Native Americans in the Watershed

Carol Greenberger
Temples at a Mississipian site between A.D. 1000 and 1100.

Discovery of the approximately 250 year old canoe in the Chattooga River prompted many lively discussions about its possible history. Who made it? How was it used? Which leads to further questions; who lived along the banks of the Chattooga River? And when? A lot has been learned in the past several decades about man’s history in North America and in the southeastern United States.

The first people to inhabit the New World came out of Siberia across the Bering Strait land bridge into Alaska during the Ice Age. Although there is some evidence that man was present in North America as early as 40,000 years ago, there is overwhelming archaeological evidence that man was here at least as early as 11,000 years ago. These people were called Paleo-Indians and they lived in the grassy and swampy plains, hunting large animals such as the mammoth and prehistoric horses and bison. At the end of the Pleistocene period, as the ice receded, the large cold-adapted animals became extinct. With that change, the Paleo-Indian hunting tradition gradually declined. In its place, a new tradition, the Archaic, began to take shape in the eastern United States around 8,000 B.C. (Archeologists describe these societies as “traditions” -cultural patterns which endured for some time in a particular place.) Instead of the Paelo-Indian reliance on hunting large animals, the Archaic tradition was based on gathering vegetable foods, fishing, and hunting and trapping small woodland animals. People began settling in distinct territories.

Beginning around 1,000 B.C. and lasting until 700 A.D., a new era began to take shape in the eastern United States. This is known as the Woodland tradition. A change gradually developed both in the ideology of the Indians and in their subsistence pattern. The people of the Woodland tradition were hunters and gatherers, as their ancestors had been. They also learned to harvest local foods, such as nuts, more efficiently and store them. The ability to store food led to a more sedentary life style. This time period shows the first evidence of relatively permanent homes. Agriculture began to supplement hunting and gathering. During this period, Indians began to show a preference for living near the flood plains of rivers, where native seed-bearing plants thrived.

The Mississippian tradition began taking shape between 700 A.D. and 900 A.D. along the middle course of the Mississippi River. This tradition spread along the river systems to almost all parts of the southeast. Mississippian sites were invariably built near the courses or old channels of streams and rivers where the best soil for agriculture was found. They were frequently surrounded by defensive structures and ditches, which were sometimes filled with water. The most characteristic feature of the Mississippian tradition was the building of flat-topped, pyramidal earthen mounds that formed the foundations for temples, mortuaries, chief’s houses and important buildings. Etowah mounds in northern Georgia are an example of this Mississippian tradition.

The Mississippians were the first people to inhabit the southern Appalachians in permanent settlements. The temple mounds and defensive structures indicate that new religious and social elements began in this period, as well as important economic changes. Trading for salt, shells, beads, and obsidian (volcanic glass used for making tools and weapons) between the coast and interior began in this period. While hunting and gathering remained important, agriculture provided a large portion of the Indians’ food. The Mississippian tradition reached the height of its development around 1200 A.D., influencing almost all of the cultures in the Southeast.

The Cherokee Indians, a late Mississippian tribe, migrated from the Ohio valley about 5,000 years ago, driven south by wars with neighboring tribes in the northeast. The arrival of European explorers in Appalachia in the sixteenth century hastened the decline of the Mississippian culture. The spread of diseases introduced by the Europeans combined with violent encounters had a devastating effect on the native population. Within a century after Spanish contact, the Mississippians formerly known as “Pisgah” became the “Qualla” – the ancestors of the present day Cherokees. For most of the seventeenth century the Qualla Cherokees continued many of the subsistence traditions of their Mississippian ancestors, such as clay and mud building construction and growing corn. The addition of horses, pigs, and peaches to the Indians’ lives can be attributed to the Spanish. Sometime during the early seventeenth century, bands of these Indians migrated across the Blue Ridge mountains into the north Georgia and the North Carolina mountains, and by 1700 about 30,000 Cherokee lived in permanent settlements in the Southeast.

The Cherokee in the Southeast lived in about eighty towns, distributed among four large groups. The Middle settlements centered in western North Carolina on the headwaters of the Tuckaseegee and Little Tennessee Rivers. Kituah, a middle town located near Bryson City, North Carolina, was the “mother town” of the Cherokees; its tribal leaders reigned over all the Cherokee towns and villages. The Valley settlements were also in North Carolina along the Valley, Nottely, and upper Hiawassee Rivers. The Lower settlements were located along the Tugalo, Keowee, Jocassee, Seneca, Chauga, Chattooga, and Tallulah Rivers in northeastern Georgia and northwestern South Carolina. The Overhill settlements were in Tennessee, primarily on the Tennessee River.

