Nancy Ward

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nancy Ward. Drawing by George Catlin .

Nanye-hi ("The one who goes around"), known by her English name Nancy Ward (* 1738 (?) In Chota near today's Vonore , Tennessee , USA ; † 1822 or 1824 ) was a Ghighau ("Beloved Woman ”) Of the Cherokee , which means that she was allowed to sit in council meetings with other“ beloved women ”and make final decisions on all Cherokee matters. She was tutored by Herrnhuter and believed in peaceful coexistence with white Europeans .

"Beloved Woman"

Ward's parents were Lenni Lenape Tame Deer ("Tame Deer") and Fivekiller ("Fifth Killer"). Her first husband was the Cherokee Kingfisher ("King Fisherman"). Nanye-hi and Kingfisher fought side by side in the Battle of Taliwa against the Muskogee in 1755 . When he was killed, she took his rifle and led the Cherokee to victory. With this deed, she earned the title of Ghighua at the age of 18.

Changes in Cherokee Society

As a ghighua, Nanye-hi had the power to pardon prisoners of war. In 1780, after a Cherokee attack on a white settlement on the Watauga River , she used that power to pardon Mrs. Bean, who took her to her house and healed from the wounds she had sustained in battle. Mrs. Bean taught Nanye-hi weaving, which revolutionized Cherokee clothing, which at the time was a combination of skins and clothing purchased by traders. But the weaving revolution also changed the position of women in Cherokee society, because they now weaved and left the planting to men, which had been traditional women's work.

Mrs. Bean also rescued two of her dairy cows from the settlement and brought them to Nanye-hi. Nanye-hi learned how to raise cattle and make dairy products, which the Cherokee supported when the hunt was meager.

The combination of weaving and ranching brought the Cherokees from a village farming society to a society very similar to that of their European-American neighbors. Including family land and the need for more and more labor. That's why the Cherokee slaves started trading. Nanye-hi was the first Cherokee to own black slaves.

At that time Sequoyah introduced the first written language for an Indian nation. A complete Bible was printed in the 1830s. From now on, the Cherokee were referred to as one of the " Five Civilized Nations ".

Next life

Nanye-hi was against the sale of Cherokeeland to the whites, but their objections were largely ignored. In 1808 and 1817, the women's council came more and more into opposition to the sale of more and more land.

Nanye-hi became a kind of ambassador between the Cherokee and the whites, learned the art of diplomacy from her maternal uncle, the influential chief Attakullakulla ("Little Carpenter"). In 1781, when the Cherokee met an American delegation under John Sevier to discuss American settlement along the Little Pigeon River , Nanye-hi expressed surprise that there were no female negotiators among the Americans. Sevier was immediately indignant that such an important job should be turned over to a woman. Nanye-hi told him, “You know women are always considered worthless; but we are mothers; you are our sons. Our calling and weeping are only for peace; let's continue this. The peace must last forever. Let the sons of your wives be ours; let our sons be yours. Let your wives hear our words. ”An American observer said the speech was very moving.

Some time later, Americans started calling her Nancy. She married the fur trader Bryant Ward and became known as Nancy Ward. When the area around Chota was transferred to American settlers, she and Ward opened an inn on the Womankiller ford of the Ocowee River in eastern Tennessee.

Death, funeral and inheritance

According to her son Fivekiller ("five-slayer"), Nancy Ward was buried in her hometown of Chota. But there are witnesses who claim that she was actually buried in Benton, Tennessee . There is a marker in Benton that indicates the location of her presumed grave. Polk County , where Benton is located, is trying to raise funds to set up a Nancy Ward Museum. Polk County's Historical and Genealogical Society currently maintains a Nancy Ward room in their genealogical library until there is a museum.

A Tennessee section of the Daughters of the American Revolution is named after her. Until the late 20th century she was the last woman to receive the title “Beloved Woman”.

A statue of Nancy Ward, designed by an alleged descendant, stood in a Grainger County, Tennessee cemetery for about 70 years . It disappeared in the early 1980s. In January 2006, the statue reappeared as an important work of American folk art when it was exhibited on the American Antiques Show at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City . The statue is currently owned by an antique dealer who lives near Augusta, Maine . It is widely believed that the artist James Abraham Walker originally intended to have the carving placed on Nancy Ward's grave.

The Sequoyah Birthplace Museum in Vonore holds her Nancy Ward Cherokee Heritage Days each year.

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

Web links

literature

  • Paula Gunn Allen: The Sacred Hoop . Beacon Press, 1992.
  • Gretchen Bataille and Kathleen Sands (Eds.): American Indian Women: A Research Guide . Garland Publishing, 1991.
  • Rayna Green: Women in American Indian Society . Chelsea House, 1992.
  • Gretchen M. Bataille (Ed.): Native American Women . Garland Publishing, 1993.
  • Frederick J. Dockstader (Ed.): Great North American Indians: Profiles in Life and Leadership . Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York 1977
  • Harold W. Felton: Nancy Ward: Cherokee . Dodd Mead, New York 1975
  • Ben Harris McClary: The Last Beloved Woman of the Cherokees. In: Tennessee Historical Society Quarterly . Volume 21, 1962, pp. 352-64.
  • Norma Tucker: Nancy Ward, Ghighau of the Cherokees. In: Georgia Historical Quarterly . Volume 53, June 1969, pp. 192-200
  • Grace Steele Woodward: The Cherokees . University of Oklahoma Press, Norman 1963
personal data
SURNAME Ward, Nancy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nanye-hi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ghighau of the Cherokee Indians
DATE OF BIRTH around 1738
PLACE OF BIRTH Chota near Vonore , Tennessee
DATE OF DEATH 1822 or 1824