grandfather, father, and other Cherokee warriors brutally destroyed Clermont's Osage village (near present-day Claremore, Oklahoma) in the fall of 1817. In the years that followed, the family held a high level of political influence among both the U.S. Army and the Western Cherokees, later called the Old Settlers.

In September of 1826, Chisholm became a scout for U.S. Army officers through what is now central Oklahoma and southern Kansas on a gold-hunting expedition. These visits introduced