During the American Revolution and afterward, Dragging Canoe's forces were sometimes joined by Upper Muskogee, Chickasaw, Shawnee, and Indians from other tribes/nations, along with British Loyalists, and agents of France and Spain. The series of conflicts lasted a decade after the American Revolutionary War. Dragging Canoe became the preeminent war leader among the Indians of the southeast. He served as war chief, or "skiagusta", of the group known as the Chickamauga Cherokee (or "Lower Cherokee"), from 1777 until his death in 1792. He was succeeded by John Watts.