In addition to being a long hunter, Daniel Boone was a trailblazer. Many of the “roads” that the settlers used to cross from east to west were originally blazed by Daniel Boone.

These explorers and long hunters were tough, because they had to be able to live off the land and defend themselves in case they got into a fight with Native Americans along the way. They had to keep from getting lost. They generally slept out in the open, regardless of the temperature – that is, unless they were able to find a cave or a hollow tree to hide in. They were also loners. After all, can anyone today even imagine living alone for years at a time, with no TV, no radio, and no telephone?

Now remember that when white settlers first got here, there was no United States of America; they were still part of England. King George III of England had enough problems to deal with without a war against Native Americans. An Englishman named Henry Timberlake brought three Cherokee leaders to to meet with the king, and they had made a good impression on him. So in 1763, when the colonies were still part of England, King George ordered all white settlers to stay out of what was then known as “Indian country” -- everything west of the Appalachian Mountains. Only problem was, there wasn’t any way that he could enforce this law, and settlers came anyway.

It is important to remember that at first, these settlers had no legal right to be there. The ones who stayed kept peace with the Cherokee people by going to Chota -- the most important Cherokee village, located in what is now Monroe County -- and working out a deal: The white settlers gave them goods worth about a thousand dollars in exchange for permission to live on "all the country on the waters of the Watauga River" for ten years. They did this on their own, without the permission of the government of England and in complete defiance of King George's Proclamation of 1763.

Soon there were enough white settlers that they needed some kind of government, and in 1772 some of their leaders signed an agreement known as the Watauga Compact that allowed for some self-government and created a court to deal with lawbreakers.

Fort Loudoun

For example: In the 1750s, the Cherokee living in what is now southeast Tennessee were on such friendly terms with England that they allowed -- perhaps even encouraged -- the government to build a fort there. It was the southernmost English fort during the French and Indian War and was called Fort Loudoun; click here to take a virtual tour of what it looked like. But within a few years relations between the English and the Cherokee soured. Fort Loudoun was beseiged, and the British soldiers and their families in the fort were killed.

The danger of trading

Regardless of whether they were at war or at peace, the coming of white European settlers posed another challenge to the tribes. The settlers had many things that the tribes wanted -- like guns, metal tools, utensils, pots, pans, and cloth. The Native Americans were able to trade corn and animal skins to acquire such things. For example, a Cherokee could generally trade three deerskins for a hatchet and 20 deerskins for a pistol.

As the years passed, the Native Americans grew dependent on things that came from white traders. Some of them started wearing clothes made by machine, using tools made from metal and carrying guns. Younger members of the Cherokee tribe became less likely to take part in the Cherokee tradition of making everything by hand. And as the desire for more white-made goods spread, the number of deer being killed went way up, forcing Native American hunters to venture farther and farther away from home. Soon more fights ensued with other tribes over hunting ground.

The great journey

These settlers were land-hungry. In 1775 a man named Richard Henderson called a meeting of some of the Cherokee tribal leaders and offered to purchase from them an enormous piece of land (much of what is now Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky) for lots of free things.

Most of the Cherokee leaders agreed. After all, it wasn’t land on which they lived; only land on which they hunted, and they didn’t have any idea how big this settlement might grow. Among the Cherokee leaders who was in favor of the deal was Little Carpenter, one of the few Cherokee who had been to and seen how formidable the white world was.

However, one of the Cherokee men – Little Carpenter's son Dragging Canoe – didn’t like the idea. He made a big speech against the land sale. “The land is bloody ground and it would be dark and difficult to settle it,” he said. He then stormed away from the meeting along with many of his followers.

After the land buy, known as the Transylvania Purchase, Henderson sent a few people west to explore his territory. One of the first was Daniel Boone, who tried to start a settlement in what is now Kentucky. A couple of years later, Henderson sent about two hundred people – men, women and children – in two groups across the wilderness to settle a place on the Cumberland River that was then known as French Lick (it was called this because French traders had already been there many times).

Most of the men came first, under the leadership of James Robertson. They brought livestock with them, taking the route through the Cumberland Gap. When they got to French Lick they started building a fort and planting crops.

The women, children, and the rest of the men came by boat, led by James Donelson. (If you look at the map, you can see what a long boat ride this was, down the Watauga and Tennessee rivers, then upstream on the Ohio and Cumberland rivers.) Along the way they met up with war parties led by – guess who – Dragging Canoe. His followers by now were known as Chickamaugans, and they attacked the settlers many times as they came down the river. Thirty-three of the people who came on the boat ride died along the way. But eventually most of them made their way to French Lick, which by now had a fort there called Nashborough. 

Battle of the Bluffs

Today it is hard for us to imagine what French Lick looked like when the settlers got there. But somehow, working together, they improved the fort and built many cabins (using wood from many of the boats that they had just come on). They called their new home Fort Nashborough. 

Because of this, some Native Americans made attacks on the Fort Nashborough . The biggest attack was the so-called Battle of the Bluffs in April 1781. What happened is this: a small group of Native American warriors came up to the fort, fired a few shots, and ran. The men inside Fort Nashborough grabbed their guns and chased after them, not realizing that they were heading into a trap. After they left the fort, a much larger group of Native Americans attacked the fort, by this time defended by mostly women and children. One of the women had an idea; she set loose all the settlers’ dogs (which had been trained to attack Native Americans). The dogs attacked the warriors and in the confusion the battle was turned and the fort saved. So the first battle ever in Middle Tennessee was won by dogs!

This wasn’t the only time that things got ugly between white settlers and Native Americans in Middle Tennessee. Cherokee and Creek warriors conducted many ambushes on farms all over what is now Middle Tennessee. Along the way many settlers lost sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters in Indian raids.One person who lived at that time estimates that the early settlement lost a man, woman, or child to Indian attacks about every 10 days!

In 1788, 40 settlers were floating down the Tennessee River near the site of present-day Chattanooga . They were ambushed by Dragging Canoe’s Chickamaugans, and 37 of them were killed. That same year a family coming down river was attacked and slaughtered; the only members of the family who were spared were the mother, the daughters and one of the boys, whose name was Joseph Brown (more on his story here). Six years later another group of 33 immigrants was killed near Muscle Shoals.

 Also remember that the Cherokee fought on the side of the British in the American Revolution.

When the war was over, the settlers wanted revenge. In 1794, with the authorization of the government of North Carolina , about 1,500 armed settlers left Nashville and conducted a series of attacks on Cherokee villages that were located in what is now southeastern Tennessee . It was known as the Nickajack Expedition.

From that point on relations between white settlers and Cherokee people got better. The Cherokee realized that they couldn’t defeat the white settlers, and that the only way that they could survive was to try to adapt to the white culture.