127-955: The Cherokee–American wars , also known as the Chickamauga Wars , were a series of raids, campaigns, ambushes, minor skirmishes, and several full-scale frontier battles in the Old Southwest from 1776 to 1794 between the Cherokee and American settlers on the frontier. Most of the events took place in the Upper South region. While the fighting stretched across the entire period, there were extended periods with little or no action. The Cherokee leader Dragging Canoe , whom some historians call "the Savage Napoleon", and his warriors, and other Cherokee fought alongside and together with warriors from several other tribes, most often
254-557: A British-Cherokee relationship that, despite breaking down on occasion, remained strong for much of the 18th century. With the growth of the deerskin trade , the Cherokee were considered valuable trading partners, since deer skins from the cooler country of their mountain hunting-grounds were of better quality than those supplied by the lowland coastal tribes, who were neighbors of the English colonists. In January 1716, Cherokee murdered
381-695: A band of Shawnee in the 1660s. But from 1710 to 1715, the Cherokee and Chickasaw allied with the British, and fought the Shawnee, who were allied with French colonists, forcing the Shawnee to move northward. The Cherokee fought with the Yamasee , Catawba , and British in late 1712 and early 1713 against the Tuscarora in the Second Tuscarora War . The Tuscarora War marked the beginning of
508-569: A delegation of Muscogee Creek leaders at the town of Tugaloo , marking their entry into the Yamasee War . It ended in 1717 with peace treaties between the colony of South Carolina and the Creek. Hostility and sporadic raids between the Cherokee and Creek continued for decades. These raids came to a head at the Battle of Taliwa in 1755, at present-day Ball Ground, Georgia , with the defeat of
635-637: A double agent for the Patriots, according to testimony after the war by Patriot General Nathanael Greene . Cherokee California : large ethnic diaspora community, 22,124 registered tribal members North Carolina : 16,158 (0.2%) Oklahoma : 102,580 (2.7%) – extends to nearby Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri South Carolina : 3,428 The Cherokee ( / ˈ tʃ ɛr ə k iː , ˌ tʃ ɛr ə ˈ k iː / ; Cherokee : ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ , romanized: Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi , or Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩ , romanized: Tsalagi ) people are one of
762-490: A drill. Woodland period artifacts include projectile points, drills, scrapers, axes, gorgets, and a bird effigy. Several Woodland-period burials were also uncovered at Rose Island. The Mialoquo site was probably occupied as early as the Archaic period, but to what extent is unknown. Of the 60 features uncovered at the site, 8 (mostly refuse pits) were classified as Mississippian, the rest were Cherokee. The distribution of
889-810: A group of some twelve or thirteen Regulator families from North Carolina to the Watauga River . On May 8, 1772, the settlers on the Watauga and on the Nolichucky signed the Watauga Compact to form the Watauga Association . Each of the groups thought they were within the territorial limits of the colony of Virginia. After a survey proved their mistake, Alexander Cameron, Deputy Superintendent for Indian Affairs, ordered them to leave. Attakullakulla, First Beloved Man (Principal Chief) of
1016-559: A large contingent of Catawba warriors, encountered an ambush by the Cherokee at the Battle of Cowee Gap in what is now western North Carolina. After defeating the attackers, he proceeded to a designated rendezvous with the South Carolina militia. On August 1, Cameron and the Cherokee ambushed Andrew Williamson and his South Carolina militia force near the Lower Cherokee town of Isunigu known to whites as Seneca, in
1143-643: A large contingent of Cherokee and Muscogee warriors against the back country settlements of the Carolinas and Georgia. The Cherokee established a camp at the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers (near present-day Paducah, Kentucky ) to prevent infiltration into the Mississippi in the spring of 1778. In late 1778, British strategy shifted south. As their attention went, so too did their efforts, their armies, and their supplies, including those slated for
1270-410: A letter to indicate a large force of regular troops, plus Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Muscgoee, was on the march from Pensacola and planning to pick up reinforcements from the Cherokee. The forged letters alarmed the settlers, who began gathering together in closer, fortified groups, building stations (small forts), and otherwise preparing for an attack. In May 1776, partly at the behest of Henry Hamilton ,
1397-788: A major war chief of the Iroquois, had organized the Western Confederacy of tribes to resist American settlement in Ohio Country. The Lower Cherokee were founding members and fought in the Northwest Indian War that resulted from this conflict. The Northwest Indian War ended with the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. The conclusion of the Indian wars enabled the settlement of what had been called "Indian territory" in
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#17327806468831524-712: A metaphor for the entire struggle for the Southern frontier. The governors of Virginia and North Carolina repudiated the Watuga treaty, and Henderson fled to avoid arrest. George Washington also spoke out against it. The Cherokee appealed to John Stuart , the Indian Affairs Superintendent, for help, which he had provided on previous such occasions, but the outbreak of the American Revolution intervened. Henderson and frontiersmen thought
1651-470: A polluting activity. Researchers have debated the reasons for the change. Some historians believe the decline in priestly power originated with a revolt by the Cherokee against the abuses of the priestly class known as the Ani-kutani . Ethnographer James Mooney , who studied and talked with the Cherokee in the late 1880s, was the first to trace the decline of the former hierarchy to this revolt. By
1778-565: A regional variation of the Mississippian culture that arose circa 1000 and lasted to 1500 CE. There is a consensus among most specialists in Southeast archeology and anthropology about these dates. But Finger says that ancestors of the Cherokee people lived in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee for a far longer period of time. Additional mounds were built by peoples during this cultural phase. Typically in this region, towns had
1905-645: A single platform mound and served as a political center for smaller villages. The Cherokee occupied numerous towns throughout the river valleys and mountain ridges of their homelands. What were called the Lower towns were found in what is present-day western Oconee County, South Carolina , along the Keowee River (called the Savannah River in its lower portion). The principal town of the Lower Towns
