The Hiwassee River has its headwaters on the north slope of
Rocky Mountain
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...
in
Towns County in the northern area of the
State of Georgia
Georgia is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee and North Carolina; to the northeast by South Carolina; to the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean; to the south by Florida; and to the west by ...
. It flows northward into
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
before turning westward into
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
, flowing 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, ...
a few miles west of what is now
State Route 58 in
Meigs County, Tennessee
Meigs County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,758. Its county seat is Decatur.
History
Before 1819, the area that is now Meigs County was part of the Cherokee nation. It had been ...
. The river is about long.
Hydrography
The river is dammed 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 ...
(TVA) in four locations, all in
Western North Carolina
Western North Carolina (often abbreviated as WNC) is the region of North Carolina which includes the Appalachian Mountains; it is often known geographically as the state's Mountain Region. It contains the highest mountains in the Eastern United S ...
:
Chatuge Dam
Chatuge Dam is a flood control and hydroelectric dam on the Hiwassee River in Clay County, in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The dam is the uppermost of three dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built t ...
, Mission Dam (not owned by TVA),
Hiwassee Dam
Hiwassee Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Hiwassee River in Cherokee County, in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is one of three dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the late 1930s to ...
, and
Apalachia Dam.
Water is diverted from the stream bed at Apalachia Dam and sent through a pipeline, which is tunneled through the mountains for eight miles (13 km); then it flows through the Apalachia Powerhouse to generate electricity. The stretch of the river that flows between Apalachia Dam and Apalachia Powerhouse features reduced flow. The
John Muir Trail
The John Muir Trail (JMT) (Northern Paiute language, Paiute: Nüümü Poyo, ''N-ue-mue Poh-yo'') is a long-distance trail in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, passing through Yosemite National Park, Yosemite, ...
in Tennessee's
Cherokee National Forest
The Cherokee National Forest is a United States National Forest located in the U.S. states of Tennessee and North Carolina that was created on June 14, 1920. The forest is maintained and managed by the United States Forest Service. It encompasse ...
goes along this part of the river.
The stretch of river that flows from the North Carolina/Tennessee state line to
U.S. Highway 411
U.S. Route 411 (US 411) is an alternate parallel-highway associated with US 11. US 411 extends for about from US 78 in Leeds, Alabama, to US 25W/ US 70 in Newport, Tennessee. US 411 travels through no ...
near Delano is designated as a Tennessee State Scenic River (Class III Partially Developed River). For recreational purposes, it is managed by the Tennessee Resource Management Division, in cooperation with TVA.
The river features Class I through Class III rapids, depending on water levels.
After exiting the mountains through a gorge, the Hiwassee broadens, meandering through rural
Polk
Polk may refer to:
People
* James K. Polk, 11th president of the United States
* Polk (name), other people with the name
Places
*Polk (CTA), a train station in Chicago, Illinois
* Polk, Illinois, an unincorporated community
* Polk, Missouri ...
and
Bradley
Bradley is an English surname derived from a place name meaning "broad wood" or "broad meadow" in Old English.
Like many English surnames Bradley can also be used as a given name and as such has become popular.
It is also an Anglicisation of t ...
counties in Tennessee. It is crossed by a bridge carrying US-411 soon after it exits the mountains.
U.S. Route 11 passes over the river at
Calhoun
John C. Calhoun (1782–1850) was the 7th vice president of the United States.
Calhoun can also refer to:
Surname
* Calhoun (surname)
Inhabited places in the United States
*Calhoun, Georgia
*Calhoun, Illinois
* Calhoun, Kansas
* Calhoun, Kentuc ...
and
Charleston, Tennessee
Charleston is a city in Bradley County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 664 at the 2020 census. It is included in the Cleveland Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
The land now occupied by Charleston and Bradley County was home t ...
, where local industries such as
Bowater
Bowater Inc. was a paper and pulp business headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina. It merged with Abitibi-Consolidated in 2007, and the combined company went on to become Resolute Forest Products.
History
The North American assets of Bow ...
Newsprint Mill and Arch/Olin Chemical use river water in their operations.
