Moytoy of Tellico was a Cherokee

Cherokee

The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...

 leader from Great Tellico

Great Tellico

Great Tellico was a Cherokee town at the site of present-day Tellico Plains, Tennessee, where the Tellico River emerges from the Appalachian Mountains. Great Tellico was one of the largest Cherokee towns in the region, and had a sister town nearby named Chatuga. Its name in Cherokee is more...

, to whom Sir Alexander Cumming, a trade envoy from the Province of South Carolina

Province of South Carolina

The South Carolina Colony, or Province of South Carolina, was originally part of the Province of Carolina, which was chartered in 1663. The colony later became the U.S. state of South Carolina....

 gave the title "Emperor of the Cherokee". The Cherokee themselves used the title "First Beloved Man". His name in Cherokee was Amo-adawehi, "rainmaker,".

In 1730 Cumming, a Scottish adventurer with no particular authority so for being a businessman with ties to the colonial government of South Carolina, arranged for Moytoy to be crowned emperor over all of the Cherokee towns in a ceremony aimed at his colonial sponsors; the Cherokee never recognized Moytoy's authority. He was crowned in Nikwasi

Nikwasi

Nikwasi was an important Cherokee town located on the Little Tennessee River at the site of present-day Franklin, North Carolina....

 with a headdress Cumming called the "Crown of Tannassy

Tanasi

Tanasi is a historic Overhill Cherokee village site in Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The village is best known as the namesake for the state of Tennessee...

."

Cumming arranged to take Moytoy and a group of Cherokee to England to meet King George. Moytoy declined to go, saying that his wife was ill. Attakullakulla (Little Carpenter) volunteered to go in his place. The "Crown" was laid at King George's feet along with four scalps.

Some European sources refer to Moytoy's wife as a woman named Go-sa-du-isga, and title her the "Queen of the Cherokee." On his death, some British enterpreneurs attempted to recognize his 13 year old son Amouskositte

Amouskositte

Amouskositte, or Amo-sgiasite, Prince of Chota , of Great Tellico was the son of Moytoy of Tellico and attempted to succeed him as "Emperor of the Cherokee", a title given his father by Alexander Cuming. Few Cherokee recognized him as their First Beloved Man, and by 1753 both he and Tellico had...

 as Emperor. He had little real authority among the elder-dominated Cherokee, and by 1753 Kanagatucko (Old Hop) of Chota

Chota (Cherokee town)

Chota is a historic Overhill Cherokee site in Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. For much of its history, Chota was the most important of the Overhill towns, serving as the de facto capital of the Cherokee people from the late 1740s until 1788...

in the Overhill Towns had emerged as the dominant leader.

Sources

• 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).
• Litton, Gaston L. "The Principal Chiefs of the Cherokee Nation", Chronicles of Oklahoma 15:3 (September 1937) 253-270 (retrieved August 18, 2006).
• Mooney, James. Myths of the Cherokee and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee. (Nashville: Charles and Randy Elder-Booksellers, 1982).
• Ramsey, James Gettys McGregor. The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century. (Chattanooga: Judge David Campbell, 1926).