Tsiyu Gansini "he is dragging his canoe" (c. 1738-1792), came from a family of great warriors and great leaders. He was a son of Attakullakulla, a famed Cherokee warrior and leader who had been born to the Nipissing tribe and raised by the Cherokee. His cousin was Nancy Ward, the last Ghigau or Beloved Woman of the Cherokee. On his mother's side, Dragging Canoe was Natchez, his mother having been adopted into the Cherokee from that tribe. They lived with the Overhill Cherokee on the Little Tennessee River. As a child, Dragging Canoe caught smallpox, which left his face scarred. 
As a young boy spoiling for his first fight, he begged his father to go on a war party against a neighboring tribe. His father told him he could go as long as he could prove he could carry a canoe. Unable to actually carry it, the boy dragged it as far as he could, hence his name. Whether he got to go on that war party or not, he was ready for battle during the Anglo-Cherokee War, 1759-1761, when he was 21 years old. He emerged as a strong opponent of further White encroachment on Cherokee land and became the headman of Mialoquo "Great Island Town" on the Little Tennessee River. During the American Revolution, Dragging Canoe sided with the British. Later, after his father and other leaders wanted to pursue peace with the Americans, he led his band further south, to where Chattanooga stands today. Because their settlement was near the South Chickamauga River, they were known as Chickamauga Cherokee by White settlers who encountered them. They established 11 towns, including Old Town, across the river from where a Scotsman ran a trading post and kept them supplied with guns, ammunition, and other supplies. In 1782, Col. John Sevier's forces attacked and burned these towns. They wrought such destruction that Dragging Canoe's band was forced to move further down the Tennessee River below the Tennessee River Gorge. Because of this location, they were sometimes referred to as Lower Cherokee.
From this base, Dragging Canoe led attacks on White Settlements throughout the Southeast. In addition to his own Cherokee band, he welcomed allies from the Muscogee Creek, Shawnee and others along with Loyalists unwilling to give up the fight and Agents from Britain and Spain. In addition to his three brothers, another of his best fighters was a young Shawnee warrior named Cheeseekau, who from time to time brought his little brother Tecumseh to watch and learn a warrior's ways. Dragging Canoe died on February 29, 1792 at Running Water Town. The Town had been celebrating a double occasion, an alliance with the Muscogee and an attack on a nearby White settlement. Dragging Canoe had taken part in the dancing and may have suffered a heart attack as a result. In an age of great Native Commanders, men such as Little Turtle, Blue Jacket and Buckongahelas, Dragging Canoe is rated in some sources as the best. He may have inspired Tecumseh more than either of them realized. A direct descendant of Sequoyah later wrote that he, despite his disability, also tried his hand at being a warrior among Dragging Canoe's men.
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