Savanukahwn (
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
) was known as the
Raven of Chota
The Raven of Chota was a title given to Cherokee war leaders from the town of Chota. In time of war, Ravens scouted ahead of war parties to search for the enemy. According to historian Colin Calloway, "Every Cherokee town had 'Ravens,' but the Rav ...
in the late 18th century. The nephew of
Oconostota
Oconostota (c. 1710–1783) was a Cherokee ''skiagusta'' (war chief) of Chota, which was for nearly four decades the primary town in the Overhill territory, and within what is now Monroe County, Tennessee. He served as the First Beloved Man of Ch ...
, he became
First Beloved Man
Principal Chief is today the title of the chief executives of the Cherokee Nation, of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, the three federally recognized tribes of Cherokee. In the eighteenth ...
of the Cherokee in the fall of 1781. He was ousted by the elders of the Overhill towns in 1783 in favor of the more pacifist
Old Tassel
Old Tassel Reyetaeh (sometimes Corntassel) (Cherokee language: ''Utsi'dsata''), (died 1788), was "First Beloved Man" (the equivalent of a regional Cherokee chief) of the Overhill Cherokee after 1783, when the United States gained independence from ...
.
During the Second Cherokee War, Savanukahwn led the attack against the frontier settlements of Carter's Valley in 1776, in what is now eastern Tennessee but was Cherokee territory.
Dragging Canoe
Dragging Canoe (ᏥᏳ ᎦᏅᏏᏂ, pronounced ''Tsiyu Gansini'', "he is dragging his canoe") (c. 1738 – February 29, 1792) was a Cherokee war chief who led a band of Cherokee warriors who resisted colonists and United States settlers in the ...
of Great Island led the attack on the settlements along the
Holston River
The Holston River is a river that flows from Kingsport, Tennessee, to Knoxville, Tennessee. Along with its three major forks (North Fork, Middle Fork and South Fork), it comprises a major river system that drains much of northeastern Tennessee ...
, and Abraham of Chilhowie led the attacks on the
Watauga Watauga can refer to:
;Places
*Watauga, Kentucky
* Watauga County, North Carolina
* Watauga, South Dakota
* Watauga, Tennessee
* Watauga, Texas
;Bodies of Water
* Watauga Lake in Tennessee
* The Watauga River in North Carolina and Tennessee
;Shi ...
and
Nolichucky rivers, also in what is now
East Tennessee
East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 count ...
.
Sources
*Alderman, Pat. ''Dragging Canoe: Cherokee-Chickamauga War Chief''. (Johnson City: Overmountain Press, 1978)
*Brown, John P. ''Old Frontiers''. (Kingsport: Southern Publishers, 1938).
*Haywood, W.H. ''The Civil and Political History of the State of Tennessee from its Earliest Settlement up to the Year 1796''. (Nashville: Methodist Episcopal Publishing House, 1891).
*Moore, John Trotwood and Austin P. Foster. ''Tennessee, The Volunteer State, 1769-1923, Vol. 1''. (Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1923).
*Ramsey, James Gettys McGregor. ''The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century''. (Chattanooga: Judge David Campbell, 1926).
18th-century Cherokee people
18th-century Native Americans
People of pre-statehood Tennessee
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