Nancy Ward

Born Nanye-hi at Chota in 1738, she became Beloved Woman of the Cherokees after the 1755 battle of Taliwa, where she took up her fallen husband's rifle and rallied warriors against the Creeks. The office gave her a seat on the Council of Chiefs, leadership of the Women's Council and power over prisoners. At the Long Island of the Holston in 1781 she spoke for peace on behalf of women, and the treaty took no Cherokee land. She pleaded again at Hopewell in 1785, but settlers ignored both treaties, and further cessions followed.

What the plaque says

Nancy Ward High priestess of the Cherokee and always loyal friend of white settlers, is buried on the ridge to the west. She repeatedly prevented massacres of white settlers and several times rescued captives from death at the hands of her people. She is also credited with the introduction of milk cows and many improvements in homemaking into the Cherokee economy.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ocoee Whitewater Center — 14 mi
  The Forest Service site on the Ocoee River in Cherokee National Forest that hosted the 1996 Olympic canoe slalom, on a river that TVA dams and releases by schedule.
• Red Clay State Historic Park — 19 mi
  The last seat of the Cherokee Nation before removal, where eleven general councils met from 1832 to 1837, now a state park with a council house replica, a sacred spring and an eternal flame.
• Cherokee Trail of Tears State Park — 25 mi
  The Blythe Ferry landing at the mouth of the Hiwassee, where Cherokee and Muscogee people camped in 1838 to cross the Tennessee River, made a state park in June 2026.
• Rhea County Courthouse — 30 mi
  The 1891 Dayton courthouse where John T. Scopes was tried in July 1925 for teaching evolution, with the second-floor courtroom restored and a trial museum in the basement.

More markers nearby

• Civil War in Polk County — 1.6 mi
• Marr's Fort — 8.1 mi
• Charleston on the Hiwassee — 9.3 mi
• The Henegar House — 9.5 mi