2032-541: A small strip in what is now Oconee County . One provision of the Treaty of Fort Henry required that James Robertson and a small garrison be quartered at Chota on the Little Tennessee. He had been appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs for North Carolina, while Joseph Martin had been appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Virginia. From their new bases, the Cherokee conducted raids against settlers on
2159-443: A small war party into Kentucky and returned with four scalps to present to Cornstalk before they departed. In another raid, a war party led by Hanging Maw , captured three teenage settler girls, Jemima Boone and Elizabeth and Frances Callaway , on July 14 but lost them three days later to a rescue party led by Daniel Boone , father of Jemima, and Richard Callaway , father of Elizabeth and Frances. In late June 1776, war parties from
2286-733: A split between the groups in the distant past, perhaps 3,500–3,800 years ago. Glottochronology studies suggest the split occurred between about 1500 and 1800 BCE. The Cherokee say that the ancient settlement of Kituwa on the Tuckasegee River is their original settlement in the Southeast. It was formerly adjacent to and is now part of Qualla Boundary (the base of the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians ) in North Carolina. According to Thomas Whyte, who posits that proto-Iroquoian developed in Appalachia,
2413-560: A time; so soon as the patient can bear it, they wound round with wire to expand them, and are adorned with silver pendants and rings, which they likewise wear at the nose. This custom does not belong originally to the Cherokees, but taken by them from the Shawnese, or other northern nations. They that can afford it wear a collar of wampum, which are beads cut out of clam-shells, a silver breast-plate, and bracelets on their arms and wrists of
2540-440: A townhouse, the lack of a townhouse at Mialoquo may have been the reason for its relatively late appearance in historical records. Historical evidence suggests Mialoquo may have been formed by refugees fleeing the destruction of the Lower and Middle towns by Colonial forces in 1761. John Norton wrote in his journal that after James Grant destroyed the Cherokee town of Kittowa (near modern Bryson City, North Carolina ) that year,
2667-525: Is a prehistoric and historic Native American site in Monroe County, Tennessee , in the southeastern United States. The site saw significant periods of occupation during the Mississippian period (c. 1000-1600 AD) and later as a Cherokee refugee village. While the archaeological site of Mialoquo ( Cherokee : ᎠᎹᏰᎴᏆ , romanized: Amayelequa ) was situated on the southwest bank of
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#17327806468832794-418: Is considered Cherokee country. The Spanish recorded a Chalaque people as living around the Keowee River , where western North Carolina, South Carolina, and northeastern Georgia meet. The Cherokee consider this area to be part of their homelands, which also extended into southeastern Tennessee. Further west, De Soto's expedition visited villages in present-day northwestern Georgia, recording them as ruled at
2921-532: Is part of the Iroquoian language group. In the 19th century, James Mooney , an early American ethnographer , recorded one oral tradition that told of the tribe having migrated south in ancient times from the Great Lakes region, where other Iroquoian peoples have been based. However, anthropologist Thomas R. Whyte, writing in 2007, dated the split among the peoples as occurring earlier. He believes that
3048-480: Is shaved, tho' many of the old people have it plucked out by the roots, except a patch on the hinder part of the head, about twice the bigness of a crown-piece, which is ornamented with beads, feathers, wampum , stained deer hair, and such like baubles. The ears are slit and stretched to an enormous size, putting the person who undergoes the operation to incredible pain, being unable to lie on either side for nearly forty days. To remedy this, they generally slit but one at
3175-585: Is that "Cherokee" derives from the Lower Creek word Cvlakke ("chuh-log-gee"), as the Creek were also in this mountainous region. The Iroquois Five Nations, historically based in New York and Pennsylvania, called the Cherokee Oyata'ge'ronoñ ("inhabitants of the cave country"). It is possible the word "Cherokee" comes from a Muscogee Creek word meaning "people of different speech", because
3302-480: Is the Cherokee name for the Cherokee language . Many theories, though all unproven, abound about the origin of the name "Cherokee." It may have originally been derived from one of the competitive tribes in the area. The earliest Spanish transliteration of the name, from 1755, is recorded as Tchalaque , but it dates to accounts related to the Hernando de Soto expedition in the mid-16th century. Another theory
3429-804: The Battle of Taliwa . British soldiers built forts in Cherokee country to defend against the French in the Seven Years' War , which was fought across Europe and was called the French and Indian War on the North American front. These included Fort Loudoun near Chota on the Tennessee River in eastern Tennessee. Serious misunderstandings arose quickly between the two allies, resulting in the 1760 Anglo-Cherokee War . King George III's Royal Proclamation of 1763 forbade British settlements west of
3556-537: The Battle of Twelve Mile Creek . The South Carolina Militia retreated and later joined up with the militia force of Andrew Pickens . The next day, August 2, the joint militia force bivouacked, and Pickens led a party of 25 to forage for food and firewood. In what is known as the Ring Fight , 200 Cherokee surrounded and attacked the party, which withdrew into a ring and were able to hold their attackers at bay until reinforcements arrived. Pickens and his militia defeated
3683-697: The Chattanooga, Tennessee area, where the Great Indian Warpath crossed the Chickamauga River (South Chickamauga Creek ). Since Dragging Canoe made that town his seat of operations, frontier Americans called his faction the "Chickamaugas". Other Cherokee refugees turned up in Pensacola and wintered there. John McDonald already had a trading post across the Chickamauga River. This provided a link to Henry Stuart, brother of John, in
3810-485: The Great Lakes region was the territory of most Iroquoian-language speakers, scholars have theorized that both the Cherokee and Tuscarora migrated south from that region. The Cherokee oral history tradition supports their migration from the Great Lakes. Linguistic analysis shows a relatively large difference between Cherokee and the northern Iroquoian languages, suggesting they had migrated long ago. Scholars posit
3937-594: The Green Corn Ceremony . Much of what is known about pre-18th century Native American cultures has come from records of Spanish expeditions. The earliest ones of the mid-16th century encountered peoples of the Mississippian culture era, who were ancestral to tribes that emerged in the Southeast, such as the Cherokee, Muscogee , Cheraw , and Catawba . Specifically in 1540–41, a Spanish expedition led by Hernando de Soto passed through present-day South Carolina, proceeding into western North Carolina and what
