National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

Transcription

United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
NPS Form 10-900
OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
New Echota Traditional Cultural Place
Gordon County, Georgia
Name of Property
County and State
National Park Service
National Register of Historic Places
Registration Form
This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districts. See instructions in National Register Bulletin, How
to Complete the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. If any item does not apply to the property being documented, enter "N/A" for
"not applicable." For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the
instructions. Place additional certification comments, entries, and narrative items on continuation sheets if needed (NPS Form 10-900a).
1. Name of Property
historic name
other names/site number
N/A
2. Location
street & number 1211 Chatsworth Highway NE
city or town
state
not for publication
Calhoun
Georgia
vicinity
code
county
Gordon
code
zip code
3. State/Federal Agency Certification
As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended,
I hereby certify that this X nomination _ request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards
for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional
requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60.
In my opinion, the property X _ meets _ does not meet the National Register Criteria. I recommend that this
property be considered significant at the following level(s) of significance:
X
national
statewide
local
Signature of certifying official/Title: Dr. David C. Crass/Historic Preservation Division Director/Deputy SHPO
Date
Historic Preservation Division, Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources
State or Federal agency/bureau or Tribal Government
In my opinion, the property
meets
Signature of commenting official
Title
does not meet the National Register criteria.
Date
State or Federal agency/bureau or Tribal Government
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OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
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County and State
4. National Park Service Certification
I hereby certify that this property is:
entered in the National Register
determined eligible for the National Register
determined not eligible for the National Register
removed from the National Register
other (explain:)
_________________
Signature of the Keeper
Date of Action
5. Classification
Ownership of Property
Category of Property
Number of Resources within Property
(Check as many boxes as apply.)
(Check only one box.)
(Do not include previously listed resources in the count.)
x
x
private
public - Local
public - State
public - Federal
x
building(s)
district
site
structure
object
Name of related multiple property listing
(Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing)
Contributing
13
2
2
Noncontributing
6
buildings
sites
structures
objects
17
6
Total
Number of contributing resources previously
listed in the National Registe5
Unknown. Original nomination did not count
resources. Additionally, many of the built
resources on the property today were not extant at
the time of the original listing in 1970.
6. Function or Use
Historic Functions
Current Functions
(Enter categories from instructions.)
GOVERNMENT/capitol
RECREATION AND CULTURE/Museum
RECREATION AND CULTURE/Outdoor
GOVERNMENT/courthouse
Recreation
EDUCATION/school
RECREATION AND CULTURE/Monument/Marker
FUNERARY/cemetery
AGRICULTURE/fields
TRANSPORTATION/water-related
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DOMESTIC/village site
DOMESTIC/inn
COMMERCE/TRADE/restaurant, businesses
7. Description
Architectural Classification
Materials
NO STYLE
foundation:
FEDERAL
walls:
Wood/Log
roof:
Wood/Shingle
other:
Wood/Weatherboard
Stone
Narrative Description
(Describe the historic and current physical appearance of the property. Explain contributing and noncontributing
resources if necessary. Begin with a summary paragraph that briefly describes the general characteristics of the
property, such as its location, setting, size, and significant features.)
Summary Paragraph
The New Echota Traditional Cultural Place (TCP) is comprised of 248.22 acres, in Gordon County,
Georgia. Included within its boundary is the existing National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and
National Historic Landmark (NHL) boundaries of New Echota currently owned by the State of
Georgia, as well as five privately owned parcels (Figure 1). Important landscape features of the
former capitol of the Cherokee Nation include the Coosawattee, Conasauga, and Oostanaula rivers,
New Town Creek, and historic road traces. The New Echota TCP contains 17 contributing resources
(13 buildings, 2 sites, and 2 structures) and 6 noncontributing resources (6 buildings). The
contributing resources consist of the following: 2 original historic buildings, 3 reconstructed buildings,
8 relocated buildings, a monument, road traces, an interpreted archaeological site, and a cemetery.
All of these resources are situated in their original or sympathetic locations in respect to the
landscape and each other. As a group, they possess integrity of location, setting design,
workmanship, materials, feeling and association. The original buildings, the Worcester House and
Smokehouse possess all seven elements of integrity as they are: in their original setting and location;
still possess original design, materials, and workmanship; and maintain a rural feeling and association
of a house associated with an early nineteenth century Cherokee town. The relocated buildings date
to the period of significance and therefore maintain integrity of workmanship, materials and design.
Their new location at New Echota is sympathetic to their original setting and allows the visitor to
imagine the nineteenth-century landscape of New Echota. The reconstructed farmsteads are placed
in known locations of historic farms at New Echota. Finally, the reconstructed buildings at New
Echota were based on archival and archaeological evidence and are located in approximately their
historical locations. The materials, design, and workmanship follow the construction trends of the
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New Echota Cemetery
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New Town Creek
New Echota
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Total Acreage = 248.217512
Source: ESRI Resource Data
Figure 1. Map of New Echota Traditional Cultural Place
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time and are consistent with the historical and archaeological record. Overall, the entire built
landscape at New Echota, including the cemetery, monument to the Trail of Tears, historic road
traces and interpreted archaeological site, combine with the natural landscape to create a place that
maintains and conveys the important cultural relationship it continues to hold for the Cherokee.
LANDSCAPE AND SETTING
New Echota is located in the Great Valley of the Ridge and Valley Province of northwestern Georgia.
The Great Valley is a broad area with undulating topography bounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains
to the east and the Armuchee Ridges to the west. The underlying bedrock of the area includes shale,
limestone and chert (Hodler and Schretter 1986). Vegetation includes hardwoods, pines, and open
grassy meadows (Wharton 1989).
The site lies on a floodplain south of the confluence of the Coosawattee and Conasauga rivers into
the Oostanaula River, a place known locally as the “Fork.” The western and south-central portions of
the property occupy slightly elevated ground (i.e., higher than the 640-foot contour) compared to the
tributary creeks cutting into the floodplain to the north, east, and west. South of New Echota, behind
and up-slope from the New Echota Cemetery, the ground gains elevation to over 700 feet above
mean sea level. The confluence of two major rivers, New Town Creek and springs made the location
a desirable place for the Cherokee to build a governmental center as some early roads and the rivers
provided access to the site, which was approximately in the center of Cherokee lands at that time.
The western half of the New Echota State Historic Site has been developed with public visitation and
the interpretation of cultural history in mind (Figure 2). This area includes the most carefully
landscaped portion of the site, which features mowed grass along paths/roadways and grassy
meadows in the remaining open areas. Three reconstructed historic buildings, two reconstructed
house complexes with outbuildings, and a nineteenth-century building moved to the site complete the
western half of the landscape along with select trees, gravel pathways, a farmstead garden, and
interpretive panels. Most of the buildings stand in the central, grassy, portion of historic New Echota.
Located in between the grass-covered area and Highway 225 to the north, which bisects the district
from east to west, is a built-up area that includes the visitor’s center and museum building, the
Cherokee Memorial Monolith, and a reconstructed Cherokee farmstead. Moving east of the grassy
area to the central portion of the current New Echota State Historic Site, the terrain becomes
increasingly wooded and hilly. To the south, on a prominent landform not far from the southern
boundary of the site, stands the renovated house of Samuel Worcester, the prominent Euro-American
missionary who championed Cherokee sovereignty. A circular nature trail allows easy access from
the Worcester residence to New Town Creek, a disused stone quarry site that may have been used
by historic period Cherokee, and a natural spring in the hardwood forest. The trail passes south of
the Worcester house near the general, but as yet unidentified, former location of Fort Wool, where the
Cherokee were held prior to their forcible removal on the Trail of Tears. Today, the area is covered in
trees. The portion of New Echota State Historic Site east of Town Creek, in the direction of the
Coosawattee River, has largely been left undeveloped and wooded.
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Worcester Smokehouse
Worcester House
New Echota Cemetery
Maintenance Building
Fuel Building
Common Cherokee Cabin
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Common Cherokee Corn Crib
Common Cherokee Stable
Supreme Courthouse
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Figure 2. Sketch Map of New Echota
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Manager's Residence
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New Echota State Historic Site and
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New Town Creek
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Print Shop
Boudinot House Site
Council House
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Middle Class Cherokee Cabin
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Middle Class Cherokee Smokehouse
Middle Class Cherokee Corn Crib
Middle Class Cherokee Barn
Restroom Building
Visitor's Center
Cherokee Memorial Monument
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The nature trail in the historic site’s central portion educates visitors about the natural history of the
area. For example, along the wooded nature trail, appropriately placed interpretive pedestals identify
plant species such as river cane, which was used by American Indians for many things such as arrow
shafts, baskets, mats, and fencing. The maintenance center in the southwestern corner of the New
Echota State Historic Site contains the manager’s residence, maintenance building, and fuel depot.
This portion of the site has been chosen for development since it does not cover any significant
historic or natural resources.
The Calhoun Elks Club golf course occupies the few acres of New Echota state-owned land north of
Highway 225. In order to use the land as a golf course, Calhoun Elks Home, Inc. entered into a lease
with the State Properties Control Commission in 1969. This lease was renewed in 2009 for continued
use as a golf course.
The New Echota Town Cemetery is located approximately 900 feet south of the state historic site.
Although it is owned by the state of Georgia and is included within the NRHP boundary, it is not
included as part of the present park. Modern, private residences now occupy the land between the
New Echota State Historic Site and National Historic Landmark boundary and the New Echota
Cemetery.
