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Show HOOKEY] END OF CHEROKEE WAR- 1794 79 in Running Water town, four miles above, heard the firing and came at once to the assistance of their friends, but were driven back after attempting to hold their ground, and the second town shared the fate of the first. More than fifty Indians had been killed, a number were prisoners, both towns and all their contents had been destroyed, with a loss to the assailants of only three men wounded. The Breath, the chief of Running Water, was among those killed. Two fresh scalps with a large quantity of plunder from the settlements were found in the towns, together with a supply of ammunition said to have been furnished by the Spaniards. 1 Soon after the return of the expedition Robertson sent a message to John Watts, the principal leader of the hostile Cherokee, threatening a second visitation if the Indians did not very soon surrender their prisoners and give assurances of peace. 8 The destruction of their towns on Tennessee and Coosa and the utter defeat of the northern confederates had now broken the courage of the Cherokee, and on their own request Governor Blount held a conference with them at Tellico blockhouse, November 7 and 8, 1794, at which Hanging- maw, head chief of the Nation, and Colonel John Watt, principal chief of the hostile towns, with about four hundred of their warriors, attended. The result was satisfactory; all differences were arranged on a friendly basis and the long Cherokee war came to an end. 8 Owing to the continued devastation of their towns during the Revolutionary struggle, a number of Cherokee, principally of the Chicka-mauga band, had removed across the Ohio about 1782 and settled on Paint creek, a branch of the Scioto river, in the vicinity of their friends and allies, the Shawano. In 1787 they were reported to number about seventy warriors. They took an active part in the hostilities along the Ohio frontier and were present in the great battle at the Mauinee rapids, by which the power of the confederated northern tribes was effectually broken. As they had failed to attend the treaty conference held at Greenville in August, 1795, General Wayne sent them a special message, through their chief Long- hair, that if they refused to come in and make terms as the others had done they would be considered outside the protection of the government. Upon this a part of them came in and promised that as soon as they could gather their crops the whole band would leave Ohio forever and return to their people in the south. 4 1 Haywood, Political and Civil History of Tennessee, pp. 392- 396, 1823; Ramsey, Tennessee ( with Major Ore' 8 report), pp. 606- 618,1853; Royce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau Ethnology, p. 171, 1888; Ore, Robertson, and Blount, reports, American State Papers: Indian Affairs; I, pp. 632- 634,1832. * Ramsey, op. cit., p. 618. " Tellico conference, November 7- 8,1794, American State Papers: Indian Affairs, i, pp. 536- 538,1832, Royce, op. cit., p. 173; Ramsey, op. cit, p. 596. • Beaver's talk, 1784, Virginia State Papers, m, p. 571,1883; McDowell, report, 1786, ibid., iv, p. 118, 1884; McDowell, report, 1787, ibid., p. 286; Todd, letter, 1787, ibid., p. 277; Tellico conference, November 7,1794, American State Papers: Indian Affairs, i, p. 538,1832; Greenville treaty conference, August, 1795, ibid., pp. 582- 583. |