Echota... the Peace City

In the days of old, the center of the Cherokee nation was the peace city of the Cherokee. It was located southwest of Knoxville, Tennessee, but at that time, it was the North Carolina territory, just as Georgia ran from the coast on the east to the Mississippi River on the west, this was the Georgia territory.

Echota was large and beautiful and where its leaders worked to maintain peace. From where my grandfather lived on Shooting Creek, Echota was northwest of Shooting Creek and it was said that Running Fox went there many times. It was north of Yellow Creek and it was said that you could see the great mountain from Echota.

There are stories passed down when Running Fox was a boy, of the trips to the City of Peace, and the tribe meetings. The stories tell of the times of joy and of war, a time for dancing and a time for crying. In time, the city was moved down to Georgia and was called New Echota but this never set well with the Cherokee, for when the white man ordered the Cherokee to the land west of the great river, the law of the Cherokee said that they could not give away or sell the lands of their forefathers. Part of the great nation was forced to the lands west of the great river; part of the Cherokee nation went into the Great Smokey Mountains. Some were hunted down and killed but in time, the army would let the Cherokee stay in the lands of their forefathers.

By this time, my great grandfather had moved south into Georgia, running from the United States army and then moving west into Alabama, the home of our brothers, the Creeks. Most of our brothers, the Creeks, were moved west of the great river, just two years before.

There was over two thousand Creek Indians that died as they were moving west of the great river. The same thing happened to the Cherokee, many died as they were moved west of the great river. There were over sixteen thousand Cherokee that moved west of the great river, only a few hundred of them hid in the Great Smokey Mountains and my grandfather was one of them. Even so, he ended up in the land of the Creeks and Cherokees in northern Alabama and Tennessee.

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