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The Battle for Nickajack Town '98
The Battle for Nickajack Town '98
The struggle began when the monolithic TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) decided to sell off lands containing all that remains above water of old Nickajack Town. A little background here might be helpful especially for those who believe the stereo type of the "peaceful Cherokee". Dragging Canoe (173? - 1792) removed from the more peaceful elements of the Cherokee Tribe hoping to prevent innocent bloodshed, yet knowing the encroachment on Cherokee hunting grounds needed to be stopped. For awhile, he and the warriors that followed him with their families moved to the area of Chickamauga Creek in Chattanooga Tennessee. From current day 'Hooters' to Lovell Field Airport. From this location the warriors staged lightning swift raids on the illegal settlements that were springing up on Cherokee land. Soon the location of Chickamauga Town was found out and the village was burned in an act of revenge for punishing the white squatters on our lands. This sequence of events was repeated several times, & every time, the villages on the Chickamauga were rebuilt. Finally more secure habitations were secured from an alliance with the Redstick Creek. One of these habitations is called in our tongue "Anicoosawetiyi" or Old Place of the Creeks, which is known to whites as Nickajack Town.
It is now the Twentieth Century seven generations since our forefathers the People of the Lightning fought to save the sovereignty that the Cherokee Chiefs were so quick to abdicate. The TVA in the sixth generation, built dams that flooded most of those habitations that were obtained from the Creek.
It is now the '90s and TVA, having used the law of Eminent Domain to acquire the land of the People of the Lightning, is in a financial bind because of mismanagement. They wanted to sell Nickajack Town and its associated burials. But they did not count on the Children of the Lightning confronting them. And confront them we did. On July 5, 1997, The Tennessee River Band of Chickamaugan Cherokees staged a march in downtown Chattanooga, TN in front of the TVA complex. This was followed by other demonstrations, organized by the Chattanooga Inter Tribal Association, in which Children of the Lightning also participated. Finally, in the Spring of '98, the TRBCC hosted a powwow to save Little Cedar Mt. at nearby Marion County Park. It was well attended by Native people but there were not many 'tourists' and I fear many vendors went away unhappy. At the same time, E. Raymond Evans informed us, AIM was staging a protest in front of Hines Ltd., Little Cedar Mt. project office in Atlanta, GA. Soon intelligence reports from Mr. Evans confirmed that Hines LTD had closed their Atlanta "project" and moved it to Chicago IL.
We also had reports that the Eastern Band of Cherokees chief Dugan was going soft on us. Secretly agreeing with TVA to remain silent on LCM in exchange for a small piece of shell midden downstream from Nickajack Dam. Mr. Evans and Mr. James Bumpas discovered this in a fund-seeking trip to the N. C. reservation. It must be said here that the Council EBCI knew nothing of the soft position and in Mr. Evans words were "willing to cut a check right then." But the "director of Cultural Resources" cleared her throat and said "the Chief has a plan."
And now, months after TVA's formal abdication announcement, on March 15,1999, we are still celebrating our well-deserved victory over the TVA. Chalk March 15 on your calendars, Children of the Lightning, as the day of a major political coup for the TRBCC and Native America as a whole.
1890 Massacre at Wounded Knee
1890 Massacre at Wounded Knee
The events at Wounded Knee (South Dakota) on December 29, 1890 cannot be understood unless the previous 400 years of European occupation of the New World are taken into consideration. As Dee Brown has pointed out in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (pp. 1-2):
"‘So tractable, so peaceable, are these people,’ Columbus wrote to the King and Queen of Spain [referring to the Tainos on the island of San Salvador, so was named by Columbus], ‘that I swear to your Majesties there is not in the world a better nation. They love their neighbors as themselves, and their discourse is ever sweet and gentle, and accompanied with a smile; and though it is true that they are naked, yet their manners are decorous and praiseworthy.’"All this, of course, was taken as a sign of weakness, if not heathenism, and Columbus being a righteous European was convinced the people should be ‘made to work, sow and do all that is necessary and to adopt our ways.’ Over the next four centuries (1492-1890) several million Europeans and their descendants undertook to enforce their ways upon the people of the New World."
Many accounts (from both sides: US Army and Lakota) of this shameful episode exist, and many of those can be found on the Internet. The following is a brief, edited description (from The Great Chiefs volume of Time-Life’s The Old West series) of events. Links to further resources and descriptions follow.
In 1889, rumors of a miraculous Indian redemption began to emerge. In Nevada, during a solar eclipse, a young Paiute mystic byc the name of Wovoca had fallen into trance. When he awoke, he told others that he had been taken into the Spirit World and had received revelations of great future events. The dead would rise. The buffalo would return in the millions. The whites would disappear.
The precepts of this new faith called for no fighting, no war, nothing that resembled war, no stealing, no lying, no cruelty. Followers of this faith were expected to perform a dance, one that Wovoka had learned while in the Spirit World. The ritual dance was the essence of simplicity. Each of the worshippers, painted with sacred red pigment, shuffled counterclockwise in a circle, moving slowly at first but picking up tempo while singing songs of resurrection. Many of the participants fell into trance and awoke to tell tales of meeting with dead relatives and seeing hosts of buffalo roaming the Plains.
