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Tanasi

Coordinates:35°32′55″N84°07′57″W/ 35.5486°N 84.1324°W/35.5486; -84.1324
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Chota and Tanasi Cherokee Village Sites
Monument overlooking the Tanasi site
LocationMonroe County, Tennessee
Nearest cityVonore
Coordinates35°32′55″N84°07′57″W/ 35.5486°N 84.1324°W/35.5486; -84.1324
Builtc. 1600–1700 A.D.
NRHP referenceNo.73001813
Added to NRHP1973
This article containsCherokee syllabic characters.Without properrendering support,you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbolsinstead of Cherokee syllabics.

Tanasi(Cherokee:ᏔᎾᏏ,romanized:Tanasi;also renderedTanase,Tenasi,Tenassee,Tunissee,Tennessee,and other such variations) was a historicOverhill settlementsite in present-dayMonroe County, Tennessee,in the southeastern United States. The village became the namesake for the state ofTennessee.It was abandoned by theCherokeein the 19th century for a rising town whose chief was more powerful. Tanasi served as the de facto capital of theOverhill Cherokeefrom as early as 1721 until 1730, when the capital shifted toGreat Tellico.

The Cherokee town ofChotadeveloped immediately north of and later than Tanasi. The two sites were divided by an unnamed stream. By the 1740s, Chota had become the more prominent of the two towns, holding the townhouse where the community met, and chiefs would meet with colonial emissaries. Although Chota and Tanasi had distinct political, social, and demographic traits, research excavators in the late 1960s determined that the two towns are archaeologically indistinguishable. They were among the numerous Overhill Towns, as called by English colonists, who traveled over theAppalachian Mountainsfrom the east to reach them.[1]The two towns are grouped as a single listing on theNational Register of Historic Places,although Tanasi was given its own site designation (40MR62) in 1972.[2]

Both sites were submerged by the creation ofTellico Reservoir,after completion of a dam on the Little Tennessee River in 1979. Archeological surveys were conducted of these sites in the 1970s prior to their flooding, and thousands of artifacts were recovered.

In the 1980s, theTennessee Valley Authorityplaced a monument on the shoreline above the submerged site of Tanasi that commemorates its history and its legacy as the origin of the name Tennessee. This monument is approximately 7 miles (11 km) southeast ofVonore,just off Highway 455 (Citico Road). The site is managed by theEastern Band of the Cherokee Nation.[3]

Geography

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The Tanasi site, looking northwest from the Tanasi monument

The Little Tennessee River flows northwestward from North Carolina from its source in the Appalachian Mountains in Georgia. It traverses a 40-mile (64 km) stretch of northern Monroe County before emptying into theTennessee RivernearLenoir City.In 1979, the construction ofTellico Damat the mouth of the river created a reservoir that spans the lower 33 miles (53 km) of the Little Tennessee and the lower 22 miles (35 km) of its tributary, theTellico River,flooding former important Cherokee town sites.[4]Tanasi was located along the west bank of the Little Tennessee 27 miles (43 km) upstream from the river's mouth.[5]The site was opposite a sharp bend in the river known as Bacon's Bend.

Tanasi was situated on a relatively flat terrace flanked by the river on one side and a series of high, steep hills on the other. These hills, noted on Timberlake's 1762 map, are part of theAppalachian Ridge-and-Valley Province,which spans much of the upperTennessee Valley.The Appalachian Range proper rises a few miles south of the Chota-Tanasi site.

History

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Tennessee Historical Commission marker along Citico Road

Tanasi first appears in the historical record in the early 18th century, at a time when the fur trade between the English and the Cherokee had grown to the extent that the colonists wanted to regulate it. EthnologistJames Mooneyreported that the meaning of the town's name is unknown, but noted that it was used for other places among Cherokee lands in Tennessee and North Carolina.[6]TheCherokeename for the river upon which Tanasi was situated was probablyCallamaco.Early Euro-American explorers and traders renamed the river after Tanasi.[7][8]

Tanasi monument,up close

Among the earliest English traders to reside at Tanasi was Eleazar Wiggan— nicknamed "Old Rabbit" by the Cherokee— who operated out of Tanasi as early as 1711. He also served as a guide for later colonial diplomats and emissaries.[9]

