Some Cherokee raids on the white settlements were unsuccessful, and there followed several years of disagreements among different factions of the tribe on how to deal with the whites. In 1785 at Hopewell, South Carolina, the new U. S. government and the Cherokee agreed to a treaty the last clause of which stated: "Any settler who fails to remove within six months from the land guaranteed to the Indians shall forfeit the protection of the United States, and the Cherokee may punish him or not as they please." At the signing, Nancy Ward spoke:

"I am glad there is now peace, I take you by the hand in real friendship. I have a pipe and a little tobacco to give the commissioners to smoke in friendship. I look on you and the red people as my children. Your having determined on peace is most pleasant to me for I have seen much trouble during the late war. I am old, but I hope yet to bear children who will grow up and people our Nation, as we are now under the protection of Congress and shall have no more disturbance. The talk I have given you is from the young warriors I have raised in my town, as well as myself. They rejoice that we have peace, and hope the chain of friendship will never more be broken."

Nancy delivered two strings of wampum, a pipe and some tobacco to the white commissioners.