Author Debra Yates shares the details of her book, "Woman of Many Names", about an important woman in Native American history, her seventh-great-grandmother, Nancy Ward. Hear how Ward's life marked the fulfillment of a long-foretold prophecy, and about her connections to King George II, Daniel Boone, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, the Mayflower, and the Salem Witch Trials.

Welcome to Let's Talk Legacy. I'm your host, Gary

Michels. And today we have a wonderful guest, Debra Yates,

she's an official member of the Cherokee Nation has written a

book woman of many names about an important woman in Native

American history. Nancy Ward. So let's dig in here. And the story

behind how this book came about is very interesting. You weren't

really even intending to write a book at all, can you tell us

what you were doing before and how this whole thing came

together?

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 everybody knew he was a 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 were different. So, you know, I

thought, you know, I'm getting old, and, you know, my

grandparents are dead, all his brothers and sisters are, 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 too interested. But I hope that

maybe the great grandkids would be in the legacy, that 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.

So tell us a little bit about Nancy Ward,

when she lived, what the state of the Cherokee Nation was doing

during that time and how she was seen amongst her contemporaries.

Well, when she was born, it was you know, the, 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, then, at a very young age,

things started happening around around Nonya, he 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, you know, she became of age, you know, they knew that

she was the fulfilling of that legend that, 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 an aunt Her name was Lucy Ward,

that was a lady in waiting to King George the second wife, who

fell in love without conosco when he went to visit England on

a ship called the fox with his brother, adequate Nicola, and

she came home with him became his wife, but she looked Nancy,

kind of like she was around, you know, Prodigy to help, you know,

teach things to and, you know, the smarter than she was the

better chance that number one that she was survived. 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, 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

and, you know, chased around a desperate to, and George

Washington as well.

So she had ties with Daniel Boone?

Oh, yes. 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 of literally a state. That was our

hunting grounds. You know, we kind of traversed up into Ohio,

you know, which means beautiful river and Kentucky and we were

from to Tennessee. But Daniel Boone, they gave him a choice,

he could either take money or he could have land for his role

that he played and selling Kentucky after the United States

was formed, they actually seize those lands back back from

Daniel, it royally upset him and he moved away. You know, he just

didn't take a shine to what he considered his assets being, you

know, taken from him.

But she was connected with all these

presidents and famous people. Well, how how did she get that

much stature?

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, 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 can we know that she

wrote him letters, they're almost illegible, they're

basically illegible, but it's from her to President

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.

Well it's rumored that she even once saved

Washington's life. Tell me about that.

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 1000s

and 1000s 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.

We're told that there's even a connection

between Nancy and the King of England.

Well, that's more the Lucy Ward's part in the

story at Akula Kula, who was the police 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 cat that Matoi sent to King George the second. And when

he received that he called it the crown of Tennessee.

Just there was so many ties to so many people that

she knew and had an effect on in our company, Southwestern Legacy

Insurance Group. We're headquartered in Tennessee, and

there's a connection between Nancy in the state of Tennessee

also isn't there.

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 severe multiple times. At one point he

had her held captive. And he wrote a letter to Thomas

Jefferson. And he says, 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 severe a letter back. And

he said to ask Nancy board, what he should do with her, and then

follow her directions, chose Dory. So he let her go at 1.1 of

his generals underneath severe General Joseph Martin was

married to one of his daughters, so to Betsy Ward, so I'm sure

that there was a lot of unraveling to be done. Just

think of all these people that she knew. And that admired her

she went to the Moravian missionary place. And, you know,

they wrote about her and in their writings, my family from

my father's side, who was not Native American, came from

England, and they were Brainerd, 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 17 and 1800s. Now is that not just

crazy?

Small world. So you know the name of our show is

Let's Talk Legacy. But and legacy is just a big important

part to us about what are you leaving behind for future

generations and memories and everything about legacy? What

does legacy mean to you, I can see that you the way you tell

this story. You have so much passion and to know the facts

and names and stories of things that happen 200, 300, 400 years

ago...

And we can back it up even further than that,

because through my grandmother's side, Nancy Ward side summer,

somebody ended up marrying one of the descendants of the

Mayflower. You know, in the Salem witch trials, I had a

grandmother that was howling in the Salem witch trials. And two,

three years later, they declared her innocent of being a witch

you know.

So what does legacy mean to you?

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, of the settlers in the area, she would

warn of impending battles, you know, 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. 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 inspiring to me, you know, children, you

know, need to a hero, they need heroes today. They need heroes

from yesterday, and yesteryear. And yesterday, decade and

yesterday, honored years ago, they don't need made up comic

people to admire more than anything in the world. Any

people that truly existed truly lived, and had a significant

part to play in history in life, she saved hundreds of lives,

which turned into 1000s of lives, which possibly turned

into hundreds of 1000s of lives. But people that never would have

got to be born, if it weren't for Nancy Ward. 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

grave site, in improving the Nancy Ward grave site is a

beautiful, beautiful thing. That just shows how much dedication

that those people have to my grandmother. And you know, I

feel like she's just stated tendencies, grandmother, people

come there, to that grave site to pray and show homage and

honor to this woman today. Almost every day somebody goes

there.

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. She had honors,

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 me ask you one question. This is so intriguing.

What kind of legacy do you want for yourself?

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. 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.

If anybody wants to reach you to just get more

information about anything about your life for Nancy's, how would

they get in touch with you?

Probably the easiest way is through Facebook,

you can go to WWE dot woman and many names.com and reach my

publicist. The book is available on every venue out there from

Amazon, Barnes and Nobles books, million woman to 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 for your time and for the time of others, and that if

anybody would like to read about a really inspirational woman

that that lived a couple 100 years ago, she's as relevant

today. She was then her message was pure. And it was in the end

offer 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 we honor and treasure life. 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.

Awesome. Well, listen, thank you so much for

your time. You've been an inspiration to me and I know our

audience is going to just love hearing the story. I had not

heard much about her before we found you. And now just to know

all about it is just really cool.

Thank you. That's a pleasure talking to you.