Uskwa'li-gu'ta (Hanging Maw), Uku

Hanging Maw’s sister was only theoretically a sister.

Hanging Maw, or Uskwa'li-gu'ta in Cherokee, was the leading chief of the Overhill Cherokee from 1788 to 1794. He became chief following the death of Old Tassel, during the troubled period following the destruction of the traditional capital at Chota. Although he claimed the title by right of being the chief headman of the Overhill Towns, the rest of the nation had chosen Little Turkey as their First Beloved Man when they moved the seat of the council to Ustanali on the Conasauga River following the murder of Old Tassel.

Biography

Hanging Maw fought with President Washington in the French and Indian War.

He did take part in the Chickamauga wars, and in February 1786 along a wilderness creek in Middle Tennessee approximately twenty miles southeast of Lafayette, he led a party of sixty men in a skirmish with John and Ephraim Peyton, Squire Grant, and two other white men. Outnumbered, the white men successfully fled the area, but lost their horses, game, and surveying instruments to the band of Cherokees. The stream at the site of the skirmish became known as "Defeated Creek."

In 1793, a diplomatic party from the Lower Cherokee (as the division of Cherokee still at war with the U.S.A. were by then called) was attacked on its way to Knoxville, Tennessee, at the time capital of the Southwest Territory by colonial militia, who pursued them all the way to Chota on the Little Tennessee River, by then a former shadow of itself and no longer the seat of the Nation, that now being Ustanali, near the modern Calhoun, Georgia. When the militia couldn't find the fleeing diplomatic party, they attacked the people of the town, wounding Hanging Maw and killing Betsy. [SIC: wounding]

The response of the Cherokee was an invasion of the Holston River settlements with the largest force of Indians ever seen, over one thousand warriors from both the Cherokee and the Upper Muskogee, under the chief of the Lower Cherokee, John Watts. Though its results were less than successful since bitter division among the Cherokee over the murders of a family at a small fortified settlement known as Cavett's Station after they'd been given safe passage by Watts, it is still notable for the size of the force that took to the field.

Hanging-maw (Uskwá′lĭ­gû′tǎ, 'his stomach hangs down'). A prominent Cherokee chief of the Revolutionary period. Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee, in 19th Rep. B. A. E., 543, 19

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/cherokee/cherokeechief...

Hanging Maw was the leading chief of the Cherokee from 1780 to 1792. He became chief following the death of Oconostota, during the troubled period following the destruction of the tradition capital at Chota (also Echota, Chote, Chota-Tanasi, Chota-Tenase).

His wife, Betsy, was the sister of Attacullaculla and a granddaughter of Moytoy I [SIC]. She was killed [SIC: wounded] in a raid by whites.

In February 1786 along a wilderness creek in Middle Tennessee approximately twenty miles southeast of Lafayette, Hanging Maw led a party of sixty men in a skirmish with John and Ephraim Peyton, Squire Grant, and two other white men. Outnumbered, the white men successfully fled the area, but lost their horses, game, and surveying instruments to the band of Cherokees. The stream at the site of the skirmish became known as "Defeated Creek."

Notes

From https://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=laasmith&id=I75487

p. 107 of Woodward's "The Cherokee":

On August 3, 1788, the Franklin militia, numbering 250 men, sought out Old Tassel and Hanging Maw and charged them with the murders of Christian, Donelson, and the two warriors from Coyatee. Patiently, Old Tassel (still bent of keeping peace) said: "Brothers... They are not my people that spilled blood and spoiled the talks. My town is not so; they will use you well whenever they see you. The men that did the murders are bad and no warriors. They live at Coyatee, at the mouth of the Holston River. They have done the murders. My Brother, Col. Christian, was a good man and took care of everybody... I loved Col. Christain and he loved me."

p. 109 of Woodward's "The Cherokee":

In June 1788, a catastrophe (so terrible that it shocked even the callous Chickamaugans) accured at Chilhowee when Old Tassel, along with Hanging Maw [SIC], Abram and Abram's son were killed by Franklinites while under a flag of truce. The assassinations of Old Tassel and his companions were effected to avenge the murdres of all but two members os an entire family, the Kirks. John sevier led the avenging Franklin militia into the Overhills, where they burned the town of Hiwassee. This accomplished, Sevier returned to his home, leaving Maj. James Hubbard behind to supervise the gastly assinations.

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From Tennessee Historical Magazine, Volume 4. “Colonel Watts Last Campaign.” By A.V. Goodpasture. Page 205.

Hanging Maw, or Scollacutta, the head chief of the Cherokee Nation, at whose house the envoys from the Chickamauga towns were assembling, was one of their old chiefs; he was already a great man when John Watts was a child,302 he knew Washington when they were both young men and warriors;303 and got to be known as the Great Warrior of his nation.304 But he had long been a friend of peace. As far back as 1780, when his towns joined the Chickamaugas in an invasion of the frontiers, he threatened to leave them and take up his residence with the whites ;305 and in turn, the victorious Americans protected his house and property from plunder, even when Chota, the white city, was not spared. When the Old Tassel became principal chief of the Cherokees, Hanging Maw was his associate, and assisted him to preserve peace during the stormy days of the Franklin government. When the Tassel fell the Hanging Maw became his successor. At one time the Creeks fomented so much trouble on the frontiers that he removed to Willstown, but there they called him Virginian, and stole his horse, so he returned to Chota, determined to stand his ground.308. Governor Blount declares, that at this time, that "If there is a friendly Indian in the Cherokee Nation, to the United States, it is the Maw, and he is a very great beloved man."307

Citations

• Myths of the Cherokee By James Mooney link
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging_Maw
• The Cherokee Struggle to Maintain Identity in the 17th and 18th Centuries By William R. Reynolds, Jr., Page 338 link
• from http://wardepartmentpapers.org/document.php?id=8651 Major King reports on the murderous and unwarranted attack by Captain Beard and his mounted infantry on the people at the Hanging Maw's which seemed to be aimed as much at the white people as at the Indians
• from http://wardepartmentpapers.org/document.php?id=8672 “ Governor Blount always told me that nothing should happen [to]me as long as I did live but he had hardly got out of sight until I was invaded by them and like to have got killed. I think your are afraid of those bad men.”
• Tennessee Historical Magazine, Volume 4. “Colonel Watts Last Campaign.” By A.V. Goodpasture. Page 205. link
• Massacre at Cavett's Station: Frontier Tennessee during the Cherokee Wars By Charles H. Faulkner. Page 47. link
• WikiTree contributors, "Scolacutta Cherokee (abt.1730-bef.1798)," WikiTree: The Free Family Tree, (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cherokee-247 : accessed 09 March 2024).