Folks, don't be shocked but the word Chickamauga is a Muskogean word, and the so-called Chickamauga Cherokees were actually the result of Chief Dragging Canoe leading a band of renegade Cherokees out of the mountains to settle at a Tuskegee (northern Creek) town on the Tennessee River near modern day Chattanooga. Not only that, but Chota, Tennessee the birthplace of Sequoyah, was originally a Tuskegee town. The Tuskegees (actually Tas-ke'-ke') were originally in the Little Tennessee River Valley just west of the Cherokees and Upper Tennessee Valley. They were thoroughly decimated by Spanish swords and diseases. Many of the survivors merged with the Cherokees and within a generation were speaking Tsa-la-gi. There were 2400 Creeks living the Cherokee Nation in Georgia in 1832. Especially, around Rome, and Cartersville, GA there were actually Creek villages happily settled beside Cherokee villages. Many of the Creeks scattered into the mountains prior to the Trail of Tears since they were not on the Cherokee Rolls. Tullahoma, Tennessee got its name for the Tuskegee name meaning "Red Town." If you have a Creek knot - a bony protrusion at the base of the skull above where the neck joins, then you have Muskogean ancesters. Oh, if we only had a time machine to go back and see what really happened 2-500 years ago! Richard