Mialoquo | |
Location | Monroe County, Tennessee |
---|---|
Nearest city | Vonore |
Coordinates | 35°36′55″N84°14′26″W / 35.61534°N 84.24048°W |
Built | c. 1760 A.D. |
NRHP reference No. | 78002616 |
Added to NRHP | 1978 |
Mialoquo (also "Malaquo", "Big Island", or "Great Island") is a prehistoric and historic Native American site in Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The site saw significant periods of occupation during the Mississippian period (c. 1000-1600 AD) and later as a Cherokee refugee village. While the archaeological site of Mialoquo (Cherokee : ᎠᎹᏰᎴᏆ, romanized: Amayelequa) was situated on the southwest bank of the Little Tennessee River, the village's habitation area probably included part of Rose Island, a large island in the river immediately opposite the site. Rose Island was occupied on at least a semi-permanent basis as early as the Middle Archaic period.
Both the Mialoquo site and Rose Island are now submerged by the Tellico Lake impoundment of the Little Tennessee River. The area is now managed by the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Both sites are visible looking north from the U.S. Route 411 bridge over the river in Vonore or looking west from Wildcat Point, a cliff on the eastern bank of the river.
The Little Tennessee River enters Tennessee from a gap between the Great Smoky Mountains and the Unicoi Mountains and flows for just over 50 miles (80 km) before emptying into the Tennessee River. Tellico Lake, created by the completion of Tellico Dam in 1979, spans the lower 33 miles (53 km) of the river. Before inundation, the Mialoquo site was located at the river's Island Creek confluence, just under 17 miles (27 km) above the river's mouth. Rose Island spanned the river between 16.8 miles (27.0 km) and 18.4 miles (29.6 km) above the mouth of the river. Both sites were just south of a bend in the river known as Wears Bend and just north of the river's confluence with the Tellico River.
Wildcat Point, a cliff overlooking the now submerged Rose Island and Mialoquo sites, is connected to Tellico Parkway via a seasonal hiking trail. The hills and knobs that flank the river on both sides are part of the Appalachian Ridge-and-Valley Physiographic Province.
According to ethnologist James Mooney, the term "Mialoquo" comes from the Cherokee word for "Great Island." [1] This name refers to the village's situation on and adjacent to what is now known as Rose Island which was the largest island in the Little Tennessee River before the creation of Tellico Lake. Mialoquo doesn't enter the historical record until 1761, when it appeared on Henry Timberlake's "Draught of the Cherokee Country." Timberlake—visiting the Overhill settlements as a peace emissary—reported 18 houses at Mialoquo, both on the mainland and Rose Island, but doesn't indicate the existence of a townhouse. Timberlake reported 24 Overhill Cherokee warriors residing at Mialoquo under the governorship of Attakullakulla, who at the time was the chief of the nearby village of Tuskegee. Since the Cherokee didn't consider a village a "town" unless it had a townhouse, the lack of a townhouse at Mialoquo may have been the reason for its relatively late appearance in historical records. [2]
Historical evidence suggests Mialoquo may have been formed by refugees fleeing the destruction of the Lower and Middle towns by Colonial forces in 1761. John Norton wrote in his journal that after James Grant destroyed the Cherokee town of Kittowa (near modern Bryson City, North Carolina) that year, the survivors fled to "Big Island." Mialoquo does not appear on a 1757 map of the Overhill towns but appears on Timberlake's map, suggesting the town may have been formed between 1757 and 1761. [3]
By the time the Revolutionary War was being fought, Dragging Canoe had become chief at Mialoquo. In 1776, after the Cherokee aligned themselves with the British, the colonies dispatched Colonel William Christian to subdue the hostile Overhill towns. Christian arrived unopposed and established his headquarters at Mialoquo, where he held peace talks with tribal leaders Attakullakulla and Oconastota. When Dragging Canoe refused to negotiate, however, Christian destroyed Mialoquo and four other Overhill towns. [4]
Cyrus Thomas, working for the Smithsonian Institution, conducted a mound survey in the Little Tennessee Valley in the 1880s, and claimed to have located Mialoquo. [5] After the construction of Tellico Dam was announced in 1967, the University of Tennessee conducted salvage excavations at both Rose Island (40MR44) and Mialoquo (40MR3).
