Great Leader: Attakullakulla of the Cherokee

Dragging Canoe was reckoned one of the most talented Native commanders in his day.  And he had his father, in part, to thank.  Like father, like son couldn't describe two men better than Attakullakulla, First Beloved Man of the Cherokee from 1761-1775, and the son he raised to lead the Chickamauga Cherokee.

Attakullakulla (c 1708-1777) is a Cherokee name meaning
leaning wood.  The English referred to him as Little Carpenter, both from his name having something to do with wood, and from the fact that he was short, with a slender build.  Further descriptions of him indicated a pleasant personality, mild mannered, well-spoken, intelligent and witty.  He was born in Eastern Tennessee.  His son later stated that Attakullakulla was of the Nipissing tribe, captured and assimilated into the Cherokee while still a small child.  He married Nionne Ollie, herself a Natchez raised by Oconostata, and had several children.  One of whom became Dragging Canoe.  Another son was Turtle at Home, a noted warrior and lieutenant of his brother. 

In 1730, he went to England as part of a Cherokee delegation.  After that, he became firmly convinced of the need to keep the Cherokee firmly on the side of the English in the various colonial wars sweeping over North America.  He several times rejected any advances by the French in their efforts to co-opt the Cherokee as auxiliaries.  Finally, in around 1740, he was captured in a battle with the Ottawa and sent to Montreal as a prisoner.  Upon his release in 1748, Attakullakulla became a trusted advisor to more senior leaders within the Cherokee Nation.  He became known as a trusted diplomat and representative for his people.

He would need all his skills at diplomacy during the French and Indian War (1755-1762).  During the war, he worked to keep trade lines open between the British and the Cherokee, to keep the peace between Settlers and Natives and to assist the British.  However, in 1759, a delegation of Cherokee went to Charleston to negotiate with the colonial governor.  There, they were taken hostage instead and taken to Fort Prince George.  Attakullakulla signed a treaty, agreeing to turn over any Cherokee guilty of raiding American settlements.  In 1760, Attakullakulla came to Fort Prince George to negotiate for return of the hostages, but he had reckoned without Oconostata, whom we've already met.  He was also at Fort Prince George, and lured a British officer outside in an invitation to parley.  Instead, the officer was killed and the British inside the fort retaliated by killing all the Native hostages.  Oconostata redeemed himself by taking Fort Loudoun, one of the few, if not the only time a British fort was taken by Natives in wartime.  Meanwhile, the fallout for the death of the hostages and the escalating tension between Cherokee and British was blamed on Attakullakulla. 

Finally, after a punitive British raid on the Middle and Lower towns, Attakullakulla was able to persuade the British to agree a treaty with the Cherokee.  But his troubles did not end.  On the way home from the treaty negotiations, he was robbed on the road by angry frontiersmen.  Throughout the rest of his life, he would work to limit frontier settlement in Cherokee country, but to little avail.  By the time of the American Revolution (1775-1783), Attakullakulla decided that the best way to placate the Whites was to allow them some land.  After he and several other older leaders ceded land to the state of Virginia, Dragging Canoe and his own father parted ways.  Dragging Canoe would lead his people to Tennessee and the formation of the Chickamauga Cherokee.  Father and son never healed their relationship.  Attakullakulla died in 1777 and was succeeded as First Beloved Man by Oconostata.