Creeks and rivers are quite literally the lifeblood of our mountains here in the Smokies region of Western North Carolina. We identify with them in intimate ways.

We locate ourselves in the universe by their names, thinking of ourselves and our families as being residents of Fires Creek, Greens Creek, Lands Creek, Jonathans Creek, Barkers Creek, and so on.

And our major rivers form the large watersheds that to a great extend define our communities and counties. Murphy is in the Hiwassee watershed. Robbinsville is in the Cheoah watershed. Franklin is in the Little Tennessee watershed. And so on.

I’m often surprised to find that even lifelong residents of various watersheds with which they identify don’t know the origins of the names of “their” rivers. Hence this column devoted to aquatic nomenclature for the river systems from Murphy to Asheville.

° “Hiwassee” is the anglicized form of the Cherokee word “ayuhwas-si,” which means “a meadow” or “lush open area.” The name of the town in north Georgia is spelled “Hiawassee.”

° “Cheoah” is the anglicized form of the Cherokee word “cheeohwa,” which means “otter.”

° The Little Tennessee River is, of course, a major tributary of the Tennessee River. “Tennessee” is the anglicized form of the Cherokee word “Tanasi,” the name of an important Cherokee village once situated on the Little Tennessee. The Little Tennessee has two major tributaries.

° I’ve read at least 20 different versions of what “Nantahala” means, but it seems best to stick with the well-known “Land of the Noonday Sun.”

° “Tuckaseege” (also spelled “Tuckaseigee”) is said to be the anglicized form of the Cherokee word “tsiksitsi,” which reputedly means “crawling terrapin.” But the Cherokee names for water turtle (“saligugi”), terrapin (“daksi”), and softshell turtle (“ulanawa” or its lexical variant “klanawa”) don’t seem very applicable in this context.

° “Chattooga” is the anglicized form of the Cherokee word “chatawga,” which means “chicken.” I don’t know when the Cherokees first laid eyes on a chicken. Maybe DeSoto brought a few with him in 1541? And I certainly don’t know why they would name a river after a domesticated fowl.

° I assume that the “Pigeon” is so-named after the native passenger pigeon (now extinct) rather than the domesticated rock dove, which is also commonly known as a pigeon.

° “Swannanoa” is the anglicized form of the Cherokee word “Suwali-nunna,” which means “trail of the Suwali tribe.” The anthropologist James Mooney noted in Myths of the Cherokees (1900) that this trail ran from Cherokee lands “to the Suwali tribe living east of the mountains.” They were also known as the Sara Indians

° And last but not least, we come to “French Broad.” Many visitors to the region are disappointed to learn that the designation refers to “a wide river that leads westward to the French territories.”

George Ellison is a writer who lives in Bryson City. He wrote the biographical introductions for the reissues of two Appalachian classics: Horace Kephart’s Our Southern Highlanders and James Mooney’s History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees. Readers can contact him at P.O. Box 1262, Bryson City, N.C. 28713, or at ellisongeorge@cs.com.