In 1725, the province of South Carolina dispatched Colonel George Chicken to Tanasi to obtain Cherokee assistance in the colony's struggles with theCreek.Chicken indicated in his journals that the chief of Tanasi— known as theTanasi Warrioror Head Warrior of Tanasi— ruled over the Cherokee Overhill, Middle, and Valley towns in the region. (But this would have been unusual. The designation of Middle and Valley Towns generally referred to groups of towns on the eastern side of the Appalachians inWestern North Carolina.Kituwawas chief among the Middle Towns. Not only was Cherokee society highly decentralized and the towns generally exercised considerable autonomy under their own chiefs, but travel between these territories was difficult in the mountainous region.) Chicken recorded a speech in which the Tanasi Warrior pledged support for the English. The two later engaged in apipe-smokingsession in which the Tanasi Warrior told Chicken of recent Creek hostilities in the area.[10]Colonel John Herbert visited Tanasi on a similar mission in 1727 and reported meeting with the "King and Long Warriour" of Tanasi at the Cherokee townhouse.[11]

In 1730, SirAlexander Cuming,a trader claiming to be an emissary ofKing George II,journeyed to Tanasi and obtained the Tanasi Warrior's allegiance for England. As evidence of his success, Cuming sought an esteemed symbolic headdress known as theCrown of Tanasi— described as resembling a wig made of dyed possum hair— which he hoped to present to the king of England. To obtain this headdress, Cuming enlisted the aid ofMoytoy,chief of Great Tellico. Cuming used his flamboyance to convince the Cherokee to crown Moytoy "Emperor of the Cherokee." In exchange, Moytoy obtained the headdress sought by Cuming. Cuming departed for England shortly thereafter, taking with him a party that included Eleazar Wiggan, future Cherokee leaderAttakullakulla,and two Tanasi warriors named Clogoittah and Oukanaekah to present to the king.[12]

The crowning of Moytoy in 1730 shifted the Cherokee center of power to Great Tellico, which was situated along the Tellico River roughly 16 miles (26 km) southwest of Tanasi. After the death of Moytoy in 1741, however,Old Hop,the chief of Chota, began to consolidate power. The influence of Chota soon overshadowed that of Tanasi, and by the early 1750s, Chota had become the more dominant town. In 1765,Henry Timberlake,who had visited the Overhill towns as an emissary in 1761–1762, reported 12 dwellings and 21 warriors at Tanasi, and identified Old Hop as chief of both Chota and Tanasi.[13]In 1775, the Tanasi Warrior was among the chiefs who signed a treaty with theWatauga Associationof Carolina colonists, who wanted to create an independent jurisdiction west of the mountains, in what became Tennessee.[14]

Tanasi's relationship with Chota

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Detail of Tanasi (spelled "Tennessee" ), as shown on Henry Timberlake's 1765 "Draught of the Cherokee Country"

Tanasi's relationship with Chota has long puzzled historians and archaeologists. Some have speculated that the two towns were a single community with two districts and two governments, not unlike the situation that reportedly existed in Great Tellico and Chatuga around the same time. Archeological excavators in the early 1970s noted virtually no differences in the types of cultural materials and features uncovered at the two village sites, which had developed on either side of a creek. 18th-century traders and diplomats, however, clearly identified these as two separate towns.[15]

Tanasi was reported by Euro-American traders from their first explorations in the region in the early 18th century, but Chota does not appear in the historical record until around 1745. The maps of John Herbert and George Hunter, drawn in 1727 and 1730, respectively, show Tanasi but not Chota. In 1746, English agent George Pawley met with Cherokee leaders at the Chota townhouse, indicating Chota had usurped Tanasi as the more dominant town. Missionary William Richardson visited the Overhill towns in the late 1750s and described Chota and Tanasi as being separated by a "small river." Richardson's description is supported by Timberlake's 1762 map, which recorded the two towns' sites.[16]

Archaeological findings

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Cyrus Thomas, working for theSmithsonian Institution's Bureau of Ethnology in the late 1880s, conducted a mound survey at the Chota-Tanasi site. Thomas reported the discovery of 13 burials and several artifacts.

