The Yahoo Falls Massacre
Yahoo is a local variation of the Cherokee word Yahula, which is a traditional Cherokee story about a mixed-blood trader who lived in a great stone house and was taken away by the Nunehi, the little people. Yahula would sing his favorite songs as the bells hanging around the necks of his ponies tinkled, echoing through the mountains along the Great Tellico Trail, today known as US route 27. The Great Tellico Trail extended from the Sequatchie Valley, near present-day Chattanooga, Tennessee, to the Cumberland River Valley of Kentucky, and beyond. The Alum Ford Trail, today known as State Route 700, connected the Great Tellico Trail with east-central Tennessee by way of an enormous sandstone rock shelter located behind Yahoo Falls, one of the tallest waterfalls in the state.
According to traditional Cherokee story tellers, one day, all the warriors left on a hunt, but when it was over and they returned, Yahula was nowhere to be found—the Nunehi had taken him to the Spirit World. While he was there, Yahula made the mistake of eating the food of the Nunehi, which meant that he could never return to his people except as a Spirit. Although he was never seen again, the Cherokee believe that the songs of Yahula and the tinkling bells of his horses can still be heard at night near the running water of Yahoo Falls located in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, McCreary County, Kentucky. On the Trail of Tears, the story of Yahula was used to urge the people forward to Oklahoma, suggesting that Yahula has gone there and we will hear him, but they never did. The story of Yahula is hauntingly similar to the story of Jacob Troxell and the massacre of Yahoo Falls.
In the winter of 1777-1778, Jacob Troxell, also known as Big Jake because of his height, was a private in the Continental Army at Valley Forge under the command General George Washington. Jacob Troxell, born in 1758, was the son of a Jewish immigrant from Switzerland and his mother was Delaware. In February 1778, word reached Washington that British forces had abandoned the old French Post Vincennes in present day Indiana, and it was in the hands of American militia. Cherokee, Miami, Piankeshaw, and Shawnee, along with Jesuits, Voyagers, and traders were using it. Washington’s staff assigned Jacob Troxell to pose as a trader and go to Post Vincennes to persuade as many American Indians as possible to support the Continental Army in their war against the British.
