In some respects, the American Revolution was no different than the other Colonial land wars fought in North American since the 17th century. It involved European powers, England versus France and Spain (fighting on the side of the Americans), over land. And neither Patriots nor Redcoats thought of the impact on the original inhabitants of the land. The Cherokee American Wars spanned the time period of the American Revolution and throughout the Northwest Indian War, which we've already covered. We've also met Dragging Canoe, probably one of the most able Native leaders of any time period. The Cherokee-American Wars, also known on the frontier as the Chickamauga Wars, were the conflicts that made him famous, and feared.The Cherokee allied with Great Britain as the American Revolution broke out. In the aftermath of the French and Indian War (1756-1763), the English had negotiated a series of treaties with the Cherokee in an effort to protect their land from encroachment by Settlers. However, the Settlers kept coming and while the Cherokee were compelled to cede some land, others chose to move further west, keeping distance between them and the Whites. The result was a great deal of upheaval among Cherokee communities, with some towns being abandoned and resettled elsewhere. As the Revolution broke out, Cherokee war parties began attacking frontier settlements, sometimes with the support of Loyalists who had been forced to flee their homes to avoid the wrath of Patriot neighbors. These attacks were blown into full-fledged atrocities by Patriot propaganda and the familiar cycle of retribution set in. As hostilities continued, the Cherokee allied with northern tribes such as the Shawnee and Lenape/Delaware to pool their collective manpower and resources.
Patriot governments in Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia now had a two-front war on their hands. While fighting the British, they also had to deal with war on the frontier against a combination of warriors from various tribes. In this first phase of the conflict, war parties of the Cherokee and other tribes fought a series of small battles against Patriot militias from the various states. It was in this context that Dragging Canoe emerged as a war leader, directing evacuations of women, children and elderly so that the warriors could burn the towns and meet the Settlers in battle. The Cherokees scorched earth tactics, burning their own towns to avoid them coming into the control of the Settlers, deprived the Settlers of food stores they had hoped to plunder in their march. There was a respite in 1777, when the Cherokee signed a series of treaties with Patriot governments in all four colonies. However, there would be no rest on the frontier. The Creek/Muscogee, erstwhile enemies of the Cherokee, were also fighting on the side of the British and scoring raids of their own. Dragging Canoe led his people along the Great Warpath to where it crossed Chickamauga Creek, hoping to be left alone. The towns along the Chickamauga became a point of refuge both for Cherokee who had had to flee from other areas, as well as Loyalists driven from their homes.
But peace would not last. As Settlers flooded in to the various river valleys leading to Tennessee, they encroached on Chickamauga hunting range, facing deadly reprisals for doing so. Dragging Canoe and his men were constantly battling Settlers who strayed into their lands. Beginning in 1778, the British turned their attentions to war in the Southern States, pitting Patriot against Loyalist as well as Settlers against Natives. Initial Patriot setbacks in the southern theater of Revolutionary War forced more Settlers west. The British had also turned their attention to the frontier, sending troops with Native auxiliaries under Sir Henry Hamilton into Tennessee. They were met by Patriot forces under George Rogers Clark, among others. As they had in the North, Loyalist units teamed with Native auxiliaries to raid backcountry settlements and farms. Patriot units found their own allies, mostly among tribes such as the Catawba, and kept up the fight. Settlers destroyed several Chickamauga towns, which inflamed Dragging Canoe's men. They allied with the Shawnee to keep up the fight.
Meanwhile, Native leaders such as White Eyes of the Delaware had opened negotiations with both the British and Americans, seeking a Native buffer state and a possible end of the war. To that end, the Cherokee agreed to remain neutral, hoping that the tensions would ease. In 1780, the Chickasaw, who had been raided by Clark's Patriot forces, entered the fight against the Americans, further adding to the conflict. Also in 1780, the British captured Charleston, South Carolina and besieged Savannah. Patriot militias from the backcountry were forced to put the war with the Natives on hold and march to battle at Kings Mountain (October, 1780), and the Cowpens (January, 1781) to deal with the British onslaught. They turned their attention back to the Cherokee in skirmishes in the Cumberland Valley in 1781. The Cherokee had allies in the Shawnee and Chickasaw, fighting a series of campaigns against the Overmountain men, whom we've also discussed in a previous post.
Washington's victory at Yorktown in October, 1781, did nothing to stop the war on the frontier, where Patriot and Loyalist forces continued to raid settlements and incite the conflict. The conflict spread from Tennessee and into Georgia, where both the Cherokee and Creek were fighting Settlers, free from any interference by King or government, encroaching on their lands. Cherokee communities in the Ohio Valley were also drawn into the conflict. Dragging Canoe and representatives of several tribes met with Spanish and British officials in St. Augustine, Florida, to discuss a Native confederation to deal with the crisis. The Treaty of Paris of 1783 dealt with Britain's claims to her former colonies, but did not deal with any claims the Natives may have had to the same land. With the Revolution over, some tribes entered into treaties with various states, while others including the Cherokee, saw no other option but to continue fighting. The Spanish had been allies of the Americans. Now, aware that Americans were casting covetous eyes on Florida, the Spanish had a stake in backing the Natives in the conflict, though they did so covertly. Alexander McGilllivray of the Creek helped broker a treaty between the Creek and the Cherokee of the Lower Towns with the Spanish that was, on its face, a treaty of trade, but also one of tacit support in the event of conflict with the fledgling American government(s). He assisted the Choctaw and Alabama in negotiating similar treaties.
Despite the treaties, the frontier was tense. In 1785, as the Natives worked toward the confederation that would fight the Northwest Indian War, they were also working toward a combine that would defend their land claims in the South. The United States, still just a loose confederation of squabbling states who each insisted on dealing with their own defense and with the Native tribes, now found itself with two parallel Indian Wars, each lasting for the next ten years. Dragging Canoe was aging, but other able warriors were coming on the scene, including Cheeseekau, older brother and mentor of Tecumseh, who would spend his own formative years in these conflicts and learn valuable lessons from them. Dragging Canoe died in 1792 and Alexander McGillivray followed In 1793, but the conflict did not die with them. A series of more treaties with various tribes and discovery of Spain's duplicity led to another lull in the fighting, but not for long. The wars in the backcountry would not wind down until 1794, with the defeat at Fallen Timbers which ended the Northwest Indian War. The Cherokee, under John Watts, signed the Treaty of Tellico Blockhouse in 1794, pulling them out of the conflict. Treaty of Greenville in 1795 put an end to the Northwestern conflict, forcing punitive land concessions on the part of many tribes. The frontier, though, was far from quiet.
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