Debra Yates
Appearances
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: Daniel Boone, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington
Well, when she was born, it was, 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. They were kind of waiting on that prophecy to be fulfilled, I would say.
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: Daniel Boone, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington
And, you know, the smarter that she was, the better the chance that, number one, that she would survive. 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.
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: Daniel Boone, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington
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, you know, chased her around a desk or two and George Washington as well.
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: Daniel Boone, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington
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 literally the estate.
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: Daniel Boone, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington
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
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: Daniel Boone, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington
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 know that she wrote him letters. They're almost illegible. They're basically illegible. But it's from her to President Washington.
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: Daniel Boone, Thomas Jefferson, and George 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.
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: Daniel Boone, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington
And at a very young age, things started happening around Nanyahi that signaled that she might very well be that child. So as she was being brought up in the Cherokee culture, of course, 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
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: Daniel Boone, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington
you know, she became of age, you know, they knew that she was the fulfilling of that legend, 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
Let's Talk Legacy
CLIP: Daniel Boone, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington
an aunt, her name was Lucy Ward, that was a lady-in-waiting to King George II's wife, who fell in love with Alcanna Stowe when he went to visit England on a ship called the Fox with his brother at Akula Kula. And she came home with him, became his wife. But she looked at Nancy kind of like she was her own, you know, prodigy to help, you know, teach things to.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
Everybody knew he was 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 different.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
So, you know, I thought, you know, I'm getting old and... You know, my grandparents are dead. All his brothers and sisters 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 interested.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
But I hope that maybe the great grandkids would be in the legacy 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.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
Well, when she was born, it was, 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.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
And at a very young age, things started happening around Nanyahi 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
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
you know, she became of age, you know, they knew that she was the fulfilling of that legend, 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
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
an aunt, her name was Lucy Ward, that was a lady-in-waiting to King George II's wife, who fell in love with Alcannistow when he went to visit England on a ship called the Fox with his brother at Akulagula. And she came home with him, became his wife. But she looked at Nancy kind of like she was her own, you know, prodigy to help, you know, teach things to.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
And, you know, the smarter that she was, the better the chance that, number one, that she would survive. 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.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
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, you know, chased her around a desk or two and George Washington as well.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
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 literally the state. That was our hunting grounds. We kind of traversed up into Ohio, which means beautiful river and Kentucky. And we were from Tenassi, but Daniel Byrne, they gave him a choice.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
He could either take money or he could have land for his role that he played in selling Kentucky. After the United States was formed, they actually seized those lands back from Daniel. It royally upset him and he moved away. He just didn't take a shine to what he considered his assets being taken from him.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
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 colonialists.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
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 know that she wrote him letters. They're almost illegible. They're basically illegible. But it's from her to President Washington.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
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.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
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 thousands and thousands 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.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
Well, that's more the Lucy Ward's part in the story. Atakulakula... who was the peace 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 cap that Matoi sent to King George II. And when he received that, he called it the Crown of Tenancy.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
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 Sevier multiple times. At one point, he had her held captive and he wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson and he says,
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
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 Sevier a letter back. And he said to ask Nancy Ward what he should do with her and then follow her directions. True story. So he let her go.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
At one point, one of his generals underneath Sevier, General Joseph Martin, was married to one of his daughters, to Berenice Ward. So I'm sure that there was a lot of unraveling to be done. Just to think of all these people that she knew that admired her. She went to the Moravian missionary place and They wrote about her in their writings.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
My family from my father's side, who was not Native American, came from England and they were Brainerds. 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 1700s and 1800s. Now, is that not just... Crazy.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
And we can back it up even further than that, because through my grandmother's side, Nancy Ward's side, somehow or another, somebody ended up marrying one of the descendants of the Mayflower.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
You know, in the Salem witch trials, I had a grandmother that was hung in the Salem witch trials. And two, three years later, they declared her innocent of being a witch, you know.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
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 the settlers in the area.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
She would warn of impending battles, 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.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
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, 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 yesterdecade and yesterco hundred years ago. They don't need made up comic people to make,
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
admire more than anything in the world. They need people that truly existed, truly lived, and had a significant part to play in history and life. She saved hundreds of lives, which turned into thousands of lives, which possibly turned into hundreds of thousands of lives of people that never would have got to be born if it weren't for Nancy Ward.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
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 gravesite, in improving the Nancy Ward gravesite. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing that just shows how much dedication that those people have to my grandmother.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
And, you know, I feel like she's the state of Tennessee's grandmother. People come there to that gravesite. 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.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
She had honor, 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's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
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.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
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
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
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.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
the easiest way is through Facebook. You can go to www.womaninmanynames.com and reach my publicist. The book is available on every venue out there from Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Books A Million, Woman In 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 your time and for the time of others.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
And that if anybody would like to read about a really inspirational woman that lived a couple hundred years ago, she's as relevant today as she was then. Her message was pure and it was in the end all for 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 honor and treasure life.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
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.
Let's Talk Legacy
Woman of Many Names, with Debra Yates
Thank you. It was a pleasure talking to you.