Tanasi

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Chota and Tanasi Cherokee Village Sites
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Monument at the Tanasi site
Monument at the Tanasi site
Location: Monroe County, Tennessee
Nearest city: Vonore
Built/Founded: c. 1600-1700 A.D.
Added to NRHP: 1973
NRHP Reference#: 73001813
Governing body: Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation

Tanasi (also spelled Tanase, Tenasi, Tenassee, Tunissee, and other such variations) is a historic Overhill Cherokee village site in Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The village is best known as the namesake for the state of Tennessee. Although now submerged by the Tellico Lake impoundment of the Little Tennessee River, Tanasi served as the de facto capital of the Cherokee from as early as 1721 until 1730, when the capital shifted to Great Tellico.

The town of Chota developed immediately north of Tanasi (the two sites were divided by an unnamed stream) and by the 1740s had become the more prominent of the two towns. Although Chota and Tanasi had distinct political, social, and demographic traits, excavators in the late 1960s determined that the two towns are archaeologically indistinguishable.[1] The two towns are grouped as a single listing on the National Register of Historic Places, although Tanasi was given its own site designation (40MR62) in 1972.[2]

In the 1980s, the Tennessee Valley Authority placed a monument on the shoreline above the submerged site of Tanasi that commemorates its history and its legacy as the origin of the name of the state of Tennessee. This monument is approximately 12 miles (19 km) south of Vonore, just off Hwy. 455 (Citico Road). The site is managed by the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation.[3]

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[edit] Geographical setting

The Tanasi site, looking northwest from the Tanasi monument
The Tanasi site, looking northwest from the Tanasi monument

The Little Tennessee River flows northwestward from its source in the Appalachian Mountains and traverses a 40-mile (64 km) stretch of northern Monroe County before emptying into the Tennessee River near Lenoir City. In 1979, the construction of Tellico Dam at 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, the Tellico River.[4] Tanasi is located along the west bank of the Little Tennessee 27 miles (43 km) upstream from the river's mouth.[5] The site is opposite a sharp bend in the river known as Bacon's Bend.

Before inundation, 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 the Appalachian Ridge-and-Valley Province, which spans much of the upper Tennessee Valley. The Appalachian Range proper rises a few miles south of the Chota-Tanasi site.

[edit] Historical background

Tennessee Historical Commission marker along Citico Road
Tennessee Historical Commission marker along Citico Road

Tanasi first appears in the historical record in the early 1700s, at a time when the fur trade between the English and the Cherokee had grown to the extent that it required regulation. Ethnologist James Mooney reported that the meaning of the town's name is unknown, but noted its occurrence elsewhere among Cherokee lands in Tennessee and North Carolina.[6] The Cherokee name for the river upon which Tanasi was situated was probably "Callamaco," but early Euro-American explorers and traders renamed the river after Tanasi.[7][8]

Among the earliest English agents to reside at Tanasi was Eleazar Wiggan— nicknamed "Old Rabbit" by the Cherokee— who operated out of Tanasi as early 1711 and would serve as a guide for later diplomats and emissaries.[9] In 1725, South Carolina dispatched Colonel George Chicken to Tanasi to obtain Cherokee assistance in the colony's struggles with the Creeks. Chicken indicated in his journals that the chief of Tanasi— known as the Tanasi Warrior or Head Warrior of Tanasi— ruled over the Cherokee Overhill, Middle, and Valley towns in the region. Chicken recorded a speech in which the Tanasi Warrior pledged support for the English, and the two later engaged in a pipe-smoking session 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 Tanasi townhouse.[11]

The Tanasi monument, up close
The Tanasi monument, up close

In 1730, Sir Alexander Cuming— claiming to be an emissary of King George II— made an ambitious journey to Tanasi in which he managed to obtain the Tanasi Warrior's allegiance for England. As evidence of his success Cuming sought an esteemed symbolic headdress known as the Crown 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 aide of Moytoy, chief of Great Tellico. Cuming used his flamboyance and influence to convince the Cherokee to crown Moytoy "Emperor of the Cherokee," and 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 leader Attakullakulla, and two Tanasi warriors named Clogoittah and Oukanaekah.[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 was clearly 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 the Watauga Association.[14]

[edit] Tanasi's relationship with Chota

Detail of Tanasi (spelled "Tennessee"), as shown on Henry Timberlake's 1765 "Draught of the Cherokee Country"
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 with Great Tellico and Chatuga around the same time. Excavators in the early 1970s noted virtually no differences in the types of cultural materials and features uncovered at the two village sites. 18th-century traders and diplomats, however, clearly identified two separate towns.[15]

Chota doesn't appear in the historical record until around 1745, whereas Tanasi existed when Euro-American traders first reported on the region in the early 1700s. 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 already 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 map, which recorded the two towns' situation in 1762.[16]

[edit] Archaeological findings

Cyrus Thomas, working for the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of Ethnology, conducted a mound survey at the Chota-Tanasi site in the late 1880s. 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 the help of the Works Progress Administration. Lewis and Kneburg, who were searching for cultural data with which to compare their earlier finds at Hiwassee Island, uncovered 22 burials, 85 pit features, 982 postmolds, and one structure.[17] Between 1969 and 1974, University of Tennessee archaeologists conducted excavations at the Chota-Tanasi site in anticipation of the flooding of the site by the construction of Tellico Dam. Two excavations— one in 1970 and one in 1972— were focused specifically on Tanasi.

Although artifacts dating to the Archaic period (and even a fluted projectile point dating to the Paleo-Indian period) were uncovered at the Chota-Tanasi sites, excavations were mostly focused on the sites' Cherokee occupation. Along with locating the two village sites, investigators hoped to find evidence that would shed light on the Cherokees' relationship to the region's Mississippian-era (c. 900-1600 A.D.) occupants.[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, the existence of which was reported by traders and emissaries in the 1720s. However, it's 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]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Gerald Schroedl (ed.), Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee (Report of Investigations 38, University of Tennessee Department of Anthropology, 1986), 5.
  2. ^ Schroedl, Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee, 29.
  3. ^ Gerald Schroedl, "Overhill Cherokees." The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2002. Retrieved: 26 March 2008.
  4. ^ Richard Polhemus, The Toqua Site — 40MR6 Vol. 1 (Knoxville, Tenn.: The Tennessee Valley Authority, 1987), 1.
  5. ^ Schroedl, Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee, 5.
  6. ^ James Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee (Nashville, Tenn.: C and R Elder, 1972), 534.
  7. ^ J.G.M. Ramsey, The Annals of Tennessee (Johnson City, Tenn.: Overmountain Press, 1999), 47.
  8. ^ Mary Rothrock, end note in John Haywood's The Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee (Jackson, Tenn.: McCowat-Mercer Press, 1959), 424.
  9. ^ Schroedl, Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanassee, 8.
  10. ^ Samuel Cole Williams, Early Travels in the Tennessee Country, 1540-1800 (Johnson City, Tennessee: Watauga Press, 1928), 97-101.
  11. ^ Schroedl, Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanassee, 9.
  12. ^ Williams, Early Travels in the Tennessee Country, 122-127.
  13. ^ Schroedl, Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee, 9-12.
  14. ^ Ramsey, The Annals of Tennessee, 120-121.
  15. ^ Schroedl, Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee, 5, 10, 534, 548.
  16. ^ Schroedl, Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee, 9-12, 534, 539, 548.
  17. ^ Schroedl, Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee, 16-20, 38-39.
  18. ^ Schroedl, Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee, 1, 16, 379, 531.
  19. ^ Schroedl, Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee, 170-181, 204, 265.

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