3 7 "2 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE 1eth.ann.19 



dread, the reofion was abandoned by both parties, and continued thus 

 unoccupied until its settlement by the whites.' 



According to Cherokee tradition, a body of Creeks was already 

 established near the mouth of Hiwassee while the Cherokee still had 

 their main settlements upon the Little Tennessee. The Creeks, being 

 near neighbors, pretended frieiKlship, while at the same time secretly 

 aiding the Shawano. Having discovered the treachery, the Cherokee 

 took advantage of the presence of the Creeks at a great dance at 

 Itsa'ti, or Echota, the ancient Cherokee capital, to fall suddenly upon 

 them and kill nearly the whole party. The consequence was a war, 

 with the tinal result that the Creeks were defeated and forced to 

 abandon all their settlements on the waters of the Tennessee river.^ 



Haywood says that "Little Cornplanter" had seen Shawano scalps 

 brought into the Cherokee towns. AVhen he was a bo}', his father, 

 who was also a chief, had told him how he had once led a party against 

 the Shawano and was returning with several scalps, when, as they 

 were coming through a pass in the mountains, they ran into another 

 party of Cherokee warriors, who, mistaking them for enemies, fired 

 into them and killed several before they discovered their mistake.'' 



Schoolcraft also gives the Cherokee tradition of the war with the 

 Shawano, as obtained indirectly from white informants, but incorrectly 

 makes it occur while the latter tribe still lived upon the Savannah. 

 '"The Cherokees prevailed after a long and sanguinary contest and 

 drove the Shawnees north. This event they cherish as one of their 

 proudest achievements. ' What!' said an aged Cherokee chief to Mr 

 Barnwell, who had suggested the tinal preservation of the race by 

 intermarriage with the whites. 'What! Shall the Cherokees perish! 

 Shall the conquerors of the Shawnees perish! Never!'" * 



Tribal warfare as a rule consisted of a desultory succession of pettj' 

 raids, seldom approaching the dignity of a respectable skirmish and 

 hardly worthy of serious consideration except in the final result. The 

 traditions necessarily partake of the same trivial character, being rather 

 anecdotes than narratives of historical events which had dates and 

 names. Lapse of time renders them also constantly more vague. 



On the Carolina side the Shawano approach was usuallj' made up the 

 Pigeon river valley, so as to come upon the Cherokee settlements from 

 behind, and small pai'ties were almost constantly lurking about waiting 

 the favorable opportunity to pick up a stray scalp. On one occasion 

 some Cherokee hunters were stretched around the camp tire at night 

 when they heai'd the cry of a flying sciuirrcl in the woods — ttiii-u! tsu-u! 

 tsu-u! Always on the alert for danger, they suspected it nught be the 

 enem3''s signal, and all but one hastily left the fire and concealed them- 

 selves. That one, however, laughed at tlieir fears and, defiantly thi-ow- 

 ing some heavy logs on the fire, stretched himself out on his blanket 



' Haywood, Nat. and Aborig. Hist, of Tennessee, pp. 222-224. 1823. 



= Ibid, p. 241. 3 Ibid, p. 222. * Schoolcraft, Notes on Iroquois, p. liiO, 1847. 



