where TecumAha himself had gone to enlist
the warriors in the great Indian confederacy. The prophets of the
Upper Creeks eagerly accepted the doctrine and in a short time their
warriors were dancing the "dance of the Indians of the lakes." In
iln American State Papers: Indian Affairs, n, p. 283, 1831.
2 See contract appended to Washington treaty, 1819, Indian Treaties, pp. 269-271, 1837; Royce map,
Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, 1888.
3 Author's personal information.
MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE i ™
anticipation of an expected war with the United Stair- the British
agents in Canada had I n encouraging the hostile feeling toward the
Americans by talks and presents of goods and ammunition, while the
Spaniards also covertly fanned the flame of discontent.' At the beighl
of the ferment war was declared between thi- country and England on
June28, 1812. Tecumtha, :it the bead of fifteen hundred warriors, at
once entered the British service with a commission as general, while
the Creeks began murdering and burning along the southern frontier,
after having vainly attempted to secure the cooperation of the ( Iherokee.
From the Creeks the new revelation was brought to the Cherokee,
whose priests at once began to dream dreams and to preach a return to
the old life as the only hope of the Indian rare. A greal medicine
dance was appointed at (Jstanali, the national capital, where, after the
dance was over, the doctrine was publicly announced and explained by
a Cherokee prophet introduced by a delegation from Coosawatee. He
began by saying that some of the mountain towns had abused him and
refused to receive his message, hut nevertheless he must continue to
hear