At this point the river interfaces with the impoundment of
Chickamauga Dam
The Chickamauga Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. The dam is owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the late 1930s as part of a New Deal era initiativ ...
(located in
Chattanooga, Tennessee
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, ...
). Many
marsh
A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...
es and
wetland
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...
s surround the main channel, providing rich habitats for wildlife and areas for hunting and fishing.
Interstate 75
Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from S ...
passes over the river on the border of
McMinn and Bradley counties. The Hiwassee continues westward; it is crossed by
SR 58's bridge (this bridge replaced an old historic and narrow bridge) on its way to its confluence with the Tennessee River. This area of the river is enjoyed by boaters, fishermen, and water skiers.
Major tributaries include Valley River,
Nottely River
The Nottely River is a river in the United States. The river originates in the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The river flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataT ...
, Coker Creek, Big Lost Creek, Spring Creek,
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 ...
, and
Toccoa/Ocoee River
The Toccoa River and Ocoee River are the names in use for a single river that flows northwestward through the southern Appalachian Mountains of the southeastern United States. It is a tributary of the Hiwassee River, which it joins in Polk Coun ...
.
Etymology
The Hiwassee River has been known by many variant spellings. The best-known of these is Hiawassee, which is also the name of the Georgia town through which the river flows. Other alternate spellings include Heia Wassea and Highwassee. Some less obvious but related names include Eufasee, Eufassee, Euphasee and Quannessee. Some Cherokee say the name came from the
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 ...
word ''Ayuhwasi'', which means a meadow or savanna.
[ The Muskogee (Creek) say the river's name is ''Koasati'' or ''Hitchiti'', Muskogee language words for the copperhead snake. The river is known for its many copperheads, even today.
]
History
Various Muskogean-speaking ethnic groups occupied the region of this river for many centuries before the arrival of the Cherokee. Tribes related to the Muscogee/ Creek, who also speak Muskogee languages, include the Choctaw
The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...
, and Chickasaw
The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classified as ...
. (The Seminole arose as a Muskogee-speaking people in Florida in the 19th century, made up of refugees from warfare in other regions.)
The Cherokee are an Iroquoian
The Iroquoian languages are a language family of indigenous peoples of North America. They are known for their general lack of labial consonants. The Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic and head-marking.
As of 2020, all surviving Iroquoian la ...
-speaking people, believed to have migrated to the Southeast from northern areas near the Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...
. That is where most Iroquoian-speaking peoples arose and had their territories, including the Five Nations of the ''Haudenosaunee
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...
'' (Iroquois Confederacy). (Later there were Six Nations, when the Tuscarora migrated from the South to New York in the early 18th century.)
Some historians originally thought that because the Europeans had encountered the Cherokee in the Hiwassee Valley in the 18th century, the latter people had occupied the territory for a longer period, but their dates in this region are unclear.
Early Spanish contact
Spanish explorers visited the region in the 16th century. Hernando de Soto
Hernando de Soto (; ; 1500 – 21 May, 1542) was a Spanish explorer and '' conquistador'' who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula. He played an important role in Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire ...
probably crossed the Hiwassee River near its confluence with the Tennessee River at Hiwassee Island, in the spring of 1541 AD. Juan Pardo probably followed a trail that paralleled the river in 1567 AD. The town names and indigenous words that were recorded by de Soto's chroniclers in present-day Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, can be translated by using contemporary Muskogean dictionaries. Most of the names and words are from the Koasati
The Coushatta ( cku, Koasati, Kowassaati or Kowassa:ti) are a Muskogean-speaking Native American people now living primarily in the U.S. states of Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.
When first encountered by Europeans, they lived in the territor ...
and Hitchiti
The Hitchiti ( ) were a historic indigenous tribe in the Southeast United States. They formerly resided chiefly in a town of the same name on the east bank of the Chattahoochee River, four miles below Chiaha, in western present-day Georgia. The n ...
languages, but a few are Muskogean
Muskogean (also Muskhogean, Muskogee) is a Native American language family spoken in different areas of the Southeastern United States. Though the debate concerning their interrelationships is ongoing, the Muskogean languages are generally div ...
and Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
words. None is 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 ...
.
