Tahlonteeskee

Tahlonteeskee (or "Talotisky", Tale'danigi'ski (c. 1760 - c. 1819) was a Cherokee headman of Cayuga town, eventually rising to Principal Chief of the first Cherokee Nation. He was one of the "Old Settlers" of the Cherokee Nation—West, and the namesake of the first capital city of the Cherokee in Indian Territory.

Early life Tahlonteeskee was the older brother (or possibly a half-brother) of John Jolly. He married Jennie Lowrey, sister of Chief George Lowrey.

As nephews of the First Beloved Man of the Overhill Cherokee, the Old Tassel, both Tahlonteeskee and John Watts (or 'Young Tassel') accompanied Young Dragging Canoe when he was invited to the Spanish port of Pensacola to parlay with the governor of Spanish Florida, Oneal. This meeting was for the purpose of gaining Spanish supplied arms and ammunition in order to better fight the encroachment on their lands by frontiersman from the expanding United States. They returned to the Chickamauga head-town and Watts' center of operations, Willstown, with ten pack-mules loaded with war supplies. With these arms in hand, Watts called the chiefs together to plan a war of extinction against the Overmountain towns of Tennessee. After Doublehead was assassinated in 1807 for his part in the land transfer, Tahlonteeskee emigrated into the west (in 1809), and became one of the first of the "Old Settlers" of the new Cherokee Nation—West then being established in the Arkansas Territory.

Tahlonteeskee became the third Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation—West in 1817 (succeeding Takatoka), and served until his death in 1819, when he in turn was succeeded by his brother, John Jolly (Oolooteka).