Name Old Tassel Died June 1788 | Siblings Doublehead | |
Old Tassel (or sometimes Corntassel) (Cherokee language: Utsi'dsata), ( died 1788), was "First Beloved Man" (the equivalent of a regional Cherokee chief) of the Overhill Cherokee after 1783. He continuously tried to keep the Cherokee people of the Overhill region out of the Cherokee–American wars being fought at the time between the American frontiersmen and the Chickamauga warriors under Dragging Canoe. He was murdered under a flag of truce while defending his tribe from white settlers.
Contents
Family
Old Tassel's brothers were the warriors Pumpkin Boy and Doublehead. His maternal nephew was John Watts, known as "Young Tassel." The name Corn Tassel is also the Cherokee Indian name for ex-Cherokee Nation Chief Chad Smith. The Corntassel family still exists today, as well as Doublehead and Watts.
Known history
Old Tassel became "First Beloved Man" of the Overhill Cherokee in 1783, after the tribal elders removed his predecessor, The Raven of Chota (also known as Savanukah). Being an advocate of peace, Old Tassel strove—with only some success—to keep the people of the Overhill towns out of the Cherokee–American wars being fought at the time between the white settlers and the Chickamauga in what is now the eastern Tennessee and southeastern Kentucky region. Old Tassel signed the Treaty of Hopewell in 1785.
Notorious death
Old Tassell and another pacifist chief, Abraham of Chilhowee, were murdered while under a flag of truce during an entreaty to the State of Franklin in June 1788. Wrongfully blamed for the murder of the Kirk family, then being lured to Abraham's cabin by the flag of truce, the "Bloody Seven" were tied to chairs and John Kirk was allowed by the US Government to tomahawk each man in the forehead. Old Tassel was boisterous in his death. He was known as the Great Orator. The act was considered an atrocity by the Cherokee, and briefly brought all the Cherokee to support the hostile actions of the warriors following Dragging Canoe.