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4064-670: The Highlands . A few were Scotch-Irish, English, French, and German (see Scottish Indian trade ). Many of these men married women from their host peoples and remained after the fighting had ended. Some of their mixed-race children, who were raised in Native American cultures, later became significant leaders among the Five Civilized Tribes of the Southeast . Notable traders, agents, and refugee Tories among
4191-651: The Illinois Country . His plans were to assemble 500 warriors from various Indian nations, including the Cherokee, the Chickasaw, the Shawnee, and others, for a campaign to expel Clark's forces back east, then drive through Kentucky clearing American settlements. McDonald's headquarters at Chickamauga was to be the staging ground and commissary for the Cherokee and the Muscogee. Clark recaptured Fort Vincennes, and Hamilton along with it, on February 25, 1779, after
4318-615: The Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern North Carolina , southeastern Tennessee , southwestern Virginia, edges of western South Carolina , northern Georgia and northeastern Alabama consisting of around 40,000 square miles. The Cherokee language
4445-585: The Iroquois in 1768. The Cherokee were initially to retain their lands west of the Kanawha River , from its confluence with the Ohio to its headwaters, with the boundary continuing south to Spanish Florida. However, colonists in the Cherokee region continued to ignore the treaty line, in part because Fort Stanwix promulgated a boundary in the north that simply continued west along the Ohio. To further adjust
4572-473: The Joara chiefdom (north of present-day Morganton, North Carolina ). The historic Catawba later lived in this area of the upper Catawba River. Pardo and his forces wintered over at Joara, building Fort San Juan there in 1567. His expedition proceeded into the interior, noting villages near modern Asheville and other places that are part of the Cherokee homelands. According to anthropologist Charles M. Hudson ,
4699-648: The Kingdom of Great Britain against the American colonies. The Cherokee War of 1776 encompassed the entirety of the Cherokee nation. At the end of 1776, the only militant Cherokee were those who migrated with Dragging Canoe to the Chickamauga towns and became known as the " Chickamauga Cherokee ". The second phase lasted from 1783 to 1794. The Cherokee served as proxies of the Viceroyalty of New Spain against
4826-742: The Little Tennessee River , the village's habitation area probably included part of Rose Island , a large island in the river immediately opposite the site. Rose Island was occupied on at least a semi-permanent basis as early as the Middle Archaic period . Both the Mialoquo site and Rose Island are now submerged by the Tellico Lake impoundment of the Little Tennessee River. The area is now managed by
4953-823: The Muscogee in the Old Southwest and the Shawnee in the Old Northwest . During the Revolutionary War , they also fought alongside British troops, Loyalist militia, and the King's Carolina Rangers against the rebel colonists, hoping to expel them from their territory. Open warfare broke out in the summer of 1776 in the Overmountain settlements of the Washington District , mainly those along
5080-423: The Overhill Cherokee . At the end of this conflict, the Cherokee signed the Treaty of Long-Island-on-the-Holston with the Colony of Virginia (1761) and the Treaty of Charlestown with the Province of South Carolina (1762). Conocotocko (Standing Turkey), the First Beloved Man during the conflict, was replaced by Attakullakulla , who was pro-British. Having concluded the Treaty of Paris in 1763 to settle
5207-421: The Overhill settlements as a peace emissary—reported 18 houses at Mialoquo, both on the mainland and Rose Island, but doesn't indicate the existence of a townhouse. Timberlake reported 24 Overhill Cherokee warriors residing at Mialoquo under the governorship of Attakullakulla , who at the time was the chief of the nearby village of Tuskegee . Since the Cherokee didn't consider a village a "town" unless it had
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5334-404: The Royal Proclamation of 1763 , and culminated in the first trans-Appalachian states, Kentucky in 1792 and Ohio in 1803. The French and Indian War and the related European theater conflict known as the Seven Years' War laid many of the foundations for the conflict between the Cherokee and the American settlers on the frontier. These tensions on the frontier broke out into open hostilities with
5461-548: The Second Cherokee War . Overhill Cherokee Nancy Ward , Dragging Canoe 's cousin, warned settlers of impending attacks. Provincial militias retaliated, destroying more than 50 Cherokee towns. North Carolina militia in 1776 and 1780 invaded and destroyed the Overhill towns in what is now Tennessee. In 1777, surviving Cherokee town leaders signed treaties with the new states. Dragging Canoe and his band settled along Chickamauga Creek near present-day Chattanooga, Tennessee , where they established 11 new towns. Chickamauga Town
5588-446: The Siege of Fort Vincennes . The Chickamauga Cherokee turned their sights to the northeast. The British captured Savannah on December 29, 1778, with help from Dragging Canoe, John McDonald, and the Cherokee, along with McGillivray's Upper Muscogee force and McIntosh's band of Hitichiti warriors. Just over a month later, January 31, 1779, they captured Augusta, Georgia , as well, though they quickly had to retreat. With these victories,
5715-467: The Tennessee and Chattahoochee rivers were remote enough from white settlers to remain independent after the Cherokee–American wars . The deerskin trade was no longer feasible on their greatly reduced lands, and over the next several decades, the people of the fledgling Cherokee Nation began to build a new society modeled on the white Southern United States. Mialoquo (Cherokee town) Mialoquo (also "Malaquo", "Big Island", or "Great Island")
5842-401: The Tennessee River . Tellico Lake, created by the completion of Tellico Dam in 1979, spans the lower 33 miles (53 km) of the river. Before inundation, the Mialoquo site was located at the river's Island Creek confluence, just under 17 miles (27 km) above the river's mouth. Rose Island spanned the river between 16.8 miles (27.0 km) and 18.4 miles (29.6 km) above the mouth of
5969-442: The Tennessee Valley Authority and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency . Both sites are visible looking north from the U.S. Route 411 bridge over the river in Vonore or looking west from Wildcat Point, a cliff on the eastern bank of the river. The Little Tennessee River enters Tennessee from a gap between the Great Smoky Mountains and the Unicoi Mountains and flows for just over 50 miles (80 km) before emptying into