Except for the modified portions within the golf course, the overall modern landscape of New Echota
does not appear to be unlike that noted in historical documents. A Cherokee named White Horse
recounted a series of attractive buildings and landscape features while following the original road that
passed immediately east of New Echota (Malone 1956:124). New Echota lay at the junction of a
number of roads. Records place Fort Wool at New Echota to the southwest of the Federal Road (Hill
2005:25). Two postal roads also were constructed across Cherokee lands sometime between 1805
and 1827, but the exact location of these roads is unknown. It can be inferred that at least one road
ran near New Echota as Samuel Worcester held the position of postmaster at New Echota. A road
known as Sally Hughes Road or New Town Road left New Echota, running south, to connect to the
east-west Alabama Road (Hill 2005:18). This same road ran north from New Echota and was
alternately known as the Tennessee Road (Hill 2005:19). Additionally, the West Connector ran
southwest from New Echota, connecting to the Upper Alabama Road.
In the years between the Treaty of New Echota and the Trail of Tears, a number of roads were built in
Georgia. Evidence from notes of the Cherokee National Council and Committee published in the
Cherokee Phoenix show that the Cherokee entrepreneurs were involved in the process. An
examination of Drane’s 1832 Map Plat Map revealed three roads in historic New Echota. New Town
Road ran from south to north through the center of town just west of the western boundary of LL 124
with LL 125, bending to the northeast as it approached the northeast corner of LL 124. From here, it
traveled northeast, crossing the northwest corner of LL 125 until it reached the southwest corner of LL
92 and McCoy’s Ferry at the fork in the Oostanaula, Coosawattee, and Conasauga rivers. Based on
the Drane map (1832), McCoy operated two ferries from this location, one crossing the Oostanaula
and the other the Coosawattee. This portion of the road is also known as McCoy’s Ferry Road.
Today at New Echota, portions of the road trace for New Town Road can still be seen on the ground
surface near the eastern edge of the mowed area on the south side of SR 225, and running north7
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south past the Supreme Courthouse in the center of the New Echota Historical Site and continuing to
the Worcester House (Figures 3 and 4). While there are road traces on the north side of Highway
225, Kear and Mustonen (2012) concluded that there was no substantial historical or archaeological
evidence to link the current road trace to the historic McCoy’s Ferry Road (Figures 3 and 4).
McCoy’s Ferry Road was a major access route to New Echota from the south. Northeast of the point
where McCoy’s Ferry crossed the Coosawattee River, the current Highway 225 closely follows this old
northern access road to New Echota. Kear and Mustonen (2012) noted that McCoy’s Ferry Road might
have served as a route for removal of the Cherokee from New Echota on the Trail of Tears. After the
crossing, on the north side of the Oostanaula, it followed the river into LL 93 and then proceeded due
north. This side was known as the Tennessee Road. Crossing the Coosawattee on McCoy’s other ferry,
to the northeast bank of the Coosawattee and east bank of the Conasauga, it proceeded north and east.
Another observer, Albert Tarvin, recalled a “rambling, scattered town” (The Calhoun Times 1972). This
arrangement of buildings, which were constructed at greater distance from one another and
interspersed with fields, was the typical and desirable arrangement for Cherokee towns during the early
nineteenth century. This comparatively unimposing crossroads town sprung to life during National
Council meetings, often exceeding 300 people (Malone 1955; Starkey 1946). Drane’s 1832 map tends
to support these hints of an open and dispersed town layout, which deviates slightly from the initially
planned grid pattern. Judging from Drane’s map, except for the grid-like center of New Echota, houses,
agricultural fields, meadows, and prominent trees in the vicinity of New Echota are fairly evenly spread
across the landscape. The current park-like appearance of the New Echota State Historic Site,
punctuated by evenly spaced building structures, seems to resemble the historic setting.
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Walking down New Town Road on its original alignment, it is easy to establish a sense of place at New
Echota. Beginning with the landscape, today there is a mix of meadows, fields, and woods, which
probably resembled the original vegetation of the site. As the town grew, more trees would have been
cleared for agricultural fields. After the Cherokee were forcibly removed on the Trail of Tears in 1838,
the area continued to be used for agriculture until the 1940s.
The mixture of original, relocated, and reconstructed buildings that dot the grassy area in the western
quarter of the site provide a strong visual reminder of what New Echota likely looked like. Of all the
buildings on the site, the Worcester house is the only original, dating to the New Echota period (18251838). Other log buildings at New Echota were moved there from neighboring states or Georgia
counties. These were Cherokee structures and included: Vann’s Tavern, which dates to the early
1800s and was moved to New Echota from its original location on the Chattahoochee River in 1957; the
“Middle Class Cherokee Farm,” which includes a cabin, barn, corn crib, and smokehouse; and the
“Common Cherokee Farm,” which included a cabin, stable, and corn crib. The relocated buildings are
crucial to the interpretation of the overall town site. Archaeological studies most of which were
conducted in the 1960s identified a number of Cherokee sites within New Echota and the
archaeological excavation of the Boudinot House site is an interpreted element of the New Echota
State Park. The reconstructed buildings represent period appropriate structures in New Echota’s
Cherokee history during the period immediately preceding the Treaty of New Echota. The Supreme
Courthouse, Council house, and the print shop are reconstructions based on archaeological and
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Figure 3. Map of New Echota Showing Historic Roads and Trails
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Figure 4. Sketch Map of New Echota Showing Contributing and Non-Contributing Resource
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Table 1. Contributing and Noncontributing Properties for the New Echota TCP
(C=Contributing; NC=Noncontributing; CCB=Criterion Consideration B; CCD=Criterion
Consideration D; CCE=Criterion Consideration E)
Type
Name
Buildings
Structures
Sites
Council House
C
x
NC
Supreme Courthouse
x
Print Shop
x
Vann’s Tavern
x
Worcester House
x
Worcester Smokehouse
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Middle Class Cherokee Smokehouse
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Manager's Building
x
Maintenance Building
x
Fuel Depot
x
Golf Course Pool House
x
Historic Road Traces
x
New Echota Cemetery
x
Boudinot House Site
x
CCE
x
x
Restroom Building
x
CCD
x
Visitor's Center
Cherokee Memorial Monument
CCB
x
x
historical research conducted at the site from the 1950s through 1990s. They are accurately executed
and contribute to the overall depiction of New Echota town site. The collection of buildings, as a group,
illustrate the complete history of New Echota from its vital role as a government center to a typical early
nineteenth-century Cherokee village. Table 1 and Figure 4 present a list of all contributing and noncontributing resources at New Echota.
The contributing buildings are all either log or frame and are set on rough stone foundations. The
Council House, Supreme Courthouse and Worcester House exhibit minimal Federal style elements,
while the other buildings lack architectural detailing.
The following 13 buildings are contributing resources to the New Echota TCP and are described
below.
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Council House
Supreme Courthouse
Print Shop
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Vann’s Tavern
Worcester House
Worcester Smoke House
Middle Class Cherokee Smoke house
Additionally, this section contains the description of archaeological remains from the Boudinot House
Site, which is further discussed in the document as part of contributing site 9GO42.
Council House. Based on archaeological findings, the Council House was reconstructed on its
original site in 1994. The reconstruction represents the 1822 Council House, the second constructed
at New Echota. This Council House served as the capitol building and government headquarters of
the Cherokee Nation during the creation of the Cherokee Constitution and the period leading up to
the Trail of Tears. It is a two-story, hewn log structure with half-dovetail notching. The front gable
roof is sheathed with wood shingles and features weatherboards in the gable. The façade, which
faces north, contains only a single entry door and no windows. A shed roof porch set on octagonal
columns with a plain balustrade shelters the door. There are four windows on each side elevation
that are six-over-nine sash. At the rear, south elevation, of the building is a brick, exterior end
chimney. The structure is set on a continuous rough stone foundation. The first floor interior contains
only one room with rows of benches set before a raised platform. The Cherokee Council was
composed of two parts. The first part, the National Council, consisted of 32 members and met on the
first floor of the Council House. The second part, the 12-member National Committee, met on the
second floor of the Council House. While the Cherokee elected the Council, the Council appointed
the Principal Chief, Vice-Principal Chief, and the Treasurer.
Supreme Courthouse. The Supreme Courthouse was reconstructed in the 1950s based on
archaeological data. It is a square, two-story, frame building with a hip roof. It has a three-bay,
symmetrical façade on the west elevation with a central door that features a four-light transom.
Although there is no porch, there is a wide, entry platform with a plain balustrade. Windows are sixover-nine sash with shutters. The house is clad with weatherboards and set on rough stone piers.
Each floor contains one room. The Cherokee Supreme Court was created in 1822 and met annually
at New Echota beginning in 1823. This building is based on the 1829 structure erected on this site.
With its elevated bench at the head of the room and spectator benches, the first floor served as the
courtroom. There is no documentation available for the second level’s use, although the original
structure was believed to have also functioned as a church and a school. Between 1823 and 1835,
the Cherokee Supreme Court heard 246 cases.
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Print Shop. Also reconstructed in the 1950s, the print shop is a one-story, front gable building. It is
built of hewn logs laid with half-dovetail notching. There are weatherboards in the end gables. The
main façade on the south elevation contains a central entry door covered by a shed roof porch set on
octagonal supports. The rear, or east, elevation contains an exterior end, brick chimney. Windows
on the side, north and south, elevations are non-sash with multi-lights. The interior contains one
room that houses the printing equipment. The Cherokee government constructed a printing office at
New Echota in 1827. Under the leadership of editors Elias Boudinot and later Elijah Hicks, along with
two printers, the world’s first indigenous language newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix, was published
weekly from 1828 to 1834. Thousands of books were also translated into Cherokee and published at
New Echota. The Georgia militia confiscated the Cherokee printing press in 1835 and removed it
from this property.
