Welcome to Let's Talk Legacy. I'm your host, Gary Michels. And today we have a wonderful guest, Debra Yates, she's an official member of the Cherokee Nation has written a book woman of many names about an important woman in Native American history. Nancy Ward. So let's dig in here. And the story behind how this book came about is very interesting. You weren't really even intending to write a book at all, can you tell us what you were doing before and how this whole thing came together?
Well, the stories I'd heard as a young child always infatuated me, when I found out we were Native American, it was, you know, hidden from us for a really long time, because of, you know, the prejudice that was around in the early 1900s. and stuff. So when my grandfather left the reservation, the nation and everybody knew he was a Native American, and, you know, the prejudice continued, and so on,
and so forth. And then in the 30s, I want to say it was like 39, or 40, they decided to move to Ohio, you know, it was a concerted effort. At that point, it was decided that they were not going to tell anybody that they were American Indian, because times were were different. So, you know, I thought, you know, I'm getting old, and, you know, my grandparents are dead, all his brothers and sisters are, were gone. But one and I thought, you know, I need to write these
things down. Because, you know, the kids are so young. And, you know, the grandkids didn't seem too interested. But I hope that maybe the great grandkids would be in the legacy, that and the blood that runs within them, because everything had to happen just the way it did, in order for there to be an us.
So tell us a little bit about Nancy Ward, when she lived, what the state of the Cherokee Nation was doing during that time and how she was seen amongst her contemporaries.
Well, when she was born, it was you know, the, you know, the 1740s. You know, every move you made, every breath you took, there was danger all around. And her birth had been foretold, there was a prophecy that there would be a girl child born to the wolf clan, that would rise to lead her people to greatness, you know, they were kind of waiting on that prophecy to be fulfilled, I would say, then, at a very young age, things started happening around around Nonya, he that signaled
that she might very well be that child. So as she was being brought up in the Cherokee culture, of course, you know, it's oral tradition, it's a lot of talk. And it's a lot of telling the stories and between each other, not writing them down, when, you know, she became of age, you know, they knew that she was the fulfilling of that legend that, that it was her. And so she was taught from a very young age, you know, things that maybe most girls wouldn't be in on being taught, you know,
different languages. She had an aunt Her name was Lucy Ward, that was a lady in waiting to King George the second wife, who fell in love without conosco when he went to visit England on a ship called the fox with his brother, adequate Nicola, and she came home with him became his wife, but she looked Nancy, kind of like she was around, you know, Prodigy to help, you know, teach things to and, you know, the smarter than she was the
better chance that number one that she was survived. And, you know, the country was being invaded from basically everywhere, the English, the Spanish, you know, everybody wanted a piece of America. They wanted the wood, they wanted the minerals, they wanted everything that they could glean from from these lands, and they didn't care who they had to take it from in order to do such she was just born at the right time and
in the right place. And, you know, she knew, you know, the likes of Daniel Boone and Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin and, you know, chased around a desperate to, and George Washington as well.
So she had ties with Daniel Boone?
Oh, yes. Nancy sold Kentucky to the Transylvania company who Daniel Boone was a representative for, they had, I think, a really good relationship and they were able to hammer out the sale of of literally a state. That was our hunting grounds. You know, we kind of traversed up into Ohio, you know, which means beautiful river and Kentucky and we were
from to Tennessee. But Daniel Boone, they gave him a choice, he could either take money or he could have land for his role that he played and selling Kentucky after the United States was formed, they actually seize those lands back back from Daniel, it royally upset him and he moved away. You know, he just didn't take a shine to what he considered his assets being, you know, taken from him.
But she was connected with all these presidents and famous people. Well, how how did she get that much stature?
Well, she was negotiating lots of treaties she negotiated, you know, with different tribes throughout the Northeast that allowed, you know, George Washington actually to move freely through those lands. Had those treaties not been set in place, you know, we would have been a warring fraction, you know, with the early colonialist, I kind of, you know, went back and forth with the Smithsonian Institute, saying that, you know, I couldn't prove that Nancy Ward
knew George Washington. I said, Well, we can we know that she wrote him letters, they're almost illegible, they're basically illegible, but it's from her to President Washington. And one of those letters was actually found in Thomas Jefferson's desk when it went to be refurbished. I want to say back in the 60s, that letter was, you know, found in his desk.
Well it's rumored that she even once saved Washington's life. Tell me about that.
Well, that was through the power of negotiation. There were, you know, fractions at war with different tribes, you know, they were not pleased with the white man taking over our lands that we, you know, lived on for 1000s and 1000s of years. So you know, that in that way alone, we're sure that she, you know, saved his party his life from traversing around.
We're told that there's even a connection between Nancy and the King of England.
Well, that's more the Lucy Ward's part in the story at Akula Kula, who was the police chief, during, you know, Nancy's younger days, who was her uncle, O'Connor, Stowe was the war chief. Those two traveled to England and carried a raccoon cat that Matoi sent to King George the second. And when he received that he called it the crown of Tennessee.
