Great Tellico was a

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 ...

town at the site of present-day

Tellico Plains, Tennessee Tellico Plains is a town in Monroe County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 859 at the 2000 census and 880 at the 2010 census. History The area along the Tellico River was inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous peoples. The h ...

, where the

Tellico River The Tellico River is a river in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. It rises in the westernmost mountains of North Carolina, and then flows through Monroe County, Tennessee, before joining the Little Tennessee ...

emerges from the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

. Great Tellico was one of the largest Cherokee towns in the region, and had a sister town nearby named Chatuga (Syllabary: ᏣᏚᎦ). Its name in

is more properly written Talikwa (Syllabary: ᏖᎵᏉ), but more commonly known as Diligwa. It is sometimes spelled Telliquo, Telliquah or, in Oklahoma, Tahlequah. There were several Cherokee settlements named Tellico, the largest of which is distinguished from the others by calling it "Great". The meaning of the word "Talikwa" is thought to be lost by the Cherokees. However, in an article authored by reporter Tesina Jackson of the

Cherokee Phoenix The ''Cherokee Phoenix'' ( chr, ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ, translit=Tsalagi Tsulehisanvhi) is the first newspaper published by Native Americans in the United States and the first published in a Native American language. The first issue was pu ...

the meaning of the word is stated as "the open place where the grass grows". The Warrior Path— a branch of the

Great Indian Warpath The Great Indian Warpath (GIW)—also known as the Great Indian War and Trading Path, or the Seneca Trail—was that part of the network of trails in eastern North America developed and used by Native Americans which ran through the Great Appala ...

— passed through Great Tellico, linking it to Chota in the north and

Great Hiwassee Great Hiwassee ( chr, ᎠᏴᏩᏏ ᎢᏆᎭ, translit=Ayvwasi Egwaha) was an important Overhill settlement from the late 17th through the early 19th centuries. It was located on the Hiwassee River in present-day Polk County, Tennessee, on ...

in the south, via

Conasauga Creek Conasauga Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 27, 2011 tributary stream of the Hiwassee River, located in southeast Tennessee, United States. It is not t ...

. In addition, the Wachesa Trail (aka. " The Trading Path", later called the ''Unicoi Turnpike''), ran from Great Tellico southeast over the

Unicoi Range 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 ...

of the Appalachian Mountains, linking the

Overhill Cherokee Overhill Cherokee was the term for the Cherokee people located in their historic settlements in what is now the U.S. state of Tennessee in the Southeastern United States, on the western side of the Appalachian Mountains. This name was used by 1 ...

to the Middle and Lower Cherokee towns in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The Trading Path became the main route of trade between the British and the Cherokee during the 18th century (Duncan 2003:245). In the early 18th century, Great Tellico was the de facto capital of the Overhill Cherokee. Several prominent Cherokee leaders came from the town, such as

Moytoy of Tellico Moytoy of Tellico, (died 1741) was a prominent leader of the Cherokee in the American Southeast. Titles Moytoy was given the title of "Emperor of the Cherokee" by Sir Alexander Cumming, a Scots-Anglo trade envoy in what was then the Province of ...

. After his death in 1741, Great Tellico began to fade. By the 1750s, Chota was largely recognized as the principal town of the Overhill Cherokee.

References

* Mooney, James ''Myths of the Cherokee'' (1900, repr. 1995) *Duncan, Barbara R. and Riggs, Brett H. ''Cherokee Heritage Trails Guidebook''. University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill (2003).

External links

The Unicoi Turnpike
historical marker {{authority control Cherokee towns in Tennessee Native American history of Tennessee Former Native American populated places in the United States Former populated places in Tennessee