Vann’s Tavern. This structure is an original Cherokee tavern constructed around 1805 by James
Vann, a wealthy Cherokee plantation owner. It was initially located near the Chattahoochee River in
Forsyth County, Georgia, but was moved to New Echota in 1955. It is composed of two sections.
The right side is a two-story hewn log structure with half-dovetail notching. It has a side gable roof
with a shed roof porch on the first level. The main façade on the northeast elevation has a central
door with flanking windows. There is a single, central window on the second level. The first floor
contains one room while the second level has three. To the left of the log core is a one-room, board
and batten, one-story addition. In between the two sections is a stone chimney. The entire structure
rests on stone piers. An outside staircase at the rear, or southwest elevation, of the house served as
entrance to the guest rooms on the second floor. The small opening under the stairs on the
southwest elevation was a “take-out” window for those whom the innkeeper did not allow inside.
Archaeological research showed that there was a Cherokee residence at this site during the New
Echota period. The well behind the building dates to the 1830s.
Worcester House. The only original structure surviving at New Echota, Reverend Samuel A.
Worcester constructed the Worcester House in 1828. The house is two-stories with a side gable roof
and a central brick chimney. The symmetrical façade on the west elevation is unusual by having two
doors on each story, but no windows. There are galleries running across the entire façade on both
levels. An exterior staircase placed between the two entry doors on the main façade provides access
to the second story. The porch supports are plain pillars with a simple balustrade. Windows are sixover-six sash. At the rear of the house, east elevation, is a shed roof porch that shelters a well. The
house is set on rough stone piers and is clad with weatherboards. The interior contains four rooms
on each floor. Behind the house is a log, front gable smokehouse.
The Worcester House served as a Presbyterian Mission Station and as the Worcester family home.
Worcester worked with Elias Boudinot to translate parts of the Bible and many hymns into Cherokee.
He also started a church and school at New Echota and served as the town postmaster. He was
arrested in 1831 because he refused to obtain a permit to reside in the Cherokee Nation. The case
was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court where Worcester and the Cherokee won, but the state of
Georgia ignored the court order and continued its annexation of Cherokee land. Worcester and his
family were forced from the house in 1834 when a Georgian, who obtained title to it in the 1832 Land
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County and State
Lottery, confiscated it. Worcester moved west where he continued his service to the Cherokee.
Several families then occupied the house until the land was purchased by the state. It was restored
in 1958-1959.
Common Cherokee Cabin (Rogers House). This farm, consisting of three contributing buildings, a log
cabin, stable, and corncrib, was moved to New Echota in 1991. The house originally stood in
Alabama, whereas the log structures within the interpretive farmyard were shipped from Tennessee
(Wood 1994). The one-room house is constructed of hewn logs with half-dovetail notching. It has a
wood shingle, side gable roof and is set on stone piers. The main façade on the south elevation has
only a central entry door with no porch. There is a stone, exterior end chimney on the west elevation.
Behind the structure lie a front gable, hewn log corncrib and a long, rectangular, saddle-notched
stable. The complex is referred to as the Rogers House as historical records show John Rogers and
his family lived in this location in the early 1830s. The complex is an example of the common
Cherokee home of the early nineteenth century (“New Echota Self-Guided Trail”).
“Middle Class” Cherokee Farm. These four contributing properties were moved here from a property
in Gordon County, Georgia, located eight miles south of the park, in 1983. This complex was
constructed in the first half of the nineteenth century and consists of a log cabin, smokehouse,
corncrib and barn. While the smokehouse has a front gable roof, the remaining buildings have side
gable roofs. All of the buildings are constructed of hewn logs. The house has a shed roof porch, an
asymmetrical three-bay façade on the south elevation with an off center entry door, and an exterior
end stone chimney. The roof on the corncrib overhangs, creating a recessed “porch” on the west
elevation that is set on posts. The double crib barn features the same roof. The farm represents a
type of construction that was becoming more prevalent in the nineteenth century with the Cherokee
Nation in Georgia. There were more than 4,000 homes in the Cherokee Nation within Georgia and
this farm was intended to represent a prosperous Cherokee family farmstead (“New Echota SelfGuided Trail”). While the farmstead is referred to as “Middle Class” it is important to note that class
as a Euroamerican concept was not necessarily a relevant term in Cherokee culture. Individuals that
had more money did not necessarily have more respect or influence that those with less money.
In addition to the 13 contributing buildings, New Echota also contains contributing structures and
sites. There are two contributing sites (Boudinot House Site and New Echota Town Cemetery) and
two contributing structures (Cherokee Memorial Monument and the historic road traces).
Boudinot House Site. The Elias Boudinot House Site lies adjacent to the Print Shop. This site, a part
of the larger 9GO42 archaeological site, is represented on the surface by the four corner stones of
the house, the well, and a square rock-lined area that was the cellar. Boudinot, a prominent
Cherokee, was the first editor of the Cherokee Phoenix and was responsible for hundreds of
translations of books, pamphlets, and religious writings into Cherokee. Boudinot built the large twostory frame house for his wife and family in 1827. The Boudinot House is significant in that it was
also the location where the Treaty of New Echota was signed (“New Echota Self-Guided Trail”).
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New Echota Town Cemetery. This is a small square cemetery measuring approximately 60 feet by
60 feet and set approximately 900 feet south of the New Echota State Historic Site. It is wooded and
framed by a low stonewall. Although there are only three marked graves, there may be additional
interments within the cemetery boundaries. Although the markers appear to be replacements, the
gravesites in the cemetery do hold the remains of important figures in Cherokee history, interred while
New Echota served as the Cherokee Nation capitol. The three marked graves belong to Chief
(Colonel) Pathkiller, New Echota resident Harriet Boudinot, and Jerusha Worcester, an infant who
died at 6 months. The original marker is a simple stone vault containing the remains of Chief
Pathkiller.
Cherokee Memorial Monument. This stone obelisk was built in 1931 and was originally located near
the entrance to the golf course on the north side of SR 225 at the intersection with Craigtown Road.
Erected by the National Park Service, it was relocated adjacent to the visitor’s center at New Echota
in 1988 as part of the 150-year commemoration of the Trail of Tears. The monument serves to keep
the memory of the Cherokee’s triumphs and struggles alive. It is accessed by a paved sidewalk and
surrounded by various governmental flags.
Historic Road Traces. According to the maps of Meyer (1832), Goff (1953), Drane (1832) and
Hemperly (1989) there were a number of trails and roads that intersected at New Echota. Traces of
New Town Road, or Sally Hughes Road, can be seen in the core of the historic site, as can portions
of McCoy’s Ferry Road. To the north, McCoy’s Ferry Road connected to the Old Federal Road,
which entered Indian lands near modern Athens, Georgia and stretched to Tellico, Tennessee. This
section of road was also referred to as the Tennessee Road. To the south, New Town Road, or Sally
Hughes Road extended to the south connecting with the east-west Upper Alabama Road. Departing
New Echota to the southwest, the West Connector also provided access to the roads leading to
Alabama. There were also two postal roads mentioned in the historical records, but the exact
location of these remains unknown. McCoy’s Ferry Road and other connecting roads are associated
with the Congressionally designated Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.
Non-contributing buildings within the state historic site include the 1969 brick veneer Visitor’s Center
and Museum; a frame manager’s residence constructed in 1968 and measuring 1,700 square feet; a
concrete block maintenance building with a frame shed roof addition; the Restroom Building, and a
frame fuel building. At the golf course, there is one additional non-contributing buildings – a concrete
block pool house. All of these structures are set quite a distance from the historic and contributing
buildings, sites, and objects and do not deter from the general layout and interpretation of New
Echota.
Archaeological Resources
Archaeology has defined and shaped the reconstructed and interpreted landscape of New Echota.
Presently there are 24 previously recorded archaeological sites in the immediate New Echota project
locality. Eleven of these sites (9GO34, 9GO42, 9GO59, 9GO216-223) appear to be directly
associated with New Echota. All but one of the sites, 9GO34, are located either partially (9GO59) or
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wholly (remaining sites) within the boundaries of the New Echota State Historic Site. No previously
recorded sites are located north of the New Echota vicinity. Previously recorded sites cluster at New
Echota and the junction of the Conasauga and Coosawattee rivers. The high concentration of sites at
New Echota State Historic Site is representative of archaeological investigations conducted at the
Site since 1954.
Previous archaeological excavations at New Echota are extensive. A 2003 report by Elliott et al.
synthesized the available information on all of the earlier excavations, including a large amount of
unpublished data. These excavations include: Clemens de Balliou for the Georgia Historic
Commission, 1954-1957; Roy S. Dickens for the Georgia Historic Commission, 1963; Stephen G.
Baker for the Georgia Historic Commission, 1969-1971; Unpublished Archaeological Testing, 1972;
Dean Wood, Tom Gresham, and Chad Braley, Southeastern Archaeological Services, Inc., for the
Georgia Department of Natural Resources, 1983; Dan Simpkins, Office of the State Archaeologist, for
the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, 1990; Kay Wood, Southern Research Historic
Preservation Consultants, Inc., for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, 1993-1994; Dave
Davis, Office of the State Archaeologist, for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, 1994;
Brian Valimont, Office of the State Archaeologist, for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources,
1996; Daniel T. Elliott, Karen G. Wood, Grace F. Keith, and Scot J. Keith, Southern Research Historic
Preservation Consultants, Inc., for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, 2000-2003; William
P. Barse and John G. Gill, URS, for the Georgia Department of Transportation, 2006-2007; Matthew
Kear and Heather Mustonen, Georgia Department of Transportation, 2012; Scot Keith, Julie Coco,
Jackie Tyson, and J. W. Joseph, New South Associates, for the Georgia Department of
Transportation, 2012-2013; and Scot Keith et al., New South Associates, for the Georgia Department
of Transportation, 2011 to present (Report in Progress) (Elliott et al. 2003 and Keith et al. 2013).
