Chikamaka - Americanized Chickamauga
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 9:00AM Chikamaka Chickamauga - Chikamaka Band People of the Mountain
Dragging Canoe, “Tsiyugunsini”, was the Leader. He formed a confederacy of various tribes and tories disgruntled with the settler’s attempts to take their lands. This confederacy consisted primarily of Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Delaware, Mohawk, Shawnee, Catawba, their white allies the Tories (mainly Scottish and Irish), and several smaller tribes.
In 1794, an expedition led by Major Ore destroyed most of the Chikamaka towns and killed many of their inhabitants. The survivors fled to the hills and coves of the South Cumberland Plateau, which was to be their “final stronghold.”. They vowed to either be allowed to live there in peace or die. Their primary goal was to hold on to the land at all cost. This goal was accomplished with much personal loss.
The Traditional Homeland of the Chikamaka is in the area of Tennessee which is partitioned as the following counties Coffee, Franklin, Grundy, Marion, Sequatchie and Warren, but we have members who live throughout the state and in points beyond.
