(photo: Sand Town Sign Dedication, June 3, 2023, at St. John’s Episcopal Church)

Some Cherokee elders or the infirmed did not remove with most of the Eastern Cherokees. Hog Bite, for instance, was 97 years old when he aimed his antiquated firearm at Removal agents as they approached his dwelling. Rather than take him by force, they declared him too old to make the journey west to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). Thus, Hog Bite remained near what would become Sand Town on Cartoogechaye Creek in modern-day Macon County, North Carolina, while most Cherokees were forced to leave their homes on what became known as the Trail of Tears or the Trail Where They Cried. Thirteen years later, David W. Siler’s 1851 Census lists Hog Bite as 110 years old with other accounts noting how he was “still alive and vigorous,” even successfully hunting deer or turkeys for his own sustenance at times. 

Some of these elders or disabled men had fought as part of the Cherokee Regiment in the Red Stick (Creek) War (1813-1814), serving as US auxiliary troops during the War of 1812. Nickowee, a warrior from the Valley Towns, was severely wounded at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, while under the command of Captain James Foster. Nickowee suffered from a shot that fractured his leg near the knee, leaving him disabled. He remained in Cherokee County, North Carolina, and in 1859, at the age of 73, hired local attorney P.M. Henry to facilitate his pension application, since the Cherokee witnesses and officers who could attest to his claim had been removed West. He ultimately received his pension and a bounty land warrant. These land grants were plots in American territories, such as Kansas and Nebraska. These usually were sold to the US Public Land Office since they were hundreds of miles from the receiver’s home.

Sources:

• Charles Lanman, Letters from Alleghany Mountains (NY: George Putnam), 79.
• David Siler, comp., The Eastern Cherokees: A Census of the Cherokee Nation in North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia in 1851 (Cottonport, LA: 1972), 71.
• John R. Finger, The Eastern Band of Cherokees, 1819-1900 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press,1984), 21.
• Susan M. Abram, Forging a Cherokee-American Alliance in the Creek War: From Creation to Betrayal (Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2015), 105-106, 145.

To watch a video of the Sand Town sign dedication, please visit: https://youtu.be/S6JwwThpY58

For more information about the Sand Town sign dedication at St. John’s Episcopal Church, please visit: https://www.stjohnscartoogechaye.com/history.html

Article by Dr. Sue Abram