The earliest archaeological work at New Echota, the excavations of Clemens de Baillou, provided the
bulk of the evidence for a reconstruction of New Echota. De Baillou identified the remains of the old
road (New Town Road), a public well, seven residential structures and two larger, public buildings
associated with the 1820-1828 occupation of New Echota. His excavations showed that the locations
of buildings plotted by Stephen Drane 1832 by were reasonably accurate. De Baillou also found
evidence of a domestic structure and two possible public buildings that likely were built prior to 1819
(de Baillou 1955, Elliott et al. 2003). With the significant exception of Stephen Baker’s (1970) salvage
excavations at the Lum Moss site in 1969, data recovery excavations conducted at the New Echota
site subsequent to the 1954 de Baillou excavations have not added significantly to our understanding
of Historic Cherokee settlement at this site. While much has been discovered at New Echota, there
are likely many more clues still to be found.
New Echota had been determined to be significant under Criterion D as a National Historic Landmark.
In 2003, the National Park Service confirmed, “The property is also significant under Criterion D for
archaeological resources that have the potential to yield important information about Cherokee history
and culture” (NPS 2003). The archaeological resources at New Echota have played a critical role in
shaping the creation of the state historic site and the museum. The reconstructed buildings were
created and placed based on archaeological and historical investigations. One common value that
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Cherokee people from all three Cherokee tribes place on New Echota is that it is a place to come and
learn about their culture and history. Since many of the Cherokee people were removed from their
homeland, the archaeology has enabled the creation of a landscape where people can walk,
remembering and learning from their ancestors.
Today, all traces of past archaeological excavations have been neatly covered up. A stand of pine
trees now marks the location where de Baillou exposed the multiple postholes of the New Town
“rotunda,” or Council House. Strategically placed interpretive panels, complete with text and
graphics, pinpoint and describe prominent locations to visitors. Interpretive panels indicate the
location of buried features such as the central square, or commons. One area presumably marks the
location where missionaries witnessed Cherokee playing a traditional ball game in 1825 and in 1834
(Malone 1956). Both the location of an earlier, pre-1819, rotunda/council house and a stickball field
are important to Cherokee today. When the interpretation was developed for New Echota in the
1950s and 1960s, the focus was on reconstruction the landscape as it appeared during the years
immediately preceding the signing of the Treaty of New Echota. Were the Cherokee to be involved in
creating additional reconstructions today, they may choose to emphasize that the Cherokee
continued to build more traditional styles of buildings, for much longer than was previously thought,
even in areas which were considered part of the more acculturated heartland of the Cherokee Nation
(Howe 2014)
Of the 11 archaeological sites directly associated with New Echota, seven contribute to the NRHP
eligibility of the NHL under Criterion D. While study of the archaeological sites at New Echota has
greatly contributed to the understanding and interpretation of the site, their connection with New
Echota as a TCP is an indirect, not direct, connection. The Cherokee do not travel to New Echota to
use or study the archaeological sites specifically. This should not be construed, however, to mean
that the archaeology does not hold importance or significance to Cherokee culture. At present, tribal
members do not have the means to access the archaeology directly at the site, although all the
Cherokee governments consult actively on matters of archaeological importance at the site. The
Cherokee citizen today connects instead with the landscape that has resulted in part from these
archaeological studies. For this reason, the archaeological sites and Criterion D are not described in
more detail and were not considered as a part of the discussion of significance in Section 8 of this
TCP nomination.
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8. Statement of Significance
Applicable National Register Criteria
(Mark "x" in one or more boxes for the criteria
qualifying the property for National Register
listing.)
less than 50 years old or achieving
G significance
within the past 50 years.
x A Property is associated with events that
have made a significant contribution to
the broad patterns of our history.
B Property is associated with the lives of
persons significant in our past.
C Property embodies the distinctive
characteristics
of a type, period, or method of
construction or represents the work of a
master, or possesses high artistic
values, or represents a significant
and distinguishable entity whose
components lack individual distinction.
D Property has yielded, or is likely to yield,
information important in prehistory or
history.
Criteria Considerations
(Mark "x" in all the boxes that apply.)
Property is:
A Owned by a religious institution or used
for religious purposes.
x B removed from its original location.
C a birthplace or grave.
x D a cemetery.
a reconstructed building, object, or
x E structure.
F a commemorative property.
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Areas of Significance
ETHNIC HERITAGE: Native Americans
RELIGION
EDUCATION
Period of Significance
1825-Present
1935 – Signing of the Treaty of New
Echota
1838 – Trail of Tears Begins
1952 – Establishment of New Echota
State Memorial Park
Significant Person
(Complete only if Criterion B is marked
above.)
Significant Dates
1825 – Planning for New Echota Begins
1827 – Creation of the first Cherokee
Constitution
1828 – First Printing of the Cherokee
Phoenix
1832 – Worcester v Georgia Ruling U.S.
Supreme Court
Cultural Affiliation
Cherokee
Architect/Builder
N/A
Period of Significance (justification)
(See Section 8, Part III, pages 59-60)
Criteria Considerations (explanation, if necessary)
(See pages 58-59)
Statement of Significance Summary Paragraph (Provide a summary paragraph that includes level
of significance and applicable criteria.)
New Echota is not only a site of national historic importance, it is a site used today by Cherokee from
the three federally-recognized tribes that is critical to their sense of identity, and as a result,
represents a Traditional Cultural Place (TCP). Established by the Cherokee national legislature in
1825, New Echota served as the Cherokee capitol until 1838 when the tribe was forcibly removed to
lands in the west. The town fell into disuse after the Cherokee left and was largely forgotten in
Georgia until the 1950s when archaeological excavations and historical research began to bring the
site to the public’s attention. In 1952, a Resolution was passed by the State Legislature
commemorating New Echota as a State Memorial Park. The state of Georgia then purchased the
town site in 1956 from the New Echota-Cherokee Foundation Inc. for use as a state park. The park
opened in 1962 and the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) with a
national level of significance in 1971. In 1973, it became a National Historic Landmark (NHL).
Additionally, New Echota is both a high-potential and a certified site on the Trail of Tears National
Historic Trail, which was designated as such by Congress in 1987, and is administered by the
National Park Service. Today, the majority of the property is operated as the New Echota State
Historic Site, while other sections include a golf course and a cemetery. In 2003, the Federal
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Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) completed a
TCP Study and determined through consultation and research that the site was a TCP for the
Cherokee Nation, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and the Eastern Band of
Cherokee Indians (Loubser et al. 2003). The TCP boundary included the NRHP and NHL boundary,
as well as additional land for the cemetery and the likely location of Fort Wool. While this boundary
was agreed upon, the site was not listed as a TCP at this time.
New Echota is already designated a NHL. It is recognized for its national significance as the former
capitol of the Cherokee Nation and a place where important historic events occurred. However, for
the Cherokee, New Echota represents much more than just an important historical site. It is a place
with many layers of meaning. It is a place that helps them to define what they value most about
themselves as a people. It is a place where they take their children to teach them about what it
means to be Cherokee and it is a place that teaches others what the Cherokee value most about
themselves. New Echota was lost to the Cherokee for more than a century. While many manage to
travel to the site to physically reestablish that connection, for many others, a trip to New Echota may
not be an option. But even without going there, it remains a place that they can point to and say,
‘Here is where our sacred fire last resided in the East. This is the place where our Nation was born.
This is the ancestor of our capitol in Oklahoma. This was our home.’
New Echota is significant as a Traditional Cultural Place (TCP) at the National level under Criterion A
for Ethnic Heritage, Religion, and Education. National level of significance applies, as the Eastern
Band of Cherokee Indians, Cherokee Nation, and United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians are
sovereign nations. As New Echota is already listed as a NHL, National significance has already been
established for the property as a whole. New Echota is significant as a TCP for Ethnic Heritage for as
a place, it marks the location where modern Cherokee history begins. Significant dates include:
1825, when the planning for New Echota began; 1827, the signing of the first Cherokee Constitution;
1828, the first printing of the Cherokee Phoenix; 1832, the ruling of Worcester v. Georgia in the U.S.
Supreme Court; 1835, the signing of the Treaty of New Echota; and 1838, the roundup of the
Cherokee at Fort Wool and the start of the Trail of Tears. All of these things have contributed to the
modern Cherokee sense of national identity, particularly for the Cherokee Nation. Under Education,
New Echota has significance as a place that helps the Cherokee to learn of a shared past, and pass
along these teachings to their children. Finally, as a place that has held the sacred fire of the
Cherokee, the site has significance under Religion. As a TCP, New Echota maintains both the
integrity of relationship and the integrity of condition to clearly convey its association with the cultural
beliefs and cultural identity of the Cherokee.
Methodology
A TCP is defined in National Register Bulletin 38 as a property that “is eligible for inclusion in the
National Register because of its association with cultural practices or beliefs of a living community
that (a) are rooted in that community’s history, and (b) are important in maintaining the continuing
cultural identity of the community. Section 8 of this nomination will demonstrate how New Echota fits
this definition of a TCP and the process that was completed to reach this conclusion.
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Many individuals, of different ages and differing roles in Cherokee society, were interviewed for this
study. All agreed that New Echota was important to their cultural identity. While there were
differences in what elements of New Echota they valued the most, there were three common threads
that emerged.
