Chaquelataque Doublehead Cherokee (abt. 1744 - 1807)

Born about 1744 in Cherokee Nation (East) [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 9 Aug 1807 at about age 63 in McIntosh Tavern, Hiwasse River, Tennessee, USA

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Disputed Origins

Much has been written about Doublehead, going back to documents from the time of his life and death, but none of these identify Doublehead’s origins or parents.

While he first shows up in historical records in the 1770s, there is no contemporaneous record of place of birth, date, or parents. All are later speculations, predominantly created after the middle of the 20th century.

One theory that has been advanced is that he was the son of Willenwah Great Eagle (1720-1807) and Wurteh Red Paint Clan (1710-1770).^{[citation needed]}

A previous version of this profile claimed, without source that his parents were Utsi'dsata (Corn Tassel) and Woman of Ani-Wadi. They have been detached. Please use G2G or the comments section below to discuss evidence for his parents.

Biography

Knowing where he lived, when he first shows up in records, and who his relatives were, make a late 1740s Tellico area birth probable.

Probable siblings based on references in various documents and histories:

• Old Tassel/Corn Tassel
• Pumpkin Boy
• Sequeechee
• Unknown wife of white trader John Watts
• Nani/Nancy

Chaquelataque or Doublehead ^[1] was one of the most feared warriors of the Cherokee during the Chickamauga Wars. He was one of the militant young men who joined Dragging Canoe in his opposition to white encroachment and cession of Cherokee lands in 1776. In 1788, his brother, Old Tassel chief of the Cherokee people was killed under a truce (negotiating peace) by frontier rangers. In 1791 Doublehead was among a delegation of Cherokees who visited U.S. President George Washington in Philadelphia. After the peace treaty at the Tellico Blockhouse in 1794, Doublehead served as one of the leaders of the Chickamauga (or "Lower Cherokee"). Upon the death of his nephew, John Watts, in 1802, Doublehead was chosen as leader of the Chickamauga faction.

In January of 1806 he was one of the negotiators of yet another treaty. This one was unique because it awarded tracts of land to Doublehead, Tahlonteskee, and Sequeechee (Doublehead's brother) and each chief was to be paid $1000. James Vann and John Chisholm both also benefitted personally from the treaty. Many Cherokee were furious about both the land cessions and the apparent bribes and a plan was made to assassinate Doublehead.

Accounts differ on exactly who the assassins were, but they included Alexander Saunders, Major Ridge, and probably John Rogers. ^[2] Doublehead was killed In August, 1807.

Marriages

While the number of Doublehead’s children, records, and testimony of descendants suggests that Doublehead had as many as five different wives, there are only two that are named in documents. The first two are named in depositions filed regarding Doublehead’s estate and Eastern Cherokee applications of descendants.^[3] The third, name unknown, is assumed based on known daughters. She may have been more than one woman.

1. Nannie Drumgoole, supposed daughter of ALEXANDER DRUMGOOLE and NANCY AUGUSTA and died on July 23, 1850. ^[4]
2. Kateeyah Wilson
3. Unknown Cherokee woman/women – the mother or mothers of Saleechie and her unnamed sister, and sisters Nigodigayu and Gulustiyu.

Disputed Wives

• Creat Priber. While there is some suggestion that Christian Priber may have cohabitated with a Cherokee woman between 1736-1744, there is no solid evidence to identify either his Cherokee female mate, nor any offspring that might have resulted from such a union. There is no proof that Creat Priber ever existed.
• DOUBLEHEAD is claimed by some to have married a Delaware woman sometime in the middle of the 18th century when the Cherokee and Delaware leaders were seeking inter-tribal peace. This wife was supposedly the mother of Cornblossom/Pawalin (see below), who in fact did not exist. Her existence was introduced about 2007 by Tankersley when the “Creat Priber-as-mother” myth was busted.
• Jennie Harrison appears in James Hicks' Cherokee Lineages tree on Rootsweb. No documentation, no children.

Children

There are only 9 named children of Doublehead in the records:

1. Bird (sometimes referred to as Bird Head); son of Nannie Drumgoole, ^[5] born in 1795 in Tennessee and died about 1857. James Hicks lists his wife as TIMSON without documentation. Per Eastern Cherokee application #10725 she died two weeks after the birth of son Bird, who never knew her name.
2. Peggy, daughter of Nannie Drumgoole; ^[6] born and died before 1835. She married WILLIAM WILSON on April 4, 1824 in Madison County, Alabama. ^[7]
3. Susannah, daughter of Kateeyah Wilson., She married GEORGE CHISHOLM. ^[8]
4. Alcey, daughter of Kateeyah Wilson.She married GILES MCNULTY. ^[9]
5. Tassel, son of Kateeyah Wilson. ^[10]
6. Two Heads, mother unknown ^[11]
7. William, mother unknown ^[12]
8. Name unknown (sister of next); died before the 1818 census, buried at Colbert home near Colbert’s Ferry per 1834 census.
9. Saleechee/Salitsi^[13] died 1846 in Indian Territory.

