She advocated for peaceful coexistence with European Americans and, late in life, spoke out for Cherokee retention of tribal hunting lands.

[a][3][4] According to Nanyehi's descendant, John Walker "Jack" Hildebrand, her father was "Fivekiller", who was a member of the Lenape (Delaware) tribe.

[8][9] In the 1755 Battle of Taliwa, when the Cherokee fought their traditional enemy, the Muscogee (Creek) people, Nanyehi accompanied her husband to the field, located in what is now northern Georgia.

In exchange for their assistance, the British Americans promised to protect the Cherokee from their enemies: the Creek and Choctaw peoples.

Conflict broke out that lasted two years, during which the Cherokee captured Fort Loudon on the Tellico River in August 1760.

[16] A decade later, In May 1775, a group of Delaware, Mohawk and Shawnee emissaries formed a delegation that headed south to support the British who were trying to gain the help of the Cherokee and other tribes for war with their rebel colonies.

In early July 1776, Ward, warned a group of white settlers living near the Holston River and on the Virginia border about an imminent attack by her people.

[17] In late July 1776, Dragging Canoe, Oconostota, and The Raven led a surprise attack on the Overmountain settlements of Heaton's station, Fort Watauga, and Carter's Valley, respectively.

After being beaten back by the frontiersmen, Cherokee raiding parties continued attacks against the isolated settlements in the region.

Devastated, the Cherokee sought peace in January 1777, and gave up hunting grounds in east Tennessee to the American frontiersmen.

[7] Those Cherokee who adopted loom weaving and dairy farming began to resemble European-American subsistence farmers.

[21][e] With the signing of the Treaty of Dewitt's Corner in early 1777, Dragging Canoe, whose lone counsel to continue the war against the frontier settlements had been dismissed, left the area of the traditional Cherokee towns with many like-minded warriors and their families.

He and about 500 Cherokee settled 11 new tribal towns centered on the convergence of the Tennessee River with South Chickamauga Creek.

[22] In 1780, Ward continued to warn Patriot soldiers of attacks, in an effort to prevent further retaliatory raids against her people.

No longer facing a major Cherokee threat along the western frontier, the Overmountain Men were able to send a considerable amount of man power to support the eastern seaboard militias and Washington's Continental army against British General Cornwallis' forces in the American Revolution.

[citation needed] In 1817 Nanyehi was too sick to attend the Cherokee council at which leaders discussed whether or not to move west of the Mississippi River to Indian Territory, as was proposed by Georgia and the US federal government.

She and her son, Fivekiller, are buried at the Nancy Ward Tomb, on top of a hill not far from the site of the inn, south of present-day Benton, Tennessee.