First, New Echota was the location of the Cherokee sacred fire, the fire actually given to the
Cherokee people by the Creator. When it became the capitol of the Cherokee in 1825, the sacred
fire, kindled originally from the sacred Kituwah Mound in western North Carolina, was transferred to
New Echota. Each year in their Green Corn Ceremonies, Cherokee families and communities
extinguished their old fires and relit them from the sacred fire in a celebration of renewal and new
beginnings. Little more than a decade later, as many were forced to leave the Southeast on the Trail
of Tears, they took the sacred fire with them, transferring it to their new home in Tahlequah in Indian
Territory. A place that has held the sacred fire is very important to the Cherokee. The location of the
sacred fire is home. But it is also much more than that. As the fire is a representation of the divine,
where the fire resides is a sacred place; It is the center of Cherokee world and faith, much in the
same way that Rome is the center of the Roman Catholic faith or Mecca is the center for the Islamic
faith (Howe 2014).
The second common thread seen in the interviews was New Echota as emblematic of many of the
ideals that most define the modern Cherokee tribes. When asked to describe what they valued about
their culture, three points were consistently stated: the Cherokee are proud of their traditional beliefs;
they are proud of their system of government; and they are proud of the emphasis they have always
placed on education and learning. New Echota served as the center of the Cherokee Nation from
1825-1838 and it was here where the Cherokee adopted their first Constitution in 1827. With the
publications of the Cherokee Phoenix in both Cherokee and English from 1828-1834, New Echota
became the birthplace of the first Cherokee newspaper, and importantly, the place of origin for the
Native American press. Another significant event associated with New Echota concerned the
Supreme Court case of Worcester v. Georgia in 1832. This case continues to play a role today in
defining the relationships of American Indian tribal governments with the U.S. federal government.
The conclusive major event to occur at New Echota began with the signing of the Treaty of New
Echota in 1835. Because of this treaty, which ceded all Cherokee lands east of the Mississippi to the
United States, the U.S. Army forced several hundred Cherokee into the Fort Wool stockade at New
Echota in 1838 before driving them westward on the “Trail of Tears.” New Echota as a place,
connects them physically to the roots of these ideals when they are able to travel, but also spiritually
and emotionally from their current locations in Oklahoma and North Carolina.
The third common thread is that New Echota is a place and an ideal for teaching children and adults
what it means to be Cherokee. For a people that were often forcibly removed from their land, these
places that connect their cultural past and present can arguably be understood as even more
precious and of critical importance, as they are few in number. Today, the Cherokee use New Echota
to reinforce those cultural values. They travel there, they learn about it from a distance, and they use
it to understand the connections between the heritage of their ancestors and their cultural values
today.
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NPS Bulletin 38 specifies four steps to be completed in determining eligibility as a Traditional Cultural
Property (TCP). These were followed for this effort and include: (1) ensure the entity is a property; (2)
consider the property’s integrity; (3) evaluate with reference to the National Register Criteria; and (4)
consider the National Register criteria considerations. Even though the NRHP nomination, NHL
nomination, and the 2003 NRHP nomination update and boundary expansion associated with the
TCP study cover the physical description and historical context of the built elements and landscape of
New Echota, they also are included in this TCP nomination to provide adequate context and
background for assessing the eligibility of New Echota as a TCP.
In 2003, GDOT and FHWA completed a TCP Study of New Echota to determine if it was a TCP for
the three federally recognized tribes associated with the site. This included the Cherokee Nation, the
United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (Loubser et
al. 2003). In-depth background research, consultation and ethnographic interviews, and field
inspection were completed for this study, with the end result being a determination by FHWA and
GDOT that New Echota was a TCP. In 2011, as part of mitigation for a bridge replacement project
within the NHL boundaries of New Echota, FHWA and GDOT initiated consultation again with all
three federally recognized Cherokee tribes with the intent of preparing an NRHP nomination for New
Echota as a TCP. Additional background research was completed, but the primary emphasis
included additional ethnographic research on the ways in which New Echota is important in
maintaining the cultural identity of the Cherokee.
The process detailed in National Register Bulletin 38 for determining the eligibility of a TCP calls for
four main steps:
1. Ensure that the entity under consideration is a property
2. Consider the property’s integrity of relationship and integrity of condition
3. Evaluate the property with reference to the National Register Criteria
4. Determine whether any of the National Register criteria considerations apply
To summarize the results of this process, New Echota, which is already listed as an NHL, is a
property and can be evaluated as a district. The proposed boundary for this TCP nomination closely
mirrors the current NRHP boundary for the site. To understand the property’s significance as a TCP,
Section 8 is divided into the following four parts:
I.
Part I contains a historical context in order to understand the culture, events, and people that
shaped the landscape.
II.
Part II examines the integrity of relationship and integrity of condition by presenting the results
of the ethnographic research and looking at the ways in which the three federally recognized
Cherokee tribes remain intrinsically linked to the site. The ways in which the Cherokee use
New Echota today are highlighted in the justification.
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III.
Part III summarizes how the site has significance as a TCP under Criterion A.
IV.
Part IV applies the criteria considerations to determine if any negatively affect the site’s
eligibility.
To the Cherokee, the significance of New Echota is bound in its significance to their heritage, identity,
and modern history; to their religion as a place where the sacred fire was held; and to one of the
things they cherished most as a society, education and literacy in their own language. It was the
singular National Capitol prior to removal. New Echota remains this for Cherokee today. It is a place
to remember both the great accomplishments of their early government, as well as the pain of their
ancestors as they were forced to leave their land and all their belongings. For old and young alike, it
is a place to come remember, learn, and honor their culture and their history.
PART I. HISTORICAL CONTEXT FOR NEW ECHOTA
Cherokee settlers to the New Town area, later renamed New Echota, arrived in the late eighteenth
century. The destruction of Cherokee’s Lower Towns during the Revolutionary War brought many
Cherokee refugees to north Georgia to join those Cherokee already living there. A general southward
population shift due to disappearing northern Cherokee lands probably best accounts for the settlers
at New Town by the 1780s and 1790s.
Politically, the Cherokee entered into a vigorous period of transformation in the early nineteenth
century. In 1792, they formed a National Council composed of representatives from various towns to
resolve external affairs, even though the Council lacked the power of enforcement. By 1808, the
Council reorganized with some similarities to the U.S. government and began making laws to regulate
internal affairs. This system differed from the U.S. government in that it included headmen from
many Cherokee communities and the laws that were created still required adoption by individual town
councils (Howe 2014). The Council also adopted the first Cherokee written law in that year. It is
possible that the Cherokee hoped that their political organization might receive approval from the
United States and therefore aid the Cherokee Nation in retaining their land. In 1817, the National
Council established a 13-member Standing Committee, which comprised the upper house of
legislature. The National Council, with 32 members, served as a lower house, and the Cherokee’s
Principal Chief held the executive power (Reed 1991; Rogers 2001).
Through the years the Cherokee had met a number of locations throughout their lands to discuss
matters of international importance, however the evolving governmental structure called for a single,
permanent location for the government that could be reached from all parts of the Nation. Therefore,
in 1819, New Town, near the junction of the Conasauga and Coosawattee rivers and the
geographical center of the Nation, became the new government town for the Cherokee. The next
year, the National Council divided the Cherokee Nation into eight districts.
Plans for the establishment of New Echota took place at the annual fall meeting at New Town on
November 12, 1825. The Cherokee National Council proposed to build a new Cherokee capitol at
that spot and rename it New Echota, in honor of the town Chota in Tennessee. The Council utilized
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this geographic center within the Nation by laying out the first Cherokee capitol (Figure 5). In
addition, the members knew the advantage of the nearby confluence of three major rivers, a location
that assured communication and transportation of people and goods to and from New Echota (de
Baillou 1955). According to the Laws of the Cherokee Nation (Cherokee Nation 1852), the Council
resolved that 100 one-acre lots were to be purchased by Cherokee citizens whose right “shall merely
be occupancy.” The money from the lot sales was to be appropriated for the construction of public
buildings. At the town center, a public square would encompass two acres. A main street 60 feet
wide and side streets 50 feet wide would be completed. Furthermore, the Council decided to create
circular bounds for the town:
…beginning at the mouth of the creek, opposite the mouth of Caunausauga, and up said creek
to the mouth of the dry branch, on which George Hicks lives, up said branch to the point of the
ridges, and thence in a circle round along said ridges, by the place occupied by Crying Wolf,
thence to the river (Cherokee Nation 1852:63).
Several Cherokee were already residing in the area of New Echota in 1825. The Council decided not
to compensate these four Cherokee after claiming the town of New Echota for the Cherokee Nation.
This resolution displaced Crying Wolf and War Club, who were later reimbursed for their land losses.
The Council permitted Alexander McCoy and Elijah Hicks, who owned “dwelling houses of some
value,” to bid first on their land lots. McCoy owned and operated a ferry across the Coosawattee and
Oostanaula rivers at the confluence with the Conasauga River, and Hicks ran a nearby tavern
(Malone 1955).
Following the 1826 survey of New Echota by John Martin, George Sanders, and Walter S. Adair, the
Cherokee began to purchase lots and build farms and businesses. The Council House, built in 18191820, stood as one of the few known buildings at New Town before it became New Echota.
According to various missionary diaries, the Council House in 1819 consisted of three open buildings,
each with roofs about 30 feet in length and supported by crotches. While the Cherokee Laws made
no mention of the construction of a new Council House between 1819 and 1838, several references
allude to a two-story structure in 1825-1826. In 1826, a Moravian diary described a “new” two-story
structure and five small houses “built in a square” where chiefs and judges met. Clemens de Baillou
(1967) found evidence from a Mr. Wheeler, the grandson of Cherokee Phoenix printer John Wheeler,
of a wood etching of the Council House that hung in his family home. In the etching, this two-story
building featured the following elements: vertical siding; high windows; a circular, octagonal, or
heptagonal plan; and a conical roof shape with a smoke hole.
