Kituwah
| Kituwah | |||
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| National Register of Historic Places | |||
 Kituwah Mound |
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| location | US Route 19 east of Bryson City , Cherokee , North Carolina | ||
| Coordinates | 35 ° 26 '19.9 " N , 83 ° 24' 4.1" W | ||
| NRHP number | 73002239 | ||
| The NRHP added | 4th June 1973 | ||
The historic Native American settlement of Kituwah , also known as Kituwa , Keetowah , Kittowa, Kitara, and similar spellings or giduwa (Cherokee: ᎩᏚᏩ), on the banks of the Tuckasegee River is considered by the Cherokee to be their original settlement. A 1000 n. Chr. Constructed mound ( Mound ) marks a ceremonial place here. For the Cherokee, Kitowah is one of the Seven Mother Cities of their former homeland in the southeastern United States . The site is in Swain County , North Carolina , in the Great Smoky Mountains . What is now Bryson City was built near Euro-American settlers after the Cherokee were driven from the region by the Indian Removal Act . In 1973, Kituwah was added to the National Register of Historic Places because of its importance .
Since the mid-19th century, the term Keetoowah has been associated with Cherokee, originally just Thoroughbred Cherokee, who pursued a kind of religious nationalism. They were arrested with the customs of the tribe before contact with whites. Conservative agreements of the Cherokee, who relocated to Arkansas and the Indian Territory in the 1810s and 1820s , formed the now nationally recognized tribe of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians (UKB). During the 19th century, after the forced relocation to the Indian Territory, there were Cheroke groups who identified with the Keetoowah. Sometimes they formed secret societies in which they kept their rituals and sacred ceremonies.
history
Kituwah is the location of a historical mound (dt. Earth mound), which around 1000 a. Z. was built. For the Cherokee, the site is sacred. At the time of the arrival of the Europeans, the vegetation on the mound was regularly burned by the Cherokee in order to use the mound for cultivation. It may also have been a ritual to preserve the hill and keep it visible, free of trees. Burning the underbrush was part of the Cherokee's sustainable agriculture.
After the Euro-American settlers invaded the Cherokee Nation territories in the 1830s and forced their expulsion from the southeast, they plowed the mound several times to grow corn . The hill is still visible, but it is significantly lower than it was originally. During the period of use by the Euro-Americans, the hill was within a larger property, Ferguson's Field .
The remaining mound is around 52 meters in diameter and 1.50 meters high, although archaeologists have determined that it was taller. According to the oral tradition of the Cherokee, they had built a building on the top of the hill where their sacred flame burned. People of Woodland- and the Mississippian culture often built those mounds, and the remains are across the Mississippi area and the Ohio Valley were found. The area of these cultures included what is now Tennessee in the west, Georgia in the southeast, Louisiana in the southwest, Ohio , Indiana , Illinois and Missouri in the northwest. The Mississippi culture has been shown to be around 1000 C.E. Native to what is now western North Carolina, Joara was a regional chiefdom (tribal principality ) of culture that Spanish explorers encountered and recorded in the late 16th century. Other Mississippi culture sites have been identified to the southwest as far as the village later called Kitowah. The tribes of the Mississippi culture were part of a large-scale trading network called Chiefdoms throughout the eastern part of what is now the United States; their network extended from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes . Archaeologists believe that the smaller chiefdoms were eventually absorbed by the growing and larger Catawba and Cheroke tribes.
The residents of Kituwah, also known as Ani-kitu-hwagi , influenced settlements along the Tuckasegee and Little Tennessee rivers . The people of the region were called Kituwah or Keetoowah . After the Kituwah were responsible for protecting the northern borders with the Iroquois and Algonquin , the term became synonymous with Cherokee over time. Although the Cherokee language belongs to the Iroquois language family , it is believed that the tribe migrated from the Great Lakes to the southeast as early as the 14th or 15th centuries, in the early stages of the formation of the Five Nations . The historic site of the mother city of Kituwah lies within the Qualla Boundary , which has been a recognized tribal area of the Cherokee since the 20th century.
