Dragging Canoe
Dragging Canoe | |
|---|---|
ᏥᏳ ᎦᏅᏏᏂ | |
| In office 1777–1792 | |
| Succeeded by | John Watts |
| War chief of the Chickamauga Cherokee | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1738 |
| Died | February 29, 1792 (aged 53–54) |
| Cause of death | Exhaustion (possibly heart attack) |
| Known for | Leading the Chickamauga Cherokee resistance against American settlers, 1777–1792 |
| Military service | |
| Battles/wars | Anglo-Cherokee War · Battle of Island Flats (1776) · Cherokee–American wars |
Dragging Canoe (ᏥᏳ ᎦᏅᏏᏂ, pronounced Tsiyu Gansini, c. 1738 – February 29, 1792) was a Cherokee red (or war) chief who led a band of Cherokee warriors who resisted 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 Native Americans from other tribes, along with British Loyalists, and agents of France and Spain. The Cherokee American Wars lasted more than a decade after the end of the American Revolutionary War.
During that time, Dragging Canoe became the preeminent war leader among the Native Americans of the southeastern United States. He served as war chief, or skiagusta, of the group known as the Chickamauga Cherokee (or "Lower Cherokee"), from 1777 until his death in 1792.