Chickamauga wars
Dragging Canoe meets with Shawnee emis-
saries after the destruction of Chickamauga
and ten other towns
The Chickamauga Wars (1776–1794) were
a series of back-and-forth raids, campaigns,
ambushes, minor skirmishes, and several full-
scale frontier battles which were a continu-
ation of the Cherokee (Ani-Yunwiya, Ani-
Kituwa, Tsalagi, Talligewi) struggle against
illegal encroachment into their territory by
American frontiersmen from the former Brit-
ish colonies. Until the end of the American
Revolution, these were just as much their
contribution to the war effort as British
allies.
These hostilities broke out into open war-
fare in the summer of 1776 between the
Cherokee led by Dragging Canoe (initially
called the "Chickamauga" or "Chickamauga-
Cherokee", and later the "Lower Cherokee",
by colonials) and frontier settlers along the
Watauga, Holston, Nolichucky rivers, and
Doe rivers in East Tennessee and later
spread to those along the Cumberland River
in Middle Tennessee and in Kentucky, as well
as the colonies (later states) of Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
The earliest phase of these conflicts, end-
ing with the treaties of 1777, is sometimes
called the "Second Cherokee War", a refer-
ence to the earlier Anglo-Cherokee War, but
in this case something of a misnomer.
However, since Dragging Canoe was the
dominant leader in both phases of the con-
flict and to him it was one continuing war, re-
ferring the period as "Dragging Canoe’s
War", even if it includes the last two years
after he died, would not be incorrect.
Dragging Canoe’s warriors fought along-
side and in conjunction with Indians from a
number of other tribes, both in the South and
in the Northwest (most often Muscogee in
the former and Shawnee in the latter); en-
joyed the support of, first, the British and,
second, the Spanish, the former of which of-
ten included active participation of British
agents and regular soldiers; and were found-
ing members of
the Native Americans’
Western Confederacy.
It is impor