Citico (also "Settaco", "Sitiku", and similar variations) is a prehistoric and historic
Native American site in
Monroe County, Tennessee
Monroe County is a county on the eastern border of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 46,250. Its county seat is Madisonville.
History
During the early part of the 18th century, the area around what is now ...
, in the
southeastern United States
The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the southern United States and the southern por ...
. The site's namesake
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
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.
The Citico ( chr, ᏏᏘᎫ, translit=Sitigu) site is now submerged by the
Tellico Lake
Tellico Dam is a dam built by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in Loudon County, Tennessee, on the Little Tennessee River as part of the Tellico Project. Planning for a dam structure on the Little Tennessee was reported as early as 1936 but ...
impoundment of the
Little Tennessee River
The Little Tennessee River is a tributary of the Tennessee River that flows through the Blue Ridge Mountains from Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, into North Carolina, and then into Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. It drains portio ...
, created by the completion of
Tellico Dam
Tellico Dam is a dam built by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in Loudon County, Tennessee, on the Little Tennessee River as part of the Tellico Project. Planning for a dam structure on the Little Tennessee was reported as early as 1936 but ...
at the mouth of the river in 1979. The modern community of
Citico Beach has developed along the shoreline above the ancient site. The lake is managed by the
Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...
and the
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) is an independent state agency of the state of Tennessee with the mission of managing the state's fish and wildlife and their habitats, as well as responsibility for all wildlife-related law enforcem ...
.
Geography
Tellico Lake covers the lower of the Little Tennessee River, which flows down from the mountains to the south and traverses parts of
Blount, Monroe, and
Loudon counties before emptying into the
Tennessee River
The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names, ...
near
Lenoir City. The Citico site was situated along the southwest bank of the river immediately below the river's confluence with Citico Creek, which empties into the river approximately upstream from the river's mouth. Citico is located in an area where the
Great Smoky Mountains
The Great Smoky Mountains (, ''Equa Dutsusdu Dodalv'') are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge ...
and the
Unicoi Mountains
The Unicoi Mountains are a mountain range rising along the border between Tennessee and North Carolina in the southeastern United States. They are part of the Blue Ridge Mountain Province of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The Unicois are ...
give way to the
Appalachian Ridge-and-Valley Province.
Citico Beach is located along Highway 455 approximately south of
Vonore. The Citico site is also visible from the Harrison Branch boat ramp, which is located just off
U.S. Route 129
U.S. Route 129 (US 129) is an auxiliary route of US 29, which it intersects in Athens, Georgia. US 129 currently runs for from an intersection with US 19/ US 27 ALT/ US 98 in Chiefland, Florida, to an interchang ...
south of Pumpkin Center.
History
Satapo
On October 16, 1567, an expedition led by Spanish explorer Juan Pardo arrived at a village known as "Satapo" while en route to
Coosa, a powerful chiefdom centered in modern northern Georgia. Research conducted by anthropologist
Charles Hudson Charles Hudson may refer to:
* Sir Charles Hudson, 1st Baronet (1730–1813), English baronet
* Charles Hudson (American politician) (1795–1881), American historian and politician, Congressman in U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts
* ...
in the 1980s suggests that Satapo was situated at the Citico site in Monroe County, and that the two names are linguistically related. According to Hudson, the Pardo expedition left
Olamico (on Zimmerman's Island, now submerged by
Douglas Lake
Douglas Lake, also called Douglas Reservoir, is a reservoir created by an impoundment of the French Broad River in Eastern Tennessee. This lake is located only a few miles from the Pigeon Forge/ Gatlinburg area, and also the Great Smoky Mountains ...
) on October 13 and traveled southwest across the foothills of the Great Smokies, crossing
Little River
Little River may refer to several places:
Australia Streams New South Wales
*Little River (Dubbo), source in the Dubbo region, a tributary of the Macquarie River
* Little River (Oberon), source in the Oberon Shire, a tributary of Coxs River (Haw ...
at modern-day
Walland and traversing
Happy Valley to arrive at "Chalahume" (
Chilhowee) in the Little Tennessee Valley on October 15. After the expedition made its way to Satapo the following day, a friendly native warned Pardo of a plot against him, and the expedition returned to Olamico shortly thereafter.
