For more than a year now we have focused on the stories of Native American women who have done great deeds but have been ignored in history. So far we have related the stories of educators, doctors, nurses, writers, storytellers, scientists, mathematicians, and artists. This week we turn to female indigenous leaders.
Native American women took the lead in many areas – tribal leaders, politics, and activism. Nanye-hi, Amelia Cutsack Trice, Wilma Mankiller, and Betty Mae Tiger Jumper will always be remembered and honored among their tribes as courageous, wise leaders.
This week we honor a woman who saw many changes in her lifetime – Nanyehi lived through wars, relocations, and challenges for peace.
Nanye-hi (Nancy Ward) Cherokee. C.1738-1822
Nanyehi was born around 1738 in a mountaintop village named Chota in eastern Tennessee. She was born into one of the seven clans of the Cherokee, the Wolf clan. As with all of the Cherokee clans, the Wolf clan traced its lineage through the women. Unlike in the white world, children belonged to the mother’s clan. This arrangement shaped everything from land ownership to child-rearing to justice. Women had some political authority and a say in the laws.
The clan mothers sat on the council and chose when war could be waged. They had the say in how prisoners were treated – death, inclusion in the tribe, or clemency. They kept the history of the clan by passing the stories down to each generation.
For the women the privileges had responsibilities. They learned everything from planting, to building houses to the proper way to speak at council meetings.
By the time she was seventeen Nanyehi was married with two children, a son and a daughter. Her husband was a Cherokee warrior named Tsu-la or King Fisher, a member of the Deer clan. He would go to live with her clan as was Cherokee custom.
It was during the Battle of Taliwa against the Muscogee Confederacy, commonly called the Creek, that Nanyehi proved how courageous she was. She fought at Kingfisher’s side loading and reloading his rifle. She even chewed the bullets for him some say to make them flatter and easier to load. Others say it was to form striations in the bullets making them more lethal. When Kingfisher was shot at her side, she picked up his rifle and led the charge against the enemy. The enemy retreated; she had led the way to victory.
Her bravery earned her the title Ghigau or “Beloved Woman” of the Cherokee. It was the highest honor any Cherokee woman could obtain. It was not just symbolic. “The title came with power: a voice in the General Council, authority over prisoners of war, the right to declare clemency or vengeance. A Ghigau could enter negotiations. She could send emissaries. Her words carried the force of the Nation.”[1] The entire tribe would give Nanyehi honor and trust.
Nanyehi married again. She wed a South Carolina colonist who was an English trader of Irish descent named Bryant Ward. He was fluent in Cherokee and moved among Nanyehi’s tribe easily, though he would never truly belong to the clan. Nanyehi began to go by the name Nancy Ward. She gave birth to a second daughter – Elizabeth (Betsy) Ward. The marriage did not last. By 1760 Bryant Ward returned to South Carolina, but Nanyehi remained cordial and even visited him occasionally.
During this time some Virginia militia attacked Cherokee settlements, including Nanyehi’s town of Chota. They did not burn it down like they did to so many others. Many believe it was out of respect for the Beloved Woman. It was known by this time how much she had done to help white colonists. She not only sought to protect those whose settlements were threatened, but she often provided intelligence to American militia. Even Thomas Jefferson recognized her importance in her efforts for peace. For her efforts she was later named “Patriot for the Daughters of the American Revolution” and also the “Society of the Sons of the American revolution.”
Nanyehi continued to help her people during the tumultuous American War for Independence. During the war some Virginia militiamen had destroyed several Cherokee towns. They were looking to seize the land as well. Seeking to forestall the landgrab, she met with the European leaders and gave them this speech:
She explained, “we are your mothers[,] you are our sons.” She cleverly called upon ideas of gender that the colonizers, coming from a patriarchal society, would find familiar. Moreover, like many white women in revolutionary America, she used motherhood as a source of moral authority and as a unifying force. This was also a traditional Cherokee view. “Our cry is all for peace,” she said, “let it continue. This peace must last forever. Let your women’s sons be ours; our sons be yours. Let your women hear our words.”