This description suggests a traditional Council House in the style of a Cherokee Town House. In
1896, a retrospective account of the 1830s by New Echota resident Albert Tarvin recalled an unusual
type of Council House building, “a big barn-like affair, two stories high and no chimneys” (Calhoun
Times 1972). A barn-like building without a chimney supports the idea of a circular (more likely
octagonal or heptagonal) structure. In 1836, the valuation of the Council House described a plan
measuring 30 by 21 feet, that is, a rectangular plan. The building consisted of hewn timber and
featured a brick chimney, plank floors, stairs, and two fireplaces (Shadburn 1989). The discrepancies
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Source: Georgia Historic Commission, Thomas G. Little, Architect, 1958
Figure 5. Layout of New Echota Showing 100 One-Acre Lots.
in eyewitness accounts depicting both a rounded structure and rectangular plan suggests that
perhaps two buildings served as Council Houses at New Echota. The circular structure may have
provided a place for large meetings while the rectangular building was used for smaller tribal
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conferences. Bartram’s travels in 1789 illustrated a governmental and ceremonial configuration
consisting of both a rectangular and round meeting place among the Creek Indians. Since Cherokee
Council Houses were known to be similar to Creek Council Houses, the potential for two or more
meeting places within a “Council House” at New Echota is not remote (de Baillou 1967; Hudson
1976).
The Cherokee at New Echota quickly acquired several residences and public buildings. Alexander
McCoy’s two-story double log house stood as one of the largest and earliest structures in town. His
large lot of land contained seven outbuildings and 28 acres of improved land. The Elijah Hicks farm
also featured an impressive painted two-story house, a smokehouse, a kitchen, housing for his seven
slaves, stable, fruit trees, and 20 acres of farmland. By 1827, prominent citizen Elias Boudinot had
moved to New Echota to build his respectable two-story house and nearby small one-story printing
office. With the Council’s recent approval of Sequoya’s Cherokee alphabet, Boudinot established the
Cherokee Phoenix newspaper, printed in both Cherokee and English, at New Echota in 1828. Also
arriving to town in 1827, Samuel Worcester founded a two-story missionary station. At the Worcester
house, the missionary set up a school, boarding house, and New Echota’s post office (Reed 1991). A
two-story Supreme Courthouse, which contained a judge’s platform and several long benches, was
constructed in 1828-1829.
The Cherokee attempted to open a National Academy at New Echota in 1828, but the plan failed to
come to fruition. Miss Sophia Sawyer, the first teacher at New Echota, was educated at the Byfield
Female Seminary in Massachusetts (Castelow 2009). Joseph Emerson, a strong advocate of female
education, founded this female seminary. The principles taught by Emerson and the American Board
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, which she would later join, formed the basis for a lifelong
dedication to the education of Native American women and girls. Sawyer came to New Echota from
Brainerd Mission near Chattanooga and stayed there until leaving with the Ridge Family for Running
Water in Tennessee after the signing of the Treaty of New Echota. Sawyer would follow the Ridges
to Honey Creek in Cherokee Territory until John Ridge was killed in 1839 for his role in the Treaty of
New Echota. After relocating to Fayetteville in neighboring Arkansas, Sawyer established a school
that became the influential Fayetteville Female Seminary. The school enrolled both Cherokee and
white girls, a very uncommon practice for the time (Castelow 2009). The reputation of Sawyer’s
school would later be a pivotal reason for the siting of the University of Arkansas in the town of
Fayetteville (Hendricks 2012).
While at New Echota, Sophia Sawyer taught classes in the Council House, which she described as
cold, dark, and badly in need of repair in 1833. Sources also indicate that Miss Sawyer taught
“Sabbath school” at the Supreme Courthouse in 1834 until “a fortunate drawer” from the Cherokee
Land and Gold Lottery of 1832-1833 took possession of the building. In addition, she kept a school at
a small house in town in 1835 (de Baillou 1967; Harvard University manuscripts, New Echota
museum files n. d.). The determination of Cherokee leaders, both at New Echota and in Oklahoma,
to build quality seminaries and to employ dedicated teachers underscores the importance placed on
the education of boys and girls by Cherokee people.
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By 1830, New Echota had an estimated 14 establishments consisting of one or more buildings.
Several Euro-Americans received permits from the Cherokee to set up businesses in the New Echota
area. One house builder from New York City, J. S. W. White, advertised his “superior” and yet cheap
services in the Cherokee Phoenix (1828). With the exception of the few frame public buildings and
residences of the wealthy town residents, most structures at New Echota probably consisted of round
or hewn log construction (de Baillou 1967). Many “unprogressive” Cherokee found the new buildings
at New Echota to be ugly and depressing (Rogers 2001). The public frame buildings were most likely
built with “great attention to economy” (de Baillou 1967).
A few historic accounts characterize the appearance of and activity at New Echota. These
descriptions are found in journals, letters, and diaries but not through drawings like the Wheeler
etching of the Council House. Boudinot’s father-in-law, Colonel Benjamin Gold from Connecticut,
wrote in a letter in 1828 that New Echota resembled a quaint New England town and contained a
Council House, Supreme Courthouse, four stores, and half a dozen dwellings. Gold mentioned a
large spring in the center of town (Malone 1956). During his 1954 excavations, de Baillou identified
this spring just south of the Boudinot house. Colonel Gold also noted a system of fine roads through
Cherokee country and observed the manufacturing of woolen and cotton goods at almost every
house he visited at New Echota. In an article originally published in The New York American (1830;
(reprinted in Journal of Cherokee Studies 1979), Gold remarked about the regularity and order with
which the members conducted the National Council meetings at New Echota. In another letter from
1828, William Chamberlain wrote that very few families and children resided at New Echota, a town
that demonstrated “nothing of particular importance” and did not warrant a school. The land, he
continued, “is generally not worth cultivating—barren upland” (Harvard University manuscripts, New
Echota museum files n. d.). A Cherokee named White Horse remembered New Echota like a tourist,
recounting a series of attractive buildings and landscape features while following the Old New Town
Road (which led to McCoy’s Ferry and Trading Post) from north to south (Malone 1956:124; Malone
1955:9-10):
That long house to our right with beautiful surroundings is the tavern of A. McCoy—clerk of the
council, just over the hollow further on is the large beautiful residence of Elijah Hicks,--member
of the senate from Cooseewatah. We pass the stone house of Lewis Ross and Lavender, and
also of James Daniel and Co., and the Council house to our right, and supreme court building
to our left. Further on we pass the office of the Cherokee Phoenix, and on the same street a
large tow story frame, with garden, orchard, and convenient out-house attached. This is the
home of E. Boudinot, the editor. To our left is the handsome cottage residence of Jno. F.
Wheeler the printer. Beyond that is the Mission establishment of the Rev. S.A. Worcester. Not
far off are two more taverns—one kept by J. Horn the other by George Hicks…
Albert Tarvin, the son of Georgian William Tarvin, owner of a shoe and boot shop at New Echota,
recalled a “rambling, scattered town” (The Calhoun Times 1972). When New Echota annual National
Council meetings were in session each fall, the otherwise unimposing crossroads town sprung to life
with “cheerful bustle,” often exceeding 300 people (Malone 1955; Starkey 1946).
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While much of the daily life at New Echota appeared to travelers and missionaries to revolve around
an agrarian economy, with the Cherokee’ social and political systems in transition, several Cherokee
customs lingered during the years at New Echota. These “inherited, borrowed, and invented”
practices seemed peculiar to the non-Native observer. Marriage, burial customs, medicinal cures,
and diet exhibited Cherokee traditions infused with certain Euro-American cultural traits. Complex
Cherokee routines and rituals consequently lead Euro-Americans to describe them as confused and
strange. The popular Cherokee game, the Ball Play, was similar to lacrosse and required alacrity and
athleticism. The event also involved drinking and gambling, as reported by missionaries who
witnessed two games at New Echota in 1825 and 1834 (Malone 1956).
Four significant milestones in the history of the Cherokee took place at New Echota. These included:
•
The creation of the first Cherokee Constitution in 1827;
•
The founding of a printing press in New Echota and publication of the bilingual Cherokee
Phoenix in 1828, the first native press and newspaper in the United States;
•
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling of Worcester v. Georgia in 1832, which ruled in favor of the
Cherokee; and
•
The signing of the Treaty of New Echota in 1835, which ceded all land east of the Mississippi
River.
•
The U.S. Army began to forcibly round up the Cherokee in and around New Echota and
imprisons them in Fort Wool in 1838, beginning the Trail of Tears.
The first of these, the Constitutional Convention of 1827, produced the first Cherokee Constitution.
Two-thirds of the delegates, composed six articles mainly detailing the executive, legislative, and
judicial powers of the Cherokee government. This Constitution formed a three-member Supreme
Court and legislature where each district could elect three members to the National Council and two
members to the National Committee. At the 1827 meeting, the Council additionally issued resolutions
for the founding of a printing press at New Echota, the second important accomplishment at New
Echota. Elias Boudinot was to act as the editor of the Cherokee Phoenix and Isaac Harris was
named the “Official Printer for the Cherokee Nation.” Missionary Samuel Worcester became
instrumental in the press establishment by procuring the type of Cherokee characters, cast in Boston,
and hiring assistant printer John F. Wheeler.
The first copy of the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper was issued on February 21, 1828. Historian
Henry T. Malone writes that this day marked “the greatest expression of their nationalism” (1956:158).