The earliest European maps from the 17th century vaguely show the Hiwassee River Basin occupied by mountain branches of the Apalachee
The Apalachee were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, specifically an Indigenous people of Florida, who lived in the Florida Panhandle until the early 18th century. They lived between the Aucilla River and Ochlockonee River,Bobby ...
and the Kusa. The Kusa (or Coosa in English) were a chiefdom of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture
The Mississippian culture was a Native American civilization that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1600 CE, varying regionally. It was known for building large, earth ...
. They are considered to be ancestral to the Muscogee Creek people. The Tama-tli of the Altamaha River Basin in southeastern Georgia are known to have had a colony in the Hiwassee valley between what is now Andrews, North Carolina
Andrews is a town in Cherokee County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,781 at the 2010 census.
History
Cherokee era
Indigenous peoples lived in the area for thousands of years before European encounter. By the late 16th ...
and the Hiwassee River at Murphy, North Carolina
Murphy is a town in and the county seat of Cherokee County, North Carolina, United States. It is situated at the confluence of the Hiwassee River, Hiwassee and Valley River, Valley rivers. It is the westernmost county seat in the state of North Ca ...
.
British colonial era
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
explorers and traders in the 1690s found most of the river valley occupied by Muskogean and Yuchi
The Yuchi people, also spelled Euchee and Uchee, are a Native American tribe based in Oklahoma.
In the 16th century, Yuchi people lived in the eastern Tennessee River valley in Tennessee. In the late 17th century, they moved south to Alabama, G ...
towns. At this time Cherokee villages were generally located east and north of the river. In 1714, two South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
n traders supplied the Cherokee with firearms and directed them to attack the Yuchi villages on the Hiwassee River. Most of the men in one Yuchi town were gone when the Cherokee attacked. They killed the remaining Yuchi, who had no firearms.
In 1715, the Cherokee invited the leaders of many Muskogean provinces, which eventually comprised the Creek Confederacy
The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands[Tugaloo
Tugaloo (''Dugiluyi'' (ᏚᎩᎷᏱ)) was a Cherokee town located on the Tugaloo River, at the mouth of Toccoa Creek. It was south of Toccoa and Travelers Rest State Historic Site in present-day Stephens County, Georgia. Cultures of ancient ind ...]
at the headwaters of the Savannah River
The Savannah River is a major river in the southeastern United States, forming most of the border between the states of South Carolina and Georgia. Two tributaries of the Savannah, the Tugaloo River and the Chattooga River, form the norther ...
, in what became the state of South Carolina. They murdered the Muskogean leaders as they slept. This precipitated a 40-year-long war between the Muscogee Creek and the Cherokee. Due to disunity among the Creek, a loose confederacy, the Cherokee took over the northeastern tip of what is now Georgia, but then was part of South Carolina. They drove the Muskogee and Yuchi from most of western North Carolina to west and south of the Hiwassee. Most of the branches of the Creek lost interest in this war after a few years.
18th-century Cherokee homeland
The Hiwassee River and its tributaries were part of Cherokee territory in the early 18th century. A town known as "Hiwassee" (''Ayuhwasi'') was located near the mouth of Peachtree Creek. Murphy, North Carolina
Murphy is a town in and the county seat of Cherokee County, North Carolina, United States. It is situated at the confluence of the Hiwassee River, Hiwassee and Valley River, Valley rivers. It is the westernmost county seat in the state of North Ca ...
later developed here. The area of the Valley River
A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams ove ...
, a tributary to the Hiwassee, contained many Cherokee towns. Towns along these two rivers, plus those along the Nantahala, were collectively called the "Valley Towns", a geographical grouping devised by English traders and colonists. The Cherokee town known as 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 ...
(''Ayuhwasi Egwahi'') was located in today's Polk County, Tennessee
Polk County is a county located in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 17,544. Its county seat is Benton. The county was created on November 28, 1839, from parts of Bra ...
, where the Hiwassee River emerges from the mountains. The settlements on the western side of the mountains were known as the Overhill Towns.
The Indians had several "highways" which passed through the area. The ''Great Trading Path
The Trading Path (a.k.a. Occaneechi Path, The Path to the Catawba, the Catawba Road, Indian Trading Path, Unicoi Turnpike, Warriors' Path, etc.) is not simply one wide path, as many named historic roads were or are. It was a corridor of roads an ...
