Kituwa (also spelled Kituwah, Keetoowah, Kittowa, Kitara and other similar variations) or giduhwa (Cherokee:ᎩᏚᏩ) is a Woodland period Native American settlement near the upper Tuckasegee River, and is claimed by the Cherokee people as their original town. An earthwork platform mound, built about 1000 CE, marks a ceremonial site here. The historic Cherokee built a townhouse on top that was used for their communal gatherings and decisionmaking; they replaced it repeatedly over decades. They identify Kituwa as one of the "seven mother towns" in their traditional homeland of the American Southeast. This site is in modern Swain County, North Carolina, in the Great Smoky Mountains.
The Cherokee lost control of this site to the United States in the early 19th century. In the late 1830s, most of their people in the Southeast were forcibly removed by US forces to Indian Territory. Descendants of those who remained in North Carolina formed the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), which is federally recognized.
Kituwa (31Sw2) was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 because of its historic and archeological significance. In 1996 the EBCI purchased 309 acres of land, including Kituwa mound and the former town site. They have conducted archeological surveys that have added to their knowledge about the long history of the site and Cherokee uses, including burials there. As a result, they have decided to leave this sacred site undeveloped.
Since the mid-19th century, the term "Keetoowah" has been associated with Cherokee people, initially full-blood only, who supported a kind of religious nationalism. They adhered to pre-contact communal ways. Conservative descendants of Cherokee who had migrated to Arkansas and Indian Territory in the 1810s and 1820s later formed what is now the federally recognized tribe of the United Keetoowah Band, based in Oklahoma. During the 19th century, after removal to Indian Territory, there were Cherokee groups who identified as Keetoowah, at times forming secret societies that maintained rituals and sacred ceremonies.
^"National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
Kituwa (also spelled Kituwah, Keetoowah, Kittowa, Kitara and other similar variations) or giduhwa (Cherokee:ᎩᏚᏩ) is a Woodland period Native American settlement...
1,500 and 1,800 B.C. The Cherokee identify their ancient settlement of Kituwa on the Tuckasegee River, formerly next to and now part of Qualla Boundary...
about 1500 and 1800 BCE. The Cherokee say that the ancient settlement of Kituwa on the Tuckasegee River is their original settlement in the Southeast. It...
'Turtle Place.' Several Cherokee towns developed along the river, including Kituwa, believed to be the "mother town" of the Cherokee. It developed around an...
Eastern and Western. The Eastern Dialect, also referred to as middle or Kituwa dialect, is spoken in the Qualla Boundary in western North Carolina. This...
Cherokee site, for transfer to the EBCI. These two sites, together with Kituwa, which the EBCI owns again, will be linked for education and interpretation...
escaped or found sanctuary in one of the towns so designated, such as Chota, Kituwa, or Tugaloo, the fugitive's clan was expected to deliver up another of its...
towns on the eastern side of the Appalachians in Western North Carolina. Kituwa was chief among the Middle Towns. Not only was Cherokee society highly decentralized...
homecoming festival over the first weekend of October. The word Keetoowah (Kituwa) is the name of an ancient Cherokee mother town and earthwork mound in the...
and into the Middle Towns in 1760, destroying the Cherokee mother town of Kituwa. When American naturalist William Bartram visited the Keeowee New Towne...
who considered it one of the "Mother Towns of their homeland." (Note: Kituwa, found on the Tuckaseegee River, is considered the first "Mother Town".)...
to occupy many Mississippian culture towns, such as Nikwasi, Too-Cowee, Kituwa, and Chota. Although the sites of Joara and Fort San Juan were forgotten...
Pardo encountered Native Americans in towns such as Nikwasi, Tocoa, and Kituwa. c. 1654 English settlers from Jamestown, supported by a force of Pamunkey...
needed] The word "Keetoowah" is the name of the ancient Cherokee township of Kituwa in the Eastern Homeland of the Cherokee, where all Cherokee originated after...
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