This faith came to be called the Ghost Dance Religion by curious whites because of the emphasis on resurrection and reunion with the dead. Like other peoples who had picked up a new religion, the Sioux added a unique touch of their own -- a small alteration, but one that appeared to taint the basic innocence of the rite. They began dancing in loose shirts, adorned with feathers or other trimmings and decorated with [what the whites saw as] curious cabalistic designs. White men inquired after the meaning and function of these garments, which they called ghost shirts. They were advised that the shirts were sacred and impervious armor against an attacker’s bullets.
The reply stirred unease in whites, then outright alarm. What need for armor, unless a mass uprising was being plotted. Agent James McLaughlin reported, "It would seem impossible that any person, no matter how ignorant, could be brought to believe such absurd nonsense, but the infection has been so pernicious that many of our very best Indians appear dazed and undecided when talking of it."
McLaughlin also [mistakenly] reported that "the new religion was managed from the beginning, as far as the Standing Rock Sioux were concerned, by Sitting Bull, [Tatanka-Iyotanka (1831-1890)] who... having lost his former influence over the Sioux, planned to import and use it to reestablish himself in the leadership of the people, whom he might then lead in safety in any desperate enterprise which he might direct."
From Washington came orders alerting the Army to take up positions to contain and put down any outbreak. The sudden and highly visible presence of troops in turn alarmed the Indians. Distrustful bands, fearing massacre by the whites, left the vicinity of their agencies and headed for the Badlands. The Army, as apprehensive in its way as the Sioux were in theirs, mobilized to round them up.
On December 14, 1890, having received word that Sitting Bull was determined to visit the Pine Ridge Agency south of Standing Rock, McLaughlin had him immediately arrested. During the arrest, Sitting Bull protested. His followers, having heard his shout, acted. One of them fired a rifle at one of the arresting officers (a fellow Sioux) named Lt. Bull Head. As the police chief fell, he managed to put a bullet into Sitting Bull. General gunfire erupted, taking the lives of Sitting Bull, six policemen and eight of Sitting Bull’s followers. (Click here for James McLaughlin's account of the arrest.)
The killing of the chief exacerbated the turmoil that was already sweeping the reservation lands. Bands of Sioux fled, all frightened, many of them still holding onto the hope of deliverance through the Ghost Dance miracle. Some of Sitting Bull’s followers hurried toward the camp of Big Foot, a Miniconjou Sioux chief. They met up with Big Foot while he and his people were on their way to agency headquarters near Fort Bennett to procure rations.
Meanwhile, authorities had decided that Chief Big Foot was a troublemaker who should be taken into custody. When Col. E.V. Sumner intercepted the band, Big Foot gave assurances that their intentions were peaceful and lawful. Sumner questioned his motives for sheltering "hostiles" from Sitting Bull’s camp. Big Foot replied that he had found 38 men and women who were hungry, footsore and nearly naked in midwinter. Anybody with a heart would have done the same thing, he told the colonel.
Sumner nevertheless ordered Big Foot’s followers, numbering more than 300, to accompany him to Camp Cheyenne, where they would be kept under watchful eye. They obeyed the orders without protest until they had traveled back to the vicinity of their own village. The Indians then announced that they would not go any farther. Big Foot advised the colonel that they intended to return home and that they had done nothing to justify their removal. But during the night, alarmed by some reports of additional troops that were coming from the east, Big Foot’s people fled toward refuge in the Badlands.
Orders came from General Miles to pursue and apprehend the fugitives. Another cavalry unit caught up with them on December 28. Carrying a white flag, Big Foot approached Major Whitside to parley. Whitside demanded surrender, and Big Foot, whose band was in no condition to fight, gave in. The troops hurried the band southwest to Wounded Knee Creek and took up surrounding positions as the Indians set up camp. Four more cavalry troops arrived under the command of Col. James Forsyth, bringing the escort to 470. Big Foot was now ailing with pneumonia, and Col. Forsyth provided him with a camp stove.
In the morning, Forsyth prepared to disarm his captives. To secure the field, his troops were disposed on all four sides of the Indian camp, and four rapid-fire Hotchkiss guns were set into place on a low hill overlooking the camp from the north. At about 8 o’clock, the Indian men came out of their tipis and sat in a semicircle in front of the troops. Forsyth issued orders that they should return to the lodges, 20 at a time, and bring out their guns. The first contingent obediently entered the tipis but, after some time, reappeared with only two weapons.
Troops around the warriors were moved up within 10 yards; others were detailed to go into the tipis and make a search. The soldiers went at their work with hard-handed zeal, scattering bedclothing, pawing through other property. Women inside the lodges protested loudly.
Outside, resentful uneasiness edged into hair-trigger tension. Then a medicine man called Yellow Bird began blowing on an eagle-bone whistle, exhorting them to resist. When the soldiers began to search the warriors themselves, the situation exploded. A young Indian pulled a gun out from under his robe and fired wildly. Instantly, the soldiers retaliated with a point-blank volley which cut down nearly half of the warriors. The rest of them drew concealed weapons and charged the soldiers.
Then the Hotchkiss guns on the hill opened up -- on the women and children who had come pouring out of the tipis. Soon many of the tipis were burning, ripped by the explosive shells. A stumbling mass of women and children and a few men bolted into a ravine that led away from the encampment. The soldiers followed them, firing as they went. The Hotchkiss guns were then re-emplaced to sweep the ravine and cut down anything that moved.
