Kituwa

Kituwa was a Cherokee mother town on the Tuckasegee River, a place of profound importance in the people's traditions. An ancient earthen platform mound stood at the centre of the settlement, supporting a townhouse where the community gathered. Its sacred fire was kept there, linking the town's ceremonial life to the generations who had lived in the surrounding valley.

During the Anglo-Cherokee War, British troops under James Grant destroyed Kituwa. Survivors crossed the mountains and settled at Mialoquo, or Great Island Town, on the Little Tennessee River among the Overhill Cherokee. In the years surrounding the American Revolution, Dragging Canoe led a movement southwest that included people formerly of Kituwa. The old town site passed out of Cherokee control through a land cession in 1819.