Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney
1750. Ancient mining indications are also reported from Kings mountain,
1555 words | Chapter 22
about twenty miles distant (Reinhardt MS, 1900, in Bureau of American
Ethnology archives). The Spanish miners of whom Lederer heard in 1670
and Moore in 1690 were probably at work in this neighborhood.
(12) Sir William Johnson (p. 38): This great soldier, whose history
is so inseparably connected with that of the Six Nations, was born
in the county Meath, Ireland, in 1715, and died at Johnstown, New
York, in 1774. The younger son of an Irish gentleman, he left his
native country in 1738 in consequence of a disappointment in love,
and emigrated to America, where he undertook the settlement of a
large tract of wild land belonging to his uncle, which lay along the
south side of the Mohawk river in what was then the wilderness of
New York. This brought him into close contact with the Six Nations,
particularly the Mohawks, in whom he became so much interested as to
learn their language and in some degree to accommodate himself to their
customs, sometimes even to the wearing of the native costume. This
interest, together with his natural kindness and dignity, completely
won the hearts of the Six Nations, over whom he acquired a greater
influence than has ever been exercised by any other white man before
or since. He was formally adopted as a chief by the Mohawk tribe. In
1744, being still a very young man, he was placed in charge of British
affairs with the Six Nations, and in 1755 was regularly commissioned
at their own urgent request as superintendent for the Six Nations
and their dependent and allied tribes, a position which he held for
the rest of his life. In 1748 he was also placed in command of the
New York colonial forces, and two years later was appointed to the
governor's council. At the beginning of the French and Indian war he
was commissioned a major-general. He defeated Dieskau at the battle
of Lake George, where he was severely wounded early in the action,
but refused to leave the field. For this service he received the
thanks of Parliament, a grant of £5,000, and a baronetcy. He also
distinguished himself at Ticonderoga and Fort Niagara, taking the
latter after routing the French army sent to its relief. At the head
of his Indian and colonial forces he took part in other actions and
expeditions, and was present at the surrender of Montreal. For his
services throughout the war he received a grant of 100,000 acres of
land north of the Mohawk river. Here he built "Johnson Hall," which
still stands, near the village of Johnstown, which was laid out by
him with stores, church, and other buildings, at his own expense. At
Johnson Hall he lived in the style of an old country baron, dividing
his attention between Indian affairs and the raising of blooded stock,
and dispensing a princely hospitality to all comers. His influence
alone prevented the Six Nations joining Pontiac's great confederacy
against the English. In 1768 he concluded the treaty of Fort Stanwix,
which fixed the Ohio as the boundary between the northern colonies
and the western tribes, the boundary for which the Indians afterward
contended against the Americans until 1795. In 1739 he married a
German girl of the Mohawk valley, who died after bearing him three
children. Later in life he formed a connection with the sister of
Brant, the Mohawk chief. He died from over-exertion at an Indian
council. His son, Sir John Johnson, succeeded to his title and estates,
and on the breaking out of the Revolution espoused the British side,
drawing with him the Mohawks and a great part of the other Six Nations,
who abandoned their homes and fled with him to Canada (see W. L. Stone,
Life of Sir William Johnson).
(13) Captain John Stuart (p. 44): This distinguished officer was
contemporaneous with Sir William Johnson, and sprang from the same
adventurous Keltic stock which has furnished so many men conspicuous
in our early Indian history. Born in Scotland about the year 1700, he
came to America in 1733, was appointed to a subordinate command in the
British service, and soon became a favorite with the Indians. When Fort
Loudon was taken by the Cherokee in 1760, he was second in command,
and his rescue by Ata-kullakulla is one of the romantic episodes of
that period. In 1763 he was appointed superintendent for the southern
tribes, a position which he continued to hold until his death. In 1768
he negotiated with the Cherokee the treaty of Hard Labor by which the
Kanawha was fixed as the western boundary of Virginia, Sir William
Johnson at the same time concluding a treaty with the northern tribes
by which the boundary was continued northward along the Ohio. At
the outbreak of the Revolution he organized the Cherokee and other
southern tribes, with the white loyalists, against the Americans, and
was largely responsible for the Indian outrages along the southern
border. He planned a general invasion by the southern tribes along
the whole frontier, in cooperation with a British force to be landed
in western Florida, while a British fleet should occupy the attention
of the Americans on the coast side and the Tories should rise in the
interior. On the discovery of the plot and the subsequent defeat of
the Cherokee by the Americans, he fled to Florida and soon afterward
sailed for England, where he died in 1779.
