Intro to Podcast1

During the American Revolution, Native American villages were burned down as tensions rose between settlers, Native Americans, and the British. The Cherokee tribe sided with the British to protect their land from the colonists. The Patriots planned an attack on the Cherokee towns, resulting in the burning of settlements and the capture of colonists by Native Americans. After the attack, the tribes regrouped and signed a peace treaty, losing their claim to most of their land in South Carolina. The Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War, leaving Native Americans vulnerable to losing their land to the new United States government. This untold story highlights the need to pay attention to the lesser-known aspects of history. Hi, I'm Grace. And I'm Emery, and you're listening to Indigenous Action. On today's episode, we're going to hear an untold story of the American Revolution. It's about Native American villages being burned down in the Revolutionary War. Most Americans have heard about the Revolutionary War. But there are some parts of the war that are undiscovered. We've done some research, and we learned that the conflict started between the Native Americans and the settlers when the settlers set foot on some new land. But this was not new land. The Native Americans had been there for thousands of years. As tensions rose between the settlers and the Native Americans, so did the tensions between the settlers and the British. Soon after, the Revolutionary War started, and the Cherokee sided with the British. This led to even more tensions between them and the Patriots. In the Patriots' fight for freedom, they are not only fighting the British, but the natives of the land also. The Cherokees would raid the settlers' houses, so the Patriots had to do something. Their plan was to send Griffith, Rutherford, and 2,400 militiamen through the mountains to burn Cherokee towns and to stop their rebellion. To learn more about this story, we talked with Dakota Akai, one of the Native Americans who was there when her village was burned down. She had a lot to say about the burning of Native American towns. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. Let me tell you about my town. I was born into the Cherokee tribe and lived in a Native American village in South Carolina. This town was part of the burnings during the American Revolution. Interesting. After doing some research, we learned that some tribes stayed neutral in the war, but your tribe decided to side with the British. Why was that? Native Americans weren't exactly free at this time. We had lots of land and had our own people, but the Americans or other powerful people could take that away at any time. This is where the British came in. They stopped the colonists from taking over the Appalachian Mountains, which was some of our land, so we appreciated that. In fact, we appreciated it so much that the Cherokee tribe and other ones like Mohawk, Onondaga, and Seneca joined the British in a cooperation. Now, just because the British did this kind act for us didn't mean that they were that good. They had some things that the tribes didn't agree with and thought were bad, but we figured that since they have a lot of power and can protect our tribes, we should join them. It was our best bet to keep our land away from the colonists and the Americans. Wow, you just wanted to keep your land, but it still ended badly. But, being more specific, how badly did fighting with the British end? Native Americans like to resist. We fight back when people mess with us, but it causes a lot of problems. The literal main cause of the Cherokee War was because we had long-held resentment against abuses by the English colonists. The Cherokee Indians in the western part of the colony were compelled to join forces with the British, who had promised to remove American enroachers from our land and, ultimately, to ensure greater tribal independence. This cooperation led us to capturing American colonists because we were protected by the British, so we figured that the Americans couldn't do anything. We would also come and raid settlements and camps for soldiers. In response to these attacks on Americans living in the western frontiers of North Carolina and Virginia, General Charles Lee, commander of the Continental Forces in the south, organized a coordinated attack on the Cherokee towns that populated the region. Basically, the patriots were angry because of all the things that we Native Americans were doing, so they planned an attack to stop it once and for all. Sounds like you Native Americans are rebels! We'll be back after a quick music break to find out what happened during the attack. Welcome back to Indigenous Action. So, Dakota, when Griffith Rutherford came to burn the towns, what was his plan? William Christensen, another American officer, was also sent down to other Overhill towns. When a runner with a white flag came down to ask for peace, he said, How can the nation think of asking peace from me? He rejected the peace offer and still went on his way to the Overhill. He didn't end up burning any more towns because he skipped the ones that were neutral. When the Native Americans heard about the attack, they fled their towns. But it wasn't Christensen who was attacking them. It was Rutherford and Williamson, the main leaders of the attack. Our tribe and others attacked settlements and killed about 30 inhabitants. Rutherford still decided to go on with the plan even after this loss. Rutherford gathered about 2,500 men and lots of supplies to go abroad. After some of the nations got word of the attack from traitors, they abandoned many of their settlements and ran away. Rutherford enslaved some of the Native American people and burned what was left behind. This included thousands of bushels of corn and other crops. Andrew Williamson, a military officer, joined Rutherford in their attack and burnt down a total of 36 towns. What a tragedy! This story truly hasn't been heard by many. After the fires, how did the tribes regroup and come back? The Native Americans were very weak. They had lost over 2,000 members. Many other Cherokee tribes were too weak to respond, so they signed a peace treaty in order to have no more suffering. They signed the Treaty of DeWitt's Corner. This treaty ended the Cherokees' claim to most of our land in South Carolina, and it destroyed Brigham's hopes for an alliance with our tribe and other Native Americans in the area. It basically meant that anyone who was bothering the tribe or wanted to start a war with them would be handed over to the Patriots. They did have to retreat almost all of their land to South Carolina, though, so that wasn't the greatest thing. The Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3rd, 1783, if I'm correct. There were representatives from American and British colonies, but there were no representatives from the Native Americans. How did that make you feel? How did you respond? The Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War. It was silent on the fates of the British allies. The new United States government was free to acquire our lands by treaty or by force. This treaty also made our tribe have our differences. When the Revolutionary War came to a close, this treaty made us have to relocate and move away from our original land, also losing all of our crops. It made us lose our independence. We fled to the west and toward the north, hoping to keep our land. The Native American tribes who had allied with the French often lost their French support and protection, leaving them vulnerable to British expansion. When settlers tried to intrude on the Native American land, we did resist a lot, and that did help us keep our land for a little while. But the Americans did end up taking all of the area east of the Mississippi River, north of present-day Florida, and south of present-day Canada, and the British Gaul, the French territory east of Mississippi. Today, we learned about the untold stories of Native American villages being burned down during the Revolutionary War. Learning about this untold story made us realize that there's a lot more to famous history stories than we hear. This story tells us that we should pay more attention to our historic stories because they might be much more different than we think. That's all for today. Thank you, Dakota, for letting us interview you on our podcast. No problem. Thanks again for having me. See you next time on Indigenous Action.