The articles of the Cherokee Phoenix focused primarily on encouraging education, morality, and
temperance in the Cherokee Nation, but it also featured political news, practical farming advice, and
other miscellaneous information of interest to the Cherokee. Through the newspaper, Boudinot
sought to update non-Cherokee subscribers on the progress of the Cherokee Nation, thereby
dispelling the negative image of an unruly, “savage” people. The last issue of the Cherokee Phoenix
was published on May 31, 1834, and the Georgia Guard confiscated the building in 1835.
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The last Cherokee National Council meetings at New Echota occurred in July and later in October
1830. The Council met to demand reparations from the U.S. government for previous land cessions
in spite of the presence of the Georgia Guard. Two months before this last meeting at New Echota,
the state of Georgia banned the Cherokee from meeting within the state unless for the purpose of
land cessions (Reed 1991). However, the Council later met at Red Clay, just inside the Georgia
border, in August 1834 to debate the issue of Cherokee removal (Mooney 1900). Considering the
Cherokee Nation as part of the state of Georgia, the Georgia legislature passed a law in 1831
requiring that “white” citizens take an oath of allegiance to the state and acquire a license to enter
Indian territory. As a result, eleven missionaries were arrested for not complying, Samuel Worcester
of New Echota being one of them. In the case of Worcester v. Georgia (1832), the third major event
associated with New Echota, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Worcester and the Cherokee
stating that jurisdiction over the Cherokee Nation did not reside with the state (Barlow 1975). This
trial represented an important victory.
Land hungry Georgians still moved onto Cherokee land despite of the release of Worcester. In 18311832, an extensive survey was performed of the Cherokee Nation in preparation for the Cherokee
Land and Gold Lottery. The Cherokee land was parceled into sections, districts, and individual land
or gold lots. The 1828 discovery of gold in Cherokee Country had heightened the desire of
Georgians to acquire Cherokee land. The lottery was held to disperse land and gold lots to
Georgians via draws in 1832-1833. Surveyor Stephen Drane conducted the survey through New
Echota in May 1832, which lay in the 14th District of Section 3 (Figure 6). In his survey notes, Drane
wrote that the “Town of Echota” was situated on Lots 93, 124, and 125. Land Lot 124 contained the
small cluster of six public buildings and businesses, which Drane recorded “in part make the town of
New Echota.” He plotted them on his map and wrote in his notebook “council house, court house,
print shop, Store house, McCoy’s house, Elias Boudinot’s, and McGatty’s.” John Meadows of
Newton County drew this land lot. Teacher Sophia Sawyer wrote in October 1834 that “a fortunate
drawer” seized the Supreme Courthouse. Worcester recorded in 1833 that Mr. Burke, a whiskey
retailer, took possession of the Council House, followed by others “with papers for the unoccupied
buildings on the lot” (Harvard University manuscripts, New Echota museum files n. d.). Even
Worcester was forced from his home by Georgians in 1834.
The Cherokee leaders realized that their land was uncontrollably “passing into the hands of the
Georgians.” Chief John Ross and most Cherokee opposed ceding any more eastern Cherokee land.
However, several of the wealthier Cherokee in positions of power favored removal to western lands
as the best possible solution to the problem of the confiscation of Cherokee properties. Therefore,
the fourth significant event at New Echota, a monumental turning point in Cherokee history, occurred
on December 29, 1835 when an estimated 300 Cherokee met at New Echota. Twenty-two Cherokee,
including Elias Boudinot, Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Stand Watie, signed the Treaty of New
Echota, which ceded all land east of the Mississippi River for $5 million. In return, the U.S.
government offered to compensate the Cherokee for one year’s subsistence in the Arkansas territory
and allowed them two years to move. Most Cherokee considered the treaty to be fraudulent, and
Chief John Ross petitioned Washington about the illegal negotiation and signing of the treaty by
twenty-two unofficial representatives. Despite his efforts, the Senate ratified the Treaty of New
Echota on May 17, 1836 by a one-vote margin. The wealthy citizens of New Echota, including the
treaty signers mentioned above, reestablished themselves in the west the following year (Malone
1956; Reed 1991).
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Figure 6. Surveyor Stephen Drane’s 1832 Map of 14th District Section 3
Source: Georgia State Archives
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In December 1836, appraisers came through the Cherokee Nation to place dollar values on Cherokee
properties. On these Land Valuations, as they were known, the appraisers labeled eight
“Improvements” as existing at “New Echota,” “New Town,” or “near New Echota.” Other valuations
read “Oostanaula River,” but the precise location of these farms along the river is uncertain.
In terms of monetary value, the estimators determined Alexander McCoy’s house and property of at
least nine outbuildings, garden, peach and apple trees, horse lot, and 28 acres of farmland to be
worth $12,646.00, the highest priced at New Echota. At $10,000, McCoy’s Ferry received one of the
largest sums for a ferry in the state of Georgia. Samuel Worcester’s former mission house, worth
$3,000, was the most valued dwelling at New Echota. His spacious yard lot, kitchen, smokehouse,
and stable with a horse lot merited $3,125.00. Elias Boudinot’s dwelling, 41 acres of farmland, fruit
trees, smokehouse, two cribs, stable, turkey house, and horse/calf lot brought a value of $3,917.
Georgia Governor Wilson Lumpkin permitted Boudinot, Bell & Lynch, McCoy, and Hicks two or three
years rent on their improved land, increasing their lot values (Shadburn 1989). Albert Tarvin recalled
the large McCoy house as “occupied at various times by several leading families” and sometimes a
boarding house for well-known young men, probably during this two-year period before the Cherokee
removal in 1838 (The Calhoun Times 1972).
Georgians moved into the buildings at New Echota, which were dilapidated by 1836. Still, many
Cherokee remained in the New Echota area and continued farming, building houses, and carrying out
their business. Adiel Sherwood in A Gazetteer of the State of Georgia (1837) described New Echota
as the “seat of Government” for the Cherokee Nation that contained the two-story hewn log Council
House, seven houses, and Academy, and printing office. The author added that New Echota,
formerly in Murray County but now in Cass County, “was as described above, but most of the
Cherokee have now removed West.”
Chief John Ross’ vehement resistance to land cessions and the Treaty of New Echota gave rise to a
strong following of Cherokee supporters who planned never to leave their land. In order to both
prevent any uprisings in the Cherokee Nation after the Treaty of New Echota and prepare for the
Cherokee removal, the U.S. Army constructed 13 military forts in Georgia. In 1837, New Echota
became a major military headquarters for numerous troops and military supplies, and Fort Wool was
built on a 20-acre tract, adjacent to the southern boundary of the present state parkland and
approximately 200 yards from the Worcester house. On May 26, 1838, the troops began to round up
the Cherokee at the Fort Wool stockade for removal. Forced out of their homes and fields without
their belongings, the Cherokee at Fort Wool were imprisoned with little clothing to protect them from
the elements. This exposure, malnutrition, and cholera caused many to perish at the stockade.
Several hundred Cherokee left Fort Wool on June 18, 1838 to be marched up to the Tennessee River
for the remainder of the removal to the west (Fort Wool Project, Georgia Parks and Recreation files n.
d.; Reed 1991).
After the Cherokee left New Echota, the community continued to operate as a town with a stagecoach
service, visiting circuses, and businesses. Georgians changed its name to New Town once again
even though “New Echota” was still shown on maps up until 1852. When the railroad ran through to
the west of New Town in 1846, Calhoun soon became the newly established Gordon County seat,
rendering New Town a rural community. The public buildings and taverns at New Echota were
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moved, collapsed or demolished to make room for cotton fields. During the Civil War in 1864, Union
troops described the area as a place devoid of buildings from which they could fashion rafts to cross
the river (Reed 1991). Over time, the Worcester house stood as the last structure at New Echota,
with much of the history of the “lost village” forgotten. The last crops were grown around New Echota
in the 1940s. The process of plant succession began and what was field, slowly transformed into
forest.
In 1929, in a period of increased awareness about the injustices visited upon American Indians,
Congress appropriated funds for constructing a Cherokee Memorial near New Echota. The concrete
marker was dedicated in 1931 (Elliott et al. 2003) (Figures 7 and 8).
Source: Vanishing Georgia, Georgia
Division of Archives and History
Figure 7. Cherokee Memorial Monument at New Echota, 1931
Source: Vanishing Georgia, Georgia Division
of Archives and History
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Figure 8. An Early Photograph of Chief Pathkiller’s Grave at the New Echota Cemetery, 1925.
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A Resolution of the Georgia Legislature passed in 1952 and created New Echota State Memorial
Park. Five years later in 1957, they allocated $250,000 for the Georgia Historical Commission to
reconstruct and develop New Echota and in 1969 another resolution passed to complete the
development of the park. Between 1952 and the completion of the Visitor’s Center and Museum in
1969, a number of archaeological investigations were undertaken to help determine the location of
various buildings in the town (Figure 9). At that time, the only original building extant on the site was
the Worcester House (Figure 10).
Source: Georgia Historic Commission
Figure 9. The Archaeological Excavations of Clemens de Baillou, 1954
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Source: Vanishing Georgia, Georgia Division of Archives and History
Figure 10. The Samuel Worcester House, 1962
Based on historical and archaeological investigations, the next few decades saw both recreated
buildings constructed at the site and historic Cherokee buildings from other locations in Georgia
relocated to the site (Figures 11 and 12). Today, a combination of wooded natural areas and fields
form the backdrop for 12 recreated or relocated buildings that dot the landscape. When Cherokee
travel to New Echota today, many noted that it is fairly easy to imagine what New Echota looked like
almost 200 years ago.
Source: Vanishing Georgia, Georgia Division of
Archives and History
Figure 11. Vann’s Tavern Relocation, 1956.
Source: Vanishing Georgia, Georgia Division of
Archives and History
Figure 12. Park Dedication, 1962.
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The Cherokee Today
In the aftermath of the Trail of Tears, three tribes emerged that are federally recognized as Cherokee.