During the Cherokee War (1758–1761), British General James Grant used his troops to destroy the historic settlement of Kituwah. Residents moved west and settled in Mialoquo , a settlement on an island in the Little Tennessee River under the Overhill Cherokee . A later leader of this group was Dragging Canoe , the son of Attakullakulla . When he led the warriors to the southwest to fight the colonists in East Tennessee, the entire population followed him, including the former residents of Kituwah. In the 1820s, the Cherokee lost control of Kituwah due to land cedings to the government.
Recovery in the 20th century
The Cherokee were unable to regain their mother city until 1996, when the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians bought the property and an area of 125 acres. An archaeological survey of Kituwah in 1997 showed an 18th century village with an area of around 26 hectares on the site. The density of the artifacts suggests a long period of settlement. The Cherokee debated how to use the land, some suggested using it for community facilities. Non-invasive arachological examinations revealed 15 burial sites, possibly up to 1000 would be possible. A gradiometer was installed and the remains of numerous fireplaces were found, one in the very center of the hill that may have been the Cherokee sacred fire. After such discoveries, many Cherokee believe that any development of the area must be in harmony with the sacred nature of the site. They plan uses that are intended to promote the renewal and well-being of the community. The Eastern Cherokee have supported two youth organizations that focus on traditional paths of spirituality.
Traditions
The Cherokee oral tradition tells that all Cherokee settled in Kituwah after migrating from the Great Lakes and southern Canada. The Cherokee say this happened 4,000 years ago, archaeological and cultural evidence supports lore, but there is no scientific consensus on the time of arrival in the Southeast. The historical Cherokee had an inheritable priesthood called Ah-ni-ku-ta-ni , and it is possible that this form of priesthood was adopted by another tribe. According to research by ethnologist James Mooney in the early 20th century, the Cherokee treated the Ah-ni-ku-ta-ni with great respect and fear. They were not like the other chiefs, but were divided into two groups: the ugus (owls), white chiefs associated with times of peace or striving for peace, and colona (ravens), red chiefs who were used during times of war led the people. Some conservative Cherokee identify themselves with the autonym Ah-ni-ki-tu-wa-gi , in some dialects of the Oklahoma tribes also Ki-tu-wa or Gi-du-wa , which means Kitowah people. The meaning of the word Kituwah is known to those who use the Cherokee language today, but it is rarely used because of its sacred nature .
Honoring the mother city was analogous to honoring Selus , the Cherokee grain mother. Honoring mothers is an important concept in Cherokee culture, and the Cherokee had a matrilineal kinship system well into the 20th century . Clan membership, inheritance, and status were inherited through the maternal line, with children belonging to their mother's family and clan.
The Green Corn ceremony , one of the two ancient dances, may have been practiced in Kituwah. The dance is called ye-lu-le (to the center). During the dance, the dancers shout ye-lu-le and move towards a fire in the center of the circle of dancers. The dance symbolizes the ritual distribution of the sacred fire, according to their oral legends. During the Green Corn ceremony, coals of a new fire were distributed to all Cherokee. These were then used to light the ceremonial fires in the villages, without which the new harvest could not be eaten. The hearth fires of the Cherokee communities were extinguished prior to the ceremony and re-lit with coals from the new fire during the Green Corn dances.
literature
Andrew Denson: Monuments to Absence , University of North Carolina Press, 2017, ISBN 978-1-4696-3083-0 , pp. 226 ff. The Mother Town (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Sandra Muse Isaacs: Eastern Cherokee Stories: A Living Oral Tradition and Its Cultural Continuance University of Oklahoma Press, 2019, ISBN 978-0-8016-6350-5 , chap. 1 (english)
- ↑ Karl Klink, James Talman (Ed.): The Journal of Major John Norton . Champlain Society, 1970, p. 62
- ↑ Cherokee Nations News: Proposed Development of Kituwah 'Mother Town' of the Cherokee, Debated July 19, 2011
- ^ A b James Mooney [1900]: Myths of the Cherokee and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees . Kessinger Publishing, 2006, ISBN 978-1-4286-4864-7 , p. 393.
- ↑ a b James Mooney [1900]: Myths of the Cherokee . Dover Publications , 1995, ISBN 0-486-28907-9 .
Web links
- Official website of the Eastern Band: We are Cherokee
- Cherokee Preservation Foundation