Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1895-01-16

Ohio, below Stony river, were always
supposed to belong to the Indians of
the Western C0nfederacy; that Colonel
Croghan, the deponent, has for thirty
years, been intimately acquainted with
the above country and the Indians, and
their different claims to territory, and
never heard the Six Nations claim, and
knows they never did claim beyond the
above description; nor did they ever
dispute the claim of the Western Con-
federacy; sworn to the Goth of October,
1851, before me, George Miller" Some
visiting Cherokees, at the treaty held
at Fort Stanwix, had, on their route,
killed game for their support, and on
their arrival at Fort Stanwix, they i'm
mediately rendered the skins to the In
dians OF the Six Nations, saying, they
are yours. we killed them after we
passed the big river, the name by which
the Cherokees have always designated
the Tennessee. The Six Nations claim
ed the soil by conquest, not as the alb.
original owners, and this is the tradi-
tionary account of their nation Who
were the aborigines, an whether they
were all destroyed or driven from their
possessions, and when these events hap
pened, are left unfxed. But in 1850,
they rested upon tradition, which at
that time had lost the circum stan tial
details, which belong to recent trans
actions. Certain it is, the whole coun-
try which they claimed, was depopu-
lated, and still retained the vestiges of
an ancient, and very numerous pcpu-
lation.
In the fall of the year 1774, treaty
was commenced between a company
composed of Richard Henderson, Thos.
Hart, Nathaniel Hart, John Williams,
William Johnston, John Luttrell, John
Hogg, David Hart and Leonard II. Bull
lock, of the one part, and the Cherokees
OF the other, which terminated in March
1775; the treaty was held at Watauga.
The company obtained from them in
fair and open treaty, two deeds, one of
them was called the Path Deed, and
the courses and boundaries expressed
in it, are as follows: "All that tract,
territory, or parcel of land, beginning
oil the Holston river, where the course
of Powell's Mountain strikes the same !;
thence up the said river as it meanders,
to where the Virginia line crosses the
same; thence westwardly along the
line run by Donelson, &c, to point six
English miles eastward of the Long
Island, in the said Holston river; thence
a direct course towards the mouth of
the Great Kenhawa, until it reaches
the top ridge of Powell's Mountain {;
thence westwardly along the said ridge,
to the beginning" The other deed,
which was called the Great Grant, con-
tanned the following boundaries: "All
that tract, territory, or parcel of land,
situated, lying and being in North
America, On the Ohio river, one of the
eastern branches of the Mississippi river,
beginning on the said Ohio, at the
mouth of Kentucky, Cherokee, or what
by the English is called Louisa river;
thence running up said river, and the
most northwardly fork of the same, to
the head spring thereof; thence south
east course to the ridge of Powell g
Mountain; thence westwardly along
the ridge of the said mountain, unto a
point from which northwest course
will hit or strike the head spring of the
most southwardly branch of Cumber.
land river; thence down the said river,
including all its waters, to the Ohio
river; thence up the said river as it
meanders, to the beginning" The
benefit of these cessions was claimed
by the States of Virginia and North
Carolina, under the Constitutions of
these States, the proclamation of the
King of Great Britain, soon after the
treaty of 1853, for regulating the inter-
course of the colonies with the Indians,
and laws made in the time of their pro-
vincial dependence upon the crown of
Great Britain.
After the Cherokee war which ter
minated by peace made in 1777, the
boundaries agreed upon between the
Cherokees and white people. and which
were repeated, confirmed and recogniz-
ed by an act of the Assembly of North
Carolina, in ITS, were these: ''begin-
ming at point on the boundary line
which has been agreed upon by the
Cherokees and colony of Virginia,
where the line between that common
wealth aud North Carolina shall inter-
sect the same; running thence right
line to the north bank of Holston river,
at the mouth of Clouds Creek, being
the second creek below the Warrior 8
Ford, at the mouth of Carter's Valley
thence right line to the highest point t
of mountain, called the High Rock,
or Chimney Top; from thence right
line to the mouth of Camp Greek, other
wise called M'Name's Greek, on the
south bank of Nolachucky river, about
ten miles, be the same more or less, be-
low the mouth of Great Limestone; and
from the mouth of Camp Creek afore.
said, Il southeast course to the top of
the ridge of the mountain, called the