A Virginia militia leader responded to Nanyehi: “Such words and thoughts show the world that human nature is the same everywhere . . . We will not quarrel with you, because you are our mothers.” The treaty negotiation ended without the Cherokees losing any land, despite a military loss. It was one of many cases when Nanyehi helped the colonists and the Cherokee explain themselves to one another. [2]
In 1776 while the War for Independence was raging, Nanyehi worked for peace. She had a cousin however, Dragging Canoe, who wanted to wage war to protect the Cherokee lands. Nanyehi risked his anger by warning the American colonists and trying to protect them. She gave them time to flee before their homes were burned down.
Dragging Canoe attacked the Fort Watauga settlement which was on Cherokee land. They captured settlers who had been living there illegally. Nanyehi rescued a Euro-American woman, Lydia Russell Bean who had been taken captive. Nanyehi used her power as Ghigau to spare her life. She took Lydia into her home and cared for her wounds. Lydia taught Nanyehi a new weaving technique that transformed the way the Cherokee made clothing. She also taught Nanyehi how to raise dairy cows, churn butter, and make cheese. These skills proved valuable when wild game was scarce.
The Cherokee and the white settlers continued to fight over land. Whenever the sale of lands became an issue, Nanyehi and the tribal woman leaders would raise objections. Nanyehi spoke as an ambassador for her people. Nanyehi often participated in negotiations between the two opposing parties. The white settlers were amazed that a woman attended the meetings and even more shocked that she was allowed to speak. This was unheard of for the European/American leaders. Though Nanyehi seemed to achieve peace, the white men made promises and then broke them. The Cherokee were forced to give up more and more of their land.
This map shows the extent of the loss of their land.[3] The Cherokee originally inhabited most of the state of Kentucky; the northern quarter of Alabama; the northern third of Georgia; the northwestern half of South Carolina; the western tips of North Carolina and Virginia; and the southwestern chunk of West Virginia (blue line).
After the Revolutionary War (red line) almost all of Kentucky was lost as well as lands in West Virginia and Virginia. Mostly some Georgia and Alabama and Tennessee remain. Within a few years they were only left with even less (green line).
Eventually in the 1830’s, the United States took away most of the Cherokee native land in exchange for land further west. They rounded them up and moved them forcibly west of the Mississippi. This was the time of the Trail of Tears.[4]
In the 1819 Hiwassee Purchase of their land Nanyehi was forced to leave Chota forever. She settled in the south near the Ocoee River in southeastern Tennessee. The wars were over and many treaties had been made and broken. The worst was yet to come, but Nanyehi did not live to see it.
By the Ocoee River Nanyehi established an inn. There she welcomed all travelers, white settlers, Cherokee families, soldiers, and traders. Now in her old age she observed all of the changes that were coming. Settlers continued to travel deeper and deeper into Cherokee land. The Cherokee began to adopt European clothing. She continued to keep her livestock and barter with nearby farms.
Travelers would remember her gentleness and hospitality. She enjoyed having conversations with them, especially young women and girls. She gave advice; she told stories. She was not untouched by grief. Several of her children died. Others moved far away. Mercifully she did not live to see the new Cherokee constitution put in place five years later excluding women from political participation.
Nanyehi passed away in 1822. She is buried in Benton, Tennessee. She will be remembered as Beloved Mother, a woman who advocated for peace and justice.
In 1923 the Nancy Ward chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a monument on her grave.
[1] Serrano, Clara W. NANYEHI: The True Story of Nancy Ward and the Women Who Held the Cherokee Nation Together – The Untold Biography of America’s Most Powerful Indigenous Leader (Independently published, 2025) p. 37.
[2] I recommend this article for more details: Nanyehi (Nancy Ward): A Beloved Woman of Chota
[3] For a more detailed account go to:
https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/206-going-going-gone-the-old-cherokee-country/
[4] For more information on this see my post on Nancy Glancy, November 5, 2024. https://authormarywalker.com/native-american-women-authors-diane-glancy/
