vHOMAS. ] THE CHEROKEES AS MOUND-BUILDERS. 89 
Haywood expressly states that'— 
the Cherokees were firmly established on the Tennessee River or Hogohega [the 
Holston] before the year 1650, and had dominion over all the country on the east 
side of the Alleghany Mountains, which includes the headwaters of the Yadkin, Ca- 
tawba, Broad River, and the headwaters of the Savannah — 
a statement borne out by the fact that, as late as 1756, when the En- 
glish built Fort Dobbs on the Yadkin, not far from Salisbury, they 
first obtained the privilege of doing so by. treaty with Attacullacalla, 
the Cherokee chief. 
Haywood asserts,’ upon what authority is not known, that — 
before the year 1690 the Cherokees, who were once settled on the Appomattox River, 
in the neighborhood of Monticello, left their former abodes and came to the west. 
The Powhataus are said by their descendants to have been once a part of this nation, 
The probability is that migration took place about, or soon after, the year 1632, when 
the Virginians suddenly and unexpectedly fell upon the Indians, killing all they 
could find, cutting up and destroying their crops, and causing great numbers to per- 
ish by famine. They came to New River and made a temporary settlement, and also 
on the head of the Holston. 
That they formerly had settlements on New River (Upper Kanawha) 
and on the Holston is, as I believe, true, but that they came from the 
vicinity of Monticello and the Appomattox River, were connected with 
the Powhatans, or first appeared in Tennessee in 1632, cannot be be- 
lieved. First, because Jefferson makes no mention of their occu- 
pancy of this part of Virginia; on the contrary, he locates them in the 
“western part of North Carolina.” Secondly, because John Lederer, 
who visited this region in 1669~70, speaking of the Indians of the 
“Apalatean Mountains,” doubtless the Cherokees, as he was at that 
time somewhere in western North Carolina, says: ‘The Indians of 
these parts are none of those which the English removed from Virginia; 
these were far more rude. and barbarous, feeding only upon raw flesh 
and fish, until these taught them to sow corn and showed them the use 
of it.“ Thirdly, because it is evident that they were located in sub- 
stantially the same territory when De Soto passed through the northern 
part of Georgia, as it is now admitted that the ‘“ Chelaques” or ‘*Acha- 
laques” mentioned by the chroniclers of his ill-starred expedition were 
the Cherokees. That they extended their territory a considerable dis- 
tance farther southward after the time of the Adelantado’s visit can be 
easily demonstrated, but it is unnecessary for me to present the proof 
of this assertion at this time, as I presume it will be admitted. 
Their traditions in regard to their migrations are uncertain and some- 
what conflicting, stilithere are a fewitems to be gleaned from them, 
which, I think, may be relied upon as pointing in the proper direc. 
tion. The first is, the positive statement that they formerly had a 

‘Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, p. 225. 
‘Ramsey. Annals of Tennessee, p. 51. 
®’Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, p. 223. 
+ Discoveries. ete., p. 3, London edition, 1672. 