Big Foot died as he tried to rise from his sickbed. Others managed to run as far as two miles from the camp before dying of their wounds. Twenty-five white men were killed and 39 wounded. Since the besieged Indians had few guns and since the troops were firing from four sides at once, it seemed likely that the soldiers had caused many of their own casualties. The Indian dead numbered about 180. [Note: other reports place this number much higher.] For three days, they were left to lie where they had fallen while a winter blizzard swept over them.
A burial party was sent to the scene on New Year’s Day, 1891. One by one the bodies, frozen in the grotesque agonies of death, were dragged from under the snow and heaved into a single pit. Four babies were discovered still alive, wrapped in their dead mothers’ shawls. Most of the other children were dead. "It was a thing to melt the heart of a man if it was of stone," said a member of the burial party, "to see those little children, with their bodies shot to pieces, thrown naked into the pit."
Cornblossom Beloved War Woman
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Long Hair Clan
Morgan County, TN
The Cherokee Massacure @ Yahoo (Ywahoo) Falls Kentucky
On Friday, August 10th 1810, the Great Cherokee Children Massacre took place at Ywahoo Falls in southeast Kentucky ...... the Cherokee village leaders of the Cumberland Plateau territory from Knoxville Tennessee to the Cumberland River in Kentucky was led by the northern provisional Thunderbolt District Chief Beloved Woman - War Woman "Cornblossom", the highly honored daughter of the famous Thunderbolt War Chief Doublehead. Several months before this date, Beloved Woman - War Woman Cornblossom was preparing the people in all the Cherokee villages of southeast Kentucky and northern Tennessee to bring all their children to the sacred Ywahoo Falls area of refuge and safety.
Once all the Cherokee children were gathered they were to make a journey to Reverend Gideon Blackburns Presbertearian Indian School at Sequatchie Valley outside of Chattanooga Tennessee in order to save the children of the Cherokee Nation remaining in Kentucky and northern Tennessee on the Cumberland Plateau.
This area of Sequatchie Valley was very near to Lookout Mountain at Chattanooga, the once long held Chickamauga National capital of the Thunderbolts. And near Lookout Mountain just on the other side in northeast Alabama was the rendezvous point for the Chickamaugan Cherokee and their allies the Creek Nation. For by this time, many Creek and Chickamaugan Thunderbolt Cherokee were defending the rest of the Indian Nations there as well. The arrangements to save the Cherokee children thru Gideon Blackburns white protection Christian Indian Schools had been made earlier by Cornblossoms father War Chief Doublehead, who had also several years earlier been assassinated by non-traditionalist of the southern Cherokee Nation of the Carolinas and far eastern Tennessee.
A huge large gathering area underneath Ywahoo Falls itself was to be the center meeting place for these women and children to gather and wait, then all the children of all ages would go as one group southward to the school to safety from the many Indian fighters gathering in the neighboring counties of Wayne and Pulaski in Kentucky.
These Indian fighters were led by an old Franklinite militiamen from Tennessee named Hiram "Big Tooth" Gregory who came from Sullivan County Tennessee at the settlement of Franklin and had fought many Franklinite campaigns under John Seveir to eliminate all the traditional Thunderbolt Cherokee totally and without mercy. Big Tooth Gregory, sanctioned by the United States government, war department, and governor of the territory, carried on the ill famous Indian hating battle cry of John Seveir that "nits make lice".
Orders were understood by these Cherokee haters that nits (baby lice) would grow up to be adults and especially targeted in all the campaigns of John Seveirs Franklinites were the Cherokee women, pregnant women, and children of all ages. John Seveir, Big Tooth Gregory, and all the rest of the Franklinites philosophy was that if they could destroy the children of the Cherokee, there would be no Cherokee and no Cherokee Nation to contend with in their expansion of white settlements, the white churches, and the claiming of territory for the United States.
Orders were issued to the Franklinites to split open the belly of any pregnant Cherokee woman, remove the baby inside her, and slice it as well. To the Franklinites, the Cherokee baby inside the mother was the nit that would eventually make lice.
In all the earlier campaigns of the Franklinites in the late 1700s, the blood and screams of the Cherokee children were constantly heard thruout the Cumberland Plateau territory from todays Knoxville Tennessee to the Cumberland River in southeast Kentucky to all their adjoining territories. From afar in Kentucky as present day London Corbin and the lands within the present Daniel Boone National Forest the cries could be heard.
The Lands from London to Cumberland Falls was ruled by many war leaders, among them was a great warrior and friend to Cornblossom, War Chief Red Bird called Chief Cutsuwah, descendent of the Great War Woman Cutsuwah that fell during the French and Indian War at Burnside Kentucky. Red Bird was also a close relative to Cornblossom, War Chief Peter Troxell and their descendants. The cries of Red Birds women and children echoed many times in this genocide campaign of the Franklinites to rid the area of powerful Cherokee leaders. The blood of many warriors, men and women, was spilled trying to defend their Cherokee people. From where todays Pickett State Park lays in northern Tennessee just below the Kentucky Tennessee State Line lying south of present day Wayne County Kentucky, the cries of women and children and fallen warriors of War Chief The Fox could also be heard.
The Fox was sometimes called Black Fox or Captain Fox. He became known as Captain Fox when Doublehead and his loyal Thunderbolt war parties in the late 1700s attacked a militia in Kentucky, killing their leader which was a Captain in the American Army. As The Fox was the one who killed the Captain, he took his militia overcoat in victory and wore it constantly. A frenzied whoop dance was performed on Lookout Mountain by Dragging Canoe, Doublehead, and the Bloody 7 over this victory attack on the Kentucky militia. The Fox then became known to all the Cherokee as Captain Fox. Now the villages under Chief Captain Fox came under attack by the Franklinites.
