His father is believed to be the John Watts, "white trader who served Captain Demere as interpreter during the building of Fort Loudon whose wife was the sister of chiefs Old Tassel, Doublehead, and Pumpkin Boy.” [2] His wife or wives are unknown, but according to researcher Don Martini he was the brother of Unacata (Whitemankiller) and a Cherokee killed at Boyd's Creek and was the father of John Watts, Big Rattlinggourd, and perhaps Hard Mush (Gatunuali) [3] " Although Watts withdrew from the Overhill Towns along with Dragging Canoe's band, at first he was minimally involved in the raiding they made against American settlers during and after the Revolutionary War.
Watts led his first major action of the Cherokee-American wars in 1786 against the forces of the State of Franklin over their incursions into the territory of the Overhill Cherokee.
In October 1788, following the murder of his uncle Old Tassel by frontiersmen, Watts led a large war party into North Carolina's Washington District (now Tennessee).
Afterward, the group made a semi-permanent camp along Flint Creek (in the area of the future Unicoi County, Tennessee), harassing, raiding, and attacking white settlers in the surrounding countryside.
[5] Watts, along with Bloody Fellow, Doublehead, and "Young Dragging Canoe" (Tsula), continued to encourage Indian unity in resistance to European-American settlers.
Under that treaty, the Spanish would provide arms and supplies to the Native Americans to carry on their war against the U.S. At about this time, Watts moved his base of operations to Willstown (Cherokee town), in what is now Alabama.
[6] Later in 1793, Watts sent envoys to Knoxville, which was at the time the capital of the Southwest Territory, to meet with Governor Blount to discuss terms for a lasting peace.
The peace party included Bob McLemore, Tahlonteeskee, Captain Charley of Running Water, and Doublehead, as well as the white delegates.
In large part because the man responsible, COL. James Herrell Hubbert (who had lost his family in an Indian raid) was a close friend of John Sevier, the trial proved to be a farce.
Watts responded by invading the Holston area with more than 1,000 Cherokee, Muscogee, and Shawnee warriors, one of the largest Indian forces seen in the region.