Tanasi and Chota

     I am proud citizen of the great state of Tennessee, the 16^th state the join the union.  The last state to secede from the union during the Civil War and one of the first to rejoin following the surrender at the Appomattox Courthouse, known as the Volunteer State thanks to a people who are always ready to lend a hand. Tanasi was once the de facto capital of the Cherokee nation, an overhill settlement that led its people and those connected through a series of difficult and sometimes tragic circumstances.

An Overhill settlement was exactly what they sound like, settlements built on higher ground but along trade routes.  Tanasi wasn’t the largest or the most prolific but it is historically significant.  After all it is where we got the name of our home state.  The most prevalent Overhill settlement was Chota and it thrived eventually absorbing the settlement of Tanasi.  Chota and Tanasi produced some of the more well-known Cherokee people such as Sequoyah and Nancy Ward. 

   

 Prior to the French and Indian War in the later part of 18^th century the Cherokee Nation had a trade relationship with the British, who were using trade routes in the southeastern parts of the United States in what is now Tennessee, Georgia, North and South Carolina.  This evolved into essentially joining the side of the British during that altercation.  This choice was the beginning of the end for the Native Americans in the region.  Not long after the French and Indian War, America entered into the Revolutionary War in order to gain freedom from oppressive British rule.  This marked the natives as potential enemies.  Following the Battle of Kings Mountain in October 1780 and the Battle of Boyd’s Creek in December 1780 Col. John Sevier marched his Washington Company into the villages and set them to light after taking supplies for his troops.  Later the settlement was rebuilt, but it would never again be what it once was. 

     After the Revolutionary War, Ft. Loudon was established near Chota near the present day Vonore in Monroe County, Tennessee.  This fort was strategically placed to monitor trade routes, settler migration and had a mission to convince the natives to cede their tribal lands to the government.  I believe the John Finger said it best when he wrote “Frontier whites did not want Indians civilized.  They wanted them out.”  In the end the settlers and the government got exactly what they wanted and an entire people lost their historic lands.  As our history books reveal the anglo traders, hunters and settlers were greedy, they wanted more and viewed the Cherokee as a threat by the time natives were forced off their lands, the feeling was mutual.  The final solution became known as the Trail of Tears. 

     Franklin D. Roosevelt is considered one of the greatest Presidents of the United States.  He led our country through the Great Depression and World War II.  He made it possible for people in the more rural areas of America to have electricity.  He put millions of people to work through his initiatives. We forget sometimes that there is a cost to progress and advancement, we are happy to have the electricity but forget that there were families who lost their land to the necessary flooding to create dams and reservoirs.  I would even go so far as to say that we take it for granted. 

Today in order to see these once great settlements you will need to rent some scuba gear.  It is unfortunate that these sites are now lost to necessity but you can see some of the relics and stories at the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum in Vonore, Tennessee.  Just so you know, Tanasi and Chota were inundated by the Tennessee Valley Authority as part of the development of the Tellico Dam and Tellico Reservoir.  Prior to flooding the area, archeologists spent several years excavating the sites in order to preserve as much history and relics as possible.  

     A monument, erected about 300 yards due east of the original settlement of Tanasi, now stands in remembrance of a people and a place who helped to shape our nation.  There are so many more pieces of history that can be told, the stories passed down by the ancestors both native and white.  This is just one of many such stories.