INDIANS

DOCUMENTS

Relating to the boundary line between the

Cherokees and Creeks

[Continued]

I John Rodgers, aged 55 years, haved (sic) resided in the Cherokee Nation 27 years, twenty-five years of the same I have lived near this place. Soon after I came to the Nation I married a daughter of Thomas Cordry; a Cherokee family that lived then on the Hightower River. The next year after I married, my father-in-law proposed for his whole family to remove and settle on the Chattahoochy River near Suwany Old Town, where many of his family connections were already living. When the proposition was made I inquired to know if there was no danger of our getting on the Creek lands? I was answered by the old man and by those who knew the country best, that there was no danger, for that the Creek line ran with a trail or path that passed near the Stone Mountain called the Hightower Trail. We removed and settled near this and have remained here ever since, and I never heard the Cherokees acknowledge any other line but the one I have mentioned; but I have never been correctly informed which of the two paths was meant by the name of the Hightower Path. There was one which led from the High Shoals of the Appalachy by the northern side of the Stone Mountain to the Shallow Ford in the Chattahoochy, and the other from the same place by the foot of the Stone Mountain on the south side, and to the Standing Peach Tree on the Chattahoochy; both of these paths were called Hightower Paths, but which of them was considered the line I never knew. In addition to many others who I have heard speak of the above line, I particularly heard from Col. Rhode Early, who was an old Indian trader, and who informed me that the Chiefs of the two nations had agreed upon the same at a treaty that was held at Fort Wilkinson about the year 1802, when Gen. Wilkinson and Gen. Pickens were Commissioners. I have no knowledge of the two nations ever having agreed upon a line west of the Chattahoochy River, until the line was marked from the Buzzard Roost to the mouth of Will's Creek about the year 1822. There have never been any Creek Indians living on the Chattahoochy River since I lived here, higher up the river than the lower end of Sand Town, which is sixteen miles below the Standing Peach Tree. I never knew any other place called Suwany Old Town, but the one near this, nor but one called Buzzard Roost.

Signed JOHN ROGERS.

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 9th Dec. 1829.

Signed, ISAAC GILBERT, J.P.

Gwinnett Con. Ga.

Old Red Bank Town, Cherokee Nation

10th Dec. 1829

George Still, a half breed Cherokee, aged about sixty years, has been born and raised in the Cherokee Nation-when he was a small boy his father and mother moved and settled a short time in the Old Hightower Town, and then moved and settled in the Pumpkin Patch Village on a creek about 10 miles from the river on the south side-they lived there one year. They then went down the country and lived with the Creeks one year, and then they returned and lived one year again in the Pumpkin Patch Village, then they moved and settled on the south side of the river opposite the mouth of Oostunnahlee and had made one crop, when Genl. Andrew Pickens of South Carolina marched an army into the Cherokee Nation down the river into the forks, and crossed the Hightower just above the forks, and destroyed all the improvements of several Cherokee families who had settled there; he recrossed the river and destroyed all the villages and improvements wherever he went-this took place in the time of the Revolutionary War. Where the Pumpkin Patch Village of Cherokees was settled, there had been a settlement, a small village of Creeks, but there were all gone before he went to the country, and has never known of any other Creeks being settled in the country since, anywhere on the waters of Hightower River. He has since then lived in several different parts of the nation, until just after the close of the late Creek War, he moved and settled at the Standing Peach Tree on the east side of Chattahoochy River, and he lived there until about two years ago. All the time he lived at the Standing Peach Tree he believed he was living on Cherokee land, the Cherokees told him so-the Creeks were living at Sand Town on Creek land which is about 115 miles below the Standing Peach Tree-he always understood after he went to the Chattahoochy to live, that the Cherokees owned the land to the High Shoals of Appalachy and by the Stone Mountain-he never knew of any line between the two nations west of Chattahoochy, until the line was run from Buzzard Roost to Will's Creek-he never heard of but one place called Suwannah Old Town, and but one place called Buzzard Roost. The said George Still declares the foregoing statement to be just and true to the best of his knowledge and recollection, and has hereunto subscribed his name,the date above written.

