Names
Early in his life, he was first known as Onkanacleah. According to anthropologist James Mooney, Attakullakulla's Cherokee name could be translated as "leaning wood", from ''ada'' meaning "wood", and ''gulkalu'', a verb that implies something long, leaning against some other object. His name "Little Carpenter" was related both to the English meaning of his Cherokee name and a reference to his physical stature. Naturalist William Bartram described the chief as "a man of remarkable small stature, slender, and delicate frame." "...his ears were cut and banded with silver, hanging nearly down to his shoulders. He was mild-mannered, brilliant, and witty..." Contemporary Felix Walker also described Attakullakulla by the following: just “as a white carpenter could make every notch and joint fit in wood, so he could bring all his views to fill and fit their places in the political machinery of his nation”.Izumi Ishii, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' He was known to excel at building houses.Early life
Attakullakulla is believed to have been born in the territory of the Overhill Cherokee, in what is now East Tennessee, sometime in the early 1700s, although it is not known exactly when.Gerald Schroedl,Cherokee warrior
In the 1750s, Attakullakulla worked to provide a steady supply of trade goods for his people. When the French and Indian War began in North America, Cherokee warriors traveled to the Pennsylvania frontier to serve in British military campaigns against French and their Native American allies' strongholds. Virginia frontiersmen killed some Cherokee on their way home after these campaigns. Attakullakulla journeyed to Pennsylvania, to Williamsburg, and then to Charles Town, securing the promise of British trade goods as compensation for participation in fighting. But this was not enough to satisfy young Cherokee who wished to honor their cultural obligation of "blood revenge" and sought social status. Throughout 1758 and 1759, Cherokee warriors launched retributive raids on the southern colonial frontier. Hoping that matters might be forgiven, Attakullakulla led a Cherokee war party against the French Fort Massiac, and tried to negotiate peace with the British. These efforts proved unsuccessful. In late 1759, some Cherokee leaders went to Charleston to try to negotiate withDiplomatic contributions
In the 1750–1760s, Attakullakulla dominated Cherokee diplomacy. Although he usually favored the British, he was a skilled diplomat, always looking for a peaceful resolution to problems but looking out for the best interests of the Cherokee. After Connecorte died, Attakullakulla, the diplomat and peace chief, and Oconostota, the war chief, shared power at Chota; they led the Cherokee for a generation.James C. Kelly, ''American Nation Biography'' In the Treaty of Broad River (1756), Attakullakulla agreed to a Cherokee land cession to the English, in exchange for their promise to build forts in Cherokee territory to protect their women and children while the men were fighting with the British in the French and Indian War. He honored treaty promises to the English but was opposed by fellow Cherokee for doing so. He also played the colonies of South Carolina and Virginia against each other in order to secure fair trading practices for his people. The Treaty of Peace and Friendship, signed by William Henry Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton, Governor of South Carolina, and Attakullakulla, stated that there would “be firm peace and friendship between all His Majesty's subjects of this province and the nation of Indians called the Cherokees, and then said Cherokees shall preserve peace with all his majesty's subjects whatsoever”. On June 2, 1760, he left the fort and was expelled from the Cherokee Council. He moved into the woods, finding it impolitic to be among either the ones who lost or the victors of the 1760 Cherokee War. In June 1761 a British expedition dispatched by General Jeffery Amherst and commanded by Colonel James Grant destroyed several Cherokee Lower and Middle towns in the Carolinas. The Cherokee recalled Attakullakulla to the council to negotiate peace with the British. Attakulla also influenced the selection of John Stuart as Superintendent of Southern Indian Affairs. In 1772 Attakullakulla leased lands to the Watauga Association, an organization formed by Anglo-American settlers who wanted to create an independent community in what is now the upper eastern corner of Tennessee. In 1775 he favored the so-called Transylvania Purchase, by which North Carolina colonel Richard Henderson bought twenty million acres in present-day Kentucky and Middle Tennessee from the Cherokee. In May 1775, Attakullakulla, Oconostota and other elderly chiefs relinquished the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation (now roughly the states of Kentucky and Tennessee) for £10,000.Family and death
Connecotre (Old Hop), the headman of the Cherokee during the 1750s, was his maternal uncle. Attakullakulla's son Dragging Canoe led a resistance to the United States in the 1780s. His niece, Nancy Ward, was a ‘beloved woman’, who had the power to free war captives. During the Revolutionary War, Attakullakulla was one of a party of elder Cherokee leaders who ceded lands to Virginia, contrary to the wishes of younger warriors. Attakullakulla's son, Dragging Canoe, the Chickamauga Cherokee leader during the Cherokee-American wars, split with his father during this time. After the Cherokee massacred much of the garrison from Fort Loudon, Attakullkulla realized that Capt. John Stuart, Superintendent of Indian Affairs under the colonial government, had escaped death. In order to save Stuart, Attakullakulla purchased him from the Cherokee who had taken him. Attakullakulla gave his rifle, clothes and all he could command to purchase Stuart. After this act, by Cherokee custom, Stuart was to be considered his eldest brother. Their lifelong friendship proved to be profitable to the English. The life of Capt. Stuart being again menaced, for refusing to aid in the mediated reduction of Fort George, Attakullkulla resolved to rescue his friend or die trying. He told his fellow Cherokee that he intended to go hunting and take his prisoner with him to eat venison. The distance to the frontier settlements was great. The expedition was necessary to prevent being overtaken by those in pursuit of the Cherokee. Nine days and nights they traveled through the wilderness until they fell in with a party of rangers sent out for protection of the frontier, who conducted them in safety to the settlements. Attakullakulla had a daughter named Rebecca "Nikiti" Carpenter with his first wife Nionne Ollie and another known as "Weena" with one of the survivors of the Loudon battle. Attakullakulla is believed to have died between 1777 and 1780 in North Carolina, in territory that would later become Tennessee.Kelly, "Attakullakulla", p. 27. He was succeeded as First Beloved Man of Chota by Oconostota.Notes
References
Sources
* * * * *Calloway, Colin G. ''The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities.'' Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995.External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Attakullakulla 1700s births 1770s deaths Year of birth uncertain Year of death uncertain 18th-century Cherokee people 18th-century Native American leaders People from Chota (Cherokee town) Native American people from North Carolina