 | This articlerelies excessively onreferences toprimary sources. Please improve this article by addingsecondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "Ostenaco" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(November 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Ostenaco | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Ostenaco byJoshua Reynolds, 1762 | |
| Born | c. 1710 |
| Died | 1780 Ooltewah,Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States |
| Occupation | War chief |
Ostenaco[a] (/ˈoʊtəˌsɪtiˌoʊstɪˈnækoʊ/;Cherokee:ᎤᏍᏔᎾᏆ,romanized: Ustanaqua, or "Bighead";[1] c. 1710 – 1780)[2] was aCherokee leader, warrior, orator, and leader of diplomacy with British colonial authorities in the 18th century. By his thirties, he had assumed the warrior rank of "otacity" (mankiller), and the title "tassite" of Great Tellico.[3] He eventually rose to assume the higher Cherokee rank of chief-warrior (or "skiagusta"—meaning 'red chief').[4][b]
Ostenaco was born in the settledCherokee town ofTellico in present-dayTellico Plains, Tennessee, inc. 1710.[5] It has been conjectured that he was born into theAni-waya (Wolf) clan, which was associated with bearing the most warriors.[6] He was often referred to among white colonists asJudd's Friend, referring to his relationship of a trader by that name[7][c][d] After theCreek Indians assaulted Tellico in 1753, he resettled inTomotley in present-dayMonroe County, Tennessee.[10]
During theFrench and Indian War, Ostenaco at first aidedVirginia against theFrench and theShawnee, leading his warriors over 3,500 miles on foot and by canoe to support the colonists. In 1756, he led 130 Cherokees in theSandy Creek Expedition, a joint Cheroke–Virginia Colony campaign on the frontier of what is nowWest Virginia. In 1757 and 1758, his war party raided the French stronghold atFort Duquesne (located in present day Pittsburgh), eventually taking it.[11] When part of the victorious war party was on its way back home, however, it was indiscriminately ambushed by Virginia frontiersmen who killed 20 of his men. In retaliation, the Cherokee of that region embarked on a campaign against the British colonists that lasted for the next three years. The uneasy peace that followed resulted in a 1761–1762 winter peace expedition, which was the colonial army's attempt at reestablishing friendship with their once-allied Cherokee tribes.[12]
The expeditionary party, made up of LieutenantHenry Timberlake, SergeantThomas Sumter, John McCormack (an interpreter), and an unnamed servant, arrived in theOverhill Cherokee town ofTomotley on December 20,1761, where they were greeted by Ostenaco, one of the leading men in the town, who was visiting fromKeowee.[13] After spending several days in Tomotley as guests of Ostenaco, Timberlake and his interpreter proceeded to the Overhill mother-town ofChota, where a number of chiefs had gathered in the town's large council-house. Ostenaco gave a speech and ceremoniallyburied a hatchet in the ground, symbolizing a state of peace between the English and the Cherokee. Afterward, Timberlake took part in a peace ceremony in which he smoked severalceremonial pipes with the gathered chiefs, a practice Timberlake personally found "very disagreeable," but participated without openly complaining.[12]
On January 2, 1762, Timberlake returned to Tomotley with Ostenaco, his assignment largely completed. Timberlake spent the next few weeks studying Cherokee habits and making notes for his maps of the Overhill country. At the end of January, rumors began trickling in from Cherokee scouts of renewed hostilities with rival tribes to the north. Timberlake grew anxious and begged Ostenaco to guide him back to Virginia. Ostenaco reluctantly agreed, and the party set out on March 10, 1762,[14] arriving inWilliamsburg in early April.[15]
While in Williamsburg, Timberlake and Ostenaco attended a dinner party atWilliam & Mary College at which Ostenaco professed his desire to meet the king of England. A youngThomas Jefferson, then a student at the college, later wrote of Ostenaco:
"I knew much of the great Outassete (Ostenaco), the warrior and orator of the Cherokee. He was always the guest of my father on his journeys to and from Williamsburg. I was in his camp when he made his great farewell oration to his people the evening before he departed for England. The moon was in full splendour, and to her he seemed to address himself in his prayers for his own safety on the voyage and that of his people during his absence. His sounding voice, distinct articulation, animated action, and the solemn silence of his people at their several fires, filled me with awe and veneration, although I did not understand a single word he uttered."[16]
In May 1762, Timberlake, Sumter, and three distinguished Cherokee leaders, including Ostenaco, departed for London.[17] Arriving in early June, the Cherokee were an immediate attraction, drawing crowds all over the city. The poetOliver Goldsmith queued for over three hours to meet the Cherokee, and offered him a gift. Ostenaco thanked him by kissing him on both cheeks, leaving them smeared with ochre, which caused bystanders to laugh, and discomforted Goldsmith, who didn't expect that 'natives' would apply makeup as heavy as that common in European society.[18] It may have been Goldsmith who suggested to his friendJoshua Reynolds to paint Ostenaco's portrait. Reynolds was not satisfied with the result, as he failed to find a solution to the need for harmonizing neoclassical principles about conveying something universal while catering to contemporary tastes in individualized features. Thus he chose to ignore his subject's tattoos and ochre makeup, while depicting hiswampum and hairstyle against a forested mountain backdrop. As a result he put the portrait, entitled 'Syacust Ukah', into storage.[19]
The Cherokees returned to North America with Thomas Sumter in August 1762.[20] The trip secured for Ostenaco lasting fame on both sides of the Atlantic,[21] and Timberlake married a daughter of Ostenaco.
During theSecond Cherokee War, Ostenaco was the chief war leader of theCherokee Lower Towns in westernSouth Carolina/northeastGeorgia, and was allied with the British forces. In 1776 he led their attack against theProvince of Georgia. After the destruction of the Lower Towns in the retaliation which followed, Ostenaco led his people west. The majority resettled in what is now farnorthern Georgia, with Ustanali as their chief town. Some followed him into theCherokee–American wars withDragging Canoe, and settled with him in the Chickamauga (nowChattanooga, Tennessee) region at the town of Ooltewah (Ultiwa'i, "owl's nest") on Ooltewah Creek (in the modernHamilton County, Tennessee).
Ostenaco died at the home of his grandson, Richard Timberlake, the son ofHenry Timberlake and Ostenaco's daughter, at Ooltewah in 1780.