During Native American Heritage Month and year-round, we draw inspiration from the stories of Native women leaders who navigated the complicated negotiations between white settlers and Native communities, a fraught relationship that continues to this day.
One of those leaders is Nanyehi “Nancy” Ward, a member of the Cherokee Nation who believed that women would be critical to establishing peace with white settlers. Hers is one of the many life stories featured in Women & the American Story, an online resource created by the New York Historical Society.
The Cherokee Nation had a long history of female leadership when white settlers first arrived in the area known today as the Southeastern United States. Cherokee society is matrilineal, meaning that tribal and clan membership is traced through mothers. The Women’s Council of Clan Representatives is one of the two governing bodies of the nation.
This kind of power was unfamiliar to white women settlers who lived during Nanyehi’s time. They were still considered the wards of their fathers and husbands.
Nanyehi lived during a critical moment in Cherokee history. She was born in 1738 in the Cherokee town of Chota (in modern-day Monroe County, Tennessee), the niece of Chief Attakullakulla. From his example, Nanyehi came to believe that the only way her people could survive the onslaught of white settlement was to cooperate and coexist with settlers.
At the age of 17, Nanyehi was married with two young children when she accompanied her husband into battle against the Creek Nation. When her husband was killed, Nanyehi took up his rifle and led Cherokee warriors to victory. Her courage earned her the title Ghigau, or Beloved Woman. She was revered as a spiritual leader, named the head of the Women’s Council and was the only woman given a vote in the Cherokee General Council. She used her newfound influence to advocate for peaceful coexistence with white settlers.
In the late 1750s, Nanyehi married an English trader and took on the name Nancy Ward. It is possible this marriage was arranged by her uncle to strengthen ties between the settler and Cherokee communities.
Nanyehi was 37 when the Revolutionary War began in 1775. Like many Native nations, the Cherokee had to decide whether to side with the British or Americans. The Cherokee allied with the British, but Nanyehi joined her uncle Attakullakulla in counseling restraint.
Other members of their tribe saw the war as an opportunity to reclaim land lost to white settlers. Nanyehi’s cousin’s son, the warrior Tsiyu Gansini, aka Dragging Canoe, planned a raid on a white settlement near the Watauga River. Tsiyu is said to have asked for Nanyehi’s blessing in the form of a traditional black drink believed to protect Cherokee warriors.
But Nanyehi had other plans.