East Tennessee’s rich history includes many native Americans from the Cherokee tribe of the Wolf Clan that lived in Chota (now Vonore, Tennessee site of the Sequoyah Museum, which stands as a celebration of Cherokee history). Chota was located on the banks of the Little Tennessee River and is now covered by a man-made Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) lake. There, historic Cherokee tribespersons like Sequoyah and Dragging Canoe were born. The era of these historical figures was tumultuous, as were their lives. The encroachment of the white men on their lands wreaked havoc on the once-peaceful Cherokee Nation.
A woman now known as Nancy Ward was among the important people of the Wolf Clan born at Chota. She was born Nanyehi (Cherokee: one who goes about) in 1738. In the year she was born, between 7,000 and 10,000 Cherokee died from Smallpox carried to the native Americans by the Europeans. That outbreak alone constituted over half the tribe’s population. Some of the Cherokee lived but committed suicide rather than have the disfiguring scars of the disease.
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Nancy Ward’s Uncle and Dragging Canoe’s father, Attakullakulla (Little Carpenter), was a young Indian brave when he went on an ocean voyage in 1730 with several other Cherokee to meet King George. They returned a year later with amazing stories of the marvelous things they had seen and experienced. Nancy would have had a front-row seat to her uncle’s memories growing up. Historians think that the stories Attakullakulla brought back profoundly affected his niece. Nanyehi, like her uncle, always wanted to learn from and be at peace with the whites. He always advocated for peace with the white settlers, his son Dragging Canoe, however, believed the only way to deal with the white settlers was through war.
Nanyehi grew up in a traditional Cherokee family. At the time, the Cherokees lived what is considered matrilinear. (The mother’s family raised the children, and their lineage followed that path.) No records go back to that time, so it is unclear who Nanyehi’s mother was. Her father was said to be part of a Delaware tribe that had migrated to Chota. He was named FiveKiller. When she was fifteen, she married a young brave named Kingfisher (Tsu-la), a member of the Deer Clan. By the age of seventeen, Nanyehi and her husband Kingfisher had two children, Catherine (Ka-Ti) Walker and Littlefellow (Hiskyteehee) Fivekiller.
Two years after her marriage, Nanyehi proved herself in a battle with the Cherokee enemy, the Creeks. Nanyehi and Kingfisher had traveled to North Georgia for The Battle of Taliwa, where she chewed the bullets during battle so they would be rough and do more damage. Kingfisher was shot and killed by the Creeks, and Nanyehi took up his rifle and led the outnumbered Cherokee to a victory, earning herself a great deal of political and tribal power with the title Ghagau or Beloved Woman. She also led the Woman’s Clan Counsel enabling her to become an ambassador and negotiator for her people. She would be the only female to sit on the Cherokee General Counsel.
When Nanyehi was in her early twenties (late 1750s), an Irish trader named Bryant Ward came thru Chota. He was already married to a white woman who lived in the settled area of South Carolina. He also married Nanyehi, and after that, she was referred to in the Anglicized version of her Cherokee name as Nancy Ward. They had one child, Elizabeth. Bryant Ward returned to his first wife in South Carolina. Nancy Ward, however, did not lose contact with Bryant and visited with him in his home in South Carolina over the years, where she was always well received.
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Nancy Ward was a Cherokee leader and, in that role, was considered wealthy among her people. She took in many Cherokee orphan children and raised them as her own, as well as assisted others of her people in need.
Nancy Ward, always a negotiator, sat in on meetings and met with the white leaders in hopes of navigating a peaceful settlement for her people and the white people she respected. In 1760 a siege began on Fort Loudon, a British Fort that had been established close to her home on the Little Tennessee River. The British at Fort Loudon had held several Cherokee Chiefs captive for the murder of twenty-four white settlers. The Chiefs attempted to escape, and all were killed.
Attakullakulla tried to negotiate peace between the settlers and the British, and several of those in the fort, with his help, managed to escape. Attakullakulla was able to smuggle food into the settlers. Nancy Ward was said to have been involved in some of the work he did to help the settlers and soldiers negotiate between them and the angry Indians. He was unsuccessful. Starving, those inside Fort Loudon surrendered and were massacred by the Indians as they tried to escape the area several days later.
In her position and in secret, Nancy Ward used her influence many times. She sent messages to John Sevier and others white leaders of impending attacks by the Cherokee. In a meeting with future Tennessee Governor John Sevier, he is said to have been shocked that the Cherokee had sent a woman to bargain with him for peace. In what was described as a moving speech to Sevier, Nancy said, “You know that women are always looked upon as nothing, but we are your mothers, you are our sons. Our cry is all for peace. Let it continue. This peace must last forever. Let your women’s sons be ours; our sons be yours. Let your women hear our words.”
In 1776 Nancy Ward saved the life of a white woman the Cherokee intended to kill, Lydia Russell Bean. Nancy Ward’s relationship with Lydia Bean had a far-reaching effect on the lives of the Cherokee. When Lydia Bean was captured on her way from Boone’s Creek to Sycamore Shoals, she was brought back to Chota. The young Indian fighters intended to kill her, and Nancy Ward intervened. Nancy Ward had captured several cows. Lydia Bean taught Nancy Ward how to milk the cows and make butter and cheese, enhancing the diet of the Cherokee even when there were no crops or game available.
Nancy Ward passed what she learned on to the women of her tribe and others. Lydia Bean also taught Nancy how to make clothing by weaving. While the Cherokee had been weaving with hemp for years, this technique made it possible to do more of their own and make more comfortable clothing without using hides and other animal skins. This was an immense cultural change for the Cherokee, making them more of a European-style culture, with the women responsible for the clothing and home and the men for agriculture and hunting.
Decades passed, and one treaty after another was broken as white settlers continued to push westward. To the Indians, it seemed that ten families came and took their place if one family left. During this turmoil, Nancy Ward sat at many council tables with her people and white negotiators. Nancy Ward’s cousin, Dragging Canoe, led many Indian attacks on the white settlers in an attempt to save the Cherokee and the more significant native American peoples from the white encroachment. Nancy Ward often warned settlers of upcoming attacks and likely saved many lives.
In 1781 Nancy negotiated a treaty between the Cherokee and the whites, enabling the colonists to travel freely as they fought the British without fear of Indian attacks. In 1785, Nancy objected to selling more Indian land to the whites but helped negotiate The Treaty of Hopewell. After that, as leader of the Women’s Council, Nancy Ward was vocal in speaking out against selling more land. Her voice remained unheard.
Due to white encroachment, Nancy Ward left her beloved Chota in her later years and opened an inn on the banks of the Ocoee River in present-day Benton, Tennessee. She settled there and was taken care of in her last years by her son FiveKiller. She passed away sometime between 1822 and 1824. She, Five Killer, and her brother Longfellow are buried not far from the inn. Nancy Ward did not live to see the forced removal of her beloved Cherokee thru The Trail of Tears but is said to have dreamed about it before her death.
