Principal Chief James Billy Chance

     The history of the Chickamauga Cherokee started long before Dragging Canoe jump to his feet at a meeting his father Chief Atakullakulla had called in the year 1775. The Chickamauga at that time were made up only of the Cherokee, and had always carried the fight to protect the Cherokee Nation and their territories, but from meeting as far back as 1756 there had been talk of moving in the ways of the white man. The Cherokee Chickamauga, later were joined by the Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Shawnee to become the Chickamauga.   Even Dragging Canoe as a 12 year old boy knew that it was his duty to fight for and defend the lands of the Cherokee. It was the Law of the Cherokee that no one could sell, trade, or give away the lands of the Cherokee, if you did, you would be put to death. Dragging Canoe wished to be a warrior, so he pulled a fully loaded war canoe into the water because his father told him that it was the only way he could be a warrior, so he did just that, he pulled it into the water fully loaded, in front of all the warriors, so his father had no chose in the matter but keep his word.

Dragging Canoe listened to his father’s talk of what he had seen in the lands across the great waters when he was taken to England. The White king father told him they would have to pay their own way back to the New World if they wished to go home. He talked about all the people, that they were more than the stars in the heaven, of all the villages with so many lodges more than the eyes could count.
            Young Dragging Canoe from before he was ever 12 years old listened to what his father had to say, he knew that one day, we had hoped the white men would not be willing to travel beyond the mountains. Now that hope was gone. They had passed the mountains, and had settled upon the Cherokee lands. They wished to have that usurpation sanctioned by treaty. When that is gained, the same encroaching spirit will lead them upon other land of the Cherokees. New cessions will be asked. Finally the whole country, which the Cherokee and their father’s have so long occupied, will be demanded, and the remnant of the Ani-Yunwiya, “The Real People”, once so great and formidable, will be compelled to seek refuge in some distant wilderness. There they will be permitted to stay only a short while, until they again behold the advancing banners of the same greedy host. Not being able to point out any farther retreat for the miserable Cherokee, the extinction of the whole race will be proclaimed. Should we not therefore run all risks, and incur all consequences, rather than submit to further laceration of our country? Such treaties may be all right for men who are too old to hunt or fight. As for me, I have my young warriors about me. We will have our lands.

If Dragging Canoe had not died in 1792, fighting for what he believed in, and for what the Cherokee had always believed in up to that time, and if he was still here today, he would say , “these treaty's the white man has asked us to sign and agree to, they will do away with”, and they did in the late 1880's, which they called the end of the Treaty period , He would tell you the time would come when they will kill our people for because they are doing our Ceremony, and they did, (Wounded Knee). Then they passed laws to stop our ceremonies until the 1930's, before we were allowed to do them again. He would tell you hundreds of reasons and they would all be true. He would tell you that our own people who chose to follow the white man’s way, would wage their war of words to finish what was once so great and formidable of a people, that there will be no place for the remnant of the Ani-Yunwiya, (The Real People).

At that time the white man will have won, there will be no more Ani-Yunwiya. This is what Dragging Canoe would have to tell you if he was still here. A People whose job it was to fight for and to defend this land for thousands of years will be no more. Why, because of the one's in Oklahoma, the White Man got to them, and they sold all of us out. The warning he gave us was not enough, we never knew depredation, the laying waste and plundering, or deprecate the express disapproval and belittling of people and plain discrimination against a race of people to a point they wished them removed from the face of Mother Earth, they are getting close to winning this war, that has changed into a war of words, which they have always been the master of. They live by words that they can break; we live by our hearts and are easily fooled. But this war has been going on for a very long time from the early 1700’s. They changed the name to the Creek War, and then the Seminole War, but no matter how you wish to try to re-spell it or say it, it was and still is and will always be the Chickamauga War. Dragging Canoe told you it was going to happen this way and it did, the writing is on the winds of time. Only by changing the way people think, will we have any chance to turn this around.

 WADO,

 Principal Chief James Billy Chance

The Chickamauga Cherokee Indian Creek Tribe is a 501.3C not for profit organization; we are currently active in the federal recognition process (#278). We are the Wolf Teaching Council for the Chickamauga Cherokee Indian Creek Tribe; Our Principal Chief is Little Red Wolf Chance and our home office is in Deltona Florida.

Federal Recognition for Chickamauga Cherokee, Indian Creek Tribe

BLOOD DRIVE

COME JOIN US IN OUR BLOOD DRIVE:

On August 18th and 19th, beginning at 9:30am, we are asking for 1,000,000 people to meet with us at the Lincoln Memorial / Reflecting Pool Area in Washington DC as we bring to the attention of the United States the plight of all Mixed Bloods and Cherokee Freedmen who have been denied their rights as a Cherokee People by the discrimination perpetuated by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma who are denying our very existence. They deny us the right to even say that we are Cherokee, they deny us the right to sell our crafts as Cherokee Made and we are denied our Freedom of Religion to worship our Creator as we deem necessary to our spirituality. Throughout this date we will have speakers, Native American dancers, drumming and flute playing as we seek an audience with the President of these United States of America. This event will start with the blessing of the grounds promptly at 9:30am. Because of the increasing support we will now be meeting for two (2) days for this event, There will be Native American guest speakers and Native American performers.
   We are asking each and everyone who will join with us on this August 18th at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, to sign this showing your intention to be there to take a stand for not only your rights, but the rights of your children and grandchildren that will follow you. Surely the ancestors will smile on this day as we take back our rights as Cherokee.

Peaceful Eagle
Event Specialist
peacefuleagle@embarqmail.com