6096-414: The Watauga , Holston , Nolichucky , and Doe rivers in East Tennessee , as well as the colonies (later states) of Virginia , North Carolina , South Carolina , and Georgia . It later spread to settlements along the Cumberland River in Middle Tennessee and in Kentucky . The wars can be divided into two phases. The first phase took place from 1776 to 1783, in which the Cherokee fought as allies of
6223-427: The white settlers. They also developed their own writing system. Today, three Cherokee tribes are federally recognized : the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians (UKB) in Oklahoma, the Cherokee Nation (CN) in Oklahoma, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) in North Carolina. The Cherokee Nation has more than 300,000 tribal members, making it the largest of the 574 federally recognized tribes in
6350-422: The 1820s. Initially only the didanvwisgi learned to write and read such materials, which were considered extremely powerful in a spiritual sense. Later, the syllabary and writings were widely adopted by the Cherokee people. In 1657, there was a disturbance in Virginia Colony as the Rechahecrians or Rickahockans , as well as the Siouan Manahoac and Nahyssan , broke through the frontier and settled near
6477-405: The 1880s, and claimed to have located Mialoquo. After the construction of Tellico Dam was announced in 1967, the University of Tennessee conducted salvage excavations at both Rose Island (40MR44) and Mialoquo (40MR3). Rose Island was being used by hunter-gatherers on a seasonal basis by 6000 BC, and possibly as early as 7500 BC (the Icehouse Bottom site, which yielded material dating to 7500 BC,
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#17327806468836604-411: The Appalachian crest, as his government tried to afford some protection from colonial encroachment to the Cherokee and other tribes they depended on as allies. The Crown found the ruling difficult to enforce with colonists. From 1771 to 1772, North Carolinian settlers squatted on Cherokee lands in Tennessee, forming the Watauga Association . Daniel Boone and his party tried to settle in Kentucky, but
6731-420: The Blue Ridge on September 1, and reached the outskirts of the Out, Valley, and Middle Towns on September 14, at which they started burning towns and crops. Williamson's militia were attacked at the Battle of Black Hole near Franklin, North Carolina on September 19 but were able to fend off the Cherokee and meet up with Rutherford. In all, Williamson, Pickens, and Rutherford destroyed more than 50 towns, burned
6858-419: The British against their rebel subjects, and for help with the illegal settlers. The two men told him to wait for regular troops to arrive before taking any action. When the two arrived at Chota, Henry Stuart sent out letters to the frontier settlers. He informed them that they were illegally on Cherokee land and gave them 40 days to leave. In an exercise of propaganda, people sympathetic to the Revolution forged
6985-418: The British governor in Detroit, the Shawnee chief Cornstalk led a delegation from the northern tribes (Shawnee, Lenape, Iroquois, Ottawa and others) to the southern tribes. He traveled to Chota to meet with the southern tribes (Cherokee, Muscogee, Chickasaw, Choctaw ) about fighting with the British against their common enemy. Cornstalk called for united action against those they called the " Long Knives ",
7112-432: The Cherokee and Tuscarora broke off in the Southeast from the major group of Iroquoian speakers who migrated north to the Great Lakes area. There a succession of Iroquoian-speaking tribes were encountered by Europeans in historic times. In the 1830s, the American writer John Howard Payne visited Cherokee then based in Georgia. He recounted what they shared about pre-19th-century Cherokee culture and society. For instance,
7239-406: The Cherokee and Americans, who had achieved independence from the British Crown. In 1805, the Cherokee ceded their lands between the Cumberland and Duck rivers (i.e. the Cumberland Plateau ) to Tennessee . The traders and British government agents dealing with the southern tribes in general, and the Cherokee in particular, were nearly all of Scottish ancestry, with many documented as being from
7366-512: The Cherokee delegation signed the Treaty of Whitehall with the British. Moytoy's son, Amo-sgasite (Dreadful Water), attempted to succeed him as "Emperor" in 1741, but the Cherokee elected their own leader, Conocotocko (Old Hop) of Chota . Political power among the Cherokee remained decentralized, and towns acted autonomously. In 1735, the Cherokee were said to have sixty-four towns and villages, with an estimated fighting force of 6,000 men. In 1738 and 1739, smallpox epidemics broke out among
7493-550: The Cherokee included John Stuart , Henry Stuart, Alexander Cameron, John McDonald, John Joseph Vann (father of James Vann ), Daniel Ross (father of John Ross ), John Walker Sr., Mark Winthrop Battle, John McLemore (father of Bob), William Buchanan, John Watts (father of John Watts Jr. ), John D. Chisholm , John Benge (father of Bob Benge ), Thomas Brown, John Rogers (Welsh), John Gunter (German, founder of Gunter's Landing), James Adair (Irish), William Thorpe (English), and Peter Hildebrand (German), among many others. Some attained
7620-451: The Cherokee on the Tugaloo River in the Battle of Tugaloo , which they then burned on August 10. On August 12, Williamson and Pickens defeated the Cherokee at the Battle of Tamassee . With this, they had completed their destruction of the Lower Towns, Keowee , Estatoe, Seneca, and the rest. Afterwards, they proceeded north to meet up with the North Carolina militia of Griffith Rutherford. Rutherford's militia traversed Swannanoa Gap in
7747-441: The Cherokee, interceded on their behalf. The settlers were allowed to remain, provided no additional people joined them. In 1769, developers and land speculators planned to start a new colony called Vandalia in the territory ceded by the Cherokee. Plans for that fell through, however, and Virginia annexed it as the District of West Augusta in 1774. On June 1, 1773, the Cherokee and the Muskogee ceded their claims to 2 million acres in
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#17327806468837874-532: The Cherokee, who had no natural immunity to the new infectious disease. Nearly half their population died within a year. Hundreds of other Cherokee committed suicide due to their losses and disfigurement from the disease. British colonial officer Henry Timberlake , born in Virginia, described the Cherokee people as he saw them in 1761: The Cherokees are of a middle stature, of an olive colour, tho' generally painted, and their skins stained with gun-powder, pricked into it in very pretty figures. The hair of their head
8001-430: The Cherokee. North Carolina sent Griffith Rutherford with 2,400 militia to scour the Oconaluftee and Tuckasegee river valleys, and the headwaters of the Little Tennessee and Hiwassee . South Carolina sent 1,800 men to the Savannah , and Georgia sent 200 to attack Cherokee settlements along the Chattahoochee and Tugaloo rivers. Not long after leaving Fort McGahey on July 23, Rutherford's militia, accompanied by
