Nanyehi (Nancy Ward), Ghigau, Beloved Woman of Chota
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet provenDisputed: argued, often by a hostile witness
Year: 1738 · Places: Tennessee
SUMMARYNanyehi (Nancy Ward), Ghigau, Beloved Woman of Chota (Nov 8, 2026; TANASI line research; Matriarch line)
RECORD (Tennessee Encyclopedia, "Nancy Ward," David Ray Smith)"Nancy Ward was born in 1738 at Chota"; her name "Nanye-hi" signified "One who goes about"; her husband was killed "during the 1755 battle of Taliwa" and she rallied the warriors; the clans chose her "Ghighau 'Beloved Woman'"; on at least two occasions she "sent Isaac Thomas to warn Sevier of impending Indian attacks"; the 1819 Hiwassee Purchase forced her out of Chota; she kept an inn "until her death in 1822."
RECORD (Colonial Williamsburg, "Nanyehi (Nancy Ward)A Beloved Woman of Chota," citing Samuel Cole Williams, Tennessee during the Revolutionary War, 1974, pp. 200–201): 1781: "You know that women are always looked upon as nothing"; "Our cry is all for peace," "let it continue. This peace must last forever."; "Let your women's sons be ours; our sons be yours. Let your women hear our words." 1817 (citing Theda Perdue, Portraits of American Women, 1998, pp. 96–97): "Your mother and sisters ask and beg of you not to part with any more of our lands." Taliwa is recorded in Emmet Starr, History of the Cherokee Indians (1921), p. 468: at Taliwa (against the Creeks) she loaded bullets behind a log; when Kingfisher fell she took his rifle
PATTERNthe record keeps the Beloved Woman as a peace voice to the settlers, but her own 1817 words are a land-keeping order to her own council
DISPUTEDWikipedia gives the 1817 words differently ("don't part with any more of our lands but continue on it and enlarge your farms...") with no citation; the 1781 speech place is Long Island of the Holston in some tellings and Chota/Sevier meeting in others; the "we are your mothers; you are our sons" line has no page citation in the sources opened
LENS (WW9)Matriarch. The women's council told the men: do not sell
OPENthe 1781 treaty-conference minutes and the 1817 petition text in the Cherokee/Indian Office records (NARA RG 75) word for word. Connects: P860, P861, P864.