While Emmett Starr does not name the following women as daughters of Doublehead, their marriage to Samuel Riley and documents related to Doublehead’s estate make it a strong probability that the following were also his daughters:

10. Nigodagayu; married Samuel Riley. 11. Gulustiyu; also married Samuel Riley (plural marriage).^[14]

Sources for the others include depositions of Bird Doublehead and his cousin Catherine Spencer, and Eastern Cherokee applications of descendants.^[15]

• Government Land Agreements

1825 Oct.25 & 27 & 7 Jan 1806 (Treaties) - Secretary of War, US Government, Secret agreement with Chief Doublehead^[16]

• Controversy Concerning Doublehead Tract - Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Smithsonian Institution (Published by US Government Printing Office - Page 192^[17] "... it was really intended for the Cherokee chief Doublehead and other influential persons, as the price of their influence in ... by the treaty commissioners3 and made a matter of record, but it was never sent to the State Department nor to the Senate for the ... 1- See field notes of Colonel Martin on file in office of Indian Affairs.", 2- Letter of R.J.Meigs- Secretary of War- March 4, 1811, 3- Letter of Meigs and Smith to the Secretary of War, Jan 10, 1806

• Letters of Benjamin Hawkins 1796-1806, pages 361, 371, 372, 380, 382, 383^[18]

• Letters Between Doublehead & Govenor Blount, & other Letters referencing Chief Doublehead^[19]

Disproven Children

• Cornblossom/Pawalin. She, along with her supposed brother Tuckahoe, first appeared as children of Doublehead in Thomas H. Troxel’s 1958 largely fictional book, Legion of the Lost Mine.
• Keziah’s origin is unknown, although some claim she is named in Catherine Spencer’s deposition.^[20] Careful reading shows that Catherine was referring to her aunt, Kateeyah Wilson Doublehead.
• Tuskeahookto/Tusgiahute. Recent research by Don Martini has shown that the name of George Colbert’s second Cherokee wife is actually unknown and that Tuskeahookto is a third wife who married George Colbert in 1834 and was the widow of a man named Tyieska.^[21]
• Tukaho was a 20th century invention, first appearing in a 1950s fictional work. Others ran with this theory and claimed he married MARGARET MOUNCE, Chery (sic) Fork, (Helenwood, Tennessee); about 1768. The same fictional work claimed he was murdered in 1807 at Doublehead's Gap, Kentucky
• Doublehead Doublehead.

Sources

1. ↑ Both names and initials on 1794 Treaty of Philadelphia, digitized at treaty
2. ↑ Hoig, Stanley W. The Cherokees and Their Chiefs. University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville. 1998. pp. 94-96
3. ↑ Transcriptions at AMERIND-US-SE-L/200-12/0977343555 and AMERIND-US-SE-L/2000-12/0977343614 EC apps 10725(Bird Doublehead) 447 (John Springston).
4. ↑ Cherokee Advocate, Aug 6, 1850, Obituary of Nancy Springston; Eastern Cherokee Application # 448, John L. Springston
5. ↑ deposition of Bird Doublehead, 21 June, 1838 Transcriptions at AMERIND-US-SE-L/200-12/0977343555 and AMERIND-US-SE-L/2000-12/0977343614, reproduced at depositions
6. ↑ Bird Doublehead deposition
7. ↑ "Alabama County Marriages, 1809-1950," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VZVC-J81 : 26 September 2017), William Wilson and Peggy Doublehead, 04 Apr 1824; citing Madison, Alabama, United States, County Probate Courts, Alabama; FHL microfilm 1,305,696.
8. ↑ Bird Doublehead deposition
9. ↑ Bird Doublehead deposition
10. ↑ Bird Doublehead deposition
11. ↑ Eastern Cherokee application #10725, BIrd Doublehead
12. ↑ Eastern app #10725
13. ↑ “Autobiography of Rev Jacob Young,” quoted in Methodism in Mississippi, Jones, pp 193-195.
14. ↑ Starr, Emmet. History of the Cherokee Indians. Oklahoma Yesterday Publications edition, Tulsa, OK. 1979. p. 432
15. ↑ Eastern Cherokee application 10725, Bird Doublehead, Message board posts by Jim Hicks, Rootsweb, AMERIND-US-SE-L 2002-12
16. ↑ Secret Agreement w/Doublehead/US/ Congressional Record Series, 1889, pg 191-193, See Also original Government Source @ bottom of each page), accessed 29 Jun 2020 by Arora, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Congressional_Serial_Set/rXwpAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Indian%20Chief,%20Doublehead
17. ↑ Controversy Concerning Doublehead Tract - Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the of the Smithsonian Institution, Publisher: U.S. Government Printing Office, books.google.com › books, 1887, Page 192, accessed 29 Jun 2020 by Arora, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Annual_Report_of_the_Bureau_of_American/7C7YYMu8P3kC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=congressional+records,+Indian+Chief,+Doublehead&pg=PA192&printsec=frontcover
18. ↑ Letters of BenjaminHawkins 1796-1806, pages 361, 371, 372, 380, 382, 383, Google Books, accessed 29 Jun 2020 by Arora, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Letters_of_Benjamin_Hawkins_1796_1806/3UfjAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Doublehead
19. ↑ American State Papers, pgs- XXII, 275 447 533 657, accessed 29 Jun 2020 by Arora, https://www.google.com/books/edition/American_State_Papers/hbWsTT4Mdr0C?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Doublehead
20. ↑ example: Geni profile https://www.geni.com/people/Ks-ti-e-ie-ah-Dishman/6000000002303901560
21. ↑ Don Martini, The Chickasaw Colberts: Corrections to Colbert Family Genealogy, 2015.

See also:

• All of the following contain erroneous and/or unsourced claims

• Rickey Butch Walker, Doublehead Last Chickamauga Cherokee Chief

• Kinship Notes

• Wikipedia Doublehead

• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~brockfamily/YahooFalls-byKTankersley.html