On Feb. 27, a commemoration of the life of the great Cherokee war chief Dragging Canoe was held at the Global Education Center in Nashville.

This iconic Indian leader was pivotal in the early history of Nashville. He first came to light on the stage of American history at the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals in 1775, which he vehemently opposed. The purpose of this infamous treaty was to transfer 20 million acres of land, , including all of what is now the state of Kentucky and present-day Middle Tennessee, from the Cherokee Nation to white settlers. Dragging Canoe said they would find its settlement “dark and bloody.”

The so-called treaty was controversial in itself. The official Cherokee leadership subsequently repudiated it, contending that they thought permission was only being granted for grazing rights and that the trade goods allegedly given for the land purchase were payment for damages Cherokees had suffered at the hands of white marauders.

The long and bloody 18-year Cherokee war began in July 1776, with battles between the invading settlers and Cherokee forces led by Dragging Canoe. The war chief had said, in sadness and anger, that the colonists had “surrounded us, leaving only a little spot of ground to stand upon, and it seems to be their intention to destroy us as a Nation.”

Colonial armies, numbering in the thousands of soldiers, in late summer and early fall invaded Cherokee country with one objective in mind: “the utter extirpation of the Cherokee Nation.” They meant to exterminate the Cherokee people. The Cherokee Nation, rallied by the indomitable war chief, fought the invaders tooth and nail. Pitched battles and other engagements, large and small, raged throughout the land. Notwithstanding the incomparable valor of the Cherokee war companies, the country was ravaged and numerous towns and villages  were utterly destroyed.

Dragging Canoe, refusing to admit defeat, followed the maxim of “retreat and fight on.” He advocated abandoning the towns in upper east Tennessee and relocating to the region of present-day Chattanooga to continue the war against the Indian-hating, land-hungry white settlers. The Cherokee people followed his lead and the majority of the nation relocated and reestablished towns, giving them the same names of those they had left. This mass exodus of Cherokee people moved further down the Tennessee River.

From this location Dragging Canoe blockaded the entire Tennessee River westward from travel by settlers. He led Cherokee war companies against encroaching white settlements all over the Southeast, particularly settlers in upper east Tennessee, but also in Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia and North and South Carolina. He continued to conduct operations against the settlements in Middle Tennessee, which he kept in a virtual state of siege. In April 1781, Cherokee forces led by him nearly wiped out Fort Nashboro. He was everywhere and planned, directed and led warrior forces in saving the Cherokee people.

Some latter-day historians call Dragging Canoe "The Red Napoleon.” Many white settlers of the times, in terror, referred to him simply as "The Dragon.” He is now considered a military genius.

But his war was a war for peace, a war to stop settler encroachment on Cherokee land and the wanton destruction of innocent Indian lives. If the invasion had ceased and the colonists stayed within previously agreed-upon boundaries, there would have been no war. As historian Pat Alderman, who penned a biography of Dragging Canoe, so aptly put it, the conflict was the result of “the insatiable lust of the whites for the red man’s land.”

Dragging Canoe walked on from this world on or about March 1, 1792, and left a legacy that all Native Americans can revere with pride.

Albert Bender of Nashville is a Cherokee, activist, journalist and author of the recently published "Native American Wisdom." Email him at

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