8128-479: The Cumberland Basin, defending against territorial settlements, they also fought as allies of Great Britain against American patriots. British strategy was focused on the North, and not so much on the backwoods settlements, especially those in the west. The Cherokee, therefore, were on their own, except for supplies from British ports on the coast and some joint operations in South Carolina. As tensions rose, Loyalist John Stuart, British Superintendent of Indian Affairs,
8255-440: The European conflict, the British hoped to maintain peace in the colonies and were surprised with the outbreak of Pontiac's War in the north soon thereafter. In response, King George III hastened to issue the Royal Proclamation of 1763 in an effort to impose a boundary between the native tribes and encroaching colonists. The proclamation prohibited colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains , at least temporarily, but
8382-408: The Falls of the James River, near present-day Richmond, Virginia . The following year, a combined force of English colonists and Pamunkey drove the newcomers away. The identity of the Rechahecrians has been much debated. Historians noted the name closely resembled that recorded for the Eriechronon or Erielhonan , commonly known as the Erie tribe , another Iroquoian-speaking people based south of
8509-401: The French Salt Lick at Nashville ), the Cumberland Trail (from the Upper Creek Path to the Great Lakes ), and the Nickajack Trail ( Nickajack to Augusta ). Later, the Cherokee stalked the Natchez Trace and roads improved by the uninvited settlers, such as the Kentucky, Cumberland, and Walton roads. Occasionally, the Cherokee attacked targets in Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Kentucky, and
8636-407: The Great Lakes in present-day northern Pennsylvania. This Iroquoian people had been driven away from the southern shore of Lake Erie in 1654 by the powerful Iroquois Five Nations, also known as Haudenosaunee , who were seeking more hunting grounds to support their dominance in the beaver fur trade. The anthropologist Martin Smith theorized some remnants of the tribe migrated to Virginia after
8763-419: The Great Lakes. This has been the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee nations and other Iroquoian-speaking peoples. Another theory is that the Cherokee had been in the Southeast for thousands of years and that proto-Iroquoian developed here. Other Iroquoian-speaking tribes in the Southeast have been the Tuscarora people of the Carolinas, and the Meherrin and Nottaway of Virginia. James Mooney in
8890-400: The Holston, Doe, Watauga, and Nolichucky rivers, on the Cumberland and Red rivers, and those in the isolated frontier stations in between. The Cherokee ambushed parties traveling on the Tennessee River, and on local sections of the many ancient trails that served as "highways", such as the Great Indian Warpath ( Mobile to northeast Canada), the Cisca and St. Augustine Trail ( St. Augustine to
9017-423: The Little Tennessee in late October, Christian's Virginia force found those towns from whence the militant attackers had sprung—Great Island, Citico ( Sitiku ), Toqua ( Dakwayi ), Tuskegee ( Taskigi ), Chilhowee, and Great Tellico—not only deserted but burned to the ground by their own former inhabitants, along with all the food and stores that could not be carried away. Oconostota supported making peace with
9144-842: The Lower Towns began attacking the frontier of South Carolina. On July 1, the Out, Middle, and Valley Towns sent out war parties raiding the frontiers settlements of North Carolina east of the Blue Ridge coming down the Catawba River . Meanwhile, traders warned the Overmountain settlers of the impending attacks from the Overhill Towns. They had come from Chota bearing word from Nancy Ward , the Beloved Woman (leader or Elder). The Cherokee offensive proved to be disastrous for
9271-619: The Mississippian culture-period (1000 to 1500 CE in the regional variation known as the South Appalachian Mississippian culture ), local women developed a new variety of maize (corn) called eastern flint corn . It closely resembled modern corn and produced larger crops. The successful cultivation of corn surpluses allowed the rise of larger, more complex chiefdoms consisting of several villages and concentrated populations during this period. Corn became celebrated among numerous peoples in religious ceremonies, especially
9398-437: The Muscogee. In 1721, the Cherokee ceded lands in South Carolina. In 1730, at Nikwasi , a Cherokee town and Mississippian culture site, a Scots adventurer, Sir Alexander Cuming , crowned Moytoy of Tellico as "Emperor" of the Cherokee. Moytoy agreed to recognize King George II of Great Britain as the Cherokee protector. Cuming arranged to take seven prominent Cherokee, including Attakullakulla , to London , England. There
9525-526: The Ohio country. In contempt of the peace proceedings at Fort Henry in April 1777, Dragging Canoe led a war party that killed a settler named Frederick Calvitt and stole 15 horses from James Robertson, then moved to Carter's Valley, killing the grandparents of David Crockett along with several children near the modern Rogersville , and marauding across the valley. In all the raiders took twelve scalps. In summer 1777, Deputy Superintendents Cameron and Taitt led
9652-476: The Overhill towns and other Cherokee towns. Dragging Canoe , headman of Great Island Town and son of Attakullakulla, refused to go along with the deal. He told the North Carolina men, "You have bought a fair land, but there is a cloud hanging over it; you will find its settlement dark and bloody". This utterance gave rise to the contentious epithet for Kentucky as the dark and bloody ground . The phrase became
9779-532: The Pardo expedition also recorded encounters with Muskogean -speaking peoples at Chiaha in southeastern modern Tennessee. Linguistic studies have been another way for researchers to study the development of people and their cultures. Unlike most other Native American tribes in the American Southeast at the start of the historic era, the Cherokee and Tuscarora people spoke Iroquoian languages . Since
9906-488: The Payne papers describe the account by Cherokee elders of a traditional two-part societal structure. A "white" organization of elders represented the seven clans . As Payne recounted, this group, which was hereditary and priestly, was responsible for religious activities, such as healing, purification, and prayer. A second group of younger men, the "red" organization, was responsible for warfare. The Cherokee considered warfare
10033-583: The Seminole commanding his East Florida Rangers, who fought with them and some of the Lower Muskogee. From St. Augustine, Stuart sent his deputy, Alexander Cameron, and his brother Henry to Mobile to obtain short-term supplies and arms for the Cherokee. Dragging Canoe took a party of 80 warriors to provide security for the pack train. He met Henry Stuart and Cameron (whom he had adopted as a brother) at Mobile on March 1, 1776. He asked how he could help
