Early Skirmishes Near Standing Stone

By Dale Welch

While there were lots of fighting between Native Americans and Europeans over the years, the Cherokee and Chickasaw waged a war with the Shawnee tribes for around 50 years before. As the Europeans started pouring into the Cumberland Mountains, the tribes turned their attention toward a new invader that wouldn’t stop coming.

As the new Territory South of the River Ohio was formed by congress, in May 1790, the floodgates of European immigrants opened. Attacks by the Cherokee upon the new settlers increased along the newly built roads, such as the Avery Trace.

There was an attack by Native Americans against a military escort near the Standing Stone, at Flat Rock just east of the Standing Stone on Nov. 24, 1792. The Flat Rock area can be seen off I-40 at the Putnam-Cumberland County line, on the Burks farm. Chickamauga Cherokee Chief Doublehead, his nephew Chief John Watts and Chief Midddlestricker had formed a loose confederation with different tribes such as the Muscogee Creek and Shawnee Indians. The Creek was assigned to harass settlers along the Avery Trace area along the Cumberland Plateau.

The Standing Stone, or Standing Up Rock as it was sometimes called, was believed to be built by an enigmatic group of Native American collectively known as the Mound Builders 2,000 years before Christ and long before the Cherokee existed. The Mound Builders were sun worshippers and their idols either set toward the rising or setting sun. The Standing Stone, resembling an old gray dog in a sitting position, which once set due West. 

In the early morning hours of Nov. 24, 1792, Capt. Samuel Henley and 40 men were marching from Ft. Southwest Point (present day Kingston) into the Mero District (Nashville). They were on their way for a three-month assignment to help protect the Mero District. 

Approximately 250 Indians attacked Henley and his militiamen. Capt. Hensley was captured, eight of his men were missing and presumed dead, while 32 made it back to Ft. Southwest Point. Ft. Southwest Point at that time was only a block house, at the convergence of the Clinch and Tennessee Rivers, and commanded by John Sevier.

Capt. Henley was released by his captors on Jan. 12, 1793. The group that had captured him was a band of 60 Muscogee Creek Indians. He told superiors after returning to Ft. Southwest Point that the Creek held a council whether he was to live or die. They decided to let him live.

Also in 1792, Chief Nettle Carrier and his brother Pumpkin Boy, members pf the Cherokee Bird Clan (scouts), were scouting ahead of a war party near the block house at Ft. Southwest Point. Sentries discovered them and killed Pumpkin Boy. After that, Nettle Carrier and more moved into what is now the Alpine area, in Overton County, just northwest of Standing Stone. They thought settlers would never move that far west and they could live in peace. The 1805 Third Treaty of the Tellico ceded more area to the new settlers, including his lands. He sent numerous letters to the Indian Agent Return J. Meigs about encroaches moving into his land, but to no avail.

Regardless, he fought alongside Gen. Andrew Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend to defeat the “Red Sticks.” He applied for bounty lands for his service. Nettle Carrier and other Cherokee were denied compensation that their white compatriots received.

In 1818, Nettle Carrier applied for his family of six to head west.

As for Chief Doublehead, mentioned above, he was assassinated by his own people, in Aug. 1807 for under-the-table dealing with the government. John Sevier, the commander at Ft. Southwest Point, became the first governor of Tennessee.