The Bloody Ground: The Chickamauga Wars and Transappalachian Expansion, 1776-179

Despite the plethora of works on the American Revolution and the Cherokee, few scholars have placed the Cherokee within the context of the Revolution. This thesis explores the often overlooked history of the Cherokee during last quarter of the eighteenth century. It examines the Cherokees' motivations to join the American Revolution and the impact the Revolution had on Cherokee society and politics. The fight did not stop after the Revolution ended in 1783 and continued in intermittent wars throughout the 1780s and 1790s. The Cherokee continually fought and strove to retain their territories against steady land cession and encroachment by settlers. This thesis argues that the Cherokee attached their own independence and sovereignty to their lands, and in doing so they set the roots of early Cherokee nationalism that would fully form in the nineteenth century.