Standing Fern from the Ywahoo Falls area sent many warriors and war women to counter the Franklinites move on their boundaries many times as did Cornblossom and War Chief Peter Troxell. War Chief Peter Troxell had attacked to the west of Ywahoo Falls in 1806 and 1807 the settlers of Wayne and Pulaski counties, bringing many settlers to the point of utter fear for their encroachments against the Cherokee of the now Daniel Boone National Forest of southeast Kentucky. But in 1807, War Chief Peter Troxell had been granted official amnesty by the Governor of Kentucky if he and his Cherokee war parties from neighboring McCreary County stop their raids into Wayne and Pulaski County. War Chief Peter Troxell agreed and turned over his scalping knife with 9 notches to the authorities at the courthouse in Wayne County. Peace would last just a short time when the settlers of Wayne and Pulaski banded together in 1810 to break this peace treaty at the massacre of Ywahoo Falls. Many of the Cherokee who tried to protect their people during these times simply did not return, dwindling the people down to small factions, and the Indian fighters knew it. But these small factions of Cherokee traditionalist in southeast Kentucky became more determined to save their people as ever. And from all this, the Thunderbolts endured the militia of the Franklinites, continued encroachments of white settlers, land speculators, the many Southern Cherokee who allied themselves with the United States government trying to defeat the traditionalist of Kentucky Georgia and Tennessee, all, resulting in the Chickamaugan Cherokee separating even more from the southern Cherokee of the Carolinas to fight this continuing drastic change.
Politically, Two (2) Cherokee Nations had been formed during Dragging Canoe and Doubleheads fight for freedom of the traditionalist: The Southern Cherokee of the Carolinas and far eastern Tennessee and the Chickamaugan Cherokee of Georgia, eastern Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky. For you see, over the many years, many of the southern Cherokee of the Carolinas who lived more close to the white settlements leaned toward the US Governments policy of change, many became inbred within the white society and did as the whites did collecting black and Indian slaves for themselves and to sell, with some becoming rich, many did away with the "Old Ways" and played into the hands of politicians and land speculators to steal land as they themselves would now own land unto themselves. Many of the Southern Cherokee would also condemn the Thunderbolt traditional Cherokee in Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky who would not change and accept the new ways of the Europeans, and shamed and banished any Carolina Cherokee who would not accept the white mans ways. Many Cherokee in the Carolinas and elsewhere isolated themselves in the mountains way before the trail of tears during this social civil strife between the people. These conformed Cherokee would brand any and all who kept their ancient Cherokee heritage as traitors to the Cherokee people. And from all of this strife of change many traditional Cherokee protectors arose. Dragging Canoe and Doublehead arose to defend the people. But by this date of 1810 Dragging Canoe and the rest of the so-called Bloody Seven had either died a natural death or been killed and War Chief Doublehead, Cornblossoms father, had met his death by means of assassination at the hands of the Cherokee conformist from the south.
And now, in 1810, one more attempt would be made to destroy the Cherokee who kept the old traditional ways. One more attempt would be made to destroy the "nits that make lice" as the many Cherokee women with their children began coming to Ywahoo Falls in order to make the great "Children" migration to Seqatchie Valley near Chattanooga, Tennessee. In southeast Kentucky, underneath Ywahoo Falls itself, was War Woman Standing Fern and over 100 women and children, others stationed themselves out from the falls. Standing Fern was the mighty woman war leader of the Ywahoo Falls area and was married to the 1st born of Cornblossom. She was married to War Chief Peter Troxell. At this time Cornblossom was married to the famous "Big Jake" Jacob Troxell, a half breed Delaware Warrior from Pennsylvania who had been sent by the personal staff of President George Washington earlier to sway the Cherokee away from the Spanish of Florida and more towards the New Americans in alliance. But Jacob had ended up joining the Cherokee instead which came about over the inhumane cruelty the incoming settlers of Kentucky and Tennessee were inflicting on the Cherokee and other tribes of southeast Kentucky and northern Tennessee. To the New Americans he had "turned injun"(again). By 1810, "Little Jake" Peter Troxell was a mighty War Chief riding along side his mother Cornblossom in all her campaigns and protecting the sacred sites with his wife Standing Fern. They were true Cherokee Thunderbolts and wore the sacred emblem and mark of the Thunder People: the Lightning Bolt. Standing Fern was in charge of the gathered children who by August 10th had almost all assembled. Now they would wait for Cornblossom to bring her younger children to the falls, then all would be ready and they would go southward in a children fleeing journey more closer to the Thunderbolts of the south who were more stronger.
Runners brought word to Standing Fern at the falls that her husband War Chief Peter Troxell and Cornblossom were on their way to Ywahoo Falls with the last of the children. Traveling with Cornblossom and War Chief Peter Troxell were Chief Red Bird of the Cumberland Falls area and their children, the youngest children of Cornblossom, and all the children of War Chief Peter Troxell. When they arrived at Ywahoo Falls the journey southward would begin. But before Cornblossom, Red Bird, War Chief Peter Troxell, and the children with them arrived, the old Franklinite "Indian fighter" by the name of Hiram "Big Tooth" Gregory had heard of the planned trip several days prior and headed immediately for the falls area to kill them all with all he could muster to kill the Cherokee.
