Keetoowah
Encyclopedia
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
believe the ancient settlement of Kituwa (also spelled Kituwah, Keetoowah, Kittowa, and other similar variations) or giduwa (Cherokee:ᎩᏚᏩ), on the Tuckasegee River is their original settlement and is one of the "seven mother towns" in the Southeast. It is in Swain County, North Carolina
Swain County, North Carolina
Swain County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of 2000, the population was 12,968. Its county seat is Bryson City.Swain County is home of the Nantahala River . The Nantahala is one of the most popular whitewater rafting rivers in the nation...
, in the Great Smoky Mountains
Great Smoky Mountains
The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province. The range is sometimes called the Smoky Mountains or the...
, near present-day Bryson City
Bryson City, North Carolina
Bryson City is a town in Swain County, North Carolina in the United States. The population was 1,353 as of 2009, a decrease of 4.1% since the 2000 census...
.
Cherokee oral traditions tell that all Cherokee migrated to Kituwa after the migration from the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
region of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and southern Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
as early as 4,000 years ago. The Cherokee also base this belief on cultural and archaeological evidence, but there is no consensus about the time of origin.
The ancient Cherokee had a hereditary priesthood, called the Ah-ni-ku-ta-ni, a structure which may have been adopted from another tribe. According to research by early 20th century ethnographer James Mooney
James Mooney
James Mooney was an American ethnographer who lived for several years among the Cherokee. He did major studies of Southeastern Indians, as well as those on the Great Plains...
, the Cherokee held the Ah-ni-ku-ta-ni "in awe" and "greatly feared them." They were not the regular rulers such as the chiefs were. These were the ugus (owls), known as "white" chiefs (sometimes identified as those who worked for peace), nor the colona (ravens), or "red" chiefs (identified as those who led in times of war.)
History
Kituwa is the site of an ancient earthwork moundEarthworks (archaeology)
In archaeology, earthwork is a general term to describe artificial changes in land level. Earthworks are often known colloquially as 'lumps and bumps'. Earthworks can themselves be archaeological features or they can show features beneath the surface...
. Despite having been burned repeatedly by the Cherokee for agriculture during the colonial period and plowed over for corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
cultivation since Indian Removal
Indian Removal
Indian removal was a nineteenth century policy of the government of the United States to relocate Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the river...
in the 1830s, the mound is still visible. During the period of European-American agricultural uses, the larger property was called Ferguson's Field. The mound is 170 feet (51.8 m) in diameter and five feet tall, although it was once taller. It was the foundation of a structure which housed the sacred
Sacred
Holiness, or sanctity, is in general the state of being holy or sacred...
flame of the Cherokee, which was to be kept burning at all times.
Moundbuilding by people of the various Woodland
Woodland period
The Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures was from roughly 1000 BCE to 1000 CE in the eastern part of North America. The term "Woodland Period" was introduced in the 1930s as a generic header for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the...
and Mississippian culture
Mississippian culture
The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....
s was common throughout the Mississippi Basin and Ohio Valley. This included Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
to the west, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
to the southeast, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
to the southwest, and Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, and Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
to the northwest.
The Mississippian culture
Mississippian culture
The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....
was documented as established in western North Carolina from 1000 CE. Joara
Joara
Joara was a large Native American settlement, a regional chiefdom of the Mississippian culture, located in what is now Burke County, North Carolina. Joara is notable as a significant archaeological and historic site. It was a place of encounter in 1540 between the Mississippian people and the...
was a regional chiefdom
Chiefdom
A chiefdom is a political economy that organizes regional populations through a hierarchy of the chief.In anthropological theory, one model of human social development rooted in ideas of cultural evolution describes a chiefdom as a form of social organization more complex than a tribe or a band...
in this culture. Additional Mississippian-culture sites have been identified extending southwest to the village later called Kituwa. Such pre-Cherokee inhabitants were part of vast trade networks that connected mound chiefdoms throughout the eastern United States. Archaeologists believe the people of the smaller chiefdoms were eventually absorbed by the developing, larger Catawba
Catawba
Catawba may refer to several things:*Catawba , a Native American tribe*Catawban languages-Botany:*Catalpa, a genus of trees, based on the name used by the Catawba and other Native American tribes*Catawba , a variety of grape...
and 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...
tribes.
The inhabitants of Kituwah, the Ani-kitu-hwagi, influenced all of the towns along the Tuckasegee and Little Tennessee
Little Tennessee River
The Little Tennessee River is a tributary of the Tennessee River, approximately 135 miles long, in the Appalachian Mountains in the southeastern United States.-Geography:...
rivers. The people of this region became known as the Kituwah, also spelled Keetoowah. Because the Kituwah were responsible for the protection of the northern border from the Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
and the Algonquian
Algonquian peoples
The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds. Today hundreds of thousands of individuals identify with various Algonquian peoples...
, the name became synonymous with the Cherokee among the people. The Cherokee who later occupied Kituwa were also part of extensive trade networks. The ancient site of the Mother Town Kituwa is visible in the general area of the Qualla Boundary
Qualla Boundary
The Qualla Boundary is the territory where the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians reside in western North Carolina.-Location:...
.
During the Anglo-Cherokee War
Anglo-Cherokee War
The Anglo-Cherokee War , also known as the Cherokee War, the Cherokee Uprising, the Cherokee Rebellion, was a conflict between British forces in North America and Cherokee Indians during the French and Indian War...
