They called him “Skyagunsta”

The Cherokee were primarily farmers, hunters, and traders. They provided the English settlers with deerskins. and, in return, they received tools and axes. The Cherokee developed an extensive trade network that stretched from back-country South Carolina to the ports in Charleston. But, the younger generation grew concerned when the settlers began moving onto their lands and watched in dismay as Tribal Elders traded away their hunting grounds. During the American Revolution, the Cherokee sided with the British because they felt it was their best hope for protecting their ancestral lands from the settlers.

Oconee County got its name from the Cherokee word “Ae-quo-nee” meaning “land beside the water.” Oconee was a Cherokee town that was on the main trading path to Charleston.

Pickens County was named for Gen. Andrew Pickens. Before he became a Brigadier General, Pickens was a farmer and a trader who built much of his wealth trading with the Cherokee. Pickens, of Scots-Irish descent, was an elder in the Presbyterian Church with a stern disposition.

Pickens married Rebecca Calhoun and they had 12 children. At the age of 15, Rebecca had survived the bloody massacre at Long Canes by hiding in a bamboo thicket. Her grandmother, and 56 settlers, were killed. The Cherokee felt the Calhoun settlement was encroaching on their land.

Pickens also served as the commissioner of Indian affairs, and on Jan. 10, 1786, after 45 days of negotiation, Pickens, along with three U.S. Treaty Commissioners, signed the first treaty between the United States of America and the Cherokee Nation. Similar treaties had been negotiated with the Choctaws and Chickasaws.

The Cherokee referred to American treaties as “talking leaves” because, when the treaties no longer suited the Americans, they claimed the words would blow away, like leaves. The Hopewell Treaty marked a new era of relations between the United States and the Native American nations. The treaties were signed at Pickens’ plantation, “Hopewell on the Keowee.” The major provision of the treaties defined the boundaries between tribal lands and the land that would be open to settlement. As each man signed the Treaty, he affixed a wax seal. The Native Americans signed by affixing a geometric symbol in their native language.

In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act authorizing the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi to the Native Americans in exchange for Indian lands. Davy Crockett, a Tennessee Congressman, opposed the Indian Removal Act and argued that Jackson violated the Constitution by refusing to enforce treaties that guaranteed Indian land rights — but gold had been discovered on Indian lands — and Congress passed it anyway. Native Americans were compelled to give up their land and forcibly marched to Oklahoma. Many died of hunger and exhaustion along the way. It was called the Trail of Tears.

During the American Revolution, Pickens served as a militia commander in South Carolina’s back country for Ninety Six District. He won several major battles against the British, and the Cherokee, including the major victory at the Battle of Cowpens. Now, he had taken the role of peacemaker.

Because of the Hopewell Treaty, South Carolina did not take part in the Trail of Tears. The Cherokee called Pickens “Skyagunsta.” Some scholars translate the word as “Wizard Owl.” However, the Cherokee word pronounced “as gaye gvsda” sounds a lot like Skyagunsta and means “gentleman.” It really doesn’t matter how you write it or how you pronounce it, Skyagunta was a “gentleman of peace.”