Guide Note:

Dragging Canoe was a Cherokee chieftain who fought on behalf of the British in the Revolutionary War, leading raids against colonial forces in Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and southern Virginia.

Fast Facts:

1. Born: ca. 1738
2. Died: March 1, 1972
3. Survived smallpox epidemic
4. Brothers accompanied him to battles
5. Brother of powerful Cherokee female leader Nancy Ward
6. Led a group of warriors known as the Chickamauga

Born in what is today east Tennessee, Dragging Canoe was the son of the popular Cherokee diplomat and chief Attakullakulla. In his twenties, Dragging Canoe became a part of a band of dissident Native Americans from the Cherokee, Shawnee, Creek tribes that resisted white incursions onto Indian lands. During and after the Revolutionary War, Dragging Canoe and his warriors repeatedly raided white settlements in efforts to prevent further westward settlement, often destroying entire villages in the process. In 1792, Dragging Canoe died after dancing through the night in celebration, but his Chickamaugan movement survived in the southeastern United States until their defeat by forces led by a ruthless Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812.