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During the American Revolution, Nanye'hi, or Nancy Ward, a Cherokee beloved woman (or honored elder woman), took risks that often have been misinterpreted. She sent trusted messengers to American forts to warn the inhabitants of impending Cherokee attacks, and she was known to offer food to American troops. In the minds of ethnocentric settler people, Ward helped Americans because she felt that white ways were superior to her own, and she embraced assimilation to Western ways. As confirmation of Ward's desire to become like whites, many admirers offer an anecdote about her rescue of Lydia Bean, a white woman, from execution by Cherokee warriors. They bolster their argument with their telling point that later she asked Bean "to teach her how to make butter and cheese."1 Others, as Sara Parker noted, interpreted her actions as reflecting "a romantic attachment to a white man."2 Although Nancy Ward's actions were informed by her kinship ties and friendships with American colonists, she took these actions not because she felt American society was superior or because her brief marriage to a white man led her to hold all Americans dear to her heart but because she continued to carry out her functions as a beloved woman at the same time she sought new ways for the Cherokee to thrive in a changing world.
In her efforts to prevent bloodshed, Ward earned accolades from Cherokee and white Americans alike. To the Cherokee she was aniyvwiya, one of the real people, and a well-respected, honored leader and culture bearer. To white American settlers she was a friend and ally who protected them from Cherokee warriors. She became known as the "Cherokee Rose" or "White Rose" or "Wild Rose," the "Pocahontas of the West," and a Cherokee "princess and prophetess" by those who believed her to be "the constant friend of the American pioneer."3 So enthralled did white Americans become with the image of her as the savior of white settlers that they styled her the "patron saint of Tennessee," and the Daughters of the American Revolution named a chapter in Chattanooga, Tennessee, after her.4 Tennesseans went so far as to group Ward along with racist colonizers of Cherokee people-Andrew Jackson and Davy Crockett-as symbols of honor for Tennessee.5
Wards seemingly inconstant...