Pathkiller, (c 1749 to 6 January 1827), fought in the Revolutionary War for Britain, then with the Cherokee Chickamauga faction in the Chickamauga Wars against American frontiersmen (1783 through 1794). A full-blood, he was the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1811-1827, the last hereditary chief in the tribe.[1]
After 1813, the de facto authority in the Cherokee Nation had shifted to Charles R. Hicks, who was the first chief of partial European descent. Pathkiller remained chief (in title only) through 1827, as a kind of figurehead. Pathkiller and Hicks both were mentors to John Ross, having identified the talented young mixed-blood Cherokee of Scots-Irish descent as the future leader of the Cherokee people. After the tribe formed a constitutional republic, Ross was elected principal chief in 1828.[1]
Pathkiller's gravesite is in the woods just outside the fenced Garrett family cemetery. It is next to the Coosa River in the town of Centre (the former Turkeytown, where he was chief), in Cherokee County, northeast Alabama.
| Preceded by Black Fox (chief) |
Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation 1811–1827 |
Succeeded by Charles R. Hicks |