Nanyehi managed to make initial peaceful relations with many white settlers encroaching on Cherokee territory by marrying a settler named Bryant Ward. their daughter Elizabeth ended up marrying a general; named Joseph Martin, who, because of his status as Nanyehi's son-in-law, drew many Cherokee people to the American cause and helped them win the revolutionary war!

Because of her title of beloved woman, nanyehi had the authority to pardon captives. On one particular day, she spared the life of an English settler named Lydia Bean, who stayed in the Cherokee capital for many years. Lydia Bean was the person who taught Nanyehi about dairy production, after which Nanyehi introduced it to her whole tribe as a new form of farming that many still practice today.

Nanyehi had to face multiple issues during the Revolutionary War. Most Cherokee were allied with the British against the rebel colonists. The Cherokee wanted to expel the settlers from their lands, and the British offered to help with that. Nanyehi's cousin, Dragging Canoe, wanted to ally with the British against the settlers, but Nanyehi was trying to support the rebels because she believed she could make peaceful relations with them. Nanyehi began to warn Patriot soldiers of attacks, trying to prevent retaliatory raids against her people. According to Harold Felton, she sent cattle to the starving militia many times during the war.

After the revolutionary war, Nanyehi was very central to many peace negations on behalf of her people. She helped negotiate the Treaty of Hopewell in 1785 and tried her best to keep white settlers from buying Cherokee land, which unlimatiley failed as settlers slowly took over the nearby territory.

Nanyehi's position as a diplomat was not unusual in Cherokee culture; however, she was a huge shock to American and British diplomats, who could not believe any Cherokee would let a woman run their affairs. at a meeting with American diplomats, she commented: