Fighting for a Way of Life

Fighting for a Way of Life. Bledsoe's Fort Historical Park. , The Cumberland Valley was once a shared Native American hunting ground, open to all and occupied by none. The arrival of Euro-American settlers upset that balance and ended in war., A Shared Hunting Ground , When the first long hunters arrived they found no Native American settlements in the Cumberland Valley. The inhabitants had abandoned their once-thriving villages over 300 hundred years earlier. Although no one lived in this area of Tennessee year-round, several Native American nations hunted here. By agreement, they recognized the Cumberland Valley as open to all., An Area Forbidden to Settlement , Although conflicts did occur, Native Americans made no concerted effort to expel individuals and small groups who came only to hunt. Attempts at settlement, however, were met with violence. In the 1690s, bands of Shawnee tried several times to colonize this area. Each time, other Native American military expeditions expelled them. The first non-native settlers entered the Cumberland Valley in 1779. They came knowing that conflict with Native Americans was inevitable., Euro-American Settlers Are Met with Violence , As soon as settlers arrived, Native American military expeditions began raiding their settlements. In the beginning, independent groups of Creek and Cherokee sponsored the raids. Later, a loose coalition known as the Chickamauga took the lead. As the years passed and settlers like Isaac and Anthony Bledsoe refused to leave, the attacks increased in number, size and ferocity., Native American Resistance is Crushed , In September 1794, a force of 550 regular soldiers and volunteers destroyed two Native American towns. The attacks on settlers decreased and finally ended about 1796. The names of the pioneer settlers, free and enslaved, who died in these conflicts between 1780 and 1796, are recorded. There is no record of the Native Americans who died trying to preserve a way of life that had flourished for centuries., [Captions:] , Native Americans generally tolerated long hunters because they came to the Cumberland Valley with no intention of settling personally, but there were conflicts., The Shawnee and Cherokee were among the Native American groups who came to hunt the abundant game found here.