(1758–1761), British
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
general
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
James Grant
James Grant (general)
James Grant, Laird of Ballindalloch was a major general in the British Army during the American War of Independence. He served as Governor of East Florida from 1763 to 1771.-Early career:...
used his army to destroy the ancient town. Its inhabitants migrated westward and settled in Mialoquo (Great Island Town) on the Little Tennessee River
Little Tennessee River
The Little Tennessee River is a tributary of the Tennessee River, approximately 135 miles long, in the Appalachian Mountains in the southeastern United States.-Geography:...
among 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...
. A later headman of this group was Dragging Canoe
Dragging Canoe
Tsiyu Gansini , "He is dragging his canoe", known to whites as Dragging Canoe, was a Cherokee war chief who led a band of Cherokee against colonists and United States settlers...
, son of Attakullakulla. When he led his warriors southwest to continue fighting the colonists of Upper East Tennessee, the entire population went with him, including those formerly of Kituwa.
In the 1820s the Cherokees lost control of the Kituwa area when making land cessions to the United States.
20th century reclamation
It was not until 1996 that the people regained their "mother town", when the Eastern Band of the Cherokee purchased the site and 309 acres (1.3 km²). A 1997 archaeological survey of Kituwah found an early 18th-century village site covering 65 acres (263,045.9 m²). The density of artifactsArtifact (archaeology)
An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
indicated a long period of settlement.
The Cherokee have debated how to use the land, with some people wanting to develop the property for community uses. Non-invasive archaeological surveys have discovered 15 burial
Burial
Burial is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over.-History:...
s, with the likelihood of up to 1000. A gradiometer
Gradiometer
A gradiometer measures the gradient of a physical quantity, such as a magnetic field or gravity.-Types of gradiometer:There are at least two types of gradiometer to measure magnetic fields:...
was used to map the area. It also depicted the location of many hearth
Hearth
In common historic and modern usage, a hearth is a brick- or stone-lined fireplace or oven often used for cooking and/or heating. For centuries, the hearth was considered an integral part of a home, often its central or most important feature...
sites, including one at the center. This would likely have been associated with the sacred fire.
These discoveries have led more of the Cherokee nation to consider only development that can accommodate the sacred nature of the place. They are planning uses associated with community wellness and renewal. The Eastern Cherokee have sponsored two youth retreats at the site which highlighted traditional ways of spiritual expression.
Traditions
Some traditional Cherokee call themselves by the autonym of Ah-ni-ki-tu-wa-gi (spelled variously in local Oklahoma dialects as Ki-tu-wa or Gi-du-wa), Kituwa people. The meaning of the word Kituwa is known to contemporary Cherokee speakers. It is not widely reported because of its sacredSacred
Holiness, or sanctity, is in general the state of being holy or sacred...
nature. Honoring the "mother town" was analogous to honoring Selu
Selu
SELU or selu may refer to:* Southeastern Louisiana University* Cherokee mythology for maize...
, the Cherokee Corn Mother (of the ancient Green Corn Ceremony
Green Corn Ceremony
The Green Corn Ceremony is an English term that refers to a general religious and social theme celebrated by a number of American Indian peoples of the Eastern Woodlands and the Southeastern tribes...
and many other connections). Honoring mothers is a concept that has pervaded Cherokee culture. Well into the 20th century, descent and family organization were based on the female line and clan membership.
In the Green Corn Ceremony
Green Corn Ceremony
The Green Corn Ceremony is an English term that refers to a general religious and social theme celebrated by a number of American Indian peoples of the Eastern Woodlands and the Southeastern tribes...
, one of the two social dances performed is of ancient origin. It may have been practiced in the mother town of Kituwa. The dance is called ye-lu-le, which means "to the center". During it, all of the dancers shout ye-lu-le and move towards the fire in the center of the sacred dance circle. This dance symbolizes the dispersal of the sacred fire, given to the people according to their ancient legends. During Green Corn ceremonies in traditional Cherokee society
Cherokee society
Cherokee society refers to the society and culture of the Cherokee people. The Cherokee are a people native to North America who at the time of European contact in the 16th century inhabited what is now the eastern and southeastern United States before the majority of the tribe was forcefully...
, the coals of new fire were carried to all the Cherokee. They were used to kindle the ceremonial fires in each town before any of the new corn could be eaten. The home fires in outlying Cherokee communities were extinguished before the ceremonies and relit from the coals of the fire kindled during the Green Corn Dances.
Duke energy controversy
Duke Energy is attempting to build a $52 million dollar substationElectrical substation
A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions...
near the Kituwah Cherokee ceremonial mounds. The Swain County Commission of North Carolina met on Feb. 9 for discussion.
On February 4, 2010, the Tribal Council passed a resolution stating, "“It is this Tribe’s solemn responsibility and moral duty to care for and protect all of Kituwah from further desecration and degradation by human agency in order to preserve the integrity of the most important site for the origination and continuation of Cherokee culture, heritage, history and identity.”
On April 23, 2010, the North Carolina Utilities Commission denied Duke Energy's "Motion to Hold Complaint in Abeyance" and Duke was ordered to file an answer to the complaint on or before May 10, 2010; Duke agreed to halt construction threatening Kituwah until the complaint is heard.
Sources
- Klink, Karl, and James Talman, ed. The Journal of Major John Norton. (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1970).