Signed GEORGE STILL.

Robt. D. Harris.

OLD RED BANK, CHEROKEE NATION.

South side Hightower,

10th Dec. 1829

Jno. Wright, a white man married to a Cherokee wife, states that he came into this nation when a boy-he does not know his age correctly, but he thinks he was about twelve years of age. He has lived i this country about forty-seven of eight years, all of which time he has lived on the waters of Hightower, and the last twenty -fife years he has lived on the south side of the river. The second year after he came into the country he lived in the Hightower Town of village,--this was about forty-five years since. At that time there was a respectable village at the place; Old Catagiskee and Old Tarrapin two principal Chiefs of the nation lived then in the Hightower village, -- Red Bank village was then settled on both sides of the river, and a few Cherokees lived at Eallatuna on the South side of Hightower. At the time I came first to Hightower village there were the remains of an improvement of a few Creek families, who I was informed had lived there before I came to the country, but they were gone before I knew the place, they were said to have been a hunting party. I never heard of any other Creek Indians on the waters of Hightower to this day, except a few Creek men who came here and married Cherokee wives. About the close of the Revolutionary War, Gen Andrew Pickens of South Carolina, and old Gen. Clark of Georgia, marched an army into to the Cherokee Nation and penetrated the country as low down the Hightower as the Oostinalee into the latter river. I was then a boy and then in the Hightower Village, the inhabitants of which ran and left their town, but they did not cross the river at that place nor attack the Hightower Village. He recollects the Cherokees were settled in the Suwanny Town on the Chattahoochy by about thirty -five years since as near as he can recollect the time-about the time he settled on the south side of Hightower near where he now lives, the subject of the line between the Creeks and Cherokees was frequently mentioned amongst he Cherokees, and he recollects that they, the Cherokees, claimed the land on Appalatchy as low down as the High Shoals, and from thence to run out by the Stone Mountain and the Buzzard Roost on the Chattahoochy, and from there to run westwardly with a ridge that divides the waters that run into the Hightower River from those running southwardly, leaving all the waters of Tallapoosa to the Creek Nation. He never heard of any correct line between the two nations until the line was agreed on and run from Buzzard Roost on the mouth of Will's Creek. Turkey Town on the Coosa River is the lowest down the river where there has been any Cherokee settlements that he knew of, they settled that place on both sides of the river about forty years since-about 8 or 10 miles below the junction of Hightower and Oostanali, is the Turnip Mountain town settled o both sides of the Coosa River, that place has been settled about thirty years since. The village of Two Runs, about ten miles above the fork of the river, Hightower and Oostinalee were settled thirty years since. The old Hightower Town on the south side of the river twenty miles above the junction of the rivers was settled when I first came to the country forty-seven or eight years since. The Six's Village about thirty -eight miles above the junction of the rivers was settled on both sides of the river about 30 years since. The Red Bank Village about six miles above the Six's was settled on both sides of the river; this place was settled about two years after he came to the country. Hickory Log Village, two miles above Red Bank, has been settled on both sides of the river about 30 years since. The Long Swamp Village bout 12 miles above Hickory Log was settled on both sides about 35 years since-besides the villages before mentioned, there are numbers of Cherokee families settled and living all through the country out from the river, on the south side of the Hightower as far up and down as the villages are settled. Many years ago a man by the name of Blackburn was descending the coosa River with a quantity of whisky, as I have been informed, and at Turkey Town the Indians took his whiskey from him-this I know by report. He has no recollection of ever hearing that the Creek Nation claimed the lands on the Hightower and Coosa rivers where the Cherokees were settled. The forging statement contains nothing but the truth according to the best of mu knowledge and recollection. Given under my hand the date above written.

his

JOHN WRIGHT x

mark

Witness.

Robt. D. Harris

Sworn to and subscribed before be, this 14th day of Dec. 1829.

WALTER ADAIR,Judge. C. C. upper circuit, Cherokee Nation.