Mississippian Period Archaeology

Like all of western North Carolina, WCU was built on ancestral Cherokee land. The university’s central campus was built on Tali Tsisgwayahi, the former site of a Cherokee town that featured an earthen mound supporting a council house. In 1965, this earthen mound was destroyed to expand the campus. Indigenous graves and artifacts were uprooted and looted during the process. Killian Building now exists where the mound once stood. 

Several significant mound sites can be found within a short drive of WCU’s main campus, including Kituwah, Nikwasi, and Watauga:

• Located in present-day Bryson City, NC, Kituwah has been occupied for at least 10,000 years, according to stone points found at the site. Based on pottery and other material evidence, the Cherokee have been at Kituwah for at least 800 years. The mound at Kituwah and its surrounding village are believed to be the origin place of all Cherokee people. For centuries, a square councilhouse with rounded corners stood on top of the mound and protected the Cherokee's sacred hearth. Emissaries came to Kituwah every year to light their village fires from this central source.
   
• Nikwasi (or Noquisi, “The Star Place”) is a Cherokee town situated on a bend of the Little Tennessee River in present-day Franklin, NC. It “is paradoxically one of the best-preserved and least-understood mound sites in western North Carolina” (Steere, 2022) and recognized by all three federally recognized Cherokee tribes as an important ancestral place for Cherokee people. It is likely 800 to 900 years old and has numerous stories associated with the site. According to oral history, there are “spirit warriors” who come from inside the mound to protect the community in time of need. In recent years, the stewardship of the mound had been contested between the town of Franklin and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI). In 2019 the town of Franklin transferred ownership of the mound to the Noquisi Initiative, a nonprofit jointly run by community members of the EBCI and the town of Franklin.
   
• Also located in Franklin, NC, Watauga (“The Goldfinch Place”) is a sacred site that was likely occupied about 700 years ago. The site includes two mounds, which is unusual for this region. Ongoing research by WCU faculty and students has been taking place at Watauga to better understand the site’s spatial and celestial orientations.