Giduwa

The Giduwa, or Kituwa, are the Cherokee of the Middle Towns of the upper Little Tennessee and Tuckasegee in western North Carolina, speaking the Kituwah dialect of the Iroquoian Cherokee language. They call themselves Anigiduwagi, People from Kituwa, after their mother town, where a mound raised about 1000 marks the townhouse and its sacred fire.

Nikwasi, the Star Place on the Little Tennessee, was another of the seven mother towns. The mountain Cherokee met South Carolina traders in treaty at Nikwasi in 1727, but their towns were repeatedly burned.

James Grant's expedition razed Nikwasi in 1761 during the war between Britain and the Cherokee, and Rutherford's militia destroyed it in 1776. Each time they rebuilt, until in 1819 the United States forced them to cede the valley and withdraw into the Qualla Boundary, where families avoiding the 1830s removals kept the Giduwa dialect alive.