We Are All Connected

By Wanda Newman

A Christian, historical novel about a Cherokee Indian girl ( Bluewater) and (Jeremiah) an Irish trapper, that fall in love. Circa, Revolutionary War time and Cherokee treaties with the Americans. Jeremiah goes back to Ireland to take his wealth from the fur trade to help his poor family. And do what is right for those he left behind. His heart is always with Bluewater and her heart is breaking. Will he return to her?

• Language: English
• Publisher: CrossLink Publishing
• Release date: Dec 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393193661

Book preview

Introduction

In 1617, the Europeans began their invasion of North America. The Cherokees were an agricultural people whose villages could be found throughout the American Southeast in present day Tennessee, North and South Carolina., Georgia, Alabama, Virginia and Kentucky covering 40,000 squa re miles.

Of all the eastern tribes the Cherokees were considered to be the most peaceful. They welcomed the white man into their villages and gave them food and shelter if they came in peace. But, they were highly trained in warfare to be able to defend their towns and families. There was savagery on all sides but most of the whites thought only the Indians to be the savages.

The Cherokees fought often with the Creeks and then the white man for their land, homes and families. When war threatened, the War Chief and his organization took charge of the government and all warriors were called to the national headquarters. A war flag was raised, the war song sung, and the war dance performed. One war chief promised in his speech that he would not stain his hands with the blood of infants, women, old men, or anyone unable to defend himself. More honorable than many white men that were stealing their land and killing entire villages of Indians.

* * * * *

In the 1700’s there were about sixty Cherokee towns and villages near or in (Chaconage, land of the blue smoke) the Great Smoky’s. Great Tellico, reported to have the fiercest warriors, was one of the Overhill Cherokee towns built on the western slopes of the Appalachian Mountains primarily in the Little Tennessee River, Tellico and Hiwassee river valleys. It was close to the end of the Great Indian War Path and the Overhill trading path or Unicoi trading path that was used by the Creeks and Cherokee later called the Unicoi Turnpike. It linked the Overhill towns to the Middle and Lower Cherokee towns in Georgia and the Carolina’s.

In 1730, Seven Cherokee Chiefs were taken to London by Cumming, a Scottish Baronet, and wined and dined. For twenty years after their return these seven Cherokee Chiefs told stories of British power and majesty which helped to maintain cordial relationships between the Cherokee and the British.

After the old chief (Moytoy of Great Tellico died, his son inherited the title of Emperor. But Cherokee central authority soon moved toward Old Hop, another white or peace chief who presided over the Cherokee empire from his town of Chota that was located about five miles upriver from Great Tellico on the Little Tennessee River. Old Hop was the first beloved man of the Cherokee.

The Cherokees learned and adapted to many customs and dress of their white friends. And the settlers learned hunting skills and trails for trading among many other things from them. They exchanged seeds for planting and new ways to cook different things and which plants to use for medicine. Some of the Cherokee men desired white women so their children would have lighter skin and be accepted into white society. White men liked the pretty Indian women especially the young ones. They worked hard and were unspoiled.

* * * * *

In 1776 a group of American colonists signed the Declaration of Independence which condemned King George III for preventing the colonists from appropriating western lands which belonged to Indian nations. The Revolutionary War divided the Indian nations as both the British and the newly formed United States tried to obtain Indian allies. As a result of the war, the Cherokee nation’s government had to change many times to meet the incessant demands of the newly formed United States.

* * * * *

Colonel Christian and the Virginian militia destroyed the Great Tellico in 1776. By the end of the Revolution Cherokee land had shrunk in half.

More than 50 towns were destroyed in the summer of 1776 and the survivors were left without food and shelter. The treaties signed after the Cherokee Campaign of 1776 marked the first of the forced land cessions.

The Cherokees had helped the British fight the war against the settlers moving into their homelands. Colonel Christian with his army of Virginians were sent to burn the towns of Great Tellico, Citico, Mialoquo, Chilhowee and Toqua.

Many of the Cherokees escaped into the Smoky’s, the Great Iron, where the blue smoke gathers and the forest is thick with wildlife of all kinds and beautiful trees, rivers and waterfalls.

Some of them moved high into the mountains. It was much colder here in winter, in this higher elevation but safer from the colonists burning and killing and taking scalps for trophies as bounty hunters did for money.

The Cherokees called themselves the Aniyunwiya (the first people or the principal people).

CHAPTER 1 (1778)

The ancient woman sat by the fire while the deer meat roasted over the pit, remembering her town Great Tellico that they had fled from just a few years before.

She looked out over the layers of peaks and valleys of the Great Smoky’s that was almost a mirror image of her wrinkled, face and a single tear zigzagged it’s way down the parched lines before her gnarled hand stopped it. Almost in a trance she saw the white men pushing them out of their homeland until all but a remnant of them would be sent towards the sun where it hid from them while they were sleeping.

The woman’s granddaughter, Bluewater came and sat beside her and put a buffalo robe around her grandmother’s thin shoulders. Why are you so sad Elisi (grandmother in Cherokee).

"Some of you will move again to the place over the mountains where the Great King said the settlers could not move. Attakullakulla told us the Great King had told the settlers that they could not settle beyond the Appalachian ridge.

