I would like to add that the Chickamauaga Cherokees were originally based in the Upper Creek village of Chickamauga near Chattanooga, but soon spread their villages throughout what is now NW Georgia and NE Alabama, but was then Georgia. They immediately began intermarrying with Creeks. The Upper Creeks were active allies of the Chickamauga Cherokees in their raids into Tennessee. The Chickamauga villages often moved to avoid detection, since the Chickamaugas were involved in a guerilla war with the Tennessee Militia. Interestingly enough, there were very few conflicts with Georgia citizens even though most Chickamaugas were living in Georgia, since the Chickamaugas considered Georgia to be another country. In 1793, many of the Chickamaugas who survived their catastrophic defeat in what is now Rome, GA settled in the Natchez village of Pine Log, which is 13 miles north of Etowah Mounds. It was here that Sequoyah, John Ridge, James Vann and Charles Hicks settled. Sequoyah became a prosperous silver smith here, and used the spare time to write his syllabary. About 8 years ago I lived in Pine Log only a couple hundred yards from the site of Sequoyah's cabin. Sequoyah's work was based on the Taliwa (Creek) syllabary - the indigenous people of this region where I live. Talking Rock Creek, here, gets its name from the Creek glyphs remaining on the stones. In fact, Sequoyah's name is definitely not Cherokee, and apparently derived from the Creek word sekooya, which means war captive. Therefore, he was probably at least 1/2 Creek ... maybe all Creek in genetic heritage, but spoke Cherokee. Up to the time of John Ross, all of the leaders of the Cherokees at their capital in New Echota, were from Pine Log. Many of the Pine Log Cherokees were full bloods, whereas, John Ross was only 1/8 Cherokee and knew practically nothing about his heritage until being elected a leader. So it is definitely not correct to describe the Chickamauga Cherokees as predominantly mixed-blood whites. I live about 20 miles from New Echota and go their often. The Kituwah Band of Cherokees trace their lineage to the 1817 Cherokee settlers. They are federally recognized. Here is the joke on them though. Kituwa is not a Cherokee word other than being a proper noun. It is the Alabama word for sacred fire. The core of the North Carolina Cherokees, who formed the Qualla Boundary Reservation, were part of Chief Junaluska's band. THEY WERE EXEMPTED FROM GOING TO OKLAHOMA because of a favor granted by Andy Jackson to Chief Junaluska. Earlier they had attempted to kill Sequoyah and his wife, because they considered his syllabary to be witchcraft and non-Cherokee. The North Carolina Cherokees were in the midst of slowing torturing Sequoyah to death, when John Ridge led a troop of Cherokee Lighthorse from Georgia to save him. Some Georgia Cherokees did successfully hide out from the troops, and through the decades ended up in Qualla, but the story presented to tourists at the NC Cherokee Reservation does not explain this. The NC Cherokees did not use the Sequoyah syllabary until the late 20th century. For all my bad experiences with the locals here, I do feel blessed to have lived in the past ten years in the midst of so much Native American history. My first two years back in Georgia were spent in walking distance of Etowah Mounds. Richard T. **************Get fantasy football with free live scoring. Sign up for FanHouse Fantasy Football today. (http://www.fanhouse.com/fantasyaffair?ncid=aolspr00050000000020)