Rose Island was being used by hunter-gatherers on a seasonal basis by 6000 BC, and possibly as early as 7500 BC (the Icehouse Bottom site, which yielded material dating to 7500 BC, was located just over 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Rose Island). These early inhabitants probably made use of the chert outcroppings found in the surrounding hills. Rose Island also saw a period of significant occupation from approximately 350 BC through 100 AD, during the Woodland period. [6]
Archaic period artifacts found on Rose Island include notched and stemmed projectile points, splintered wedges, various ground stone artifacts, and a drill. [7] Woodland period artifacts include projectile points, drills, scrapers, axes, gorgets, and a bird effigy. Several Woodland-period burials were also uncovered at Rose Island. [8]
The Mialoquo site was probably occupied as early as the Archaic period, but to what extent is unknown. Of the 60 features uncovered at the site, 8 (mostly refuse pits) were classified as Mississippian, the rest were Cherokee. The distribution of the features suggests a short-term occupation. The Qualla pottery type— which is associated with the Middle towns in North Carolina— comprised 13.5% of the site's 6,000+ sherds, lending support to the theory that refugees from the Middle towns lived at Mialoquo in the 1760s. The pottery assemblage was similar to that found at nearby Tomotley, also believed to have been a "refugee town." [9]
The features uncovered at Mialoquo included the postmold layouts of a townhouse, 6 dwellings, and one smaller rectangular structure with an unknown purpose. The dwellings included one circular winter structure/rectangular summer structure pairing typical of Overhill houses. The townhouse was octagonal in shape and had a diameter ranging between 52 feet (16 m) to 60 feet (18 m). The rectangular dwellings had lengths ranging from 22 feet (6.7 m) to 32 feet (9.8 m) and widths ranging from 12 feet (3.7 m) to 14 feet (4.3 m). The circular "winter house" had a diameter of 23.5 feet (7.2 m) and the unknown rectangular structure had dimensions of 15 feet (4.6 m) x 9.6 feet (2.9 m). [10]
Nearly 5,000 stone artifacts were recovered at Mialoquo, including projectile points, scrapers, drills, and a stone pipe. Euro-American artifacts uncovered at Mialoquo included tobacco pipes, gun parts and ammunition, glass beads, and two Jew's harps. [11]
Loudon County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is located in the central part of East Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 54,886. Its county seat is Loudon. Loudon County is included in the Knoxville, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Vonore is a town in Monroe County and Blount County, Tennessee, in the southeastern portion of the state. The population was 1,574 as of the 2020 census. The city hall, library, community center, police department, and fire department are located on Church Street.
The Little Tennessee River is a 135-mile (217 km) tributary of the Tennessee River that flows through the Blue Ridge Mountains from Georgia, into North Carolina, and then into Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. It drains portions of three national forests— Chattahoochee, Nantahala, and Cherokee— and provides the southwestern boundary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The Tellico River is a river in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. It rises in the westernmost mountains of North Carolina, and then flows through Monroe County, Tennessee, before joining the Little Tennessee River under the Tellico Reservoir. With a length of 52.8 miles (85.0 km), it is a major tributary of the Little Tennessee River, and is one of the primary streams draining the Unicoi Mountains.
Tuskegee was an Overhill Cherokee town located along the lower Little Tennessee River in what is now Monroe County, Tennessee, United States. The town developed in the late 1750s alongside Fort Loudoun, and was inhabited until the late 1770s. It was forcibly evacuated and probably burned during the Cherokee–American wars.
Chota is a historic Overhill Cherokee town site in Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Developing after nearby Tanasi, Chota was the most important of the Overhill towns from the late 1740s until 1788. It replaced Tanasi as the de facto capital, or 'mother town' of the Cherokee people.
Tanasi was a historic Overhill settlement site in present-day Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The village became the namesake for the state of Tennessee. It was abandoned by the Cherokee in the 19th century for a rising town whose chief was more powerful. Tanasi served as the de facto capital of the Overhill Cherokee from as early as 1721 until 1730, when the capital shifted to Great Tellico.
Fort Loudoun was a British fort located in what is now Monroe County, Tennessee. Constructed from 1756 until 1757 to help garner Cherokee support for the British at the outset of the French and Indian War, the fort was one of the first significant British outposts west of the Appalachian Mountains. The fort was designed by John William Gerard de Brahm, while its construction was supervised by Captain Raymond Demeré; the fort's garrison was commanded by Demeré's brother, Paul Demeré. It was named for the Earl of Loudoun, the commander of British forces in North America at the time.
