Utsi'dsata, or Corntassel, known to history as Old Tassel, became First Beloved Man, at least of the Overhill

Overhill Cherokee

The term Overhill Cherokee refers to the former Cherokee settlements located in what is now Tennessee in the southeastern United States. The name was given by 18th century European traders and explorers who had to cross the Appalachian Mountains to reach these settlements when traveling from...

 and other non-belligerent Cherokee, in 1783 after the elders removed his predecessor, The Raven of Chota. A strong advocate of peace, he strove, only somewhat successfully, to keep the people of the Overhill region out of the Chickamauga wars

Chickamauga wars

The Chickamauga Wars were a series of raids, campaigns, ambushes, minor skirmishes, and several full-scale frontier battles which were a continuation of the Cherokee struggle against encroachment by American frontiersmen from the former British colonies...

 between the white settlers in what is now East Tennessee

East Tennessee

East Tennessee is a name given to approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. East Tennessee consists of 33 counties, 30 located within the Eastern Time Zone and three counties in the Central Time Zone, namely...

 and the warriors under 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...

. He and another pacifist chief, Abraham of Chilhowee, were murdered under a flag of truce during an embassy to the State of Franklin

State of Franklin

The State of Franklin, known also as the Free Republic of Franklin or the State of Frankland , was an unrecognized autonomous United States territory created in 1784 from part of the territory west of the Appalachian Mountains that had been offered,...

 in 1788, an atrocity which brought all the Cherokee, at least briefly, to support the hostile warriors under Dragging Canoe. His brothers were the warriors Pumpkin Boy and 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...

. Old Tassel's maternal nephew was John Watts, also known as Young Tassel.

Sources

• Alderman, Pat. Dragging Canoe: Cherokee-Chickamauga War Chief. (Johnson City: Overmountain Press, 1978)
• Brown, John P. Old Frontiers. (Kingsport: Southern Publishers, 1938).
• Haywood, W. H. The Civil and Political History of the State of Tennessee from its Earliest Settlement up to the Year 1796. (Nashville: Methodist Episcopal Publishing House, 1891).
• Moore, John Trotwood and Austin P. Foster. Tennessee, The Volunteer State, 1769–1923, Vol. 1. (Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1923).
• Ramsey, James Gettys McGregor. The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century. (Chattanooga: Judge David Campbell, 1926).