Turtle-at-Home, or Selukuki Wohelengh, was a

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...

warrior and leader, brother and chief lieutenant of

Dragging Canoe Dragging Canoe (ᏥᏳ ᎦᏅᏏᏂ, pronounced ''Tsiyu Gansini'', "he is dragging his canoe") (c. 1738 – February 29, 1792) was a Cherokee war chief who led a band of Cherokee warriors who resisted colonists and United States settlers in the ...

, a war-chief in the

Cherokee–American wars The Cherokee–American wars, also known as the Chickamauga Wars, were a series of raids, campaigns, ambushes, minor skirmishes, and several full-scale frontier battles in the Old Southwest from 1776 to 1794 between the Cherokee and American se ...

Early battles

In the beginning and the later years, he led

Chickamauga Cherokee The Chickamauga Cherokee refers to a group that separated from the greater body of the Cherokee during the American Revolutionary War. The majority of the Cherokee people wished to make peace with the Americans near the end of 1776, following se ...

war parties against the

overmountain settlements The Overmountain Men were American frontiersmen from west of the Blue Ridge Mountains which are the leading edge of the Appalachian Mountains, who took part in the American Revolutionary War. While they were present at multiple engagements in ...

on the Holston, Nolichucky, Watauga, and

Doe River The Doe River is a tributary of the Watauga River in northeast Tennessee in the United States. The river forms in Carter County near the North Carolina line, just south of Roan Mountain State Park, and flows to Elizabethton. Hydrography The ...

s in modern

East Tennessee East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 coun ...

; and against the

Cumberland River The Cumberland River is a major waterway of the Southern United States. The U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 8, 2011 river drains almost of southern Kentucky and ...

settlements near

Fort Nashborough Fort Nashborough, also known as Fort Bluff, Bluff Station, French Lick Fort, Cumberland River Fort and other names, was the stockade established in early 1779 in the French Lick area of the Cumberland River valley, as a forerunner to the settle ...

in modern

Middle Tennessee Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of the U.S. state of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the ...

Later battles

After the second destruction of the Chickamauga Towns in 1782, instead of moving to the Five Lower Towns with his brother and the rest of the Chickamauga/Lower Cherokee, he and his band of about seventy warriors headed north into the " Kentucke territory," to fight alongside their

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

allies.

Northwest Indian War

Turtle-at-Home and his band remained in the north until after the 1791 Battle of the Wabash (during the

Northwest Indian War The Northwest Indian War (1786–1795), also known by other names, was an armed conflict for control of the Northwest Territory fought between the United States and a united group of Native American nations known today as the Northwester ...

), in which he and his warriors—along with two parties brought north separately by his brothers, "Little Owl" and "The Badger"—participated. In that battle, the combined forces of the Shawnee leader,

Blue Jacket Blue Jacket, or Weyapiersenwah (c. 1743 – 1810), was a war chief of the Shawnee people, known for his militant defense of Shawnee lands in the Ohio Country. Perhaps the preeminent American Indian leader in the Northwest Indian War, i ...

, and the

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...

leader,

Little Turtle Little Turtle ( mia, Mihšihkinaahkwa) (1747 July 14, 1812) was a Sagamore (chief) of the Miami people, who became one of the most famous Native American military leaders. Historian Wiley Sword calls him "perhaps the most capable Indian leade ...

, delivered the single worst defeat ever inflicted upon the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

military by American Indians. Note: The American losses far surpassed the more renowned

Battle of the Little Bighorn The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, No ...

(1876). Only 48 of

Arthur St. Clair Arthur St. Clair ( – August 31, 1818) was a Scottish-American soldier and politician. Born in Thurso, Scotland, he served in the British Army during the French and Indian War before settling in Pennsylvania, where he held local office. During ...

's 1000 troops escaping harm, 623 of those 1000 killed outright. After that battle, Turtle-at-Home returned south with his two brothers; although his men stayed behind. In 1792, he and "The Glass" had just returned from a successful raid on the Cumberland River settlements and Kentucky when his older brother returned from his embassies to the other Southeastern tribes, successful with the Choctaw and Lower Muscogee (the Upper Muscogee had been allies for years); though unsuccessful with the

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classifi ...

. After an all-night celebration at Lookout Mountain Town (now

Trenton, Georgia Trenton is a city and the only incorporated municipality in Dade County, Georgia, United States—and as such, it serves as the county seat. The population was 2,195 at the 2020 census. Trenton is part of the Chattanooga, Tennessee–GA Metropo ...

), Dragging Canoe died. John Watts succeeded him.

Peacetime

When the wars ended, Turtle-at-Home rose to become one of the central leaders of the Lower Cherokee and of

The nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's ''The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

as a whole. He was always on the council of the Lower Towns and succeeded as Speaker of the National Council upon the death of

Doublehead Doublehead (1744–1807) or Incalatanga (''Tal-tsu'tsa'', ᏔᎵᏧᏍᎦ in Cherokee), was one of the most feared warriors of the Cherokee during the Cherokee–American wars. Following the peace treaty at the Tellico Blockhouse in 1794, he serv ...

. Residing at Nickajack, he operated a ferry across the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names ...

that served travelers on the branch of the Federal Road that ran from

Augusta, Georgia Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Georg ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...

. He was also headman of Nickajack, which after the wars almost totally eclipsed its neighbor, Running Water, becoming so large it straddled the river. Politically, he was part of the dominant group in the Lower Towns which favored emigration west across the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it ...

, a position for which at one point he was expelled from the national council along with several other Lower Cherokee leaders. When John Norton, the

Mohawk Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans *Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people *Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been t ...

leader of Cherokee-Scottish ancestry, traveled south and stayed in the area during his travels after the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It ...

, Turtle-at-Home served as his main informant for the history of the area.

Sources

*Brown, John P. ''Old Frontiers: The Story of the Cherokee Indians from Earliest Times to the Date of Their Removal to the West, 1838''. (Kingsport: Southern Publishers, 1938). *Evans, E. Raymond. "Notable Persons in Cherokee History: Dragging Canoe". ''Journal of Cherokee Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2'', pp. 176–189. (Cherokee: Museum of the Cherokee Indian, 1977). *Haywood, W.H. ''The Civil and Political History of the State of Tennessee from its Earliest Settlement up to the Year 1796''. (Nashville: Methodist Episcopal Publishing House, 1891). *Klink, Karl, and James Talman, ed. ''The Journal of Major John Norton''. (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1970). * McLoughlin, William G. ''Cherokee Renascence in the New Republic''. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992). *Moore, John Trotwood and Austin P. Foster. ''Tennessee, The Volunteer State, 1769-1923, Vol. 1''. (Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1923). * Ramsey, James Gettys McGready. ''The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century''. (Chattanooga: Judge David Campbell, 1926).

References

External links

''The journal of Major John Norton''
{{Cherokee 18th-century Native Americans 19th-century Native Americans Cherokee Nation politicians (1794–1907) 18th-century Cherokee people Native American people of the Indian Wars People of pre-statehood Tennessee Native American people from Tennessee