In much of the Cherokee Nation are areas where you have big ranching operations and/or other enterprises owned by Southern Cherokee where the land was suited to large farms and ranches but all around them along rivers and streams and in the woods lived Pins. The two groups tolerated each other or were even friendly before the war but that all changed when the war started and all the old grudges resurface. So even though you have several prominent Southern Cherokee families around Joe Vann's place, you have a lot of Pins living in the timbered rolling hills east of Locust Grove. You also have the problem of 'wild Indians' from Kansas raiding into the area under the guise of 'proving their loyalty' to the Union.