| abstract | - After siding with the Province of Carolina in the Tuscarora War of 1711–1715, the Cherokee had turned on their British allies at the outbreak of the Yamasee War of 1715–1717, until switching sides, once again, midway through the war. This action ensured the defeat of the Yamasee. The Cherokee then remained allies of the British until the French and Indian War. At the 1754 outbreak of the war, the Cherokee were allies of the British, taking part in campaigns against Fort Duquesne (at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) and the Shawnee of the Ohio Country. In 1755, a band of Cherokee 130-strong under Ostenaco (or Ustanakwa) of Tamali took up residence in a fortified town at the mouth of the Ohio River at the behest of the Iroquois (who were also British allies). For several years, French agents from Fort Toulouse had been visiting the Overhill Cherokee on the Hiwassee and Tellico Rivers, and had made inroads into those places. The strongest pro-French Cherokee leaders were Mankiller (Utsidihi) of Talikwa, Old Caesar of Chatuga (or Tsatugi), and Raven (Kalanu) of Ayuhwasi. The "First Beloved Man" (or Uku) of the nation, Kanagatoga (or "Stalking Turkey", aka 'Old Hop'), was very pro-French, as was his nephew, Kunagadoga, who succeeded him at his death in 1760. The former site of the Coosa Chiefdom was reoccupied in 1759 by a Muscogee contingent under Big Mortar (Yayatustanage) in support of the pro-French Cherokee then residing in Great Tellico and Chatuga. This was a step toward his planned alliance of Muscogee, Cherokee, Shawnee, Chickasaw, and Catawba (which would have been the first of its kind in the South). Although such an alliance did not come into being until the days of Dragging Canoe, Big Mortar still rose to leading chief of the Muscogee after the French and Indian War.
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