Completing the circle: Nikwasi Mound to return to the Eastern Band
The Nikwasi Mound is likely over 1,000 years old.
Bob Scott photo
The Nikwasi Mound in Franklin is one step closer to being transferred back to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, a process almost a century in the making.
At a Franklin Town Council meeting Jan. 5, the board voted unanimously to transfer the deed for the property, which is just south of downtown near the Little Tennessee River, from the Noquisi Initiative, a nonprofit formed for this very purpose about a decade ago, to EBCI.
The nonprofit itself is made up of representatives from the Eastern Band and community members from around Macon County.
Mounds such as Nikwasi are culturally important to the Eastern Band, as they once served as sacred meeting places. Many of the mounds in the region have either been destroyed or are in more secluded areas, making the highly visible, easily accessible Nikwasi Mound of particular interest to both the town of Franklin and the Eastern Band.
In 2019, Franklin Town Council transferred the deed from the town to the Noquisi Initiative, and now, it will be in Cherokee hands.
Prior to the vote, board members and staff from the Noquisi Initiative spoke, including Angelina Jumper, an EBCI enrolled member and, who beamed as she discussed how much this property transfer would mean to the Eastern Band.
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“When we get land back, it means so much to us, but especiallty this site with Nikwasi Mound,” Jumper told councilmembers.
“You can see that mound is still high and full of all the history and medicine and love that’s been put into it,” she added.
Mayor Stacy Guffey couldn’t help but smile as he spoke about the privilege of being on the board at the time his monumental step was taken.
“The fundamental reason for this is that this is the right thing to do,” Guffey said.
Once the unanimous vote was recorded, the audience, which included several enrolled members of the Eastern Band and Noquisi Initiative board members, broke out into joyous applause.
A common theme in discussions prior to the vote and immediately after was a celebration of the collaborative effort required to transfer the property back to the Eastern Band. To make the agreement satisfactory for all parties and air-tight legally, the EBCI Attorney General’s Office, lawyers for Noquisi Initiative and Town Attorney John Henning had to work together to tweak the details. Specifically, all parties wanted to ensure that upon the transfer of the deed, that the Eastern Band wasn’t encumbered by too many prior restrictions on the property. This process required good-faith negotiations from all sides.
We are all mountain people, and we should act that way, councilmembers and stakeholders said.
The effort to return the property to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians was a collaborative effort between enrolled members and non-indigenous people. Kyle Perrotti photo
“It’s an honor to be part of this collaborative process,” Noquisi Initiative Executive Director Elaine Eisenbraun told The Smoky Mountain News the morning after the vote.
In 1946, the owner of the property the mound is on was looking to sell the land for development, but a group came together to raise the money needed to buy and preserve the mound. This group included schoolchildren who, one penny at a time, procured the funds needed to put the effort over the top.
Following the vote to approve the deed transfer, the town voted in favor of a resolution recognizing those efforts — efforts that proved to be the first step in the process to bring the land back to the original owners. That resolution noted that in 1946, the mound could have easily been demolished and redeveloped, “depriving all who appreciate its significance of the opportunity to visit and learn of its important place in local and regional history.”
“Now therefore, be it resolved by the town council for the Town of Franklin, that the town council hereby honors and celebrates the important contributions of all those whose efforts made it possible the preservation of the mound for future generations,” councilmember Travis Higdon read aloud. “Be it further resolved that the town council hereby commits itself to the inclusion of commemoration and interpretation of the role of the town of Franklin and its citizens in the mound’s ongoing preservation.”
Once the property is officially transferred, there will be an opportunity to turn it into an attraction that can enhance heritage tourism, which would bring in visitors and educate them about the tumultuous past for the Cherokee and the folks who eventually settled this land in the 18th century, as well as how groups came together to preserve the mound.
Eisenbaum said that with that in mind, there are already plans in the works to host a community celebration of the mound later this year.
