<P> In 1771--1772, North Carolinian settlers squatted on Cherokee lands in Tennessee, forming the Watauga Association . Daniel Boone and his party tried to settle in Kentucky, but the Shawnee, Delaware, Mingo, and some Cherokee attacked a scouting and forage party that included Boone's son . The American Indians used this territory as a hunting ground by right of conquest; it had hardly been inhabited for years . The conflict in Kentucky sparked the beginning of what was known as Dunmore's War (1773--1774). </P> <P> In 1776, allied with the Shawnee led by Cornstalk, Cherokee attacked settlers in South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina in the Second Cherokee War . Overhill Cherokee Nancy Ward, Dragging Canoe's cousin, warned settlers of impending attacks . Provincial militias retaliated, destroying more than 50 Cherokee towns . North Carolina militia in 1776 and 1780 invaded and destroyed the Overhill towns . In 1777, surviving Cherokee town leaders signed treaties with the new states . </P> <P> Dragging Canoe and his band settled along Chickamauga Creek near present - day Chattanooga, Tennessee, where they established 11 new towns . Chickamauga Town was his headquarters and the colonists tended to call his entire band the Chickamauga to distinguish them from other Cherokee . From here he fought a guerrilla war against settlers, which lasted from 1776 to 1794 . These are known informally as the Cherokee--American wars, but this is not an historians' term . The first Treaty of Tellico Blockhouse, signed November 7, 1794, finally brought peace between the Cherokee and Americans, who had achieved independence from the British Crown . In 1805, the Cherokee ceded their lands between the Cumberland and Duck rivers (i.e. the Cumberland Plateau) to Tennessee . </P> <P> The traders and British government agents dealing with the southern tribes in general, and the Cherokee in particular, were nearly all of Scottish ancestry, with many documented as being from the Highlands . A few were Scots - Irish, English, French, and German (see Scottish Indian trade). Many of these men married women from their host peoples and remained after the fighting had ended . Some had mixed - race children who would later become significant leaders among the Five Civilized Tribes of the Southeast . </P>

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