Just there was so many ties to so many people that she knew and had an effect on in our company, Southwestern Legacy Insurance Group. We're headquartered in Tennessee, and there's a connection between Nancy in the state of Tennessee also isn't there.
Huge, huge. Of course, that's where she was born. She was born I would say, like, probably about 40 miles 50 miles south of Knoxville. She is buried. Now her final resting place is just south of a little town called Benton, Tennessee. She parlayed with general severe multiple times. At one point he had her held captive. And he wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson. And he says, What should I do with Nancy Ward? What do you want me to do with this woman? Technically, she
should have been killed. And he sent severe a letter back. And he said to ask Nancy board, what he should do with her, and then follow her directions, chose Dory. So he let her go at 1.1 of his generals underneath severe General Joseph Martin was married to one of his daughters, so to Betsy Ward, so I'm sure that there was a lot of unraveling to be done. Just think of all these people that she knew. And that admired her
she went to the Moravian missionary place. And, you know, they wrote about her and in their writings, my family from my father's side, who was not Native American, came from England, and they were Brainerd, and they opened the missionary just outside of Chattanooga called the Brainerd mission. So to put it in perspective, my father's family was helping my mother's family in the 17 and 1800s. Now is that not just crazy?
Small world. So you know the name of our show is Let's Talk Legacy. But and legacy is just a big important part to us about what are you leaving behind for future generations and memories and everything about legacy? What does legacy mean to you, I can see that you the way you tell this story. You have so much passion and to know the facts and names and stories of things that happen 200, 300, 400 years ago...
And we can back it up even further than that, because through my grandmother's side, Nancy Ward side summer, somebody ended up marrying one of the descendants of the Mayflower. You know, in the Salem witch trials, I had a grandmother that was howling in the Salem witch trials. And two, three years later, they declared her innocent of being a witch you know.
So what does legacy mean to you?
It's everything. We are our legacy. We are our ancestors. If it were not for them, there would be no us. You know, and I think about the people that Nancy Ward saved through the Tennessee area, the valley, you know, the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, she saved countless, countless countless lives of, of the settlers in the area, she would warn of impending battles, you know, you know, catch this, my
son and my cousin are coming to kill you go hide. So that was, you know, you would think it would be a really taboo type of thing. She held the power of life and death in her hands. So the importance that she held not only with the Women's Council, but with, you know, the negotiation between the white people, it's all inspiring to me, you know, children, you know, need to a hero, they need heroes today. They need heroes
from yesterday, and yesteryear. And yesterday, decade and yesterday, honored years ago, they don't need made up comic people to admire more than anything in the world. Any people that truly existed truly lived, and had a significant part to play in history in life, she saved hundreds of lives, which turned into 1000s of lives, which possibly turned into hundreds of 1000s of lives. But people that never would have got to be born, if it weren't for Nancy Ward. So Tennessee,
owes my grandmother such respect. And they have given it to her. And I have had the absolute pleasure of working with the Parks Department of Tennessee, in restoring Nancy's grave site, in improving the Nancy Ward grave site is a beautiful, beautiful thing. That just shows how much dedication that those people have to my grandmother. And you know, I feel like she's just stated tendencies, grandmother, people come there, to that grave site to pray and show homage and
honor to this woman today. Almost every day somebody goes there.
So the book talks about how you're working to uphold Nancy's legacy today. Why is it important for others to learn about her life?
I think because it's still something that someone should, that people should follow. She had honors, she had integrity. And she went to war for her family for her tribe. And to know that I've got that kind of DNA in me.
Let me ask you one question. This is so intriguing. What kind of legacy do you want for yourself?
Oh my. I just want to be known that I was a kind and caring woman who cared about her family, who loved her family that would do anything, I would die for my family, I would give my life for any one of them. And I want them to always know that. And through these interviews with people like you and the other things that I've done, that stuff's going to now be on the internet forever. That's what I want my legacy to be just that I was a caring person and that I loved better than I was loved.
If anybody wants to reach you to just get more information about anything about your life for Nancy's, how would they get in touch with you?
Probably the easiest way is through Facebook, you can go to WWE dot woman and many names.com and reach my publicist. The book is available on every venue out there from Amazon, Barnes and Nobles books, million woman to many names, you know, I'd be proud to have anybody look at it, read it,
leave a comment on Amazon, I need my five stars. I'm grateful for for your time and for the time of others, and that if anybody would like to read about a really inspirational woman that that lived a couple 100 years ago, she's as relevant today. She was then her message was pure. And it was in the end offer peace. And she says, you know, let my sons be your sons. Let your sons be mine, which was meant for all children to be
each other's children because we we honor and treasure life. And Nancy most certainly did treasure life, she figured out what her true destiny was and that was to do her best to lead the people to peace.
Awesome. Well, listen, thank you so much for your time. You've been an inspiration to me and I know our audience is going to just love hearing the story. I had not heard much about her before we found you. And now just to know all about it is just really cool.
Thank you. That's a pleasure talking to you.