Nickajack - Earlier History of The Area

Earlier History of The Area

The area known as Nickajack referred in general to the rugged Appalachian foothills in eastern Tennessee and northeastern Alabama. John P. Brown, in Old Frontiers, states that "Nickajack" is a corruption of the Cherokee ᎠᏂ ᎫᏌᏘ Ᏹ ("Ani-Kusati-yi"), which he says means Coosa Town but more likely means Koasati Town. A popular story about the origin for the name is that the town was named after "Jack Civil", supposedly a free black man who led a renegade band of white and black fugitives, Chickamauga and Creek warriors from "Five Lower Towns" on the Tennessee River west and southwest of present day Chattanooga during the Chickamauga wars. The warriors were mostly made up of the Cherokee led by Dragging Canoe, though small groups of Shawnee and Creek lived and fought with them, in addition to occasional large bands of Muskogee as allies, renegade whites, white traders, Spanish, French, and British agents, and runaway slaves (at least in the earlier years).

After those wars, Nickajack eclipsed its neighbor Running Water town (Dragging Canoe's seat of operations), as the dominant town in the immediate area due to its position on the river (Running Water was far up the hollow in which it was located) and at the crossing of the "Federal Road" from Athens to Nashville over the Tennessee River. One of the town's more prominent residents, Turtle-at-Home (Dragging Canoe's brother), owned the ferry at that crossing and had other commercial interests in addition to being on the council of the Lower Towns and Speaker of the Cherokee National Council.