Haywood, in his Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, records
many of the traditions concerning the origin and the primal habitat of
the Cherokees. He notes the fact that they were firmly established on
the Tennessee or Hogohege River before the year 1650, and exercised
dominion over all the country on the east side of the Alleghany
Mountains, including the headwaters of the Yadkin, Catawba, Broad, and
Savannah Rivers, and that from thence westward they claimed the country
as far as the Ohio, and thence to the headwaters of the Chattahoochee
and Alabama. One tradition which he alleges existed among them asserts
their migration from the west to the upper waters of the Ohio, where
they erected the mounds on Grave Creek, gradually working eastward
across the Alleghany Mountains to the neighborhood of Monticello, Va.,
and along the Appomattox River.
From this point, it is alleged, they removed to the Tennessee country
about 1623, when the Virginians suddenly and unexpectedly fell upon
and massacred the Indians throughout the colony. After this massacre,
the story goes, they came to New River and made a temporary settlement
there as well as one on the head of the Holston; but, owing to the
enmity of the northern Indians, they removed in a short time to the
Little Tennessee and founded what were known as "Middle Settlements."
Another tribe, he alleges, came from the neighborhood of Charleston,
South Carolina, and settled lower down the Tennessee. This branch
called themselves "Ketawanga," and came last into the country. The
tradition as to those who came from Virginia seeks also to establish
the idea that the Powhatan Indians were Cherokees. The whole story is
of the vaguest character, and if the remainder has no stronger claims
to credibility than their alleged identity with the Powhatans, it is
scarcely worthy of record except as a matter of curiosity.
In fact the explorations of De Soto leave almost convincing proof that
the Cherokees were occupying a large proportion of their more modern
territory nearly a century prior to their supposed removal from the
Appomattox.
Pickett, in his History of Alabama, improves upon the legend of Haywood
by asserting as a well established fact what the latter only presumes
to offer as a tradition.
However, as affording a possible confirmation of the legend related by
Haywood concerning their early location in Eastern Virginia, it may
be worth while to allude to a tradition preserved among the Mohican or
Stockbridge tribe. It appears that in 1818 the Delawares, who were then
residing on White River, in Indiana, ceded their claim to lands in that
region to the United States. This land had been conditionally given by
the Miamis many years before to the Delawares, in conjunction with the
"Moheokunnuks" (or Stockbridges) and Munsees. Many of the latter two
tribes or bands, including a remnant of the Nanticokes, had not yet
removed to their western possessions, though they were preparing to
remove. When they ascertained that the Delawares had ceded the lands to
the United States without their consent, they objected and sought to
have the cession annulled.
In connection with a petition presented to Congress by them on the
subject in the year 1819, they set forth in detail the tradition
alluded to. The story had been handed down to them from their ancestors
that "many thousand moons ago" before the white men came over the
"great water," the Delawares dwelt along the banks of the river that
bears their name. They had enjoyed a long era of peace and prosperity
when the Cherokees, Nanticokes, and some other nation whose name had
been forgotten, envying their condition, came from the south with a
great army and made war upon them. They vanquished the Delawares and
drove them to an island in the river. The latter sent for assistance to
the Mohicans, who promptly came to their relief, and the invaders were
in turn defeated with great slaughter and put to flight. They sued for
peace, and it was granted on condition that they should return home and
never again make war on the Delawares or their allies. These terms were
agreed to and the Cherokees and Nanticokes ever remained faithful to
the conditions of the treaty.
The inference to be drawn from this legend, if it can be given any
credit whatever, would lead to the belief that the Cherokees and the
Nanticokes were at that time neighbors and allies. The original home
of the Nanticokes on the Eastern Shore of Maryland is well known, and
if the Cherokees (or at least this portion of them) were then resident
beyond the Alleghanies, with sundry other powerful tribes occupying
the territory between them and the Nanticokes, it is unlikely that any
such alliance for offensive operations would have existed between them.
Either the tradition is fabulous or at least a portion of the Cherokees
were probably at one time residents of the Eastern slope of Virginia.
The Delawares also have a tradition that they came originally from the
west, and found a tribe called by them Allegewi or Allegans occupying
the eastern portion of the Ohio Valley. With the aid of the Iroquois,
with whom they came in contact about the same time, the Delawares
succeeded in driving the Allegans out of the Ohio Valley to the
southward.
Schoolcraft suggests the identity of the Allegans with the Cherokees,
an idea that would seem to be confirmatory of the tradition given by
Haywood, in so far as it relates to an early Cherokee occupancy of Ohio.