10160-497: The Shawnee, Delaware , Mingo , and some Cherokee attacked a scouting and forage party that included Boone's son, James Boone, and William Russell 's son, Henry, who were killed in the skirmish. Faragher, John Mack (1992). Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer . New York: Holt. pp. 93–4. ISBN 0-8050-1603-1 . In 1776, allied with the Shawnee led by Cornstalk , Cherokee attacked settlers in South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina in
10287-662: The Southern Indians. The Southern theater had the added advantage of being home to more Loyalists than the North. With all these new advantages, the Cherokee were able to greatly renew their territorial defense. Both the Cherokee and the Upper Creek signed on for active participation. On December 17, 1778, Henry Hamilton captured Fort Vincennes and used it as a base to plan a spring offensive against George Rogers Clark , whose forces had recently seized control of much of
10414-609: The United States. In addition, numerous groups claim Cherokee lineage , and some of these are state-recognized. A total of more than 819,000 people are estimated to have identified as having Cherokee ancestry on the U.S. census; most are not enrolled members of any tribe. Of the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes, the Cherokee Nation and the UKB have headquarters in Tahlequah, Oklahoma , and most of their members live in
10541-478: The West Florida capital of Pensacola . Cameron, the British deputy Indian superintendent, accompanied Dragging Canoe to Chickamauga. Nearly all the whites legally resident among the Cherokee were part of the related exodus. In March 1777, Cameron sent the refugees to Chickamauga along with a sizable amount of goods. The colonials learned of the materiel and planned to intercept it. When Cameron informed him of
10668-563: The advent of the American Revolution . The action of the French and Indian War in North America included the Anglo-Cherokee War , lasting 1758–1761. British forces under General James Grant destroyed a number of Cherokee towns, which were never reoccupied. Kituwa was abandoned, and its former residents migrated west; they took up residence at Mialoquo , called Great Island Town , on the Little Tennessee River among
10795-403: The area. Because they gave up tribal membership at the time, they became state and US citizens. In the late 19th century, they reorganized as a federally recognized tribe. A Cherokee language name for Cherokee people is Aniyvwiya ( ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯ , translating as "Principal People"). Another endonym is Anigiduwagi (ᎠᏂᎩᏚᏩᎩ, translating as "People from Kituwah"). Tsalagi Gawonihisdi ( ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ )
10922-467: The attackers. On July 3, a small war party of Cherokee besieged a small fort on the North Carolina frontier. The garrison managed to keep from being overrun until a large body of militia arrived in the rear of besiegers, who then retreated. A 190-strong war party of Cherokee and Loyalist partisans dressed as Cherokee attacked the large fort on the South Carolina frontier known as Lindley's Station . Its 150-man Patriot garrison had just finished building it
11049-492: The boundary, John Stuart , as Superintendent for Southern Indian Affairs, negotiated a second treaty with the Cherokee in 1770, the Treaty of Lochaber . This surrendered their remaining claims in what is now West Virginia and Kentucky and protected colonists north of the Holston River , in the region of today's Tennessee-Virginia border. The earliest colonial settlement in the vicinity of what became Upper East Tennessee
11176-618: The colonists. Dragging Canoe called for the women, children, and old to be sent below the Hiwassee and for the warriors to burn the towns, then ambush the Virginians at the French Broad River . Oconostota, Attakullakulla, and the older chiefs decided against that plan. Oconostota sent word to the approaching colonial army, offering to exchange Dragging Canoe and Cameron if the Overhill Towns were spared. Dragging Canoe spoke to
11303-401: The council of the Overhill Towns, denouncing the older leaders as rogues and "Virginians" for their willingness to cede land for an ephemeral safety. He concluded, "As for me, I have my young warriors about me. We will have our lands." Afterward, he and other militant leaders, including Ostenaco , gathered like-minded Cherokee from the Overhill, Valley, and Hill towns, and migrated to what is now
11430-468: The danger, Emistisigua, Paramount Chief of the Upper Muscogee , sent a force of 350 warriors to guard them as well as to assist in rebuilding and waging war. Preliminary negotiations between the Overhill Towns and Virginia were held at Fort Patrick Henry in April 1777. Nathaniel Gist , later father of Sequoyah , led the talks for Virginia, while Attakullakulla, Oconostota, and Savanukah headed
11557-409: The day before. After repulsing the attack, the Patriots gave chase, killing two Loyalists and capturing ten, but inflicting no casualties on the Cherokee. Dragging Canoe's forces advanced up the Great Indian Warpath and had a small skirmish with a body of militia numbering twenty who quickly withdrew. Pursuing them and intending to take Fort Lee at Long-Island-on-the-Holston, his force advanced toward
11684-554: The delegation of Cherokee. The Cherokee signed the Treaty of Dewitt's Corner with Georgia and South Carolina on May 20 and the Treaty of Fort Henry , also known as the Avery Treaty , with Virginia and North Carolina on July 20. They promised to stop warring, with those colonies promising in return to protect them from attack. In the Treaty of Dewitt's Corner, the Lower Towns ceded all their land in modern South Carolina except for
11811-577: The features suggests a short-term occupation. The Qualla pottery type— which is associated with the Middle towns in North Carolina—; comprised 13.5% of the site's 6,000+ sherds, lending support to the theory that refugees from the Middle towns lived at Mialoquo in the 1760s. The pottery assemblage was similar to that found at nearby Tomotley , also believed to have been a "refugee town." The features uncovered at Mialoquo included
11938-526: The group. The Shawnee , Lenape (Delaware), Mingo , and some Cherokee attacked a scouting and forage party, which included Boone's son James. James Boone and Henry Russell, son of William Russell , a compatriot of Daniel Boone, were captured by the Native Americans and ritually tortured to death. The settlement attempt was abandoned. When word got back to Virginia, the colonists led by Lord Dunmore himself retaliated with Dunmore's War (1774) which
12065-694: The historic Cherokee and occupied what is now Western North Carolina in the Middle Woodland period, circa 200 to 600 CE. They are believed to have built what is called the Biltmore Mound, found in 1984 south of the Swannanoa River on the Biltmore Estate, which has numerous Native American sites. Other ancestors of the Cherokee are considered to be part of the later Pisgah phase of South Appalachian Mississippian culture ,
