1. Tahlonteeskee of the Broken Arrow was the possible Cherokee-given name of a Creek chieftain
   Tribal chief
   A tribal chief is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribal societies with social stratification under a single leader emerged in the Neolithic period out of earlier tribal structures with little stratification, and they remained prevalent throughout the Iron Age.In the case of ...
   
    killed in a failed attack against Buchannan's Station, a frontier fort near Nashville, TN, on September 30, 1792. Also killed in this attack was Pumpkin Boy, brother of Doublehead
   Doublehead
   Doublehead or Incalatanga , was one of the most feared warriors of the Cherokee during the Chickamauga Wars. In 1788, his brother, Old Tassel, was chief of the Cherokee people, but was killed under a truce by frontier rangers. In 1791 Doublehead was among a delegation of Cherokees who visited U.S...
   
   , and the Shawnee warrior called 'Siksika', an older brother of Tecumseh
   Tecumseh
   Tecumseh was a Native American leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy which opposed the United States during Tecumseh's War and the War of 1812...
   
   . Wounded in the skirmish was John Watts
   John Watts (Cherokee chief)
   John Watts, or Kunokeski, also known as Young Tassel, was one of the leaders of the Chickamauga during the Chickamauga Wars, particularly after the murder of his uncle, Old Tassel, by marauding frontiersmen firing upon delegates at a peace conference in 1788...
   
    (also known as 'Young Tassel').
2. Tahlonteeskee was the name of a brother or brother-in-law of Doublehead, a well known Chickamauga Indian
   Chickamauga Indian
   The Chickamauga or Lower Cherokee, were a band of Cherokee who supported Great Britain at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. They were followers of the Cherokee chief Dragging Canoe...
   
    warrior. Governor William Blount
   William Blount
   William Blount, was a United States statesman. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention for North Carolina, the first and only governor of the Southwest Territory, and Democratic-Republican Senator from Tennessee . He played a major role in establishing the state of Tennessee. He was the...
   
    was told by John Watts that Tahlonteeskee was his uncle "of a kind", perhaps denoting a relationship by marriage. This older man named Tahlonteeskee was a member of the Cherokee delegation to Philadelphia in 1791, accompanying Doublehead and Bloody Fellow. These diplomats met with President George Washington
   George Washington
   George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
   
   . Later, Tahlonteeskee joined his nephew, John Watts, and the young Dragging Canoe
   Dragging Canoe
   Tsiyu Gansini , "He is dragging his canoe", known to whites as Dragging Canoe, was a Cherokee war chief who led a band of Cherokee against colonists and United States settlers...
   
   , in a secret trip to Pensacola, FL, whose purpose was to buy arms and supplies from a British merchant. Governor Blount was informed of this trip by spy reports printed in the "American State Papers".
3. Tahlonteeskee (or 'Talotisky' ) was yet another man mentioned by the same source, which noted that John Watts was visited at his residence in Willstown, AL by Watts' nephews: 'Captain' Bench (a.k.a. Bob Benge
   Bob Benge
   Bob Benge , also known as "Captain Benge" or "The Bench" to frontiersmen, was one of the most feared Cherokee leaders on the frontier during the Chickamauga wars.-Early life:...
   
   ), The Tail, and Talotisky. The latter name is possibly an alternate spelling of Tahlonteeskee, since at that time there was not a uniform system of writing Cherokee sounds into English. Talotisky was a former headman of Cayoka town, on Hiawassee Island (in modern day Hamilton County, TN
   Hamilton County, Tennessee
   Hamilton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It was named for Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury. The 2005 Census Estimate placed the population at 310,935 . Its county seat is Chattanooga....
   
   ), and was the older brother (or half-brother) of John Jolly
   John Jolly
   John Jolly, ; , was Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation—West when the 1828 constitution was adopted...
   
   . This was the same Tahlonteeskee that emigrated into the west in 1809. He became the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation West in 1817, and served until his death in 1819, after which he was succeeded by his brother, John Jolly. According to the Cherokee genealogist, Dr. Emmet Starr, Talotisky married Jennie Lowrey, sister of Assistant Principal Chief George Lowrey. The latter was supposed to have been a cousin of Sequoyah
   Sequoyah
   Sequoyah , named in English George Gist or George Guess, was a Cherokee silversmith. In 1821 he completed his independent creation of a Cherokee syllabary, making reading and writing in Cherokee possible...
   
   , but his wife was Lucy Benge, a half-sister of Sequoyah. Lucy was the sister of Chickamauga warrior, Bob Benge, whose uncle was John Watts. The Cherokee embraced the matrilineal clan system, in which uncle-nephew connections were more important than father-son relationships.

Sources

• American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol.1, 1789-1813Congress of the United States, Washington, DC, 1831-1861.
• McLoughlin, William G.
  William G. McLoughlin
  William Gerald McLoughlin was an historian and prominent member of the history department at Brown University from 1954 to 1992. His subject areas were the history of religion in the United States, revivalism, the Cherokee, missionaries to Native Americans, abolitionism, and Rhode Island.Born in...
  
  Cherokee Renascence in the New Republic. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992).
• Mooney, James. Myths of the Cherokee and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee. (Nashville: Charles and Randy Elder-Booksellers, 1982).
• Wilkins, Thurman. Cherokee Tragedy: The Ridge Family and the Decimation of a People. (New York: Macmillan Company, 1970).