Aniyutsi

Aniyutsi is the Cherokee name for the Yuchi, an Indigenous people whose communities were spread across the southeastern river country. One group lived along the Tennessee River, while others lived near the Savannah and in Florida. In 1701 visitors recorded a Yuchi town called Taogria on an island in the lower Tennessee River, near Muscle Shoals.

Some Tennessee Yuchi later moved upriver, where their town of Chestowee stood near the Cherokee country. The Cherokee called the place Tsistu'yi, or Rabbit Place. In 1714 Cherokee warriors attacked and destroyed it after being urged on by two South Carolina traders. Survivors were taken captive, while other Yuchi communities lived among neighbouring peoples or moved farther south. The Yuchi retained their own language despite these upheavals.