12192-520: The honorary status of minor chiefs and/or members of significant delegations. By contrast, a large portion of the settlers encroaching on the Native American territories were Scotch-Irish , Irish from Ulster who were of Scottish descent and had been part of the plantation of Ulster . They also tended to support the Revolution. But in the back country, there were also Scotch-Irish who were Loyalists, such as Simon Girty . The Cherokee lands between
12319-562: The hostile Overhill towns. Christian arrived unopposed and established his headquarters at Mialoquo, where he held peace talks with tribal leaders Attakullakulla and Oconastota . When Dragging Canoe refused to negotiate, however, Christian destroyed Mialoquo and four other Overhill towns. Cyrus Thomas, working for the Smithsonian Institution, conducted a mound survey in the Little Tennessee Valley in
12446-537: The houses and food stores, destroyed the orchards, slaughtered livestock, and killed hundreds of Cherokee. They sold captives into slavery, and these were often transported to the Caribbean. In the meantime, the Continental Army sent Col. William Christian to the lower Little Tennessee Valley with a battalion of Continentals, 500 Virginia militia, 300 North Carolina militia, and 300 rangers. Upon reaching
12573-437: The island. However, on July 20, it encountered a larger force of militia six miles from their target, about half the size of his own but desperate, in a stronger position than the small group before. During the "Battle of Island Flats" which followed, Dragging Canoe was wounded in his hip by a musket ball, and his brother Little Owl incredibly survived after being hit eleven times. His force then withdrew, raiding isolated cabins on
12700-470: The late 19th century recorded conversations with elders who recounted an oral tradition of the Cherokee people migrating south from the Great Lakes region in ancient times. They occupied territories where earthwork platform mounds were built by peoples during the earlier Woodland and Mississippian culture periods. For example, the people of the Connestee culture period are believed to be ancestors of
12827-516: The most prominent, ceded the claim of the Cherokee to the Kentucky lands. The Transylvania Land Company believed it was gaining ownership of the land, not realizing that other tribes, such as the Lenape, Shawnee, and Chickasaw , also claimed these lands for hunting. Documented Cherokee towns like Sullen Possum in southeast Kentucky and in other areas of Kentucky did exist with links to what is called
12954-530: The northern sector of the Georgia colony, in return for the cancellation of their debts. Most of the Muskogee refused to recognize the treaty, and the British government rejected it. In Sept. 1773, Daniel Boone led one of the first settler's expeditions through the fabled Cumberland Gap route to establish a temporary settlement inside the hunting grounds of modern-day Kentucky. There were about 50 settlers in
13081-495: The origin of the proto-Iroquoian language was likely the Appalachian region , and the split between Northern and Southern Iroquoian languages began 4,000 years ago. By the 19th century, White American settlers had classified the Cherokee of the Southeast as one of the " Five Civilized Tribes " in the region. They were agrarian , lived in permanent villages and had begun to adopt some cultural and technological practices of
13208-622: The outbreak of the Revolution superseded the judgments of the royal governors. The Transylvania Company began recruiting settlers for the region they had "purchased". In 1776, the Virginia General Assembly prohibited further settlement, and in 1778, declared the Transylvania compact void. During the Revolutionary War, the Cherokee not only fought against the settlers in the Overmountain region, and later in
13335-561: The outskirts of Carter's Valley far into the Clinch River Valley in Virginia, but those targets contained only small settlements and isolated farmsteads, so he did no real military damage. The affected colonies of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia conferred and decided that swift and massive retaliation was the only way to preserve peace on the frontier. The colonials gathered militia who retaliated against
13462-548: The postmold layouts of a townhouse, 6 dwellings, and one smaller rectangular structure with an unknown purpose. The dwellings included one circular winter structure/rectangular summer structure pairing typical of Overhill houses. The townhouse was octagonal in shape and had a diameter ranging between 52 feet (16 m) to 60 feet (18 m). The rectangular dwellings had lengths ranging from 22 feet (6.7 m) to 32 feet (9.8 m) and widths ranging from 12 feet (3.7 m) to 14 feet (4.3 m). The circular "winter house" had
13589-530: The recently formed United States of America . Because they migrated westward to new settlements initially known as the "Five Lower Towns", referring to their location in the Piedmont, these people became known as the Lower Cherokee. This term was used well into the 19th century. The Chickamauga ended their warfare in November 1794 with the Treaty of Tellico Blockhouse . In 1786, Mohawk leader Joseph Brant ,
13716-635: The remaining neutral towns of the Lower Muscogee threw in their lot with the British side. Thomas Brown of the King's Carolina Rangers was assigned to the Atlantic District to work with the Cherokee, Muscogee, and Seminole. Charlestown was captured on May 12, 1780, after a siege that began March 29. Along with it, the British took prisoner some 3,000 Patriots, including South Carolina militia leader Andrew Williamson. Upon giving his parole that he would not again take up arms, Williamson became
13843-640: The river. Both sites were just south of a bend in the river known as Wears Bend and just north of the river's confluence with the Tellico River . Wildcat Point, a cliff overlooking the now submerged Rose Island and Mialoquo sites, is connected to Tellico Parkway via a seasonal hiking trail. The hills and knobs that flank the river on both sides are part of the Appalachian Ridge-and-Valley Physiographic Province . According to ethnologist James Mooney ,
13970-572: The same metal, a bit of cloth over their private parts, a shirt of the English make, a sort of cloth-boots, and mockasons ( sic ), which are shoes of a make peculiar to the Americans, ornamented with porcupine-quills; a large mantle or match-coat thrown over all complete their dress at home ... From 1753 to 1755, battles broke out between the Cherokee and Muscogee over disputed hunting grounds in North Georgia . The Cherokee were victorious in
14097-629: The squatters who settled and remained in Kain-tuck-ee, or, as the settlers called it, Transylvania . At the close of his speech, Cornstalk offered his war belt, and Dragging Canoe accepted it. Dragging Canoe also accepted belts from the Ottawa and the Iroquois. To prepare themselves for the coming campaign, the Overhill Cherokee began raiding into Kentucky, often with the Shawnee. Before the northern delegation had left, Dragging Canoe led
