Citico (Cherokee town)
Citico | |
Location | Monroe County, Tennessee |
---|---|
Nearest city | Vonore |
Coordinates | 35°32′56″N 84°5′56″W / 35.54889°N 84.09889°W |
Built | 1000–1500 CE |
NRHP reference No. | 78002614 |
Added to NRHP | 1978 |
Citico (also "Settaco", "Sitiku", and similar variations) is a prehistoric and historic Native American site in Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The site's namesake Cherokee village was the largest of the Overhill towns, housing an estimated Indian population of 1,000 by the mid-18th century.[1] The Mississippian village that preceded the site's Cherokee occupation is believed to have been the village of "Satapo" visited by the Juan Pardo expedition in 1567.
The Citico (
Geography
Tellico Lake covers the lower 33 miles (53 km) of the Little Tennessee River, which flows down from the mountains to the south and traverses parts of
Citico Beach is located along Highway 455 approximately 14 miles (23 km) south of Vonore. The Citico site is also visible from the Harrison Branch boat ramp, which is located just off U.S. Route 129 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Pumpkin Center.
History
Satapo
On October 16, 1567, an expedition led by Spanish explorer Juan Pardo arrived at a village known as "Satapo" while en route to
Hudson speculates that when the Cherokee replaced Satapo's Muskogeean-speaking Mississippian inhabitants, the Cherokee kept the site's name. However, as the Cherokee language lacks bilabial stops, the "p" sound in "Satapo" was replaced with a "k" sound, giving the site its Cherokee name.
The Cherokee period
The Cherokee believed that a cliff overlooking Citico was once home the "Tlanuwas"— two giant hawks that terrorized people in the valley until a high priest managed to rob their nest and drop their eggs in the water below, where they were devoured by the
Captain Henry Timberlake, who visited the Overhill towns on a peace mission (the Timberlake Expedition) in 1761–1762, reported 204 warriors at Citico, the most of any Overhill town. Cheulah, the head man of Citico, greeted Timberlake with a ceremonial dance involving 400 townspeople and presented Timberlake with a string of beads. At a pipe-smoking ceremony held afterward at the Citico townhouse, Timberlake recalled smoking so many peace pipes that he "could not stir for several hours."[5]
Decline
The Overhill Cherokee consistently found themselves at odds with encroaching Euro-American settlers. After the Cherokee aligned themselves with the British in the
In the late 1780s, a company of scouts led by Captain John Fain was collecting (or stealing) apples at the former site of Citico when they were ambushed by a band of Cherokees. Sixteen of Fain's men were killed, and 4 were wounded. A militia force led by Captain Nathaniel Evans arrived shortly thereafter to find several scalped and disemboweled bodies. Evans eventually linked up with Sevier's larger force, and the combined force set out in pursuit of the Cherokee responsible for the slaughter.[8]
Archaeology
While
In the 1880s, a mound survey conducted by the Smithsonian Institution reported eight mounds— one "temple" mound and seven smaller mounds— at the Citico site. The temple mound contained at least 91 burials. A brief excavation carried out by the Knoxville Chapter of the Tennessee Archaeological Society uncovered several Woodland, Mississippian, and Cherokee artifacts, including shell gorgets and knife blades. The chapter also reported a Cherokee burial accompanied by a musket, knife, steatite pipe, and glass beads.[11]
In anticipation of the flooding of the site by Tellico Lake, University of Tennessee researchers conducted excavations at Citico in the late 1960s and late 1970s. Excavators uncovered the posthole patterns of 11 domestic structures, 55 burials, 119 features, and over 30,000 ceramics. The structures included two rectangular summer house/circular winter house pairings characteristic of Overhill Cherokee dwellings, a small circular structure, a square structure, and five rectangular structures. One of the rectangular structures was associated with the site's Mississippian occupation, while the other 10 structures dated to the Cherokee period.[12][13] These excavations also uncovered Spanish materials, including Clarksdale bells, lending further evidence to the theory that Citico was indeed the Satapo visited by the Pardo expedition in 1567.[14][15] An analysis of faunal remains from the Cherokee period showed a heavy reliance upon deer and bear for meat supplements which gradually gave way to a reliance upon domesticated animals, such as hogs and chickens, due to increased adoption of Euro-American agricultural methods.[16]
References
- ^ "Settico Site on the Little Tennessee River." Tennessee Archaeologist 16, no. 2 (Autumn of 1960), 93.
- ^ Charles Hudson, The Juan Pardo Expeditions: Explorations of the Carolinas and Tennessee, 1566–1568 (Tuscaloosa, Ala.: University of Alabama Press, 2005), 36–40.
- ^ James Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee (Nashville, Tenn.: C and R Elder, 1972), 315–316.
- ^ Samuel Cole Williams, Early Travels in the Tennessee Country, 1540–1800 (Johnson City, Tenn.: The Watauga Press, 1928), 102, 114, 122.
- ^ Henry Timberlake, Samuel Cole Williams (ed.), Memoirs, 1756–1765 (Marietta, Georgia: Continental Book Co., 1948), 63–65.
- ^ Kurt Russ and Jefferson Chapman, Archaeological Investigations at the Eighteenth Century Overhill Cherokee Town of Mialoquo (40MR3) (University of Tennessee Department of Anthropology Report of Investigations 37, 1983), 18–19.
- ^ J.G.M. Ramsey, The Annals of Tennessee (Johnson City, Tenn.: Overmountain Press, 1999), 272, 301–304.
- ^ Ramsey, The Annals of Tennessee, 422.
- ^ Jefferson Chapman, Tellico Archaeology: 12,000 Years of Native American History (Tennessee Valley Authority, 1985), 3, 37, 48, 65, 77.
- ^ Richard Polhemus, The Toqua Site — 40MR6 Vol. 2 (Tennessee Valley Authority, 1987), 1242.
- ^ "Settico Site on the Little Tennessee River." Tennessee Archaeologist 16, no. 2 (Autumn of 1960), 93–95.
- ^ Gerald Schroedl (ed.), Overhill Cherokee Archaeology at Chota-Tanasee (University of Tennessee Department of Anthropology, Report of Investigations 38, 1986), 539, 544.
- ^ William Baden, Tomotley: An Eighteenth Century Cherokee Village Archived 2011-06-08 at the Wayback Machine (Tennessee Valley Authority, 1983), 144–180. Retrieved: 11 April 2008.
- ^ John Burch, "Citico Archaeological Sites." The Encyclopedia of Appalachia (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 2006), 298.
- ^ Polhemus, The Toqua Site (Vol. 2), 1246.
- ^ Arthur Bogan, "Faunal Remains from the Historic Cherokee Occupation at Citico (40MR7), Monroe County, Tennessee." Tennessee Anthropologist 8, no. 1 (Spring of 1983), 30–44.