Great Tellico was a Cherokee

Cherokee

The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...

 town at the site of present-day Tellico Plains, Tennessee

Tellico Plains, Tennessee

Tellico Plains is a town in Monroe County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 859 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Tellico Plains is located at ....

, where the Tellico River

Tellico River

The Tellico River rises in the westernmost mountains of North Carolina, but it flows mainly through Monroe County, Tennessee. It is a major tributary of the Little Tennessee River and the namesake of Tellico Reservoir, a reservoir created by Tellico Dam, which impounds the lower reaches of the...

 emerges from the Appalachian Mountains

Appalachian Mountains

The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...

. Great Tellico was one of the largest Cherokee towns in the region, and had a sister town nearby named Chatuga. Its name in Cherokee

Cherokee language

Cherokee is an Iroquoian language spoken by the Cherokee people which uses a unique syllabary writing system. It is the only Southern Iroquoian language that remains spoken. Cherokee is a polysynthetic language.-North American etymology:...

 is more properly written Talikwa. It is sometimes spelled Telliquo, Telliquah or, in Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

, Tahlequah

Tahlequah, Oklahoma

Tahlequah is a city in Cherokee County, Oklahoma, United States located at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. It was founded as a capital of the original Cherokee Nation in 1838 to welcome those Cherokee forced west on the Trail of Tears. The city's population was 15,753 at the 2010 census. It...

. There were several Cherokee settlements named Tellico, the largest of which is distinguished from the others by calling it "Great". The meaning of the word "Talikwa" is thought to be lost by the Cherokees.

The Warrior Path— a branch of the Great Indian Warpath

Great Indian Warpath

The Great Indian Warpath — also known as the Great Indian War and Trading Path, or the Seneca Trail — was that part of the network of trails in eastern North America developed and used by Native Americans which ran through the Great Appalachian Valley...

— passed through Great Tellico, linking it to Chota

Chota (Cherokee town)

Chota is a historic Overhill Cherokee site in Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. For much of its history, Chota was the most important of the Overhill towns, serving as the de facto capital of the Cherokee people from the late 1740s until 1788...

 in the north and Great Hiwassee

Great Hiwassee

Great Hiwassee was an important Overhill Cherokee town from the late 17th through the early 19th centuries. It was located on the Hiwassee River in present-day Polk County, Tennessee, on the north bank of the river where modern U.S. Route 411 crosses the river...

 in the south, via Conasauga Creek

Conasauga Creek

Conasauga Creek is a tributary stream of the Hiwassee River, located in southeast Tennessee, in the United States. It is not to be confused with the nearby Conasauga River.-Course:...

. In addition, the Trading Path

Trading Path

The Trading Path is not simply one wide path, as many named historic roads were or are...

 (Tellico Road), later called the Unicoi Turnpike, ran from Great Tellico southeast over the Unicoi Range

Unicoi Range

The Unicoi Mountains are a mountain range rising along the border between Tennessee and North Carolina in the southeastern United States. They are part of the Blue Ridge Mountain Province of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The Unicois are located immediately south of the Great Smoky Mountains...

 of the Appalachian Mountains, linking the Overhill Cherokee

Overhill Cherokee

The term Overhill Cherokee refers to the former Cherokee settlements located in what is now Tennessee in the southeastern United States. The name was given by 18th century European traders and explorers who had to cross the Appalachian Mountains to reach these settlements when traveling from...

 to the Middle and Lower Cherokee towns in North Carolina and South Carolina. The Trading Path became the main route of trade between the British and the Cherokee during the 18th century (Duncan 2003:245).

In the early 18th century, Great Tellico was the de facto capital of the Overhill Cherokee. Several prominent Cherokee leaders came from the town, such as Moytoy of Tellico. After his death in 1741, Great Tellico began to fade. By the 1750s, Chota was largely recognized as the principal town of the Overhill Cherokee.