(14) Nancy Ward (p. 47): A noted halfbreed Cherokee woman, the date
and place of whose birth and death are alike unknown. It is said that
her father was a British officer named Ward and her mother a sister of
Ata-kullakulla, principal chief of the Nation at the time of the first
Cherokee war. She was probably related to Brian Ward, an oldtime trader
among the Cherokee, mentioned elsewhere in connection with the battle
of Tali'wa. During the Revolutionary period she resided at Echota,
the national capital, where she held the office of "Beloved Woman,"
or "Pretty Woman," by virtue of which she was entitled to speak in
councils and to decide the fate of captives. She distinguished herself
by her constant friendship for the Americans, always using her best
effort to bring about peace between them and her own people, and
frequently giving timely warning of projected Indian raids, notably
on the occasion of the great invasion of the Watauga and Holston
settlements in 1776. A Mrs Bean, captured during this incursion, was
saved by her interposition after having been condemned to death and
already bound to the stake. In 1780, on occasion of another Cherokee
outbreak, she assisted a number of traders to escape, and the next
year was sent by the chiefs to make peace with Sevier and Campbell,
who were advancing against the Cherokee towns. Campbell speaks of
her in his report as "the famous Indian woman, Nancy Ward." Although
peace was not then granted, her relatives, when brought in later with
other prisoners, were treated with the consideration due in return
for her good offices. She is described by Robertson, who visited her
about this time, as "queenly and commanding" in appearance and manner,
and her house as furnished in accordance with her high dignity. When
among the Arkansas Cherokee in 1819, Nuttall was told that she had
introduced the first cows into the Nation, and that by her own and her
children's influence the condition of the Cherokee had been greatly
elevated. He was told also that her advice and counsel bordered on
supreme, and that her interference was allowed to be decisive even
in affairs of life and death. Although he speaks in the present
tense, it is hardly probable that she was then still alive, and he
does not claim to have met her. Her descendants are still found in
the Nation. See Haywood, Natural and Aboriginal Tennessee; Ramsey,
Tennessee; Nuttall, Travels, p. 130, 1821; Campbell letter, 1781,
and Springstone deposition, 1781, in Virginia State Papers I, pp. 435,
436, 447, 1875; Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography.
(15) General James Robertson (p. 48): This distinguished pioneer and
founder of Nashville was born in Brunswick county, Virginia, in 1742,
and died at the Chickasaw agency in west Tennessee in 1814. Like
most of the men prominent in the early history of Tennessee, he was
of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His father having removed about 1750 to
western North Carolina, the boy grew up without education, but with
a strong love for adventure, which he gratified by making exploring
expeditions across the mountains. After his marriage his wife taught
him to read and write. In 1771 he led a colony to the Watauga river
and established the settlement which became the nucleus of the future
state of Tennessee. He took a leading part in the organization of
the Watauga Association, the earliest organized government within
the state, and afterward served in Dunmore's war, taking part in the
bloody battle of Point Pleasant in 1774. He participated in the earlier
Revolutionary campaigns against the Cherokee, and in 1777 was appointed
agent to reside at their capital, Echota, and act as a medium in their
correspondence with the state governments of North Carolina (including
Tennessee) and Virginia. In this capacity he gave timely warning of
a contemplated invasion by the hostile portion of the tribe early in
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