Breaking the 1807 peace treaty between War Chief Peter Troxell and the Governor of Kentucky, Big Tooth Gregorys band of Indian fighters crossed into Cherokee territory and came in two directions, one group from Wayne County, the other from neighboring Pulaski county in southeast Kentucky. The Indian fighters on horseback joined together at what is now called Flat Rock Kentucky and headed into the Ywahoo Falls area with fiery hatred. Big Tooth Gregory and his Indian fighters could not allow these children (nits) to escape. Being only 1 good accessible way in by land and 1 way in by water, Gregorys band of Indian fighters chose the quick way by land, sending a few side skirmishers by way to block anyone trying to escape. Before they reached the falls, at todays entrance to Ywahoo Falls, the Indian fighters encountered a front Cherokee guard consisting of "Big Jake" Jacob Troxell (husband to Cornblossom), a few longhunters friendly to the Cherokee mainly thru intermarriage and some remaining Thunderbolt warriors, all who were guarding the entrance to the falls. This occurred shortly after midnight in the early morning hours of darkness before the rising of the sun. This will be the night morning of screams. This will be the last day of many children. This will be the day that will forever mark the Troxell Cherokee heritage in history.
Jacob Troxell, the longhunters, and warriors instantly sense the trouble, a Cherokee runner takes off in flight to attempt to warn Standing Fern at the falls but is cut down by 2 side skirmishers on the way. At the same time Jacob Troxell and the front guards lock in a fierce battle of flintlock against flintlock and hand to hand fighting, trying to keep Gregory and his band out, but are overcome in a short time by the numbers of the Indian fighters. All the front guard is killed at this entrance to Ywahoo Falls. It was said thru the memories of the Cherokee people of southeast Kentucky that Jacob Troxell and 1 renowned great warrior were the last to fall of the front guards. Jacob, now swinging a half broken highly decorated war club in one hand and a large skinning knife in the other, stood fighting hand to hand with blood coming out of his mouth from several bodily wounds and was said to have kept screaming to the end in a loud voice over and over, "The Children!". The Great Warrior witnessed the fall of Jacob as the Indian fighters took sharp aim and fired a whole volley of lead into Jacobs body finally downing and scalping him. Jacob will survive this attack but is mortally wounded and will live 2 months before he dies as a result from this massacre. So some say that Jacob died at this massacre to denote his final breath to save the children because that was where his heart was defending the children of a now forgotten people lost within the hills and valleys of southeast Kentucky waiting for remembrance of their families. The Great Warrior, who was still standing and the last to fall, was jumped by several Indian fighters and downed to the ground. Breaking his arms the Indian fighters then cut his throat and scalped him.
This had all been witnessed and watched by a hidden son of one of the front Cherokee guards who was given orders to flee into the woods upon the Indian fighters approach. This hidden Cherokee son would carry down this memory for generations. (today at this entrance to Ywahoo Falls there is only one lonely memorial grave marker with the name "Jacob Troxell" only, to mark remembrance of this incident, the Ywahoo Falls area is part of the Big South Fork River and Recreation Area of the National Park Service and is the tallest waterfall in Kentucky which drops 113 feet, underneath and behind the falls is an open huge gigantic rock shelter where the children and Standing Fern had gathered).
Gregory with his Indian fighters after scalping all the front guards, then moved onward in a rush to the falls area. Lining themselves all along the top rim of the bluff surrounding the falls and large "rock house" below it, they began firing from all sides down on War Woman Standing Fern and over 100 children now trapped directly underneath them. The ones out from the falls ran, hid, and escaped. Trapping the 100 children with other old men, pregnant women, and mothers underneath the falls, Gregory and his men worked their way down into the gigantic area of the rock house on the 2 downward side paths while the ones on top kept them bottled in. As children and women fell all around her from the volley of lead above, War Woman Standing Fern and her few warriors now take to the two left and right inclining side paths that lead into the huge rock shelter hoping to meet and stop the Indian fighters. Looking outward from underneath the falls itself, Standing Fern and several warriors took the right hand path that would lead upward, the other few warriors took the left path. The trapped Cherokee people and the children old enough to hold a weapon grabbed what ever they could in their grasps to defend themselves. Some would have a knife or hatchet, while most would only have a rock or a clay cooking bowl to throw or nothing at all to use as a weapon. Some of the ones who escaped out from the falls, hid among the rocks, water, and trees and would watch in horror with tears to tell the story for generations so that we may remember what happened that day, Friday, August 10th, 1810.
Standing Fern and her warriors were very quickly overcome by the Indian fighters and brutally killed but not before Standing Fern fought with a passion of defense taking with her several of the Indian fighters in hand to hand combat along the right path while the other warriors fought with the ever fevered courage of a Thunderbolt as well. The fall of Standing Fern occurred at a narrow spot on the right path fighting several of the Indian fighters with the swinging of a hatchet in hand to hand combat. As she was fighting she was shot twice, once in the shoulder and once in the hip, and gutted in the belly with an unforeseen knife. As the knife entered her belly, at the same time she was shoved over the ravine by several Indian Fighters, but not before taking some with her.
With Standing Fern and all her warriors now defeated and murdered, the Indian fighters set upon the children and others that were trapped under the falls, rushing it with more volleys of lead and close attack. Using what useless weapons they had, the women, old men, and children fell prey to the evil dark designs of the attackers. They screamed an earthquake of death and tears. The water and ground ran red.