14224-657: The state. The UKB are mostly descendants of "Old Settlers", also called Western Cherokee: those who migrated from the Southeast to Arkansas and Oklahoma in about 1817, prior to Indian removal . They are related to the Cherokee who were later forcibly relocated there in the 1830s under the Indian Removal Act . The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is located on land known as the Qualla Boundary in western North Carolina. They are mostly descendants of ancestors who had resisted or avoided relocation, remaining in
14351-428: The survivors fled to "Big Island." Mialoquo does not appear on a 1757 map of the Overhill towns but appears on Timberlake's map, suggesting the town may have been formed between 1757 and 1761. By the time the Revolutionary War was being fought, Dragging Canoe had become chief at Mialoquo. In 1776, after the Cherokee aligned themselves with the British, the colonies dispatched Colonel William Christian to subdue
14478-488: The term "Mialoquo" comes from the Cherokee word for "Great Island." This name refers to the village's situation on and adjacent to what is now known as Rose Island which was the largest island in the Little Tennessee River before the creation of Tellico Lake. Mialoquo doesn't enter the historical record until 1761, when it appeared on Henry Timberlake 's "Draught of the Cherokee Country." Timberlake—visiting
14605-601: The time by the Coosa chiefdom . This is believed to be a chiefdom ancestral to the Muscogee Creek people , who developed as a Muskogean-speaking people with a distinct culture. In 1566, the Juan Pardo expedition traveled from the present-day South Carolina coast into its interior, and into western North Carolina and southeastern Tennessee. He recorded meeting Cherokee-speaking people who visited him while he stayed at
14732-416: The time that Mooney was studying the people in the late 1880s, the structure of Cherokee religious practitioners was more informal, based more on individual knowledge and ability than upon heredity. Another major source of early cultural history comes from materials written in the 19th century by the didanvwisgi ( ᏗᏓᏅᏫᏍᎩ ), Cherokee medicine men , after Sequoyah 's creation of the Cherokee syllabary in
14859-441: The two peoples spoke different languages. Jack Kilpatrick disputes this idea, noting that he believes the name come from the Cherokee word "tsàdlagí" meaning "he has turned aside". Anthropologists and historians have two main theories of Cherokee origins. One is that the Cherokee, an Iroquoian-speaking people, are relative latecomers to Southern Appalachia , who may have migrated in late prehistoric times from northern areas around
14986-542: The wars ( 1986:131–32 ), later becoming known as the Westo to English colonists in the Province of Carolina. A few historians suggest this tribe was Cherokee. Virginian traders developed a small-scale trading system with the Cherokee in the Piedmont before the end of the 17th century. The earliest recorded Virginia trader to live among the Cherokee was Cornelius Dougherty or Dority, in 1690. The Cherokee gave sanctuary to
15113-504: The way and returned to the Overhill area with plunder and scalps, after raiding further north into southwestern Virginia. On July 21, Abraham of Chilhowee led his party in attempting to capture Fort Caswell on the Watauga, but his attack was driven off with heavy casualties. Instead of withdrawing, however, he put the garrison under siege, a tactic which had worked well the previous decade with Fort Loudon. After two weeks, though, he and his warriors gave that up. Savanukah's party raided from
15240-504: The western side of the Appalachian Mountains, in present-day southeastern Tennessee. During the late Archaic and Woodland Period , Native Americans in the region began to cultivate plants such as marsh elder , lambsquarters , pigweed , sunflowers , and some native squash . People created new art forms such as shell gorgets , adopted new technologies, and developed an elaborate cycle of religious ceremonies. During
15367-628: Was Keowee . Other Cherokee towns on the Keowee River included Estatoe and Sugartown ( Kulsetsiyi ), a name repeated in other areas. In western North Carolina, what were known as the Valley, Middle, and Outer Towns were located along the major rivers of the Tuckasegee , the upper Little Tennessee , Hiwasee , French Broad and other systems. The Overhill Cherokee occupied towns along the lower Little Tennessee River and upper Tennessee River on
15494-515: Was Sapling Grove ( Bristol ). This initial North-of-Holston settlement was founded by Evan Shelby , who first entered the area as early as 1765, but "purchased" the land in 1768 from John Buchanan. Jacob Brown began another settlement on the Nolichucky River , and John Carter another in what became known as Carter's Valley (between Clinch River and Beech Creek), both in 1771. Following the Battle of Alamance in 1771, James Robertson led
15621-628: Was besieged by a mob at his house in Charleston and had to flee for his life. His first stop was St. Augustine in East Florida . Another noted Loyalist later associated with the Cherokee, Thomas Brown , was not nearly so fortunate. In his home of Brownsborough, Georgia, near Augusta, he was assaulted by a crowd of the Sons of Liberty , tied to a tree, roasted with fire, scalped, tarred, and feathered . After his escape, he took up residence among
15748-449: Was conducted mostly against Shawnee raiders from north of the Ohio. The Cherokee and the Muskogee were active also, mainly confining themselves to small raids on the backcountry settlements of the Carolinas and Georgia. On March 17, 1775, a group of North Carolina speculators led by Richard Henderson negotiated the extra-legal Treaty of Watauga at Sycamore Shoals with the older Overhill Cherokee leaders; Oconostota and Attakullakulla,
15875-528: Was his headquarters and the colonists tended to call his entire band the Chickamauga to distinguish them from other Cherokee. From here he fought a guerrilla war against settlers, which lasted from 1776 to 1794. These are known informally as the Cherokee–American wars, but this is not a historian's term. The first Treaty of Tellico Blockhouse , signed November 7, 1794, finally brought peace between
16002-504: Was located just over 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Rose Island). These early inhabitants probably made use of the chert outcroppings found in the surrounding hills. Rose Island also saw a period of significant occupation from approximately 350 BC through 100 AD, during the Woodland period . Archaic period artifacts found on Rose Island include notched and stemmed projectile points, splintered wedges, various ground stone artifacts, and
16129-426: Was widely resented by the colonists. Once they were able to end hostilities with Pontiac's confederation, the British refocused their attention to settling treaties that could resolve land claims with tribes across the colonies. The two Superintendents for Indian Affairs for the northern and southern colonies contemporaneously negotiated the Treaty of Hard Labour with the Cherokee and the Treaty of Fort Stanwix with
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