Attakullakulla or Atagulkalu (Cherokee, Ata-gul' kalu, meaning Little Carpenter)(ca. 1708–ca. 1777), adopted as an infant into the Cherokee tribe, became their First Beloved Man, serving from 1761 to around 1775. His son Dragging Canoe became the war leader of the Cherokee during the Chickamauga wars. According to the anthropologist James Mooney, Attakullakulla's Cherokee name could be translated "leaning wood", from ada meaning "wood", and gulkalu, a verb that implies something long, leaning against some other object. His name "Little Carpenter" derived from the English meaning of his Cherokee name along with a reference to his physical stature. Attakullakulla was born to a subtribe of the Algonquian-speaking Nipissing to the North. He was captured as an infant during a raid and adopted by a minor Cherokee chief, making him a member of the Cherokee. He married Nionne Ollie, a Natchez captive adopted as the daughter of his cousin Oconostota. The marriage was permissible because they were of different clans; he was Wolf Clan and she was Paint Clan. He was a member of the Cherokee delegation that traveled to England in 1730. In 1736, he rejected the advances of the French, who sent emissaries to the Overhill Cherokee. Three or four years later, he was captured by the Ottawa, allies of the French, who held him captive in Quebec until 1748. Upon his return, he became one of the Cherokees' leading diplomats and an adviser to the Beloved Man of Chota. In May 1759, following a series of attacks between colonists and Cherokee, Attakullakulla joined a delegation that went to Charleston to try to negotiate with South Carolina authorities for peace. The colonial governor William Henry Lyttleton seized the delegates as hostages until the Cherokee responsible for killing white settlers were surrendered. Having raised an expeditionary force of 1700, Lyttleton set out for Fort Prince George with the hostages in tow and arrived on December 9, 1759. Freed soon after, Attakullakulla returned to Fort Prince George to negotiate for peace, but his efforts were thwarted by the hawkish Oconostota. The Cherokee gave up two individuals and negotiated the release of a few hostages, including Oconostota. He lured Lt. Richard Coytmore out of the fort; waving a bridle over his head, the chief incited Cherokee warriors hiding in the woods to shoot and kill Coytmore. The garrison in the fort killed all the Cherokee hostages. Hostilities continued between the Cherokee and Anglo-Americans. Attakullakulla is believed to have died in 1775/1777. He was succeeded by his cousin Oconostota (who was also his father-in-law). The geocache is located on the Long Island of the Holston River. Long Island of the Holston was for many years a jealously guarded possession of the Cherokee Indians. It became the scene of momentous events during the early years of exploration and settlement in the Old Southwest, the springboard for the initial settlement of Kentucky and Middle Tennessee. In its environs was fought the battle that gave those feeble settlements precious time to consolidate their positions during the first 2 years of the American Revolution. Long Island derived strategic importance from its location just east of the junction of the North and South Forks of the Holston. Nearby was the crossing of the Great Indian Warpath, a major trail to the northeast from central Tennessee. Thus the island figured significantly in the colonial struggle with the Indians that began in the middle of the 18th century. Col. William Byrd, leading a colonial expedition into Cherokee country, built Fort Robinson at the river junction in 1761 and introduced white occupation of the area. When Byrd's force abandoned the fort soon afterward, the Indians resumed possession, although more and more white hunters and traders began passing through en route to the hunting grounds of Kentucky and Tennessee. Among them was Daniel Boone. In March 1775, while Richard Henderson was still negotiating with the Cherokees for their Kentucky land, he sent Boone with 30 axmen to open the trail that was to gain fame as the Wilderness Road. Boone's trailmaking began at Long Island on March 10, and 2 weeks later his party reached the Kentucky River, having marked the way that was to lead 200,000 emigrants to Kentucky within the next 20 years. The Cherokees cast their lot with the British when the Revolution began. Stung into action by colonial settlement on the east Tennessee land they claimed, the Indians moved to crush the frontiersmen in July 1776. The defenders of Eaton's Fort, on high ground near Long Island, sallied onto Long Island Flats and, after a bitter fight, drove the Cherokees from the field. Two months later a punitive expedition against the Indian towns cowed the Cherokees, bringing 2 years of relative peace to the southwestern frontier. At the Treaty of Long Island, in July 1777, the Indians relinquished their claims to the land occupied by whites in east Tennessee. Besides being the starting point of Boone's Wilderness Road, Long Island was a jumping-off point for the settlement of central Tennessee. Just before Christmas of 1779, Col. John Donelson lead a flotilla of flatboats from there on the long and hazardous voyage down the Tennessee and up the Cumberland to establish Cumberland Colony, the first permanent white settlement in middle Tennessee. The importance of Long Island as a terminus and starting point led to the establishment of a boatyard directly across the river from the west end of the island. Sources: http://discoverkingsport.com/h-Long-Island.shtml http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Carpenter