'', the ''Overhill Trading Path'', and the ''Unicoi Turnpike'' ran along much of the Hiwassee River. Another old path, known as the ''Warrior Path'', ran from southern lands to Great Hiwassee, and then up the 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 ...
to the Cherokee town known as Great Tellico
Great Tellico was a Cherokee town at the site of present-day Tellico Plains, Tennessee, where the Tellico River emerges from the Appalachian Mountains. Great Tellico was one of the largest Cherokee towns in the region, and had a sister town nea ...
on the Tellico River.
The Kowita Creek (Muscogee
The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands[Franklin
Franklin may refer to:
People
* Franklin (given name)
* Franklin (surname)
* Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class
Places Australia
* Franklin, Tasmania, a township
* Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...]
and south of Asheville
Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous ci ...
), continued to fight the Cherokee. By the 1750s, the Kowita had developed such a powerful military machine that they could consistently defeat any band of the Cherokee that they encountered. By 1755, they had destroyed all of the Cherokee towns in Georgia and in the Hiwassee Valley.
The Kowita ''Taskimikko'', or general, bragged to some English traders that he sent women and children in the front line against the Cherokee town of '' Quanesee'', and that its people ran from the village without fighting. The archives of colonial Georgia, where this boast is recorded, hold a 1755 map created by John Mitchell and commissioned by the Colony of North Carolina
In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...
. Over the entire southern half of western North Carolina and all of northeastern Georgia are the words, "Deserted Cherokee Towns."
In 1763, the Cherokee were forced to cede all of their lands in present-day North Carolina east of the 80th longitude line, which runs through Murphy
Murphy () ( ga, Ua Murchadha) is an Irish surname and the most common surname in the Republic of Ireland.
Origins and variants
The surname is a variant of two Irish surnames: "Ó Murchadha"/"Ó Murchadh" (descendant of "Murchadh"), and "Mac ...
and crosses the Hiwassee River there. The British were punishing them for their support of the French during the French and Indian War
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...
(known worldwide as the Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...
between Britain and France). The line runs roughly 45 miles west of present-day Cherokee, North Carolina.
The Creek agreed to give up their recently reconquered lands in North Carolina and Georgia in return for most of Alabama. The French ceded their claimed lands east of the Mississippi River to Great Britain after the war. The British granted the Cherokee lands in northwestern Georgia, which had been occupied by the Apalachicola, allies of the French.
American Revolutionary War effects
Some Cherokee families continued to live east of the Appalachians after 1763. But, at any time an Anglo-European settler could arrive on a Cherokee farmstead, and evict the Cherokee. In 1776 during 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 Cherokee became allies of the British, hoping to expel the European-American settlers from their lands. They raided and killed residents of frontier farmsteads across a broad swath of the Carolinas.
The counterattack by the Euro-American patriot
A patriot is a person with the quality of patriotism.
Patriot may also refer to:
Political and military groups United States
* Patriot (American Revolution), those who supported the cause of independence in the American Revolution
* Patriot m ...
militia of 5,000 men left most of the remaining Cherokee towns in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia in ruins. The survivors initially fled into the Tennessee River valley in the vicinity of Chickamauga Creek
Chickamauga Creek refers to two short tributaries of the Tennessee River, which join the river near Chattanooga, Tennessee. The two streams are North Chickamauga Creek and South Chickamauga Creek, joining the Tennessee from the north and south s ...
in southeast Tennessee (present-day 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, ...
), and settled upriver of an old Muskogee/Kusa Kusa or KUSA may refer to:
* Kusa, Russia, a town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia
* Kusa, Latvia, a village in Madona District, Latvia
* Kusa, Oklahoma, United States
* Kusa, indigenous name of Beles River (in Gumuz language)
* Kusa, Afghanistan
...
town, Citico on Chickamauga Creek
Chickamauga Creek refers to two short tributaries of the Tennessee River, which join the river near Chattanooga, Tennessee. The two streams are North Chickamauga Creek and South Chickamauga Creek, joining the Tennessee from the north and south s ...
