 

 times past, and that fleeing into one of these cities he might live." It was also 

 ordained that as more territory was conquered from the heathen three ad<Iitional 

 cities should be thus set aside as havens of refuge for those who should accidentally 

 take human life, and where they should be .safe until the matter could be adjusteil. 

 The wilful murderer, however, wa.s not to be sheltered, but delivered up to punish- 

 ment without pity (Deut. iv, 41-43, and xi.x, 1-11). 



Echota, the ancient Cherokee capital near the mouth of Little Tenne.ssee, was the 

 Cherokee town of refuge, connnonly de.signated as the "white town" or "peace 

 town." According to Adair, the Cherokee in his time, although extremely degen- 

 erate in other things, still observed the law so strictly in this regard that even a 

 wilful murderer who might succeed in making his escape to that town was safe so 

 long as he remained there, although, unless the matter was compounded in the 

 meantime, the friends of the slain person would .seldom allow him to reach home 

 alive after leaving it. He tells how a trader who had killed an Indian to protect hit 

 own property took refuge in F'chota, and after having been there for some months 

 prepared to return to his trading store, which was but a short distance away, but was 

 assured by the chiefs that he would be killed if he ventured outside the town. He 

 was accordingly obliged to stay a longer time until the tears of the bereaved relatives 

 had been wiped away with presents. In another place the same author tells how a 

 Cherokee, having killed a trader, was pursued and attempted to take refuge in the 

 town, but was driven off into the river as soon as he came in sight by th(^ inhabit- 

 ants, who feared either to have their town polluted by the shedding of blood or to 

 provoke the F^nglish liy giving him sanctuary (Adair, American Indians,]). 158, 177o). 

 In 1768 Oconostota, speaking on behalf of the Cherokee delegates who had come to 

 Johnson Hall to make peace with the Iroquois, said: " We come from ('hotte, where the 

 wise [white?] house, the house of peace is erected" (treaty record, 1768, New York 

 Colonial Documents, viii, p. 42, 1857). In 1786 the friendly Cherokee made " Chota" 

 the watchword by which the ^Vmericans might be able to distinguish them from the 

 hostile Creeks (Ramsey, Tennessee, p. 343). From conversation with old Cherokee It 

 .seems probable that in ca.ses where no satisfaction was made by the relatives of the 

 man-slayer he continued to reside close within the limits of the town until the next 

 recurrence of the annual (^ireen-corn dance, when a general amnesty was jiro- 

 claimed. 



Among the Creeks the ancient town of Kusa or Coosa, on Coo.sa river in Alabama, 

 was a town of refuge. In Adair's time, although then almost deserted and in ruins, it 

 was still a place of safety for one who had taken human life without design. Certain 



