ONEOFMANYFEATHERS'

Kituwah Mound

Kituwah Mound: Mother Town of the Cherokee

The land has always been honored and respected by the Cherokee because it contained the dust of their ancestors. The land is considered sacred and is not to be abused. This was where the Creator had placed them to live and care for the land. To the Cherokee, no place is more sacred than the Kituwah Mound. Kituwah Mound and the village that surrounded it were once the spiritual center of a nation that originally occupied a large portion of the Alleghany mountains and what is today the states of Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama.

Kituwha, an earthen mound, is nestled in the Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina near a fork in the Tuckasegee river in the center of cool green valley where God gave the Cherokee their laws, first fire, establishing them as a people.

Some claim that the mounds were built by another people while others say they were built by the ancestors of the old Ani'-Kïtu'hwagï for townhouse foundations, so that the townhouses would be safe from floods resulting from sudden rain or melting snow. The townhouse was built on the flat bottom lands by the river in order that the people would have smooth ground for their ball-plays, dances, and so that they would be able to go down to water during the dance.

In 1996, this sacred land once again became Cherokee land.

"It's easy to imagine how this flat piece of land, surrounded by the peaks of the Great Smoky Mountains, was prized as a refuge. This was where the people were first given fire, this is where it all began. This place wasn't just a town - this was like the Vatican. This was the Cherokee "holiest of holies."

~ Tom Belt, counselor for at-risk Native American Youth ~

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