The Anglo-Cherokee War, was also known from the Anglo-European perspective as the Cherokee War, the Cherokee Uprising, or the Cherokee Rebellion. The war was a conflict between British forces in North America and Cherokee bands during the French and Indian War.
Icehouse Bottom is a prehistoric Native American site in Monroe County, Tennessee, located on the Little Tennessee River in the southeastern United States. Native Americans were using the site as a semi-permanent hunting camp as early as 7500 BC, making it one of the oldest-known habitation areas in Tennessee. Analysis of the site's Woodland period artifacts shows evidence of an extensive trade network that reached to indigenous peoples in Georgia, North Carolina, and Ohio. This was later an area of known Cherokee settlements, the people encountered by Anglo-European settlers in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Morganton was a community that developed on the Little Tennessee River in Loudon County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. It was located 13.7 miles (22.0 km) above the mouth of the river at its confluence with Bakers Creek, flowing westward from Maryville. During its heyday in the 19th century, Morganton thrived as a flatboat port and regional business center. An important ferry operated at Morganton for nearly 170 years providing service across the river. The abandoned townsite was submerged in the late 20th century by creation of Tellico Lake, part of the Tellico Dam hydroelectric project completed in 1979 by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
The Tellico Blockhouse was an early American outpost located along the Little Tennessee River in what developed as Vonore, Monroe County, Tennessee. Completed in 1794, the blockhouse was a US military outpost that operated until 1807; the garrison was intended to keep peace between the nearby Overhill Cherokee towns and encroaching early Euro-American pioneers in the area in the wake of the Cherokee–American wars.
Overhill Cherokee was the term for the Cherokee people located in their historic settlements in what is now the U.S. state of Tennessee in the Southeastern United States, on the western side of the Appalachian Mountains. This name was used by 18th-century European traders and explorers from British colonies along the Atlantic coast, as they had to cross the mountains to reach these settlements.
Henry Timberlake was a colonial Anglo-American officer, journalist, and cartographer. He was born in the Colony of Virginia and died in England. He is best known for his work as an emissary from the British colonies to the Overhill Cherokee during the 1761–1762 Timberlake Expedition.
Toqua was a prehistoric and historic Native American site in Monroe County, Tennessee, located in the Southeastern Woodlands. Toqua was the site of a substantial ancestral town that thrived during the Mississippian period. Toqua had a large earthwork 25-foot (7.6 m) platform mound built by the town's Mississippian-era inhabitants, in addition to a second, smaller mound. The site's Mississippian occupation may have been recorded by the Spanish as the village of Tali, which was documented in 1540 by the Hernando de Soto expedition. It was later known as the Overhill Cherokee town Toqua, and this name was applied to the archeological site.
Tomotley is a prehistoric and historic Native American site along the lower Little Tennessee River in Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Occupied as early as the Archaic period, the Tomotley site was occupied particularly during the Mississippian culture period, which was likely when its earthwork platform mounds were built. It was also occupied during the eighteenth century as a Cherokee town. It revealed an unexpected style: an octagonal townhouse and square or rectangular residences. In the Overhill period, Cherokee townhouses found in the Carolinas in the same period were circular in design, with,
Citico 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. 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.
Chilhowee was a prehistoric and historic Native American site in present-day Blount and Monroe counties in Tennessee, in what were the Southeastern Woodlands. Although now submerged by the Chilhowee Lake impoundment of the Little Tennessee River, the Chilhowee site was home to a substantial 18th-century Overhill Cherokee town. It may have been the site of the older Creek village "Chalahume" visited by Spanish explorer Juan Pardo in 1567. The Cherokee later pushed the Muscogee Creek out of this area.
Tallassee is a prehistoric and historic Native American site in present-day Blount and Monroe counties, Tennessee in the southeastern United States. Tallassee was the southernmost of a string of Overhill Cherokee towns that existed along the lower Little Tennessee River on the west side of the Appalachian Mountains in the 18th century. Although Tallassee receives scant attention in primary historical accounts, it is one of the few Overhill towns to be shown on every major 18th-century map of the Little Tennessee Valley.
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