Hiram Big Tooth Gregory and all his Indian fighters raped the women and younger female children of all ages, pillaged, cut bellies open, murdered, and scalped over 100 Chickamaugan Cherokee women and children that had been trapped underneath Ywahoo Falls, killing most of them as they ran, begged, huddled together, and screamed and pleaded for life.
Meanwhile this same day the party of Cornblossom approached with her children. As her party came closer to the falls area, it is said a hawk flew above them and lit in a nearby tree and acted strange. Investigating this remarkable occurrence, it was found that the tree was bleeding blood out of its bark, the leaves trembled, and the sound of the hawk was as a cry and scream of a baby. Fearing something wrong, Cornblossom and her party pushed onward in a frantic pace to get her children to the falls and safety. When Cornblossom arrives at the falls entrance area, they find all the front guards brutally scalped and killed with her husband "Big Jake" Jacob Troxell. Leaving the children with some women at the front guard entrance, Cornblossom, her son War Chief Peter Troxell, Red Bird, and their party of warriors and war women then rushes to the Falls itself, where they find some of Gregorys murderers who had remained behind still finishing their evil work of rape, torture, and scalping. Cornblossom screams for her warriors, Redbird, and her son Chief Peter Troxell to kill these remaining men with a blow of passion. Her famous cry was once again heard as she had always shouted in all her many campaigns: "Shoot Twice Not Once!". War Chief Peter Troxell, Chief Redbird, and the Thunderbolt Warriors, along with Beloved Woman / War Woman Cornblossom, charge the murderers with screaming Cherokee war hoops and passion of justice, a battle ensues with a short volley of rifle fire and close hand to hand combat with all its fierceness. All the remaining men of Gregorys Indian fighters are cut down to never more harm the Cherokee people.
From this last fight of Cornblossom, her son War Chief Peter Troxell was killed himself at the huge rock shelter underneath the falls and Cornblossom herself received an agonizing longrifle gunshot injury. Cornblossom will live 2 days before this wound takes its full toll on her life. Beloved Woman Cornblossom, wounded and in much pain from wound and sorrow, will sing and wail the "Death song of the Cherokee" underneath and atop the ancient sacred grounds of Ywahoo Falls over and over for 2 days and nights. Clinching her raised fists and raised open arms to the Great Spirit, day and night, she kept screaming the words of her father Doublehead, son War Chief Peter Troxell, and daughter-n-law War Woman Standing Fern: "WE ARE NOT CONQUERED YET!". And on the 3rd day, as the blazing eastern morning sun would rise over the mountains and valleys of Kentucky, Cornblossom passed on into Cherokee history as a great woman of her people and a great mother of future generations. May we not forget her or her children . Remember her with a Cherokee tear and with honor.
From this massacre, Jacob Troxell (husband to Cornblossom), the Great Warrior, and all the front guards killed, War Woman Standing Fern (wife to War Chief Peter Troxell) and her elite Thunderbolt warriors all killed defending the children below the falls, War Chief Peter Troxell killed in the last fight, and over 100 women and children waiting to go south to safety in a children journey to a Christian mission school, all lay dead, massacred, raped, tortured, and scalped, by these "Indian fighters". It was said that "Bones and Blood ran so deep underneath Ywahoo Falls that the murdered dead were all put there together in a heap to be their grave". The place of innocence and the Ancient Ones now became a place of death of the innocent. The Falls ran red that day of darkness, Friday, August 10, 1810. No more will they witness the Blessed Moonbow at Cumberland Falls and receive its sacred Blessing, no more will they hear great orations spoken at Ywahoo Falls by not only the many Cherokee leaders of the Nation but other great orators from other tribal neighbors as well. No more will they roam and see the land of paradise and the geological wonders of the area. William Troxell the youngest son of Cornblossom will forever keep the fires of memory alive so all may know what happened on Friday August 10, 1810. These fires will be carried by William to Alabama were the stories are etched and burned into the generations to come of the Troxells and whoever may listen and remember.
They will now wait for remembrance of themselves, their land, their culture, and their hearts. They will wait for someone to say "I remember".
A relative Troxell and Blevins man of the area reports this incident to the Sheriff of Wayne County but nothing is done, nor is Hiram Big Tooth Gregory brought to justice for many of the local non-Indians believed that "nits make lice".
Beloved Woman Cornblossom wails and suffers so much over the dead that she dies from grief a couple of days after the massacre of her husband, her son, her daughter-n-law, and over 100 loved women and children of her Cherokee people. Her grief was sorrowful and hard. It is said that on her last breath to leave her body was the soft words "WE ARE NOT CONQUERED YET ... REMEMBER MY CHILDREN .... REMEMBER MY PEOPLE".
This massacre ended all power of the mighty Chickamaugan Thunderbolt Cherokee people in Kentucky to Knoxville Tennessee. Cornblossom and Standing Fern were the last powerful "Beloved Women / War Women" of the Thunderbolt Cherokee of the Cumberland Plateau. War Chief Peter Troxell, son of Cornblossom, was the last of the great powerful Cherokee "War Chiefs" of Kentucky and the Cumberland Plateau. These people of southeast Kentucky and northern Tennessee held out unto death. And as it is often said "Today was a good day to die" for "We are not conquered yet". The rest of the children of Cornblossom, the children of Standing Fern, War Chiefs Redbird and Peter Troxell were spared from this tragedy, to live on, generation after generation, some keeping the memory and history alive of the Cherokee Nation. With no powerful Cherokee leaders left in Kentucky and the Cumberland Plateau to hold any strong power, many Cherokee leave the South Fork area of southeast Kentucky and northern Tennessee after this Great Massacre in fear of the whites while others become isolated and hide in the mountains. The children children of War Chief Peter Troxell, Standing Fern, and Cornblossom will isolate themselves in the valleys and mountains of southeast Kentucky with some holding on to the memory of their Great Cherokee heritage, to not speak openly or too much until the time has come for remembrance. I, Dan Troxell, Deni U-Gu-Ku, direct descendant thru Cornblossom and her last born son William Troxell, comes out from isolation and proclaims our history alive for I am a Real Human Being, I am a Thunderbolt, I am Cherokee. The Thunderbolt people will now wait for a remembrance.
