Noquiyisi transfer completes the circle
The program featured instrumentals, dancing and song bearing witness to the importance of the moment and the property transfer.
Lily Levin photo
Just after 1 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 26, the drizzle became a downpour — a moment of serendipity for those gathered in what’s now the town of Franklin to watch the deed transfer of the Noquiyisi (Nikwasi) mound to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
“Any time it rains, it always washes away anything that’s happened. So, it’s like a cleansing so it’s almost a perfect weather, you know? That this rain is here. It’s kind of washed away for a new beginning,” tribal council member Adam Wachacha said to the audience.
The event, at just over an hour, took place at Gaduni Kanohesgi, or “The Franklin Storyteller.” Over 100 gathered in the small, covered space adjacent to the mound, with some sitting and many more standing in clusters behind the chairs. Speakers and honorees included town and EBCI officials, members of the Noquisi Initiative and others who played a role in facilitating the relinquishment of the mound by the town of Franklin. The program featured instrumentals, dancing and songs bearing witness to the importance of this moment; more than two centuries after its 1819 seizure by European settlers, the largest unexcavated mound in the Southeastern U.S. was finally being returned to the stewardship of the tribe.
While the transfer was unanimously approved by Franklin Town Council last month, it was nearly 14 years in the making. Franklin officials in April 2012 decided to remove the mound’s natural grass and plant a lower-growing artificial species, sparking outrage from tribal leaders and marking the beginning of a years-long reconciliation process between the town and EBCI. The Noquisi Initiative, a nonprofit that includes officials from Macon County and Franklin, Mainspring Conservation Trust and the Eastern Band, was founded in 2016 to bridge the gap between tribal and local leaders. Three years later, the town awarded it the deed to the mound.
Noquiyisi, meaning “star place,” served as the cultural and political center of the larger Cherokee “Mother Town” as the site of its council house. It also was inhabited, according to Cherokee tradition, by the Nunne’hi, immortal protectors of the town. Its location along the Little Tennessee river links it to other Cherokee mother towns in Southern Appalachia, each with its own mound.
EBCI member and Noquisi Initiative Board of Directors Co-Chair Juanita Wilson testified to the significance of the moment.
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“I am locked in a battle with chemotherapy, two more treatments. But you know what? Today was so important — rain, sleet, snow or chemo treatment would not keep me away from here,” she said.
Franklin Mayor Stacy Guffey acknowledged that the deed transfer couldn’t reverse history and was but a “small gesture” in reconciling years of cruelty inflicted on Indigenous people — and that it was necessary, nonetheless.
“Too often, we measure everything in dollars, in cost and profit, in short-term gain. And if you ask me, ‘What’s the economic benefit for the town of Franklin of returning the mound?’ The honest answer is, ‘I don’t know.’ And my other answer is, ‘I don’t care,’ because that was never the point,” Guffey said, adding that “sometimes doing the right thing matters more than economics, that sometimes the soul of a place is worth more than the price of a parcel of land.
“And wouldn’t our world be a better place?” He asked the audience. “Wouldn’t our government at every level be stronger if we led with that principle more often?”
Speaking directly to Franklin officials, Principal Chief Michell Hicks emphasized that restoring the mound was about relationship with, not ownership of the land.
“This is not a land transaction,” he said. “Today, you guys are sharing with us part of our history. You’re bringing back just a piece of who we were. It’ll never be the same. Never in the future will it be the same. But you have helped to mend that little bit.”
Hicks also admitted to the audience that he was reading without a script because he wanted his words to come from the heart.
“I’m unscripted today because this means so much to us that I can’t explain. And you’re not going to find one Cherokee in this room that can explain to you what this mound means to us, but we know right here,” he said, gesturing to his heart, “we know exactly what It means to us.”
EBCI member and Cultural Institutional Review Board Chair Angelina Jumper was pulled in last minute to sign on as secretary of the deed transfer document. She had an equally difficult time putting words to the extraordinary weight of what that meant.
“We didn’t have to buy [the mound] back, and it was given back with good faith. And I think that that just fits in my heart some type of way, because I can tell that my ancestors must feel that from way back in the day — things that they didn’t think when they had to walk away from this mountain, from the Treaty of 1819, until now. I don’t think that they ever thought maybe we’d end up here again,” she told The Smoky Mountain News, adding that “it’s just a beautiful time to be alive, to be able to see something like this happen.”
She said the plan is to turn Gaduni Kanohesgi into “a place that tells the story about the land,” (hence its name) noting that the logistics are still being hashed out.
After the signing, the event culminated in a song, youth dance performance and finally, a circle of dancing outside Gaduni Kanohesgi that was open to all. The rain had subsided, and nearly everyone joined hands under the open sky.
