Treaty: Holston I, July 2, 1791

This was the first of two treaties known as Treaties of or on the Holston, as in the Holston River, one of three river valleys in Tennessee that had been Cherokee land but were leased and ultimately bought by early settlers and became part of the modern state of Tennessee.  The signatories were Governor William Blount of North Carolina, who was also U.S. Superintendent of Indian Affairs at the time, and Cherokee leaders including John Watts of the Chickamauga Cherokee.  Given that the Chickamauga had a general policy of not ceding any land, the treaty does little more than bring the Cherokee in general under the protection of the United States, forbid settlement on Native lands, provide for the return of captives and prisoners, and discourage reprisals between Natives and Settlers.  As usual with most of these treaties, it solved nothing.  The Cherokee and Americans were still in the midst of the second phase of the Cherokee-American Wars, 1775-1794, Dragging Canoe was still very much alive and his viewpoint on American settlers hadn't changed a bit.  It would take three more years of fighting before the Treaty of Tellico in 1794 calmed the situation on the southern frontier, but not by much.

This monument, showing Settlers and Cherokee during the signing, marks the spot today.