The New Path: How Muscogee and Cherokee Diplomacy Shaped the American Revolution
Research Poster Arts & Humanities 2025 Graduate ExhibitionPresentation by Christopher Thrasher
Exhibition Number 163
Abstract
In the eighteenth century, land disputes caused many a conflict between Native American nations and their neighbors. The Cherokee Nation agreed to cede land in exchange for debt forgiveness during the early 1770s. The Muscogee Confederacy claimed these lands too, however. These two nations fought each other in the late 1760s, but rather than solve their differences by resuming conflict, Muscogees and Cherokees settled the issue peacefully and diplomatically. They agreed to a joint-cession granting lands to the British colonies. This fateful choice and a concurrent conference bringing together many North American nations contributed to the development of stronger ties between Muscogees and Cherokees. Chota, a key Cherokee town, hosted a secret conference at which Native nations met in secret and agreed to join forces. Their objectives included ending wars between Native nations, and rumor had it that these nations likewise debated an anti-colonial war or “general Indian war.” These events provided a path for Muscogees to establish greater regional influence while strengthening their ties to the rest of North America. Out of these projects, Muscogees and Cherokees constructed the New Path, a trade route linking Chota, the Muscogee towns, and British Pensacola. As the Revolutionary War reshaped North American affairs, trading paths linking Georgia and South Carolina to Native nations in the American Southeast closed. The New Path became critical as virtually the single source of trade in the region and also as a key route for refugees from war.
Importance
Although many scholars have discussed Muscogee or Cherokee history during the Revolutionary War in brief, few have devoted significant space within book-length projects. Historians also tend to isolate individual Native nations from one another and have neglected the secret 1773 Chota conference. This project presents one of the first attempts to focus on this period and keep Native peoples at the center of the story. Muscogee and Cherokee diplomacy with one another also provides the foundation for much of the narrative, and the New Path that they established connects the chapters of my project. My dissertation is the first project to place the Revolutionary War in the context of the 1773 Chota conference.
DEI Statement
Almost every facet of the project contributes to discussions about race, Native American sovereignty, and early attempts to develop some form of shared identity or common-cause between disparate Native nations.