The Cherokee towns varied in size from as small as ten dwellings to as large as two hundred. The average town had about one hundred dwellings. Each town had an open square in the center for ceremonies and dances. Towns on the borders often had stockades whose gates were guardedaround the clock.

The council house, located on the west side of the center square, served both as a temple for religious ceremonies and as a public hall for civil and military councils. The traditional council house was seven sided, corresponding to the seven clans of the Cherokee, and could seat as many as five hundred people. Family houses were made of logs, with a small, scooped-out fireplace in the center of the floor, next to a large, flat hearthstone for baking corn bread. Each family also had a small winter house for sleeping during cold weather where a fire was kept burning all day and banked at night.

The woodlands of the southern Appalachians were rich in wildlife that the Cherokee depended on for survival. Deer, elk, rabbit, squirrel, turkey, and beaver provided pelts for clothing and blankets, along with food. The Cherokee were farmers as well as hunters. Corn was their main crop and they cultivated several varieties. They also grew beans, gourds, pumpkins, and sunflowers. Hominy was one of the most important items in the Cherokee’s diet. Like their Mississippian ancestors, the Cherokee utilized nature’s bounty. Nuts, wild fruits, roots, herbs, mushrooms, fish, frogs, birds’ eggs, crayfish, and freshwater mussels ensured survival before crops were ready to be harvested. Cherokees depended heavily on river cane, which was woven by the women into baskets, used to gather and store the annual harvest.

Fire was used by the Indians to clear fields and encourage the growth of river cane, a practice that made visible changes to the mountain landscape. Portions of the woods were also burned in the winter to stimulate the growth of open meadows and plant life, making acorns and chestnuts easier to find, thus increasing the deer and turkey populations.

The Cherokees traveled for three reasons: to hunt, to wage war, and to trade. Before the introduction of the horse by the Europeans, the primary method of travel was on foot. Canoes were used to travel the extensive rivers, creeks, and swamps of the southeast. The frequent rapids on local rivers made travel by canoe difficult, but it was done to some extent. Canoes and rafts made of large cane that grew along the river were also used to ferry people and objects from one bank to the other. After the arrival of the horse, the Cherokee began to ride and use horses as pack animals.

The location of the capital of the Cherokee nation changed according the residence of the paramount chief. In 1715 it was at Tugaloo in the Lower settlements in northeastern Georgia. The chief was chosen for his wisdom, integrity and ability as a leader. He served as the head of all civil affairs as well as the religious head. Each town and settlement group had its own civil, religious and military organizations that paralleled those of the national institutions. Tribal government was organized around dual chiefs - one to lead in war and one to govern in peace. The White chief, who led in peace, held the highest office in the tribe.

The war chief took an oath to never go to war without just cause and never to shed the blood of women, babies, old men or anyone unable to defend himself. Women played an important role in war, especially one woman often called “War Woman” by the whites. She sat with the council and cast a vote on whether to declare war, and also decided whether captives lived or died. Maternal descent was emphasized in Cherokee society.

Ceremonies played an important part in the life of the tribe. The Cherokee celebrated a series of seasonal ceremonies and festivities that corresponded to the food cycle of the tribe. March was the first of thirteen moons and the feast of the deer. April’s celebration focused on strawberries, and the next harvests were “little” corn, watermelon, peaches, mulberries, and then “great” corn. In the eighth moon, our October, the festival featured turkey, followed by ceremonies for bison, bear, ducks, chestnuts, and finally nuts that were used in bread. Most of the seasonal ceremonies declined in importance in the eighteenth century, except the one held in late summer that coincided with the ripening of the late crop of corn. The Green Corn Ceremony lasted several days and had significant cultural and social connotation.

When we think about who lived along the banks of the Chattooga River and in the Appalachian mountains before Europeans came to America we primarily think of the Cherokees. Archeological evidence shows that the history of our area goes back much further in time and is a rich and complex story of mankind and the environment. Much can be learned, not only about living in harmony with nature, but also living and working together as a community, from the people who inhabited this watershed before us.