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Biography of Nancy WardName: Nancy WardBirth Date: 1738 Death Date: 1822 Place of Birth: Chota, Tennessee, United States Nationality: American Gender: Female Occupations: tribal leader Nancy Ward Nancy Ward (1738--1822), a mixed-blood Cherokee woman who lived during the eighteenth century, was the Cherokee nation's last "Beloved Woman." At a time that the Cherokee nation was frequently at battle with American troops and white settlers who had occupied their traditional lands, Ward made repeated attempts to establish peace between the various parties.Early LifeNancy Ward is believed to have been born around 1738 in the Cherokee village of Chota, in what is today Monroe County, Tennessee. Chota, the Cherokee capital, was known as a "City of Refuge," meaning that it was a place where those in distress could seek asylum.When Ward was growing up, Cherokee lands were bordered by the Ohio River in the north and the Tennessee River in the south. They extended to the headwaters of the Coosa, the Chattahoochee, the Savannah, the Saluda, and the Tugaloo Rivers. Today the traditional Cherokee lands correspond to the area …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…ensuing round-up of Native Americans by taking refuge in the mountains of North Carolina (where some of their descendants still live today), most of the members of the Cherokee nation were destined to enforced exile. Beginning in the spring of 1838, the dispossessed Native Americans were made to travel through rain and mud, and then snow and ice, to lands west of the Mississippi. About 4,000 Cherokees died during the 800-mile exodus that would eventually become known among them as the "Nunna-da-ult-sun-yi" (The Trail of Tears). Further Reading Felton, Harold W., Nancy Ward, Cherokee, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1975.Waldman, Carl, Atlas of the North American Indian, Facts on File, 1985.Bataille, Gretchen M., ed., Native American Women: A Biographical Dictionary, Garland Publishing, 1993, http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/whm2002/ward.html (January 2003).RootsWeb.com, http://www.rootsweb.com/~scsparta/spb_scot.htm. See also RootsWeb Archives, http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/OK-RECORDS/2000-10/0971600639 (January 2003). |