Chickamauga Cherokee Timeline

 

  • 1690-1721 Dangerous Man (yuhwi Usgu siti) took his band to Ozark area north of White River. Several bands of the Chickamauga Cherokee escaped Westward prior to the Trail of Tears to avoid White expansion.

 

  • 1738, Dragging Canoe, Chief of what was left of Chickamauga Cherokee, son of Peace Chief Little Carpenter (Attakullakulla), opposed his father and Henderson’s Transylvania Treaty

 

  • 1776, Chief Dragging Canoe withdrew to lower towns along Chickamauga Creek, Georgia to lead the Cherokee Confederacy

 

  • 1775 to 1794, Bloody Fellow and John Watts, Dragging Canoe’s sons fought expansionism

 

  • 1794 Shriver burned the five lower towns of the Chickamauga (James Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee)

 

  • 1794 Chickamauga Cherokee were granted land in southeastern Missouri, East of Mississippi River

 

  • Early 1800’s Chickamauga Cherokee signed a treaty to move to NW Arkansas and SW Missouri in exchange for giving up their homelands east of the Mississippi

 

  • 1831 through 1838, the Choctaw, Seminoles Creek, Chickasaw and lastly the Cherokee in 1838, were removed from their homelands. By 1838, 57,000 Native Americans from the southeastern states were removed from their homelands. 

 

  • 1835-1838, all Cherokees were told to move to Oklahoma. Old Settlers better known as Chickamauga Cherokee refused to leave their homelands in Arkansas and Missouri considering it a violation of the treaty agreement. 

 

  • 1840 to 1912, the State of Missouri enacted laws prohibiting Indians from being in the State with threat of prison or death. (Missouri Revised Statute 1889, Vol II, Chapter 83, Sec 5477, 5482 – copy enclosed)  In Arkansas, if Cherokee language was spoken, the landman would take away their land. Chickamauga's were forced to hide their identity, but retained our language and traditions underground. 

 

  • 1861-1865 Civil War. Chickamauga Cherokee fought for both sides.  

 

  • 1914-1918 WWI. Thousands of Chickamauga’s served in WWI.

 

  • Early 1900’s the Chickamauga Cherokee bands were finally allowed to associate openly, but rampant discrimination remained

 

  • 1924, Indian Citizenship Act also known as the Snyder Act, granted full U.S. citizenship to America's indigenous peoples, called "Indians" in this Act. (The Fourteenth Amendment already defined citizens as any person born in the U.S., but only if "subject to the jurisdiction thereof"; this latter clause excluded anyone who already had citizenship in a foreign power such as a tribal nation.) The act was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge on June 2, 1924.  It was enacted partially in recognition of the thousands of Indians who served in the armed forces during World War I.

 

  • 1978, several Chickamauga tribal bands reunite with the Northern Cherokee to write their Constitution and By-Laws to revitalize a working government

 

  • 1983, the Governor of Missouri proclaimed the tribe as an historic Missouri Indian Tribe (copy enclosed) 

 

  • 1984, Missouri House of Representatives proclaim the tribe as an historic Missouri Indian tribe (copy enclosed)

 

We have had a continual history of elected Chiefs, cultural events and honored traditions despite years of oppression.

 

 

The Chickamauga Cherokee Today

 

 

We have had a continual history of elected Chiefs, cultural events and honored traditions despite years of oppression.

 

  • 2014, After gathering underground for more than 150 years, the different bands of the Chickamauga Cherokee met openly to reaffirm their alliance as the Cherokee Nation West. 

 

  • Five Bands of the Chickamauga Cherokee.

 

  • Thousands of Registered Voters in Missouri and Arkansas.

 

  • Tribal members live in all 50 states.

 

  • Fought in World War I World War II, Korean Conflict, Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Kuwait, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.

 

  • Professionals include: consultants, military, law enforcement, lawyers, pastors, doctors, educators, farmers and ranchers.