. Within a decade many had migrated southwest, settling in northwestern Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
and northeastern Alabama
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
. Some Chickamauga Cherokee
The Chickamauga Cherokee refers to a group that separated from the greater body of the Cherokee during the American Revolutionary War. The majority of the Cherokee people wished to make peace with the Americans near the end of 1776, following se ...
returned to the Hiwassee Valley after the Revolution, but the center of the Cherokee culture by then had moved further south and west.
Passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law on May 28, 1830, by United States President Andrew Jackson. The law, as described by Congress, provided "for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories, and for ...
preceded removal of almost all members of the Five Civilized Tribes in the Southeast. The Cherokee were divided over the government's proposal for removal to Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United St ...
, with most opposing it. One group of leaders signed the New Echota Treaty to cede communal lands, hoping to reach a favorable deal with the US government, as they believed relocation was inevitable. Others opposed it but, finally in 1838-1839, US soldiers forced the Cherokee west on the Trail of Tears
The Trail of Tears was an ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of approximately 60,000 people of the "Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government. As part of the Indian removal, members of the Cherokee, ...
. They built internment camps in northern Alabama and in Tennessee along the Hiwassee River as government forces rounded up the people. One of the largest such camps was Fort Cass
Fort Cass was a fort located on the Hiwassee River in present-day Charleston, Tennessee, that served as the military operational headquarters for the entire Cherokee removal, an forced migration of the Cherokee known as the Trail of Tears from the ...
near present-day Charleston, Tennessee
Charleston is a city in Bradley County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 664 at the 2020 census. It is included in the Cleveland Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
The land now occupied by Charleston and Bradley County was home t ...
, on the south bank of the Hiwassee River.
Notability
The Hiwassee River passes through downtown Murphy, North Carolina
Murphy is a town in and the county seat of Cherokee County, North Carolina, United States. It is situated at the confluence of the Hiwassee River, Hiwassee and Valley River, Valley rivers. It is the westernmost county seat in the state of North Ca ...
, where it flows past a site famous in Cherokee Indian mythology
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
. The legend tells of a house-sized leech that could command the waters and use them to sweep hapless people to the bottom of the river and consume them. It was known as ''Tlanusi-yi'', "The Leech Place."
The river flows west from North Carolina into Tennessee. This area is popular for whitewater rafting
Rafting and whitewater rafting are recreational outdoor activities which use an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other body of water. This is often done on whitewater or different degrees of rough water. Dealing with risk is often a ...
, whitewater canoeing
Whitewater canoeing is the sport of paddling a canoe on a moving body of water, typically a whitewater river. Whitewater canoeing can range from simple, carefree gently moving water, to demanding, dangerous whitewater. River rapids are graded like ...
, and whitewater kayaking
Whitewater kayaking is an adventure sport where a river is navigated in a decked kayak. Whitewater kayaking includes several styles. River running; where the paddler follows a river and paddles rapids as they travel. Creeking usually involving s ...
. Recreational fishing is popular with several outfitters located near the river, and there is also industrial activity along the river, such as paper mills.
The Interstate 75
Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from S ...
bridge crossed the Hiwassee between McMinn and Bradley counties in Tennessee. This was the site of a fatal 99-vehicle accident in December 1990, during extremely foggy weather in the area of a paper mill in the valley.[Note: Reduced visibility from naturally occurring fog contributed to the accident, which killed 12 people and injured 51.] During the years since then, a huge system of warning signs and lights has been built on that stretch of Interstate 75 to warn automobiles and trucks against incidents of foul weather, characterized by heavy rains and clouds. Many serious collisions had occurred in this area.
See also
* List of rivers of Tennessee
This is a list of rivers of the U.S. state of Tennessee:
By drainage basin
This list is arranged by drainage basin, with respective tributaries indented under each larger stream's name. All rivers in Tennessee ultimately flow to the Gulf of Mex ...
Notes
* 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).
References
External links
Hiwassee River Basin Web Site
*
Tennessee Scenic Rivers Association (TSRA)
{{authority control
Rivers of Georgia (U.S. state)
Rivers of North Carolina
Rivers of Tennessee
Cherokee Nation (1794–1907)