Dragging Canoe
| Dragging Canoe–Tsiyu Gansini | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1738 |
| Died | February 29, 1792 (aged 53–54) Running Water Town |
| Occupation | War chief of the Chickamauga Cherokee |
| Relatives | son of Attakullakulla |
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 disaffected Cherokee against colonists and United States settlers in the Upper South.
During the American Revolution and afterward, Dragging Canoe's forces were sometimes joined by Upper Muskogee, Chickasaw, Shawnee, and Indians from other tribes/nations, along with British Loyalists, and agents of France and Spain. The series of conflicts lasted a decade after the American Revolutionary War. Dragging Canoe became the preeminent war leader among the Indians of the southeast of his time. He served as war chief of the Chickamauga Cherokee (or "Lower Cherokee") from 1777 until his death in 1792, when he was succeeded by John Watts.
He was the son of Attakullakulla ("Little Carpenter"), who was born to the Nipissing. He and his mother were captured when he was an infant, and they were adopted into the Cherokee tribe and assimilated. His mother was Nionne Ollie ("Tamed Doe), born to the Natchez and adopted as a captive by Oconostota's household.
They lived with the Overhill Cherokee on the Little Tennessee River. Dragging Canoe survived smallpox at a young age, which left his face marked. According to Cherokee legend, his name is derived from an incident in his early childhood. Wanting to join a war party moving against a neighboring tribe, the Shawnee, his father told him he could stay with the war party as long as he could carry his canoe. He tried to prove his readiness for war by carrying the heavy canoe, but he could only manage to drag it.
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