Beginning more than a thousand years ago, the Cherokee culture that we recognize today spread across the landscape of all of north Georgia, leaving mounds, spear points, pottery, the names of rivers and creeks, and legends that are still told by Cherokee storytellers. Cherokee towns occupied the Chattooga, Tugaloo, and Chattahoochee Rivers in north Georgia, adjoining their Lower towns on the Keowee River. Established trading paths like the Unicoi Trail led north to the rest of the Cherokee Nation and south to the Creek Nation.
Northwestern Georgia, however, including the Coosawattee and Oostanula Rivers, was claimed by both the Creeks and the Cherokees. In 1755, the Cherokees’ victory at the Battle of Taliwa gained this land for them, just in time to serve as a new home for refugees from the Lower Towns destroyed by British forces in 1760 and 1761. Within sight of the mountains, the planned community and national capitol of New Echota became the geographical center of the Cherokee nation and the focus of its renascence. Here the Cherokee Nation reached a pinnacle of civilization only to be destroyed by Removal.
For an in-depth look at each one of the interpretive centers along the Cherokee Heritage Trails, including complete articles and quotes, detailed information on all the historical sites, amazing full color photography depicting the land and its people, stories from many of the Cherokee Elders and much more about the wonderful Cherokee culture, make the Cherokee Heritage Trails Guidebook a part of your personal library.
Built as prescribed by the Cherokee National Council, New Echota became the capitol of the Cherokee Nation. Near the geographical center of the Cherokee lands remaining after the Treaty of 1819, New Echota symbolized the progress of the Cherokees towards “civilization” as mandated by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and the federal government. Here, with enthusiasm and idealism matching that of the young but growing United States, the Cherokees planned and built a model city that included a Council House, Supreme Court Building, newspaper office, houses, farmsteads, taverns, missionaries, a traditional ball ground, and plans for a college. These plans were located on the site of New Town, where the Cherokee council had been meeting since 1819.
Designed by an architect and constructed by brick masons, Moravians, Cherokees, and African-American slaves, the Vann House still stands as a landmark of Cherokee architecture. Finished in 1805, the three-story brick mansion with white pillars in the front and back incorporates Cherokee colors and details along with the federal and American Georgian styles of the period. In the wide hallway, a “floating staircase” remains the oldest cantilevered construction in Georgia. Hand-carved Cherokee rose designs decorate the staircase and appear throughout the house. A large fireplace stretches to the 12 foot high ceiling, restored to its original paint colors (found under nineteen layers of paint): sky blue, light forest green, red clay, and sunny yellow. Most of the house materials were made on the plantation: bricks formed from local clay, nails and hinges forged in the blacksmith shops, and boards cut at one of Vann’s sawmills.
In 1835 Major Ridge and his son John, Elias Boudinot, and seventeen others, designated as representatives of the tribe, signed the Treaty of New Echota, believing it the best course for their people, even though the majority of the Cherokee people opposed Removal. As he made his mark, the Ridge said, “I have signed my death warrant.” (He and his son John had participated in creating the law requiring capital punishment for any Cherokee who sold tribal land.) Major Ridge, John Ridge and their extended families, along with a party of nearly 500 Cherokees, left for Indian Territory in 1837 and established homes, stores, and a school there. Major Ridge was ambushed and fatally shot while riding horseback near the Arkansas state line the same day that his son John and Elias Boudinot were executed for their part in the Treaty of New Echota, on June 22, 1839.
Built a thousand years ago or more, these mounds were the center of a palisaded town where three thousand or more American Indians lived from 1000 AD-1500 AD. Often they are called “The Moundbuilders” and “The Mississippian Indians” but these terms more accurately refer to architectural traditions and to a specific time period, respectively, than to people. The people who built and lived at these mounds were the ancestors of the Cherokee, the Creek, and other tribes who spoke their languages and practiced their unique traditions from more than a thousand years ago through the present day. In addition to being the focal point of a town, the Etowah Mounds supported the temples where priests practiced the ceremonies that made this an important religious center of its time, visited by many people from the surrounding region.
The Dahlonega Gold Museum tells the story of the gold rush, the founding of the towns of Auraria and Dahlonega, and the Georgia land lottery that gave away Cherokee territory. Located in the old Lumpkin County courthouse in the town square, the museum displays include artifacts, gold coins, gold nuggets, and mining tools along with a video on the first gold rush in America. Nearby, one of the North Georgia College buildings stands on the site of the former U.S. Mint, which was burned during the Civil War. Visitors can shop for gold nuggets and jewelry in stores around the square, or learn to pan for gold at several locations just out of town. Gold from Dahlonega covers the dome of the Georgia state house in Atlanta.
Unicoi State Park, located on State Rd. 75 not far from the Nacoochee Mound, stands on the original Unicoi Trail, the trading path that connected Cherokee Overhill towns and Lower towns, reaching to Augusta, Georgia. At the park, some interpretive materials discuss the trail. The Unicoi Trail reaches this point in Georgia after turning south from the vicinity of Hayesville, N.C.
The Nacoochee Mound, at the headwaters of the Chattahoochee River, marks the village site of Itsati, or Echota, located on Sautee Creek, on the Unicoi Trail. (The name of Sautee Creek reflects the Kituhwa dialect pronunciation of the village name It sa ti.) This village differs from and should not be confused with Old Echota on the Tennessee River in the Overhill Towns, or with New Echota in north Georgia. The town of Nacoochee, or Nagutsi, stood farther south, at the junction of Sautee Creek and Soquee River .
