Kituwa - History

History

Kituwa is the site of an ancient earthwork mound, likely built by the Mississippian culture about 1000 CE. The Cherokee held the site sacred after settling here in a later time. Although the vegetation on the mound was burned repeatedly by the Cherokee for agriculture during the colonial period and plowed over for corn cultivation since Indian Removal 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 (52 m) in diameter and five feet tall, although it was once taller. The Cherokee built a structure on top that housed their sacred flame, which was to be kept burning at all times.

Moundbuilding by people of the various Woodland and Mississippian cultures was common throughout the Mississippi Basin and Ohio Valley. This 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 was documented as established in western North Carolina from 1000 CE. Joara was a regional chiefdom in this culture. Additional Mississippian-culture sites have been identified extending southwest to the village later called Kituwa. The Mississipian culture peoples were part of vast trade networks that connected chiefdoms throughout the present-day eastern United States. Archaeologists believe the people of the smaller chiefdoms were eventually absorbed by the developing, larger Catawba and Cherokee tribes.

The inhabitants of Kituwah, 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. 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, territory of the Cherokee.

During the Anglo-Cherokee War (1758–1761), British general James Grant used his army to destroy the ancient town. Its inhabitants migrated westward and settled in Mialoquo (Great Island Town) 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 when making land cessions to the United States.