Cherokee County NcArchives History - Letters .....Corn Tassel Letters September 19, 1787
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Connie Ardrey n/a August 27, 2009, 9:46 pm

Talk by Old Corn Tassel to Richard Caswell and Edmund Randolph
Corn Tassel, Cherokee chief
September 19, 1787 
Volume 20, Pages 779-781

CHEROKEES TALK FROM OLD TESSELL TO THE GOVERNORS OF NORTH CAROLINA AND 
VIRGINIA.

Chotee, 19th September, 1787. 

Brother:

I am now going to speak to you. I hope you will hear me. I am an old man and 
almost thrown away by my elder Brother; the Ground I stand on is very 
slippery, tho’ I still hope my elder Brother will hear me and take pity on me, 
as we were all made by the same Great Being above, we are all the Children of 
the same Parent, I therefore hope my elder Brother will hear me.

You have often promised me in talks that you sent me that you would do me 
Justice and that all the disorderly people should be moved off our Lands, but 
the longer we wait to see it done the farther it seems off. Your people have 
built houses in sight of our Towns, we don’t want to quarrel with you our 
elder Brother. I therefore beg that you, our elder Brother, will have your 
disorderly people taken off our Lands immediately as their being on our 
Grounds causes great uneasiness. We are very uneasy on account of a Report 
that is among the white people, that call themselves a new people, that Lives 
on French Broad & Nolachucky; they say they have treated with us for all the 
Lands on Little River. I now send this to let my Elder Brother know how it is, 
some of them gathered on French Broad and sent for us to come and treat with 
them, but as I was told there was a treaty to be held with us by orders of the 
Great men of the thirteen States, we did not go to meet them, but some of our 
Young men went to see what they wanted; they first wanted the Land on Little 
River, our young men told them that all their head men were at home, that they 
had no authority to treat about Lands; they then asked them Liberty for those 
that were then Living on the Lands to remain there till the head men of their 
Nation was consulted on it which our young men agreed to, since then we are 
told that they claim all the Lands on the Waters of Little River and have 
appointed men among themselves to settle their disputes on our Lands and call 
it their ground. But we hope you our Elder Brother will not agree to it but 
will have them moved off. I also beg that you will send Letters to the great 
Council of America and let them know how it is, that if you have no power to 
move them off they have and I hope they will do it.

I once more beg that our Elder Brother will take pity on us and not take our 
ground from us because he is stronger than we; the great being above that made 
us all placed us on this Land and gave it to us and it is ours, our Elder 
Brother in all the Treaties we ever had gave it to us also and we hope he will 
not think of taking it from us now.

I have sent with this Talk a string of white Beads which I hope my Elder 
Brother will take hold of and think of His Younger Brother who is now in 
trouble and looking to him for Justice.

Given out by the old Tassell for himself and whole Nation in presence of the 
head men of the Upper and Lower Cherokees and interpreted by me.

JAMES McCORMICK.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/cherokee/history/letters/corntass25ms.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ncfiles/

File size: 3.7 Kb