After the massacre at Ywahoo Falls, Reverend Blackburns "Indian schools" in Tennessee are discontinued due to Blackburns illness and grief over the many women and children killed at Ywahoo Falls in southeast Kentucky. Reverend Blackburn is caught with a boatload of whiskey and becomes an alcoholic. Chief Redbird isolates his people that live near Cumberland Falls and sends any remaining people into hiding until the remembrance. The children of Cornblossom and Standing Fern survived. William Troxell the youngest son of Cornblossom, and my descent, survived and removed himself to northeastern Alabama 7 years after the massacre, lived with the Creeks, and became a link between the hidden Cherokee of Kentucky and Tennessee before and after the Trail of Tears.
But there is more to be told that came after the massacre, events that will shape history into meaning of not only the Doublehead legacy but for all who were to survive the invasion of settlers. Survival of the children and their generations to come. And this will center on the descents in southeastern Kentucky and William Troxell and his father Jacob Troxell and the legacy that will now transpire in Alabama. In order to protect the children and their generations many things were done to persevere, hidden things, things on one hand presented to the settlers to be true while in reality other things came about, and this tactic of survival was given to them earlier by Doublehead.
As there were Cherokee survivors to this massacre many did die a brutal death from it. Doublehead descent of his children and their children were considered by the settlers to be not only a threat but a future threat as well. Also in the last fight of Cornblossom, Peter Troxell, and Redbird when they attacked the remaining murderers at the Falls, 3 of the white men were held and spared briefly and executed personally by the hidden children who had escaped and run into the nearby hill. This execution of justice came shortly after the passing of Cornblossom on the 3rd day after being weighed in judgment by the Cherokee Council of Women of Redbird. The first blow was said to be struck by the son of the Great Warrior who fell among the front guards. His name was Tommy Bright Star, who will also remove himself to Alabama later with William Troxell. One of the 3 white men executed by the children was close blood kin to the Indian fighter leader Hiram "Big Tooth" Gregory, his name was Homer Gregory, believed to be the brother of Hiram.
The many Indian hating settlers along with the Kentucky and Tennessee militia deemed this massacre the last of the resistance movement of the Kentucky Cherokee and northern Tennessee. The aftermath of this Cherokee massacre brought new questionable ideals to the now so-called victorious glouted settlers. Questions like: Is the Cherokee resistance truly over or will somewhere retaliation occur? Are they truly conquered and defeated? And what of the children, will they assimilate into non-Indian society, or must they be dealt with harshly, or what? Many questions, much pondering on what next. The settlers, now feeling powerful and self dominate, ponder on the next steps to take in the Cherokee matters.
Foreseeing more tragic events in southeast Kentucky and northern Tennessee, and understanding that the Indian fighters are now receiving bits and pieces of rumors that some of the Cherokee leaders are NOT dead and possibly survived, and that Homer Gregory and two others were executed, the Cherokee must keep one step ahead of the settlers by making widely known that the massacre event had killed all their leaders, especially the ones of the Doublehead/Cornblossom connection and descent who had any Cherokee power as their known leaders. True: Cornblossom, Peter Troxell, Standing Fern, the Great Warrior, many front guards, and over 100 Cherokee women and children were slaughtered in the massacre. All who had strong connections with the Doublehead legacy. However, what is kept from the settlers is that Jacob Troxell and some others did not die from their wounds. The others were the ones who had escaped when the massacre began. But Jacob will suffer much pain from his wounds. William Troxell (Dan Troxell direct descent), 7 years after the massacre in the year 1817, will concealingly take Jacob and some other Cherokee with him to northeast Alabama. War Chief Peter Troxell became known as the last father of the people, father of his brothers and sisters in honor, and that is why some will say that Peter is of their descent, so no one will forget him as well.
But first ALL things must be concealed from the non-Indians. Jacobs 3 trading posts are burned by the Cherokee with any goods distributed to the PEOPLE. Caves are deliberately sand walled and collapsed in southeast Ky and northern Tennessee. Some Cherokee travel into non-Indian KY territory of Wayne, Pulaski, and Green counties to conceal THINGS of importance, while other THINGS are secretly transported to northeast Alabama thru the guise of Cherokee War Women acting like non-Indian Women. Villages, burial grounds, and other importance of past leaders are shuffled to conceal. On and On. To the settlers, Jacob Troxell could not be allowed to live, he was politically a threat as he was married to the daughter of Doublehead which could stir up the Cherokee again to resistance. If any of the leaders were to have survived, bloodshed after bloodshed could have maybe occurred. With all Cherokee power now gone, the killing of innocent Cherokee must end. This hope to save the people must now obscure itself into time and history.
