Nikwasi

Nikwasi, the “Star Place,” was a Cherokee town on the floodplain of the Little Tennessee River. Its central platform mound supported a townhouse where the community met and kept a sacred fire. One of the Cherokee mother towns, Nikwasi was a ceremonial centre as well as a place where leaders received visitors from other lands.

In 1727 a delegation from South Carolina met Cherokee leaders at a treaty council in the townhouse. In 1730 the visiting Alexander Cuming appointed Moytoy “Emperor” of the Cherokee. The English burned much of the town during the Anglo-Cherokee War in 1761, using the townhouse as a hospital. The town was rebuilt, but American forces destroyed it and its fields in 1776. The Cherokee later returned, until the cession of the surrounding land in 1819.