Hudson speculates that when the Cherokee replaced Satapo's
Muskogeean-speaking Mississippian inhabitants, the Cherokee kept the site's name. However, as the
Cherokee language
200px, Number of speakers
Cherokee or Tsalagi ( chr, ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ, ) is an endangered-to-moribund Iroquoian language and the native language of the Cherokee people. ''Ethnologue'' states that there were 1,520 Cherokee speaker ...
lacks
bilabial stop
In phonetics and phonology, a bilabial stop is a type of consonantal sound, made with both lips (hence bilabial), held tightly enough to block the passage of air (hence a stop consonant). The most common sounds are the stops and , as in English ...
s, the "p" sound in "Satapo" was replaced with a "k" sound, giving the site its Cherokee name.
The Cherokee period
The Cherokee believed that a cliff overlooking Citico was once home the "Tlanuwas"— two giant hawks that terrorized people in the valley until a high priest managed to rob their nest and drop their eggs in the water below, where they were devoured by the
Uktena. A Cherokee village thrived at Citico when English explorers and traders began entering the Tennessee Valley in large numbers in the early 18th century. Citico's "head man" was among the 'chiefs' who met with Colonel George Chicken at
Tanasi
Tanasi ( chr, ᏔᎾᏏ, translit=Tanasi) (also spelled Tanase, Tenasi, Tenassee, Tunissee, Tennessee, and other such variations) was a historic Overhill settlement site in present-day Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. ...
in 1725 to form an alliance against the hostile
Creeks. Citico appears on George Hunter's 1730 map of the Cherokee region and is mentioned by
Alexander Cuming
Sir Alexander Cuming, 2nd Baronet (1691–1775) was a Scottish adventurer to North America; he returned to Britain with a delegation of Cherokee chiefs. He later spent many years in a debtors' prison.
Early life
Cuming was born (according to his ...
that same year as being one of the Overhill towns headed by a "prince" (i.e., not headed by a "king," and thus not a "mother town").
Captain
Henry Timberlake
Henry Timberlake (1730 or 1735 – September 30, 1765) 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 ...
, who visited the Overhill towns on a peace mission (the
Timberlake Expedition
The Timberlake Expedition was an excursion into the Overhill Cherokee lands west of the Appalachian Mountains, which took place in 1761 following the Anglo-Cherokee War. Its purpose was to renew and solidify friendship between Colonial Americans ...
) in 1761–1762, reported 204 warriors at Citico, the most of any Overhill town. Cheulah, the head man of Citico, greeted Timberlake with a ceremonial dance involving 400 townspeople and presented Timberlake with a string of beads. At a pipe-smoking ceremony held afterward at the Citico townhouse, Timberlake recalled smoking so many
peace pipes that he "could not stir for several hours."
Decline
The Overhill Cherokee consistently found themselves at odds with encroaching Euro-American settlers. After the Cherokee aligned themselves with the British in the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
, the colonies dispatched forces under
Colonel William Christian and
General Griffith Rutherford to subdue the Overhill towns in 1776. When
War Chief Dragging Canoe
Dragging Canoe (ᏥᏳ ᎦᏅᏏᏂ, pronounced ''Tsiyu Gansini'', "he is dragging his canoe") (c. 1738 – February 29, 1792) was a Cherokee war chief who led a band of Cherokee warriors who resisted colonists and United States settlers in the ...
refused to settle for peace, Christian burned five Overhill towns, including Citico. The town burned had already been deserted because its entire population had chosen to follow Dragging Canoe's move to the southwest, where they re-established themselves at the mouth of a small creek in a town of the same name in what is now
Chattanooga
Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...
. Historian
J. G. M. Ramsey
James Gettys McGready Ramsey (March 25, 1797 – April 11, 1884) was an American historian, physician, planter, slave owner, and businessman, active primarily in East Tennessee during the nineteenth century. Ramsey is perhaps best known for h ...
reported a conference between militia commander
John Sevier
John Sevier (September 23, 1745 September 24, 1815) was an American soldier, frontiersman, and politician, and one of the founding fathers of the State of Tennessee. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, he played a leading role in Tennes ...
and Cherokee Chief
Hanging Maw
Hanging Maw, or ''Uskwa'li-gu'ta'' in Cherokee, was the leading chief of the Overhill Cherokee from 1788 to 1794. They were located in present-day southeastern Tennessee. He became chief following the death of Old Tassel, and the abandonment of ...
held at the original Citico in 1782 in which the two sides agreed to a truce. Ramsey goes on to relate a violent encounter two years later between Major James Hubbard and Untoola— a Cherokee "head man" known as the "Gun Rod of Citico"— that left Untoola dead and led to a warrant being issued for Hubbard's arrest.
