The Brief History Of The Cherokee War of 1776

A portrait of Cherokee Chief Dragging Canoe by
Cherokee artist Talmadge Davi.

On this day in U.S. history, July 1, 1776, The Second Cherokee War (or Cherokee War of 1776) campaign against the Southern colonies began.

The Cherokee tribe was traditionally located in the area of what is now northern Georgia, western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Warfare arose periodically between the Cherokee and the encroaching white settlers from the time of their first contact, but a new wave of conflict arose after the French and Indian War (1754-1763).

The Proclamation Line of 1763 forbade British settlers from settling west of the Appalachians in an effort to limit conflict between settlers and Indians who had supported the British against the French during the war. Some settlers had other ideas though and tried to settle in the area.

In the late 1760s and early 1770s, the first several settlements began in what is now eastern Tennessee in Cherokee territory. The settlers believed they were in western Virginia, but a survey proved they were actually outside colonial territory. They were ordered to leave the Cherokee territory by the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs. The Cherokee chiefs, however, said they could stay as long as no more settlers came.

In 1775, Richard Henderson of North Carolina made a deal with Cherokee leaders to purchase most of modern day Kentucky. The sale did not take into account the fact that other tribes claimed this land, nor the fact that it was illegal according to British law as defined by the Proclamation Line of 1763.

The "sale" caused a rift in the Cherokee tribe. A young rebel Cherokee war chief (skiagusta) named Dragging Canoe angrily challenged the older leaders who made the deal and started gathering a coalition around him of those who were disenchanted with their elders for making deals with and selling land to the settlers.

When the American Revolution broke out, the settlers in Cherokee territory decided that British law no longer applied to them and they could live wherever they wanted. Since they had made a treaty with the Cherokee, they were on the land legitimately in their view. In May of 1776, a coalition of northern tribes allied with the British convinced Dragging Canoe and his band to join them in fighting the colonists.

A plan was hatched whereby simultaneous raids would be led against the settlers in Cherokee territory, as well as on frontier settlements in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. The campaign began on July 1, 1776 with a series of raids against the trans-Appalachian settlements. In some places, settlers had been warned and took refuge in various forts. In other places, settlers were massacred and homes and villages were destroyed.

The Cherokee attack led to a massive response from the combined colonial militias of the attacked colonies. Thousands of Patriot militia members marched on Cherokee territory, burned dozens of villages, destroyed crops and killed those who resisted. Even those who were not involved in the attacks suffered.

In retaliation for the attacks made against the American settlements of the Watauga Association in what is now modern-day eastern Tennessee, a force of settlers under the Command of General Griffith Rutherford and Captain William Moore of the 2nd Rowan County Regiment led attacks against the Cherokee in July 1776 during what became known as the Rutherford Light Horse Expedition, resulting in the destruction of six Cherokee towns, ran for just over a month from October 17 until November 16, 1776 and resulted in the killing of around 50-60 Cherokees with only minor losses for the militia.

During the expedition, Rutherford also led militia men to the Cherokee town of Too-Cowee. Most of the people had fled the village being over-powered and out-numbered, and the militia burned the homes.

Not long after this the Cherokee people offered peace to the newly independent American States. After the destruction and loss that the Cherokee people endured and continued American militia victory led to peace treaties established with the older and wiser Cherokee chiefs who understood they could not win this fight. The majority of the Cherokee settlements signed the Treaty of Dewitt's Corner in May of 1777.

Refusing to sign the treaty, Dragging Canoe Dragging and his large group of followers moved further down the Tennessee River in order to resist the Americans from a more secure position. They settled in the Chickamauga Creek area near present-day Chattanooga, an association which caused them for a time to be referred to as the "Chickamauga Cherokee." He continued to work with the British and launch attacks against white settlers for years to come. These would become known as the Chickamauga Wars (or Cherokee-American Wars) which would continue off-and-on until November of 1794 with the Treaty of Tellico Blockhouse.

Dragging Canoe died on February 29, 1792 of a heart attack following a victory against American forces at Running Water Town (modern-day Whiteside, Tennessee).