“First Blood Shed by the Georgians”

“First Blood Shed by the Georgians”. . Seventeen white families from Georgia and Alabama illegally took possession of Cherokee homes here in the Beaver Dam settlement in February 1830. Cherokee Chief John Ross responded by sending a mounted police force, the Light Horse Brigade, to evict them. Major Ridge, David Vann, and the brigade went from home to home, forcibly evicting white intruders and burning empty Cherokee structures to discourage future settlement. Retaliation came the following day in the death of one Cherokee and the imprisonment of others., Beaver Dam marked the most prominent instance of active Cherokee resistance to unauthorized white settlement on Cherokee lands. The log structure across the street stood as witness to the event; it is one of last remnants of Beaver Dam in today's Cave Spring and Vann's Valley. After this incident, the Cherokee sought only political solutions to intrusions from Georgia and no longer attempted to forcibly evict whites.,

“… a Cherokee has … been killed by the intruders, and three more taken bound into Georgia! … A company of Cherokees … started the other day, under the authority of the Principal Chief to correct, at least part of the evil … They found … 17 families of intruders, living, we believe, in Cherokee houses. These they ordered out and after safely taking out their bedding, chairs, &c. the houses were set on fire. In no instance was the least violence used on the part of the Cherokees.” , Cherokee Phoenix and Indians' Advocate, Wednesday, February 10, 1830

, [Captions (Right side, top to bottom)] , . Major Ridge; David Vann , . The Green Hotel, in front of you, contains within it an original log structure that predates Cherokee removal, possibly as early as 1810. , . This Cherokee delegation visited Cave Spring in 2011, recognizing its connection to the story of removal. The structure is located on an original route of the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.