206 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 118 



at any time of any assertion of territorial right in their behalf to the east of 

 the former stream. But, nevertheless, on Bowen's map of 1752 (obviously 

 copied from the earlier maps), there is laid down the name of "Keowee Old 

 Town." The location of this town was on Deep River, in the vicinity of the 

 present town of Ashborough, N. C. It was a favorite name of the Cherokee 

 among their towns, and affords a strong evidence of at least a temporary resi- 

 dence of a portion of the tribe in that vicinity. * * * 



On the borders of Virginia and North Carolina the ancient limits of the 

 Cherokees seem to be also surrounded in more or less doubt and confusion. In 

 general terms, however, it may be said that after following the Catawba River 

 to its source in the Blue Ridge the course of those mountains was pursued until 

 their intersection with the continuation of the Great Iron Mountain range, 

 near Floyd Court-House, Va., and thence to the waters of the Kanawha or 

 New River, whence their claim continued down that stream to the Ohio. At a 

 later date they also set up a claim to the country extending from the mouth 

 of the Kanawha down the Ohio to the ridge dividing the waters of the Cum- 

 berland from those of the Tennessee at the mouths of those streams, and 

 thence following that ridge to a point northeast of the mouth of Duck River; 

 thence to the mouth of Duck River on the Tennessee, and continuing up with 

 the course of the latter river to Bear Creek; up the latter to a point called 

 Flat Rock, and thence to the Ten Islands in the Coosa River, etc. 



That portion of the country thus covered, comprising a large part of the 

 present States of West Virginia and Kentucky, was also claimed by the Six 

 Nations by right of former conquest, as well as by the Shawnees and Dela- 

 wares. 15 



Of this claim by the Iroquois Confederacy Ramsey says : 



At the time of its earliest exploration, the country east and north of the 

 Tennessee River was not in the occupancy of any Indian tribe. Vestiges were 

 then found, and, indeed, still remain, of an ancient and dense population — 

 indicating higher progress in civilization and the arts than has been attained 

 by more modern tribes in this part of the continent. A fresh hunting camp 

 was occasionally found, * * * . 



At the point of time to which these annals have reached, the territory of 

 which we are speaking was claimed, though not occupied, by the Confederacy 

 of the Six Nations. These were called by the early French historians, Iroquois, 

 and by the English, Mohawks. In 1672 these tribes conquered the Illinois and 

 Shawnee Indians, the latter of whom were also incorporated with them. To 

 these conquests they added, in 1685, that of the Miamis, and about the same 

 time carried their victorious arms westward to the Mississippi, and southward 

 to what is now Georgia. In 1711 they incorporated with them the Tuscaroras. 

 when expelled from North Carolina. Governor Pownal, in his "Administra- 

 tion of the British Colonies", says that these tribes carried their arms as far 

 south as Carolina and as far west as the Mississippi, over a vast country, 

 1,200 miles in length and 600 in breadth, where they destroyed whole nations, 

 of whom there are no accounts remaining among the English: and, continues 

 the same writer, the rights of these tribes to the hunting lands on the Ohio 

 may be fairly proved by their conquests over the Shawanees, Delawares, etc., 

 as they stood possessed thereof at the peace of Ryswick, in 1697. * * * 



Such was the aboriginal title to the greater part of Tennessee in 1767, 

 when the white settlers approached its eastern boundary. On the 6th of May 

 of this year a deputation of the Six Nations presented to the superintendent 



15 Royce, 1887, pp. 140-141. 



