The

Chikamaka Band

of

Chickamaugas

The Chikamaka Band People are a people rich in history. The Chickamauga name is the anglicized version of the name for Chikamaka Town. The name was anglicized, know by the colonists, as Chickamaugas
When Tsiyugunsini (Dragging Canoe) separated from the Overhill, he went to Chikamaka Town and setup a camp outside the town. People from various American Indian groups joined him there. They came with the purpose of defending their land and trade rights. These people were Chikamaka, Cherokee, Creek, Shawnee, Catawba, Saponi, Mohawk, Delaware, Choctaw, Chickasaw, along with Tories dispossessed by the American Revolution. They were known as in colonial times as the Chickamaugas.
After societal customs on residence were observed, the people of the Towns in the area of Chickamauga Creek, allowed Tsiyugunsini (Dragging Canoe) and the Chickamaugas to remain and reside among them. The names of the towns were:
Upper Towns Chickamauga Town,
Toqua (at the mouth mouth of the Chickamauga on the Tennessee River)
Opelika (a few kilometers upstream from Chickamauga town)
Buffalo Town (at the headwaters of the Chickamauga river in northwest Georgia (in the vicinity of the later Ringgold, Georgia)).
Cayuga (on Hiwassee Island)
Black Fox (Bradley County, Tennessee)
Ooltewah (under Ostenaco on Ooltewah (Wolftever) Creek)
Sawtee (under Dragging Canoe's brother Little Owl on Laurel (North Chickamauga) Creek)
Citico (along the creek of the same name)
Chatanuga (at the foot of Lookout Mountain in what is now St. Elmo)
Tuskegee (under Bloody Fellow (Yunwigiga) on Williams' Island)
  
Lower Towns Running Water (Buried under Nickajack Lake)
Nickajack (Nickajack Cave area on Nickajack Lake)
Crow Town (at the mouth of Crow Creek)
Long Island (twenty miles below the Suck, east of Bridgeport, Alabama)
Lookout Mountain (Lookout Mountain)
Willstown (Northwest Alabama)
Turkeytown (along both banks of the Coosa River, Turkeytown Alabama)
The people of the South Cumberland Band are Chickamauga stayed in the homeland and inhabited what is now known as the South Cumberland Plateau. We may have seemed to have assimilated into the mainstream of society, but we have continued to teach our children about who they really are. Over the years we intermarried with other races as well as amongst ourselves, but we remain Chickamaugas.
Since we had fought the colonies, who became these United States of America, for over twenty years, our forefathers were denied allotments and basic rights granted to “Peaceful Indians.” We were known to both “Whites” and “Peaceful” Indians as “The Hostiles.” We are proud of this nickname. Today, we are as friendly as you will let us be.
While other American Indians moved west we remained in our mountains, hollows and valleys. We aided numerous Indians who passed our way. Some chose to remain and become a part of us.
If you are researching genealogy for people who are Chickamaugan, you will find records of people’s deaths but will never find that person on any US Census because they chose not to participate. Others did participate and were either labeled as “White”, "Black", Mulatto, or “Free Person’s of Color.”

Links of Interest

A RESOLUTION FOR THE RECOGNITION OF THE HISTORIC INDIAN TRIBES OF TENNESSEE

Cherokee Nation Resolution at Rattlesnake Springs

Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act

Treaty of 1785

Hatch Act (5 U.S. Code § 7323 - Political activity authorized; prohibitions)

 

Montana v. United States 450 U.S. 544(1981)

Members don't have jurisdiction over non-members on Non-tribal lands
  • supreme.justia.com
  • Congressional Research Service, Tribal Jurisdiction over Nonmembers: A Legal Overview
  • Legal Infomation Institute, Cornell University Law School
  • Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law
  • Arizona Law Review, Revisiting Montana: Indian Treaty Rights and Tribal Authority over Nonmembers on Trust Lands
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