History of the
Little Tennessee River

A Refuge in the Ice Age

Paleolithic hunters who followed large game south during the last glacial period were probably the first humans in the Little Tennessee valley.

In the thousands of years that followed, native cultures succeeded one another in the region, gradually moving from a nomadic to a semi-nomadic lifestyle, then to a more settled way of life, practicing the ceramic arts and agriculture, building more permanent homes, and developing villages.

The Mound Builders

About 1000 years ago, a sophisticated culture we call the Pisgah phase or South Appalachian Mississippian variant arose in the region. These people built palisaded villages, often centered around a man-made mound that supported a ceremonial center.

Once, 30 or more ceremonial mounds survived in Western North Carolina, but most have vanished. Two still exist in Macon County. The Nikwasi Mound (shown left in c1900 photo), near the Little Tennesse in east Franklin, marks the site of the Cherokee’s Sacred Town. The Cowee Mound, on the site of the Cherokee’s traditional capital town, also survives.

Hernando DeSoto encountered the mound builders during his expedition through the southeast in 1540. Soon after, this civilization vanished and was succeeded by the modern southeastern tribes. The historical Cherokees (Qualla phase),  descendants of the Pisgah folk, continued to live in their ancestral towns.

The Middle Cherokees

The Cherokee villages of the Little Tennessee River watershed were known as the Middle Towns. Most were built near the banks of the river or its major tributaries, about two miles apart from each other.

In the 18th century, villages along the Little Tennessee were Echoee, Tassee, Nikwasi, Watoga, Cowee and Cowitchi. Cullasaja, Iotla and Burningtown were on tributary streams. There was also a village on Cartoogechaye Creek, but it is not mentioned in British army records. It may have been built later.

Nikwasi and Cowee were the largest towns in the valley, with 100 or more houses each and common agricultural lands that extended beyond the village.

Allies of the King

The Cherokees became allies of the British in 1630, after the colorful visit of a Scottish baronet, Sir Alexander Cuming. Though he had no diplomatic credentials, Sir Alexander won the confidence of Cherokee leaders. At a council in the Nikwasi townhouse, the headmen of the tribe pledged their allegiance to King George and agreed to send seven young warriors to London with Cuming.

This episode did much to interest the English in Cherokee culture and fostered trade between the two peoples.

The Cherokee trade

The colonial government of South Carolina oversaw trade with the Cherokees. Officials attempted to maintain honest and fair business practices, but were often foiled by freelance traders who took advantage of the open nature of the frontier to cheat the Indians and undercut the regulated trade.

Deerskins were the chief commodity supplied by the Cherokees. The skins were prized for such uses as industrial aprons and fine bookbindings.

War in the valley

When settlers began encroaching on  Cherokee hunting grounds, the Indians retaliated by raiding pioneer farms. The settlers’ pleas for reprisals were answered in 1760 when the British military commander ordered a strike against the Cherokees.

Col. Archibald Montgomery led an expedition into the Middle Towns in June 1760. After running into an ambush at Echoee, the army retreated during the night and returned to Fort Prince George.

Emboldened by what they considered a victory, the Cherokees continued their assaults on the settlers. A year later, the British army returned, this time under Col. James Grant, and laid waste the Cherokee towns, burning the villages and destroying crops.

The Great Kaolin Caper

In 1768, the Little Tennessee valley was caught up in the great industrial adventure of the time.

Josiah Wedgwood and other European potters had learned the manufacturing secrets of Chinese porcelain makers. However, producing the coveted ware required a pure white clay, kaolin.

Wedgwood somehow learned of a kaolin deposit  in the Cherokee village of Ayoree (Iotla). He hired Thomas Griffiths to go to the village and acquire the clay for his pottery.

Griffiths kept a diary of his adventure. From Charles Town (Charleston), he traveled with guides into the Middle Towns, staying with upstate plantation owners along the way. When he reached Fort Prince George, authorities there asked him to escort a Cherokee woman back to her village. She had been captured by an enemy tribe and the British had secured her release. This was a lucky turn of events, for Griffiths himself was captured when he reached Ayoree. His captors only agreed to cooperate with him in his mission because he had brought the woman home.

After enduring much in the way of terrible weather and other misfortunes, Griffiths secured the clay — and paid the Cherokees a hefty premium for it.

Wedgwood used the Cherokee clay to produce his famous Queensware. However, the expedition proved so costly that he sought and found a source of kaolin closer to home.

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