Chicamoga Indians 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 continuation of the Cherokee (Ani-Yunwiya, Ani-Kituwa, Tsalagi, Talligewi) struggle against encroachment into their territory by American frontiersmen from the former British colonies, and, until the end of the American Revolution, their contribution to the war effort as British allies. After 1786, they also fought along with and as members of the Western Confederacy. Open warfare broke out in the summer of 1776 between the Cherokee led by Dragging Canoe (a group first called the "Chickamauga" or "Chickamauga-Cherokee" by the colonials, and later the "Lower Cherokee") and frontier settlers along the Watauga, Holston, Nolichucky, and Doe Rivers in East Tennessee. It 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, ending with the treaties of 1777, is sometimes called the "Second Cherokee War", a reference to the earlier Anglo-Cherokee War. Since Dragging Canoe was the dominant leader in both phases of the conflict, referring to the period as "Dragging Canoe's War" would be more accurate. Dragging Canoe and his warriors fought alongside and in conjunction with Indians from a number of other tribes both in the South and in the Northwest (most often Muscogee Creek in the former and Shawnee in the latter); enjoyed the support of, first, the British (often with participation of British agents and regular soldiers) and, second, the Spanish; and were founding members of the Native Americans' Western Confederacy. Though the Americans used "Chickamauga" as a label to define the Cherokee followers of Dragging Canoe, as distinct from Cherokee who abided by the peace treaties of 1777, there was never a separate tribe of "Chickamauga". The mixed-race man, Richard Fields, explained this to the Moravian missionary Brother Steiner, when the latter met with him at Tellico Blockhouse.[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickamauga_wars Chickamauga (Tsǐkăma'gi, a word apparently of foreign origin and probably Shawnee, Creek, or Chickasaw). The name given to a band of Cherokee who espoused the English cause in the war of the Revolution and moved far down on Tennessee River, establishing new settlements on Chickamauga Creek, in the neighborhood of the present Chattanooga. Under this name they soon became noted for their uncompromising and never ceasing hostility. In 1782 their towns were destroyed by Sevier and Campbell, and they moved farther down the river, establishing what were afterward known as the "five lower towns," Running Water, Nickajack, Long Island, Crow Town, and Lookout Mountain Town. Here they were continually recruited by Creeks, Shawnee, and white Tories, until they were estimated to number a thousand warriors. They continued hostilities against the Tennessee settlements until 1794, when their towns were destroyed. http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/cherokee/chickamaugahist.htm The Chickamauga or Lower Cherokee, were a band of Cherokee who supported Great Britain at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. They were followers of Cherokee chief Dragging Canoe. In the winter of 1776/1777, he and they moved down the Tennessee River away from the historic Overhill Cherokee towns, establishing almost a dozen new isolated "towns". The frontiers people often referred to them as "Chickamaugas" after the name of the new town where Dragging Canoe resided. After they moved further west and southwest five years later, they were more commonly known as the "Lower Cherokee" after the "Five Lower Towns" originally making up the new settlement. However, they never at anytime considered themselves a separate people. Indeed, Richard Fields, a minor leader of the so-called "Chickamauga", was asked by a Moravian missionary Brother Steiner "What kind of people are the Chickamauga?"; in reply, Fields laughed and said "They are Cherokee, and we know no difference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickamauga_Indian Salt Licks in Davidson County, Davidson County is the oldest county in Middle Tennessee. It dates to 1783, when the North Carolina legislature created the county and named it in honor of William Lee Davidson, a North Carolina officer who died in the Revolutionary War on January 1, 1782. The county seat, Nashville, is also the oldest permanent white settlement in Middle Tennessee, founded by James Robertson and John Donelson during the winter of 1779-80. The initial white settlers established the Cumberland Compact in order to establish a basic rule of law and to protect their land titles. Through much of the early 1780s the settlers also faced a hostile response from Native American tribes. As the county's many known archaeological sites attest, the resources of Davidson County had attracted Native Americans for centuries. In fact, the first whites to encounter the area were fur traders, then long hunters, who came to a large salt lick, known as French Lick, in present-day Nashville to trade with Native Americans and to hunt the abundant game http://www.facebook.com/pages/Davidson-County-Tennessee/138166789541616