Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

554 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
were called "men of fire," in recognition of the divine unction received
by them from the Great Spirit. These Indians at the beginning of the
Revolution occupied an area of country embracing 40,000 square miles.
It constituted a great forest empire, extending from the Blue Ridge
on the east to the Cumberland range on the west, and from the Ohio
on the north to the Georgia and Alabama midlands on the south. Most
of the Cherokee towns, however, at this early time were in the rich
valley lands of what is now East Tennessee.
Both the Creeks and the Cherokees sided with the British in the
struggle for American independence. Consequently, as a result of this
struggle, each was forced to relinquish an extended area to the whites.
This drove a large number of Cherokees back into the Tennessee val
leys; but some of the more warlike members of the tribe established a
group of villages, five in number, under the protecting shadow of Look
out Mountain, just south of the Georgia line; and these became known
in after years as the Chickamauga Towns. Gen. Elijah Clarke led
an expedition against these towns soon afterwards, and as a ruse for
getting rid of him they promised great concessions. The wily fron
tiersman obtained from them a signed agreement which he called a
treaty, but its informal character was such that he could not legally
enforce its provisions, having failed to have it validated by the proper
authorities.
In 1785, under the Treaty of Hopewell, the Cherokees agreed to
recognize certain boundary lines, but there was no cession of land
within the borders of Georgia. On Holston River in 1791 and at
Philadelphia in 1793 the Treaty of Hopewell was confirmed. The
Chickamauga Towns continued to give some trouble, but after 1795
few of the Cherokees were seriously inclined to war. Those who pre
ferred a savage life in the wilderness moved further to the West, but
the bulk of the tribe chose rather to emulate the whites. For twenty
years there was no disturbance of the Cherokees. This was due largely
to the fact that the rich lands of the Creeks in Middle Georgia were
better adapted to agriculture and were less remote from the white
settlements. Consequently, these Creek lands were the first coveted.
At one time most of Cherokee Georgia was occupied by Creek
Indians, a fact memorialized in a host of names which are manifestly
of Creek origin; but, to quote an old tradition, the Creeks, having
wagered a large strip of land on the issue of a game of ball, lost this
strip as a result of the contest. Just when the boundary line between
the two tribes was altered is not a matter of authentic record, but the
strip in question is supposed to have included the present areas of Cobb,
Paulding and Polk counties.
When Jefferson was President he suggested an Indian removal, and
in 1809 a delegation of Cherokees visited the western lands, at the
instance of the Federal Indian agent, Return J. Meigs. There was
quite a strong sentiment in favor of migration at this time, but for some
reason action was postponed. On July 8, 1817^ the Federal authorities
secured a tract of land within the limits of Georgia and induced a
number, of the Cherokees voluntarily to remove, giving them acre for
acre, in exchange of lands. Subsequently, in 1819, an additional strip
was acquired; but most of the soil vacated by the Cherokees lay in