In 1939, Thomas Lewis and Madeline Kneburg directed an excavation at the Chota-Tanasi site with funding by theWorks Progress Administrationto pay for laborers. Lewis and Kneburg, who were searching for cultural data with which to compare their earlier finds atHiwassee Island,uncovered 22 burials, 85 pit features, 982 postmolds, and one structure.[17]

With the sites threatened by flooding from a dam and reservoir project, between 1969 and 1974,University of Tennesseearchaeologists conducted excavations at the Chota-Tanasi site to establish history and recover as many artifacts as possible. Two excavations—one in 1970 and one in 1972—were focused specifically on Tanasi.

Although artifacts dating to theArchaic period(and even a fluted projectile point dating to thePaleo-Indianperiod) were uncovered at the Chota-Tanasi sites, the excavations were focused mostly on the period of Cherokee occupation. Investigators hoped to identify the locations of each town and to find evidence that might define the Cherokee peoples' relationship to those occupying the area in theSouth Appalachian Mississippian culture-era (c. 1000–1600 A.D.).[18]

The 1972 excavations uncovered 191 features, 22 burials, 1005 postmolds, and 6 structures at the Tanasi site alone. Two townhouses were uncovered at the Chota-Tanasi sites, one of which was slightly smaller and older than the other. The older of the two townhouses may have been the Tanasi townhouse, which traders and emissaries had reported in the 1720s. However, it is also possible that the older townhouse was an earlier version of the Chota townhouse, and that excavators failed to uncover the Tanasi townhouse. The older townhouse had a diameter of just over 50 feet (15 m). In 1986, the remains of the 22 burials uncovered at Tanasi—along with those uncovered at Chota—were reinterred in a burial mound at the Sequoyah Museum near Vonore.[19]

References

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  1. ^Gerald Schroedl (ed.),Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee(Report of Investigations 38, University of Tennessee Department of Anthropology, 1986), p. 5.
  2. ^Schroedl,Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee,p. 29.
  3. ^Gerald Schroedl, "Overhill Cherokees."The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture,2002. Retrieved: 26 March 2008.
  4. ^Richard Polhemus,The Toqua Site — 40MR6Vol. 1 (Knoxville, Tenn.: The Tennessee Valley Authority, 1987), p. 1.
  5. ^Schroedl,Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee,p. 5.
  6. ^James Mooney,Myths of the Cherokee and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee(Nashville, Tenn.: C and R Elder, 1972), p. 534.
  7. ^J. G. M. Ramsey,The Annals of Tennessee(Johnson City, Tenn.: Overmountain Press, 1999), p. 47.
  8. ^Mary Rothrock, end note inJohn Haywood'sThe Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee(Jackson, Tenn.: McCowat–Mercer Press, 1959), p. 424.
  9. ^Schroedl,Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanassee,p. 8.
  10. ^Samuel Cole Williams,Early Travels in the Tennessee Country, 1540–1800(Johnson City, Tennessee: Watauga Press, 1928), pp. 97–101.
  11. ^Schroedl,Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanassee,p. 9.
  12. ^Williams,Early Travels in the Tennessee Country,pp. 122–127.
  13. ^Schroedl,Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee,pp. 9–12.
  14. ^Ramsey,The Annals of Tennessee,pp. 120–121.
  15. ^Schroedl,Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee,pp. 5, 10, 534, 548.
  16. ^Schroedl,Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee,pp. 9–12, 534, 539, 548.
  17. ^Schroedl,Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee,pp. 16–20, 38–39.
  18. ^Schroedl,Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee,pp. 1, 16, 379, 531.
  19. ^Schroedl,Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee,pp. 170–181, 204, 265.

Resources

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  • "History and Genealogy:Frequently Asked Questions" What is the meaning of the name 'Tennessee'? "".Tennessee State Library and Archives.RetrievedMarch 19,2006.
  • "History".Smoky Mountain Visitors Guide.Archived fromthe originalon March 7, 2010.RetrievedMarch 19,2006.
  • Mooney, James. "Myths of the Cherokee" (1900, reprint 1995).
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