Steere is the director of the Cherokee Studies program and assistant professor of anthropology at Western Carolina University. He will review the archaeology and history of the Nikwasi Mound and discuss the significance of the site for understanding the remarkable cultural landscape of the Cherokee heartland of western North Carolina. 

Steere has worked on a collaborative study of ancestral Cherokee mound and town sites with the Tribal Historic Preservation Office of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians since 2011. He is the author of The Archaeology of Houses and Households in the Native Southeast (University of Alabama Press) and the recipient of the 2016 Principal Chief Leon D. Jones Award for Archaeological Excellence, presented by the THPO.

Since the Nikwasi Mound has generated a lot of attention lately in the news, organizers say the presentation will be a great opportunity for community members to get clear, accurate information on the history of the mound. The town of Franklin has held the deed on the mound since 1946 when residents scraped enough money together to buy it and save it from being developed. The deed states that the mound “shall be preserved for the citizens of Macon County and for posterity.”

Nikwasi Initiative, nonprofit partnership between the town of Franklin, Macon County, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Mainspring Conservation Trust, has asked the town to deed over the mound to the partnership in order to have a sense of joint ownership among all the stakeholders. EBCI and the Nikwasi Initiative also have plans to redevelop parcels surrounding the mound in East Franklin to better promote the mound and other culturally significant sites in the county. 

While the town council seems willing to deed over the mound to the nonprofit, some residents are adamant that the town maintain ownership of the mound and have filed a lawsuit against the town asking for an injunction. The town board tabled the issue until its May meeting. 

The program will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Cowee School Heritage Center, off NC 28 North in Franklin.