Hello and welcome to a history of the United States. Episode 119.

The Cherokee War.

In our last episode, we caught up on events around the world in the Seven Years' War,

looking at the British victory in India and the continued struggles of Prussia in Europe.

We then turned to the major event of October

1760, the death of King George II and the ascension of King George III. We introduced Lord

Butte into the narrative. Those of you who've read ahead will know the important

role he is going to have in the lead-up to the American Revolution, but before we get too

far ahead of ourselves, we need to go back to North America to check in with Amherst and cover

what I've been teasing for the past few episodes, The Cherokee War.

You might not think it, given how I focused on the northern colonies in our narrative over the past 20 years or so, but the largest scale interaction the British had with a Native American tribe

was with the Cherokees.

At this point in time, they were about 10,000 strong, and lived in three major clusters of villages around the eastern borders of Tennessee. These were the overhills, the lower towns, and the

middle towns. They primarily acted as trade partners with the

British, particularly the colony of South Carolina, but also acted as slave capturers. Their alliance with the British had lasted several decades,

and we have mentioned them in the narrative previously, as several hundred offered to fight for

the British in the early years of the Seven Years' War during the Forbes campaign. But that

had been a train wreck. They had been insulted by Forbes, and during the summer of

1758, they returned home with weapons. This spooked the British farmers of the backcountry,

who did not distinguish between Indian ally and Indian enemy. Militias attacked the Cherokees, with one group killing several overhill chiefs,

and handing their scalps in in Virginia for a reward.

This soured relations, but when the Cherokee warriors made their way back home, they found that

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