tted it, if he survived. After eleven years of sporadicwarfare ended with a major defeat at Chickasaw Oldfields (1769), the Cherokee gave upand began to explore the possibility of new alliances to resist the whites. Both theCherokee and Creek attended the 1770 and 1771 meetings with the Ohio tribes at Sciotabut did not participate in Lord Dunnmore's War (1773-74) because the disputed territorywas not theirs. On the eve of the American Revolution, the British government scrambledto appease the colonists and negotiate treaties with the Cherokee ceding land alreadytaken from them by white settlers. To this end, all means, including outright bribery andextortion, were employed: Lochaber Treaty (1770); and the Augusta Treaty (1773) ceding2 million acres in Georgia to pay for debts to white traders. For the same reasons as theIroquois cession of Ohio in 1768, the Cherokee tried to protect their homeland from whitesettlement by selling land they did not really control. In the Watonga Treaty (1774) andthe Overhill Cherokee Treaty (Sycamore Shoals) (1775), they sold all of eastern andcentral Kentucky to the Transylvania Land Company (Henderson Purchase). Despite the fact that these agreements were a clear violation of existing British law, theywere used later to justify the American takeover of the region. The Shawnee also claimedthese lands but, of course, were never consulted. With the Iroquois selling the Shawneelands north of the Ohio, and the Cherokee selling the Shawnee lands south, where couldthey go? Not surprisingly, the Shawnee stayed and fought the Americans for 40 years.Both the Cherokee and Iroquois were fully aware of the problem they were creating. Afterhe had signed, a Cherokee chief reputedly took Daniel Boone aside to say, "We have soldyou much fine land, but I am afraid you will have trouble if you try to live there." Not all of the Cherokee honored these agreements. Cui Canacina (Dragging Canoe) andthe Chickamauga refused and...