One day all the Aniyunwiya will be forced to go to a place where the land is dry except for the many tears that they will shed. Our people will be scattered like the wind. Bluewater was sure Elisi was seeing it as it happened as she described it in great detail. There will only be a remnant of us left here. This will be remembered until the end of days.

Why do the white men want our land when there is enough land for everyone? Bluewater asked.

"Many people keep coming across the great water and want the best land for growing their crops. And our clay for making their pottery. And the men want our pretty young women.

They are like a horde of grasshoppers that just keep coming and gobbling up everything that is sacred to us."

Far below Bluewater saw one of the last buffalos in the southeast in the valley far below. She pointed it out to Elisi and she nodded but her grandmother’s eyes had dimmed and she knew Elisi could not see it. She watched as the smoke from the fire rose and mingled in with the low clouds that were always there until the sun was overhead.

Then Bluewater remembered, Dalonigi, says that they want the yellow pebbles that we find in the river and the yellow rocks some of our people have seen in the caves. And, that we should keep them hidden because some white men trade for them and others just kill you for them. Her heart always beat a little faster when she thought of Dalongi, a trapper, that came from Ireland. He was the big, handsome man with the yellow hair, that spoke their language and a very strange language too.

She had kept the pebbles hidden under her blankets when they still lived in their homes and only took them out when the sun was high overhead and shone down through the opening in the roof of their home in Great Tellico. They were so pretty and sparkled like the stars, she thought.

Bluewater felt Elisi’s sadness and hoped her grandmother didn’t live to see what she was describing, come to pass. Maybe it was one of her grandmother’s daydreams. What else did an old person have to do but daydream and remember the old ways. Bluewater sat by her grandmother and listened out of great respect for her even though she had heard it all, many times before.

Elisi babbled on. I was just a young girl when our people were driven from the upper Ohio river region by the Lenni Lenape. We believed we were the last Native people in the north. We fled south where the winters were not so cold, eventually settling down by the bank of the river with the rich soil for growing our vegetables and fruit trees.

We all worked side by side in the fields and then I got too old and I could only work in our family’s garden next to our home. Bluewater nodded as she remembered when Elisi had to stop working even in the garden and sat and wove baskets.

We had warm homes during the cold winter and cool homes during the summer. We had all worked hard to build our town and have a good life.

Bluewater thought of their homes made with wood and clay with the opening in the tall centers for the smoke from their fire to escape. And the beautiful flowing river close by.

The men in Great Tellico always provided plenty of meat for all of us, Elisi went on.

My husband, Grey Wolf was scalped by some colonists while hunting in the Tsiyahi, (Cates or Cades cove) place of the river otter. He would be gone for many days in the warm time, hunting for elk and bison.

Now, two of my sons have been killed in battle defending our town." Bluewater shook her head again remembering her father, Deer Hunter, that was part of the red government, in their village being killed and remembering hearing about her grandfather many times.

Elisi traveled back through her memories reliving all the happy and sad memories. At times she would smile and her face would wrinkle like a dried up peach. Then her mouth would become a straight line.

Bluewater’s own thoughts strayed as she remembered when the militia came and how the people of Great Tellico grabbed the hands of their children and relatives and ran with the men carrying the old ones. They escaped with some seeds for planting and a few other precious items.

Bluewater picked up her pebbles that Yellow Hair had told her to hide as she was scooping up one of her little brothers. Her mother picked up her baby brother that was sleeping and stuffed him in his cradle board and slung him on her back. She got the vegetable and fruit seeds that she had kept in her home in case of an attack. She grabbed a buffalo blanket as they were fleeing to the closest cave to hide until the army was gone.

Their warriors had warned them and sent them off just a few minutes before they heard the fast approaching thunderous hooves of the militia. As they fled they turned to see their warriors fighting as the others escaped.

Bluewater sat with her grandmother a while longer listening to her as she relived her life, as she often did. Then her grandmother quit talking and dozed off. So Bluewater went to check on her little brothers, Little Squirrel and Straight Arrow. They were still sleeping in the cave they used for shelter. Her mother was busy shucking corn to go with the venison that was cooking. They had been here on this flat rock mountain top for more than two years now. Only a few saplings grew in the cracks, here and there. Yet, it was surrounded by maples, spruce and hemlock. In spring the dogwoods would show off their beautiful blooms for them. They were always amazed at what the Great Spirit had given them to enjoy.

CHAPTER 2

Bluewater loved to bathe in the waterfall and swim in the pool of water far below the top of the mountain. There were many plateaus above the river. She went down the steep hill to their garden on the first plateau of clay soil and picked some vegetables. They left a stand of trees surrounding each plateau so they couldn’t be seen from the trail along the Talikwa River far below. It was a much smaller garden than they had in their village in the Great Tellico but it was large enough for their small band that ended up together. She took the squash and peas down the path to the river to wash them and go for a swim and wash away her sadness. She could easily walk in some places and when it got too steep, she held on to branches of saplings of spruce and maple and hemlock, so she wouldn’t slide. She could walk the mile down the gentle slope that they had walked up when they found this place. But, then she would have to walk the mile back along the river to be by her waterfall.

It wasn’t as safe here as on the top of the mountain, but she refused to live her life in fear. She believed the Great Spirit had made them all and she considered most people to be her friends. When she heard someone coming she