Isunigu (also called Seneca, Esseneca, and Sinica) 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 on the Keowee River. It was on the west side of the Keowee River, near the mouth of Coneross Creek, in today's Oconee County, South Carolina. Present-day Clemson and Seneca, South Carolina later developed near here. During the colonial period, Isunigu was classified by English traders and colonists as one of the Cherokee "Lower Towns", a geographical grouping that included Piedmont towns along the Keowee River in southwestern South Carolina and towns along the Tugaloo River in northeastern Georgia. The principal town of this grouping was considered to be Keowee, on the river of the same name. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Cherokee ceded their land of the Lower Towns to

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 = ...

. Andrew Pickens developed his "Hopewell" plantation on the east side of the Keowee River. Following the American Revolution and conflict between the Cherokee and European Americans, this was where the 1785

Treaty of Hopewell Three agreements, each known as the Treaty of Hopewell, were signed between representatives of the Congress of the United States and the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw peoples, were negotiated and signed at the Hopewell plantation in South Caro ...

was signed by both parties. The site of Isunigu, a settlement that likely had more than a thousand years of previous indigenous habitation, as did other towns in the area, was flooded by the creation in the 20th century of Lake Hartwell. It was formed as the reservoir behind

Hartwell Dam Hartwell Dam is a concrete and embankment dam located on the Savannah River at the border of South Carolina and Georgia, creating Lake Hartwell. The dam was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1955 and 1962 for the purposes of flood ...

on the Keowee River. The meaning of the name ''Isunigu'' is lost, along with the artifacts and other materials from prehistoric and historic years now submerged under Lake Hartwell.

References

* Mooney, James. ''Myths of the Cherokee'' (1900, reprint 1995). See

James Mooney James Mooney (February 10, 1861 – December 22, 1921) was an American ethnographer who lived for several years among the Cherokee. Known as "The Indian Man", he conducted major studies of Southeastern Indians, as well as of tribes on the Gr ...

. {{authority control Cherokee towns Pre-historic cities in the United States Chickamauga Cherokee Pre-statehood history of South Carolina Geography of Oconee County, South Carolina Former populated places in South Carolina