The Overhill Cherokee, on lower Little Tennessee, seem to have been
trying in good faith to hold to the peace established at the Long
island. Early in 1781 the government land office had been closed
to further entries, not to be opened again until peace had been
declared with England, but the borderers paid little attention to
the law in such matters, and the rage for speculation in Tennessee
lands grew stronger daily. [135] In the fall of 1782 the chief, Old
Tassel of Echota, on behalf of all the friendly chiefs and towns,
sent a pathetic talk to the governors of Virginia and North Carolina,
complaining that in spite of all their efforts to remain quiet the
settlers were constantly encroaching upon them, and had built houses
within a day's walk of the Cherokee towns. They asked that all those
whites who had settled beyond the boundary last established should
be removed. [136] As was to have been expected, this was never done.
The Chickamauga band, however, and those farther to the south, were
still bent on war, being actively encouraged in that disposition by the
British agents and refugee loyalists living among them. They continued
to raid both north and south, and in September, 1782, Sevier, with 200
mounted men, again made a descent upon their towns, destroying several
of their settlements about Chickamauga creek, and penetrating as far
as the important town of Ustana'li, on the headwaters of Coosa river,
near the present Calhoun, Georgia. This also he destroyed. Every
warrior found was killed, together with a white man found in one of
the towns, whose papers showed that he had been active in inciting
the Indians to war. On the return the expedition halted at Echota,
where new assurances were received from the friendly element. [137]
In the meantime a Georgia expedition of over 400 men, under General
Pickens, had been ravaging the Cherokee towns in the same quarter,
with such effect that the Cherokee were forced to purchase peace
by a further surrender of territory on the head of Broad river in
Georgia. [138] This cession was concluded at a treaty of peace held
with the Georgia commissioners at Augusta in the next year, and was
confirmed later by the Creeks, who claimed an interest in the same
lands, but was never accepted by either as the voluntary act of their
tribe as a whole. [139]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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