MySource:BobC/Mystery of the Missing Nancy Ward Statue

Mystery of the Missing Nancy Ward Statue

(This comes from Richard Lawrence of the Alabama chapter of Trail of Tears Association.)

I've been trying to raise awareness of an issue that I've been involved with for the past 3 1/2 years now which happens to tie in with Becky Hobbs' theatrical production about the life of Nancy Ward and the performance she will be giving at the Guntersville conference next month.

Here is an article which was published in the Association of the Descendants of Nancy Ward newsletter last week and posted at On the Trail of the Trail: The Trail of Tears ... from Georgia to Oklahoma web blog on 2 September 2009 by W. Jeff Bishop.

NANCY WARD STATUE

Beloved Woman (Ghigua); Wild Rose of the Cherokee (Tsist-u-na-gus-ka); Pocahontas of the West; Pretty Woman; War Woman (Agi-ga-u-e); Prophetess; Granny Ward - these are a few of the names and titles given to Nancy Ward, undoubtedly the most powerful and influential woman in the Cherokee Nation during her lifetime and maybe even of all time. She ruled over the powerful Council of Women and had a voting seat in the Council of Chiefs. During her lifetime the Cherokee moved from a matriarchal, clan-type of government to a republic much like our own.

Nancy Ward was born in 1738 at Chota, later to become the capital of the Cherokee Nation. Her mother was Tame Doe, of the Wolf Clan, the sister of Attakullakulla, civil chief of the Cherokee Nation. She was named Nanye-hi. By age 17 she had two children, Five Killer and Catherine. Her husband was killed in a raid on the Creeks during the 1755 Battle of Taliwa. She had fought by her husband’s side, chewing the lead bullets for his rifle to make them more deadly. When he fell in battle, she sprang up from behind a log and rallied the Cherokee warriors to fight harder. She took up his rifle and led a charge that was unnerving to the enemy and resulted in overwhelming victory for the Cherokee.

Because of her valor leading to this victory, the clans chose her as Ghigua, “Beloved Woman” or “Pretty Woman” of the Cherokees. She has been described in her adult years as queenly and commanding in appearance and manner; tall, erect, and beautiful; with a prominent nose, regular features, clear complexion, long silken black hair; large, piercing black eyes, and an imperious yet kindly air; and as a winsome and resourceful woman. She was loved and respected by the settlers as well as the Cherokee. She sought peaceful existence with the white settlers and on numerous occasions she saved the lives of white people. On at least two occasions during the Revolutionary War period she sent warnings to John Sevier at the Watauga settlements of planned Indian attacks, thus giving them time to prepare a defense or counter-offensive.

Nancy married Bryant Ward, an English trader who had fought in the French and Indian War when he came among the Cherokee in the late 1750's. They lived in Chota for a time and a daughter, Elizabeth (Betsy), was born to them there. After a time, Bryant Ward moved back to South Carolina, where he had left a white wife and family before coming to Chota. Nancy Ward was always welcomed there and treated with respect in his home as she visited there on many occasions taking with her their daughter Betsy.

She participated in the Treaty of July 20, 1781, and the Treaty at Hopewell, November 28, 1785, as a principle speaker. She alluded to her never-ending desire to seek peace for her people and to hold on to as much of their land as possible. Her speeches were powerful and eloquent. Even when the white settlers intended to take more Cherokee land, after her speech, they did not bring it up. Each time she spoke, she pleaded for peace between the white settlers and the Cherokee. Yet the white settlers’ desire for additional land and the reluctance of many Cherokee to agree to give up the land without bloodshed led to continuing hostilities. After the Hiwassee Purchase of 1819, she left Chota and settled on the Ocoee River near Benton, Tennessee. Here she operated an inn at Woman Killer Ford on the Federal Road until her death in 1822. She is buried on a hill nearby. In 1923 a monument was placed on her grave by a Chattanooga Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Five Killer, Nancy’s and Kingfisher’s son, is identified on his tombstone as a soldier in the War of 1812. Betsy Ward, Nancy’s and Bryant Ward’s daughter, married Joseph Martin who was the Indian Agent for the Cherokees and lived at the Long Island of the Holston River. Katherine or Ka-ti, who was the daughter of Nancy and Kingfisher is thought possibly to be an ancestor of the sculptor, James Abraham Walker, who created a statue in her honor at the turn of the 20th century. Walker was moved by the legend of this powerful and beautiful Cherokee woman, to produce a quaint statue.

The statue was approximately four feet high, made of Bear Creek granite and represented Nancy Ward, holding in her right arm a lamb and in her left hand a plaque with the words "Nancy Ward, Watauga, 1776", referring to the first occasion on which she helped the pioneers by warning them of impending attack by Dragging Canoe, her cousin and the Cherokee who most effectively resisted the white settlement of Cherokee land. Walker intended this work of folk art as a gift to be placed on her grave, but financial reversals in 1912 caused him to sell it to his brother Elbert Walker, who put it at the head of Maggie Farmer’s grave who was his deceased daughter and wife of Ben Farmer.

The statue was photographed in the Arnwine Cemetery overlooking the Clinch River, near Liberty Hill in Grainger County, Tennessee, in August, 1975. This photograph was used to highlight the Nancy Ward section in the Tennessee Blue Books published in the late 1970's.

In 1980 the statue was stolen from the grave. It has been tracked by David Alexander, descendent of Maggie Farmer, and myself. I have published several accounts of Nancy Ward’s history and maintain a web site, <http://smithdray.tripod.com/nancyward-index-5.html>, dedicated to her honor.

The statue was located in February, 2006, by Richard Lawrence, a descendent of Nancy Ward. It was in an art show in New York City. The people showing the statue were scheduled to be in Nashville the next weekend, so I went to their booth and said, “Hello, I’m Ray Smith” and they replied, “Oh, you are the one with the Nancy Ward web site!” I said, “Yes, when are you going to return that statue to Tennessee where it belongs?” They replied, “When you give us $165,000 for it.”

David Alexander and I have worked, with the continuing help of Richard Lawrence, over these past several months to embargo the statue so it cannot be sold again. We have documented statements tracing the statue’s movement at every exchange of possession since its unlawful removal from the cemetery. We have now enlisted the help of the East Tennessee Historical Society who has a legal firm in Knoxville working in support of returning the stolen statue.

While the actions necessary for the return of the statue are still in motion, it is not wise for me to discuss the specifics of those actions. However, I am on the board of directors of the society and we have reinforced the floor at the spot in the East Tennessee History Center where the statue will stand when it is returned.

It is a shame to see this quaint statue of this honored, "Beloved Woman," traded as if it were merely an interesting bit of art. That statue is far more significant to our history. It represents an era of tremendous transition and the life of one of the framers of the way that change occurred in the Cherokee. She fought in her unique way of influential speaking and commanding presence to sustain her life as a proud Cherokee and to assure that the lives of her grandchildren would be lives of peace and prosperity.

Ray Smith/July 23, 2009

Link to the Cherokee Heritage Project Page