To give the false story to the settlers that Jacob died with the rest brought satisfaction from the settlers that the Cherokee resistance had completely ended. And this self assurance of conquering ALL the Cherokee leaders gave the Ky Cherokee the time they needed. This time allowed Jacob and his son William Troxell to safely travel to Alabama, set up a communication link, and survive.
The other children of Cornblossom in southeast Kentucky will inter-marry into early settlers and survive. The son of Hiram "Big Tooth" Gregory from Wayne County, whose name is also Hiram Gregory, a raving fire and brimstone mountain preacher, takes in marriage a woman by the name of Jane Stevenson. Jane Stevenson, a white woman, had also been married to War Chief Peter Troxell during the early 1800s. And this is also another reason that sparked the massacre, as Jane, before the massacre, had run off from the white settlers to join the Cherokee of Cornblossom, Jacob Troxell, and Peter. You see, Peter Troxell had 2 wife's, Jane Stevenson and Standing Fern. And this stuck in the crawl of all the white people who hated the Cherokee of south central Ky. Again, the real reason of the massacre was just because the Cherokee were there, and the children had to die, this feeling of a white woman, one of the settlers own, married to a Cherokee who had attacked them all the time was just fuel that fired the flame of hatred. Jane Stevenson, whether forcibly or willingly, after the massacre, will take the children of her husband War Chief Peter Troxell and Standing Fern into survival thru the marriage of the son of the one who killed her husband.
Seeing intermarriage with their own, the Indian hating populace feels secure that Doubleheads grandchildren assimilation into white society will bring no threat to the area anymore. The Indian haters did not know that Jacob, William, and some other Cherokee will escape their reach and later to return to the area in generations to come with a history to tell. Many of the early settlers believed now that the Cherokee, their culture, history, and ideas, were now being devastated, and over time would be completely destroyed. They did not count on the Cornblossom legacy to ever return with what happened to a great people: the Thunderbolts.
On a very cold day, in early spring of 1994, during the Moonbow Event of Cumberland Falls, with many attending, Danny Troxell, direct descendent of Cornblossom and her last born son William Troxell, broke the silence of the falls for the 1st time by making the 1st Cherokee oration at Ywahoo Falls since the massacre of 1810. For 184 years, since the massacre, no Cherokee descent had spoken at the falls. But on that day in 1994 a great tragedy chronicle of the Cherokee people was spoken by I, Dan Troxell. Today, (year 2001 - 191 years after the massacre) in southeast Kentucky and elsewhere, the descendants of Cornblossom and other Cherokee descendants are numerous.
William Troxell, last born of Cornblossom and Jacob Troxell, my direct descent line who was known as "Little Willie" or sometimes called "Little Loud Wolf", was 10 years old at the time of this great massacre. William was in the party with Cornblossom (his mother), Peter Troxell (his brother), and Red Bird (his very close relative).
Jacob Troxell did not ever recover from the massacre, he had been shot and scalped, his family and friends destroyed. His mind and thinking was gone, to never be recovered. So in memory, and the way it was, Jacob DID die at the massacre, never leaving his wife Cornblossom, his son and daughter n law, and the 100 Cherokee children and others. Even though his body was in Alabama, his mind was always at the Cherokee massacre, the people, and the lands he loved, THE CHEROKEE PEOPLE. Maybe someday a memorial will be erected to remember them all.
Thru the years from 1810 to now 2001 the Doubleheads Cave area has had looters attempt to steal the many things contained within its dark boundaries. Various agencies continue, as far as I have knowledge of, to try and protect these grounds and areas. However, from my experience looters and artifact hunters abound and nothing is sacred anymore. Even in the 1990s desecrators knowingly and unknowingly have desecrated even non-Indian cemeteries. Remember this historical account of a family, my family, for as the years go by, maybe not even a stone will be left to remember what happened in this area.
Hold dear this true historical account. For there is more than just the vast cave systems here that hold TIME UNTIME of a People. For in Chibalba the Gateway of the dead is also the Gateway of the Living.
All this area is the Land of the Thunderbolt, the Land of Lightning, the Land of the Hummingbird. And upon the ground is the image of the Hummingbird, same as in the images of the Nazca Plains in South America. For upon these images and more, contained the ARK OF THE CHEROKEE, forever and ever, the Flames of the Eternal Elder Fires Above.
Remember Us, for we have survived, more than some can bear. More than some can understand. Hold this saga unto your breast and take hold of a heart of a family. Do not let it fall upon the ground, for the Heavens and the Universe lays within these sacred grounds. And unto those who keep the fires of a people and my family, so unto you shall also be the Lighting of the Thunderbolts, a flame of the Heavens forever. Unto those who keep these words of TRUTH, shall also be unto them a blessing of my family and the heavens, forever.
Look up into the sky of the day, for all of nature and man have touched the brightness of a history of a family and a people. Look up into the stars at night and see the majesty of the universe and the heavens watching over the streams of a family and a people. Keep this historical Truth unto you and thus you shall hold close the heart of a family and a people. Today is a good day to live.
Look into the Fire of TIME UNTIME and touch the flames of eternity of what happened in 1810, what is among you now, and what shall be the future of all things. For even to read this, shall a blessing be to those who keep the flame of Truth, forever.
LET US NOT FORGET THEM
Remember Them With a Cherokee Tear
.... Danny Troxell
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
GOD IS LOVE, LOVE ONE ANOTHER
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
1 John 4:11
1 John 4:11
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