Nancy Ward - Beloved Woman

Beloved Woman

Nanyehi was born as "Tsituna-Gus-Ke" (Wild Rose) around 1738 in the Cherokee capital, Chota (Cherokee: “City of Refuge”) in what today is known as Monroe County, Tennessee, as a daughter of Tame Doe and Francis Ward “Fivekiller”, son of Francis Ward of Ireland. Her mother, the sister of Attakullakulla was a member of the Wolf Clan, her father a European-American living in the Cherokee lands, where today the states of Georgia, Tennessee, South and North Carolina come together. Some sources disagree naming a member of the Delaware tribe as her father.

It is unclear how Tame Doe and Francis Ward met and married although it is believed that they first encountered after Ward settled in the Tyger River area in today’s Spartanburg County, South Carolina. According to some sources he was later banished from the Cherokee land what would explain Harold W. Felton’s writing in Nancy Ward, Cherokee, according to which Nanyehi learned both the English and the Cherokee language from her mother.

It is said that Ward had visions of helping spirits when she was growing up and was renamed "Nanye'hi" ("One who is with the Spirit People").

At the age of 14 she married the Cherokee Kingfisher, member of the Deer Clan and Catharine, their daughter was born. According to Felton, three years later a son, Littlefellow Fivekiller, followed. At her husband’s side she fought in the Battle of Taliwa against the Creeks in 1755, according to Felton she stood by his side “chewing bullets”. After both her father and her husband were killed in battle, she picked up his weapon and kept fighting leading her people to victory.

Afterwards, at the age of 18 she was awarded with the title of “Ghigau”, making her a member of the tribal council of chiefs. She was also named the leader of the Women’s Council of Clan Representatives and took over the role of ambassador and negotiator for her people.

Later, she remarried to her cousin, a South Carolina colonist and trader, Bryant Ward, nephew of Francis Ward, with who she had a daughter, Elizabeth, who later became the wife of General Joseph Martin. Later Bryant left the area.