Nancy Ward

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Drawing of Nancy Ward by George Catlin
Drawing of Nancy Ward by George Catlin

Nanye-hi ("One Who Goes About"), known in English as Nancy Ward (c. 1738–1822 or 1824) was a ghighua, or "beloved woman" of the Cherokee nation, which meant that she was allowed to sit in councils and to make decisions, along with the other Beloved Women, on pardons. She believed in peaceful coexistence with white people.

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[edit] Beloved Woman

Ward was born in the Cherokee town of Chota, a member of the Wolf Clan. Her mother, whose actual name is not known, has been called Tame Doe in novels. Her father was probably part Leni Lenape. Her first husband was the Cherokee man Kingfisher. Nanye-hi and Kingfisher fought side by side at the Battle of Taliwa against the Creeks in 1755. When he was killed, she took up his rifle and led the Cherokee to victory. This was the action which, at the age of 18, gave her the title of Ghighua.

[edit] Changes to Cherokee society

As a Ghighua, Nanye-hi had the power to spare captives. In 1780, following a Cherokee attack on a white settlement on the Watauga River, she used that power to spare a Mrs. William (Lydia Russell) Bean, whom she took into her house and nursed back to health from injuries suffered in the battle. Mrs. Bean taught Nanye-hi how to weave, revolutionizing the Cherokee garments, which at the time were a combination of hides and cloth bought from traders. But this weaving revolution also changed the roles of women in the Cherokee society, as they took on the weaving and left men to do the planting, which had traditionally been a woman's job.

Mrs. Bean also rescued two of her dairy cows from the settlement, and brought them to Nanye-hi. Nanye-hi learned to raise the cattle and to eat dairy products, which would sustain the Cherokee when hunting was bad.

The combination of weaving and raising of animals turned the Cherokee from a communal agricultural society into a society very similar to that of their European-American neighbors, with family plots and the need for ever-more labor. Thus the Cherokee began buying and selling slaves. Nanye-hi was the first Cherokee to own black slaves.

Around the same time Sequoyah introduced the first written language for the tribe. A complete Bible was first printed in the 1830's, hence the Cherokee were considered one of the 'Five Civilized Tribes'.

[edit] Later life

Nanye-hi objected to the sale of Cherokee lands to whites, but her objections were largely ignored. In 1808 and again in 1817, the Women's Council came out in opposition to the sale of more and more land.

Nanye-hi became a sort of ambassador between the Cherokee and the whites, learning the art of diplomacy from her maternal uncle, the influential chief Attakullakulla ("Little Carpenter"). In 1781, when the Cherokee met with an American delegation led by John Sevier to discuss American settlements along the Little Pigeon River, Nanye-hi expressed surprise that there were no women negotiators among the Americans. Sevier was equally appalled that such important work should be given to a woman. Nanye-hi told him, "You know that women are always looked upon as nothing; but we are your mothers; you are our sons. Our cry is all for peace; let it continue. This peace must last forever. Let your women's son's be ours; our sons be yours. Let your women hear our words." An American observer said that her speech was very moving.

It was some time during this era that Americans began calling her Nancy. She married a trader named Bryant Ward, and became known as Nancy Ward. When the area around Chota was ceded to American settlers, she opened an inn on the Womankiller Ford of the Ocoee River, in eastern Tennessee.

[edit] Death, burial and remembrance

According to her son, Fivekiller, Nancy was buried in her home town of Chota, but there is some evidence that she is actually buried in Benton, Tennessee. There is a marker in Benton which marks the site of her supposed burial. Polk County, Tennessee, where Benton is located, is trying to raise money to create a Nancy Ward Museum. The Polk County Historical and Genealogical Society currently maintains a Nancy Ward Room in their genealogy library until such a time as the museum is created.

A Tennessee chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution is named for her. She is the last woman to receive the title of Beloved Woman until the late 20th century.

A statue of Nancy Ward, carved by James Abraham Walker, stood in a cemetery in Grainger County, Tennessee for about 70 years. [1] It was stolen in 1983. In January 2006, the missing statue resurfaced as a significant work of American folk art when it was exhibited at the American Antiques Show held at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City. [2] The statue is currently in the possession of an antiques dealer who resides near Augusta, Maine. Efforts to return the statue to Tennessee are currently ongoing. It is widely believed that the sculptor had originally intended the carving to be placed at Nancy Ward's gravesite.

The Sequoyah Birthplace Museum in Vonore, Tennessee holds an annual Nancy Ward Cherokee Heritage Days celebration in her honor.

Nancy Ward is not only remembered as an important figure to the Cherokee people but is also considered an early pioneer for women in American politics as she advocated for a woman's voice during a turbulent period in her tribe's history.

[edit] External links

[edit] Further reading

  • Allen, Paula Gunn, The Sacred Hoop, Beacon Press, 1992.
  • American Indian Women: A Research Guide, edited by Gretchen Bataille and Kathleen Sands, Garland Publishing, 1991.
  • Green, Rayna, Women in American Indian Society, Chelsea House, 1992.
  • Native American Women, edited by Gretchen M. Bataille, Garland Publishing, 1993.
  • Dockstader, Frederick J., ed., Great North American Indians: Profiles in Life and Leadership. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1977
  • Felton, Harold W., Nancy Ward: Cherokee. New York: Dodd Mead, 1975
  • McClary, Ben Harris. "The Last Beloved Woman of the Cherokees." Tennessee Historical Society Quarterly 21 (1962): 352-64.
  • Tucker, Norma. "Nancy Ward, Ghighau of the Cherokees." Georgia Historical Quarterly 53 (June 1969): 192-200
  • Woodward, Grace Steele. The Cherokees. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963
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