Biography

The boy who became Tsiyu Gansi-ni or “Dragging Canoe” was born around 1732 to the wife of the most prominent Cherokee leader of the time, Attakullakulla. He survived smallpox[1] and grew up in Chota, scene of many key political events for the Cherokee nation, in what then was North Carolina. Now it is under Tellico Lake in Tennessee (west of Great Smoky Mountains National Park). He earned his name as a child by hiding in a canoe to join a war party against his father’s wishes. Attakullakulla discovered him and said moving it to the river by himself was the only way he could go with them. The youngst