384 MYTHS OV THE CHEROKEE [eth.asn.19 



the Creek path," hi Tennessee river, opposite Guntersville, and, con- 

 cealing their main force, sent a small party ahead to decoy the Creeks 

 to an engagement. The Creek warriors at once crossed over in their 

 canoes to the attack, when the Cherokee suddenly rose up from their 

 ambush, and surrounded the Creeks and defeated them after a desperate 

 hattle. Then, taking the captured canoes, they went over to the island 

 and destroj'ed all that was there. The great leader of the Cherokee 

 in this war was a chief named Bullhead, renowned in tradition for his 

 bravery and skill in strategy.' At about the same time, according to 

 Watl'ord, the Cherokee claim to have dri\'en the Creeks and Shawano 

 from a settlement which they occupied jointly near Savannah, Georgia. 



There was a tradition among the few old traders still li\ing in upper 

 Georgia in 1890 that a large tract in that part of the State had l)een 

 won by the Cherokee from the Creeks in a ballplay.' There are no 

 Indians now living in that region to substantiate the story. As 

 originally told it may have had a veiled meaning, as among the Chero- 

 kee the expression "to play a ball game" is frequently used figur- 

 atively to denote fighting a battle. There seems to be no good ground 

 for Bartram's statement that the Cherokee had been dispossessed by 

 the Creeks of the region between the Savannah and the Ocmulgee, in 

 southwestern Georgia, Mnthin the historic period.' The territorj^ is 

 south of any traditional Cherokee claim, and the statement is at 

 variance with what we know through history. He probably had in 

 mind the Uchee, who did actuall}^ occupy that countrj^ until incor- 

 porated with the Creeks. 



The victory was not always on one side, however, for Adair states 

 that toward the end of the last war between the two tribes the Creeks, 

 having easil}' defeated the Cherokee in an engagement, contemptuoush' 

 sent against them a number of women and bo3's. According to this 

 writer, the "true and sole cause" of this last war was the killing of 

 some adopted relatives of the Creeks in 1749 by a part}' of northern 

 Shawano, who had been guided and afterward sheltered by the Chero- 

 kee. The war, which he represents as a losing game for the Chero- 

 kee, was finally brought to an end through the eft'orts of the governor 

 of South Carolina, with the unfortunate result to the English that the 

 Creeks encouraged the Cherokee in the war of 17f>0 and rendered them 

 very essential help in the way of men and ammunition.* 



The battle of Tali'wa, which decided in favor of the Cherokee the 

 long war between themselves and the Creeks, was fought about 1755 

 or a few j^ears later at a spot on Mountain creek or Long-swamp 

 creek, which enters Etowah ri\'er abo\e Canton, Georgia, near where 



iHaywood. Nat. and Aborig. Hist. Tcnii.. p. 2-11, 1S23. Bullhead may be intended for Doublehead, 

 an old Cherokee name. 

 ^Mcioney, The Cherokee Ball Play, in The American Anthropologist, iii, p. 107. April, 1890. 

 3 Bartram, Travels, p. 518. 1791. 

 ^ Adair, History of American Indians, pp. 227, 247, 2.')2-256, 270, 27t>-27y, 1775. 



