08 Nov The Unlikely Friendship of Lydia Bean and Nancy Ward
November is National Native American Heritage Month
The Unlikely Friendship of Lydia Bean and Nancy Ward
Freed from capture and near death in July 1776 by Cherokee peacekeeper Nancy Ward, Lydia Bean’s sharing of skills including weaving and agriculture, changed the way of life and had a profound impact on gender dynamics for the Cherokee people. The individual and combined stories of these two remarkable women is fascinating.
Lydia Bean, wife of Captain William Bean, who was a friend and traveling companion of Daniel Boone, and established Bean Station in 1776 as a frontier outpost – which is considered one of the earliest permanently settled communities in Tennessee. The town grew to become an important stopover for early pioneers and settlers in the Appalachia region during the 18th and 19th centuries due to its strategic location at the crossroads of Daniel Boone’s Wilderhttps://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=69549ness Road and the Great Indian Warpath. 
Lydia Bean was captured in July 1776 by Cherokee Indians prior to an attack on the Watauga settlement, during the American Revolutionary War. The settlement was located south of the Holston River, on the Watauga and Nolichucky Rivers in the colony of North Carolina, which is now Tennessee. Bean was intercepted as she made her way from her home on Boone’s Creek to Sycamore Shoals, and was sent to the Overhill Towns, a Cherokee village, where she was sentenced to execution.
Tied to a stake and about to be burned, Nancy Ward, Beloved Woman of the Cherokee, exercised her right as a woman of the tribe to spare Lydia from death. She took the injured Bean to her home and nursed her back to health. In return, Lydia taught Nancy and other women of their tribe several new skills, including weaving and dairy.
Later in life, Ward took on the role of an ambassador between the Cherokee and the white settlers. From her maternal uncle, Chief Attakullakulla, she learned the art of diplomacy. When John Sevier, delegation leader of the whites complained with shock that such important work was assigned to a woman, Nancy replied that “(women) are your mothers, you are our sons”.
Learn more about the First Family of Tennessee, founding of Bean Station, Lydia Bean and Cherokee ambassador Nancy Ward:
Beloved Woman: The Life and Legacy of Nanye’hi (Nancy) Ward
The First Family of Tennessee – The Grainger County Historic Society
Nancy Ward and Lydia Russell Bean – Cherokee Woman and White Captive Woman
Nancy Ward: Beloved Woman of the Cherokee