In the late 1780s, a company of scouts led by Captain John Fain was collecting (or stealing) apples at the former site of Citico when they were ambushed by a band of Cherokees. Sixteen of Fain's men were killed, and 4 were wounded. A militia force led by Captain Nathaniel Evans arrived shortly thereafter to find several scalped and disemboweled bodies. Evans eventually linked up with Sevier's larger force, and the combined force set out in pursuit of the Cherokee responsible for the slaughter.
Archaeology
While
Paleo-Indian fluted points and
Archaic period (8000–1000 BCE) artifacts were uncovered at Citico and a substantial
Woodland period
In the classification of :category:Archaeological cultures of North America, archaeological cultures of North America, the Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures spanned a period from roughly 1000 Common Era, BCE to European con ...
(1000 BCE–1000 CE) site was located at nearby Harrison Branch, Citico probably did not rise to prominence until the 16th century. Around this time, Citico is believed to have superseded
Toqua as the dominant
Dallas phase The Dallas phase (c. 1300–1600 CE) is an archaeological phase, within the Mississippian III period, in the South Appalachian Geologic province in North America.Sullivan and Prezzano 281
Geography
Dallas peoples moved into what is now southwest ...
(ca. 1300–1550 CE) Mississippian village in the Little Tennessee Valley.
In the 1880s, a mound survey conducted by the Smithsonian Institution reported eight mounds— one
"temple" mound and seven smaller mounds— at the Citico site. The temple mound contained at least 91 burials. A brief excavation carried out by the Knoxville Chapter of the Tennessee Archaeological Society uncovered several Woodland, Mississippian, and Cherokee artifacts, including
shell gorget
Shell gorgets are a Native American art form of polished, carved shell pendants worn around the neck. The gorgets are frequently engraved, and are sometimes highlighted with pigments, or fenestrated (pierced with openings).
Shell gorgets were mos ...
s and knife blades. The chapter also reported a Cherokee burial accompanied by a musket, knife, steatite pipe, and glass beads.
In anticipation of the flooding of the site by Tellico Lake, University of Tennessee researchers conducted excavations at Citico in the late 1960s and late 1970s. Excavators uncovered the posthole patterns of 11 domestic structures, 55 burials, 119 features, and over 30,000 ceramics. The structures included two rectangular summer house/circular winter house pairings characteristic of Overhill Cherokee dwellings, a small circular structure, a square structure, and five rectangular structures. One of the rectangular structures was associated with the site's Mississippian occupation, while the other 10 structures dated to the Cherokee period. These excavations also uncovered Spanish materials, including
Clarksdale bell Clarksdale may refer to some places in the United States:
*Clarksdale, Illinois, unincorporated community in Christian County
*Clarksdale, Indiana, unincorporated community in Brown County
*Clarksdale, Mississippi, city in Coahoma County
*Clarksdal ...
s, lending further evidence to the theory that Citico was indeed the Satapo visited by the Pardo expedition in 1567. An analysis of faunal remains from the Cherokee period showed a heavy reliance upon deer and bear for meat supplements which gradually gave way to a reliance upon domesticated animals, such as hogs and chickens, due to increased adoption of Euro-American agricultural methods.
[Arthur Bogan, "Faunal Remains from the Historic Cherokee Occupation at Citico (40MR7), Monroe County, Tennessee." ''Tennessee Anthropologist'' 8, no. 1 (Spring of 1983), 30–44.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Citico (Cherokee Town)
South Appalachian Mississippian culture
Geography of Monroe County, Tennessee
Cherokee towns in Tennessee
18th century Cherokee history
History of the Cherokee
Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee
National Register of Historic Places in Monroe County, Tennessee
American Revolution on the National Register of Historic Places