Kituwa


The ancient Native American settlement of Kituwa or giduwa, on the Tuckasegee River, is claimed by the Cherokee people as their original settlement. An earthwork mound, built about 1000 CE, marks a ceremonial site here. The Cherokee identify Kituwa as one of the "seven mother towns" in their former homeland of the American Southeast. This site is in Swain County, North Carolina, in the Great Smoky Mountains. Present-day Bryson City was developed nearby by European Americans after the Cherokee were removed from the area in the 1830s. Kituwa was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 because of its significance.
Since the mid-19th century, the term "Keetoowah" has been associated with Cherokee people, initially full-blood only, who supported a kind of religious nationalism. They adhered to pre-contact communal ways. Conservative descendants of Cherokee who had migrated to Arkansas and Indian Territory in the 1810s and 1820s later formed what is now the federally recognized tribe of the United Keetoowah Band. During the 19th century, after removal to Indian Territory, there were Cherokee groups that identified as Keetoowah, at times forming secret societies that maintained rituals and sacred ceremonies.

History

Kituwa is the site of an ancient earthwork mound, built by about 1000 CE. The Cherokee hold the site sacred. At the time of European encounter, the Cherokee regularly burned the vegetation on the mound for agricultural use. It may also have been part of ritual to preserve the mound, to keep it visible and free of trees. Burning underbrush was part of sustainable farming practices.
After European Americans invaded the Cherokee Nation in the 1830s and forced their removal from the Southeast, they repeatedly plowed the mound area for corn cultivation. The mound is still visible although much shorter than it would originally have been. During the period of European-American uses, the mound was within the boundaries of a larger property called Ferguson's Field.
The remaining mound is in diameter and five feet tall, although archeologists know that it was once taller. According to the Cherokee oral tradition, they had built a structure on top that housed their sacred flame, which was to be kept burning at all times.
People of several Woodland and Mississippian cultures frequently built earthwork mounds, and remains are evident throughout the Mississippi Basin and Ohio Valley. The area of moundbuilding by various cultures included Tennessee to the west, Georgia to the southeast, Louisiana to the southwest, and Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri to the northwest.
The Mississippian culture is documented as established in what is now known as western North Carolina from 1000 CE. Joara was a regional chiefdom in this culture, which Spanish explorers recorded encountering in the late 16th century. Additional Mississippian-culture sites have been identified extending southwest to the village later called Kituwa. The Mississippian-culture peoples were part of vast trade networks that connected chiefdoms throughout the present-day eastern United States, spanning the continent from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes. Archaeologists believe the people of the smaller chiefdoms were eventually absorbed by the developing, larger Catawba and Cherokee tribes.
The inhabitants of Kituwah, known as the Ani-kitu-hwagi, influenced all of the towns along the Tuckasegee and Little Tennessee 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 and the Algonquian peoples, the name became synonymous with the Cherokee among the people. Although the Cherokee language is of Iroquoian origin, this tribe is believed to have migrated long ago from the Great Lakes area, where the Five Nations of the Iroquois developed in the 14th or 15th centuries. The ancient site of the Mother Town Kituwa is visible in the general area of the Qualla Boundary, which has been recognized Cherokee territory again since the late 20th century.

During the Anglo-Cherokee War, British general James Grant used his army to destroy the ancient town of Kituwa. Its inhabitants migrated westward and settled in Mialoquo on the Little Tennessee River among the Overhill Cherokee. A later headman of this group was Dragging Canoe, 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 after making land cessions to the United States.

20th-century reclamation

The Cherokee people did not regain their "mother town" until 1996, when the Eastern Band of the Cherokee purchased the site and an associated. A 1997 archaeological survey of Kituwah found an early 18th-century village site covering. The density of artifacts 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 revealed 15 burials, with the likelihood of up to 1000. A gradiometer was used to map the area. It also depicted the location of many hearth sites, including one at the center. This would likely have been associated with the sacred fire.
With such discoveries, more Cherokee citizens believe that any development must be compatible with the sacred nature of the site. 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.

Duke Energy controversy

Duke Energy attempted to build a $52 million substation near the Kituwah Cherokee ceremonial mounds. Both Swain County and the Eastern Cherokee opposed this project; the county asked for a moratorium on such projects until it could consider zoning ordinances to regulate them. But the state Utilities Commission has the power to override local ordinances to achieve its mission of supplying electricity at reasonable rates.
On February 4, 2010, the Eastern Cherokee Tribal Council passed a resolution opposing the project, 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.

In March, Swain County passed a resolution calling for a 90-day moratorium to stop construction of Duke Energy's project until they could better consult. On April 23, 2010, the North Carolina Utilities Commission denied Duke Energy's "Motion to Hold Complaint in Abeyance." It directed Duke to file an answer to the complaint on or before May 10, 2010. Duke agreed to halt the construction that threatened Kituwah for 90 days until the complaint was heard.
In July 2010 the Swain County commission passed an ordinance requiring Duke Energy to consult with local stakeholders about projects, which they had not originally done in this case. In August 2010, after continued consultation, Duke agreed to move the proposed Hyatt Creek tie station away from sight of the Kituwa mounds. The Cherokee tribes and leaders of Swain County praised Duke Energy for their consultation on this project and this outcome.

Traditions

Cherokee oral traditions tell that all Cherokee settled in Kituwa after the migration from the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern Canada as early as 4,000 years ago. Cultural and archaeological evidence support the people's accounts of their migration, but there is no scholarly consensus about when they reached the Southeast.
The ancient Cherokee had a hereditary priesthood, called the Ah-ni-ku-ta-ni, a structure that may have been adopted from another tribe. According to research by the early 20th century ethnographer James Mooney, the Cherokee held the Ah-ni-ku-ta-ni "in awe" and "greatly feared them." They were not the regular chiefs. These were of two types, known as the ugus, "white" chiefs, and the colona, or "red" chiefs
Some traditional Cherokee identify by the autonym of Ah-ni-ki-tu-wa-gi, Kituwa people. The meaning of the word Kituwa is known to contemporary Cherokee speakers. It is not widely reported because of its sacred nature.
Honoring the "mother town" was analogous to honoring Selu, the Cherokee Corn Mother. Honoring mothers is a concept that has pervaded Cherokee culture. Well into the 20th century, the Cherokee had a matrilineal kinship system, by which clan membership, inheritance and status were carried by the mother's family. A child was considered born into its mother's family and clan.
In the Green Corn Ceremony, 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 toward the fire in the center of the 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, 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.