The United Keetoowah Band (UKB), also known as the Western Cherokee or Old Settlers, traces its
lineage to the pro-French Cherokee who relocated from Georgia and neighboring states to northern
Arkansas and southeastern Missouri after the British defeat of the French in 1763 (Sultzman and
Martin 1996). Towards the end of the American Revolution in 1782, these early settlers were joined
by a group of pro-British Cherokee. The United States government formally recognized the Western
Cherokee at the Turkey Town Treaty of 1817. The official recognition of the Keetoowah as an Indian
tribe west of the Mississippi therefore preceded by two decades the forced westward removal of
Cherokee in 1838. The United States government transferred the Keetoowah from Arkansas to
Oklahoma in 1828. The UKB of Oklahoma is a federally recognized band organized under the Indian
Reorganization Act of 1934 and the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936. The UKB is
headquartered in Tahlequah, Oklahoma (Fabian 1995).
The second tribe, the Cherokee Nation, emerged after the departure of the more traditional
Keetoowah Cherokee to Arkansas. During the 30-year rule of mixed blood leaders such a Major
Ridge and John Ross, the Cherokee in Georgia adopted numerous aspects of American government,
society, and technology. By 1817, an elected tribal council replaced the traditional clan system of
government. Nevertheless, the new leaders of the Cherokee Nation, with New Echota as their capitol
town, were determined to maintain their independence from the American government. In spite of all
their efforts, following the Treaty of New Echota in 1835 it was reluctantly agreed that the Cherokee
Nation would move to Oklahoma within two years. At first, only 2,000 family members left for
Oklahoma. Later, in 1838, the U.S. Army removed most of the remaining Cherokee from Georgia in
the Trail of Tears. The present government of the Cherokee Nation was formed in 1948 after
passage of the Wheeler-Howard Indian Reorganization Act (1934). The Cherokee Nation is currently
based in Tahlequah, Oklahoma (Sultzman and Martin 1996).
The final Cherokee tribe is the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) includes descendants of
Citizen Cherokee, those who avoided the removal in 1838 or obtained permission to stay, or those
who returned east after the Trail of Tears. Under the provisions of the 1817 treaty in Calhoun,
Tennessee, and the 1819 treaty in Washington, D.C. (Mooney 1900:102, 106), approximately 400
Cherokee who lived under Chief Yonaguska in the western mountains of North Carolina were United
States citizens. Not being members of the Cherokee Nation, they were not subject to removal and
allowed to stay. Several hundred members of the Cherokee Nation in Georgia and neighboring
states managed to escape deportation to Oklahoma in 1838 and joined the EBCI in the rugged
mountains of North Carolina. In 1842, the U.S. Army eventually gave up the effort to look for these
fugitive Cherokee and so the United States government allowed the fugitives to remain in an
"unofficial" status. Formal recognition came in 1848 when Congress agreed to recognize the EBCI
provided that the state of North Carolina would do likewise. The EBCI is a federally recognized tribe,
mostly residing on or near their reservation, the Qualla Boundary, within the mountains of western
North Carolina (Sultzman and Martin 1996).
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PART II. INTEGRITY
Integrity of Relationship and Integrity of Condition are at the heart of how New Echota functions as a
TCP for the Cherokee. Bulletin 38 asks two basic questions, “First does the property have an integral
relationship to traditional cultural practices or beliefs; and second, is the condition of the property
such the relevant relationships survive?” In the Integrity of Relationship section, the ways in which the
site conveys meaning to Cherokee culture and the ways in which it reinforces their sense of identity
are detailed, whenever possible using the Cherokee interviewees own words. In Integrity of
Condition, continued use of New Echota by the Cherokee for various purposes highlights the
condition of the property and the ability of the site to convey its traditional significance.
New Echota remains today an exceedingly important part of Cherokee cultural identity. Statements
made by tribal members and events and activities linking the tribes today to the site illustrate these
connections clearly. As described earlier, several pivotal events in Cherokee history happened at
New Echota, including: the establishment of the first National Cherokee Capitol; the first Constitution;
the publishing of the Cherokee Phoenix; the events surrounding the U.S. Supreme Court Case of
Worcester v. the State of Georgia; the signing of the Treaty of New Echota; and the start of the Trail
of Tears. These historical events figure prominently in a discussion of Cherokee cultural identity.
New Echota, however, has significance beyond the historical and secular. Its significance is also
spiritual as it was once the location of the sacred fire and to some Cherokee, the town itself can be
seen as once a living thing, as an ancestor to the towns that would follow it in Indian Territory in the
west.
The three Cherokee tribes have divergent histories and different links to New Echota. Statements
made by spokespeople during interviews between 2001 and 2013 show that the different links each
group have with New Echota have probably contributed to the slightly different significance values
that this place presents to each group. Despite their varied interpretations of the past, interviews with
representatives from all three groups demonstrated a significant, traditional association with New
Echota.
A number of people from each federally-recognized tribe were interviewed for this project. These
individuals ranged from tribal leaders, to tribal elders and Tribal Historic Preservation Officers
(THPOs), to government and judicial officials, to teachers and students, and to tribal citizens.
Interviews conducted in 2001 were conducted as part of a TCP study completed for GDOT.
Interviews for 2012 and 2013 were completed as part of research for this nomination. Interviews
were conducted at the three tribes’ tribal headquarters and at the New Echota State Historic Site. A
full listing of these individuals is provided at the end of this document.
Below is a synopsis of the interviews viewed through the lens of integrity of relationship and integrity
of condition.
Integrity of Relationship
Integrity of Relationship exists if there is an essential relationship between a particular place and a
cultural practice of belief. For New Echota, three themes emerged in an examination of how,
specifically, New Echota is critical to maintaining the Cherokee sense of identity. These three themes
are:
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1. Cherokee Spirituality – A Place for the Sacred Fire
2. Cherokee Identity – A Place for Nationalism and Pride
3. Enculturation – Learning about a Shared Past and Teaching our Children
Each of these themes is examined in detail below with supporting evidence presented from multiple
interviews.
New Echota and Cherokee Spirituality – A Place for the Sacred Fire
New Echota holds a strong spiritual connection for some Cherokee. Although organized as the
political center of the Cherokee Nation in the early 1800s, it was also a spiritual site. The sacred fire
had been carried here when the capitol was established and kept burning until the Cherokee were
forced to leave New Echota, taking fire with them.
The sacred importance of New Echota is best expressed in the Cherokee peoples’ own words. Chief
Wickliffe, Principal Chief for the United Keetoowah Band and former School administrator and
teacher, reflected on the name Echota. His words reflect a strong spiritual association with New
Echota. “Echota – That was your fire, our fire. It was carried in though [to Oklahoma]. We are the
original Cherokee People. We are Keetoowah. We actually got our religion from God… We do still
have our fire. It’s never gone out. Not from the time that lightening struck and God said, ‘By this fire,
you will worship me. And the way that I will recognize you worshiping me is that when I see from the
top the fires burning.’ They have never gone out.”
Chief Wickliffe’s family came to Oklahoma from New Echota. His great grandmother was pregnant
with his grandmother during the long journey. As a child he remembered his grandmother telling him
stories she had heard from her parents. “The most important thing was…that was where our main
fire was, although it had been carried from the mother town near Bryson City [North Carolina]. But
my grandmother said, ‘This is Echota. That’s your fire.’ That is the most important statement you can
make of it [New Echota] right there.”
When asked about the associations of New Echota, Cherokee Nation respondents acknowledged
that it has an emotional component. To what degree this emotional link is spiritual or cultural is a
matter that differs from one individual to the next. Former Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation
Chadwick Smith said, "To me, as a legal historian – as a Principal Chief, it is one of a handful of
actually and truly sacred sites because so much began there – so much thought was created there –
so much important history occurred there." Dr. Richard Allen, long-term Cherokee Nation Policy
Analyst and NAGPRA/Section 106 Contact, has a different view of the sacred nature of New Echota
when he said, "Certainly it’s not one of those things that we call a sacred site, but it does have cultural
significance to us." Dr. Allen continued, "We talk about the ‘Trail of Tears’ in terms of who we are and
New Echota being a site of particular significance." Ms. Mary Flute-Cooksey, former Tribal Councilor
of the Cherokee Nation, said the following of her visit to New Echota, "I felt very emotional and moved
when we were there... it was like we felt the same type of bond. I don’t know if you call that spiritual
or what, but we could just feel that."
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One meaning of New Echota for some in the Cherokee Nation is as a place for reminding people
about a traumatic time in Cherokee history. For example, Dr. Allen said of New Echota, "We are
referring to that place as if it did happen to us. We don’t say ‘well, our ancestors.’" He continued, "I
think it’s important that Georgians understand that New Echota has significance to them. Their
ancestors were a part of that." Former Principal Chief Smith said, "When we go there, it brings back
a clear memory of what we had established and what had been taken away from us."
Former Principal Chief Smith feels very strongly about maintaining the integrity and importance of
New Echota when he said, "It should be saved and promoted at all costs." Perhaps Dr. Allen speaks
for other Cherokee Nation members when he said, "We look back to that as part of our history – one
significant event – one event, I think, that we can’t remove ourselves from. It’s something that when
we talk about Cherokee history, it’s something that we just cannot deny. It’s there."
Cherokee Nation spokespeople agreed that they visit New Echota regularly. The late Hastings
Shade, Cherokee National Treasure and Former Deputy Chief of the Cherokee Nation said of New
Echota, "We still consider it part of the tribe’s grounds. Whenever we go back – the ones that live
here in the Western part – whenever we go back we try to visit that area." Mary Flute-Cooksey
agreed, "Each time we’re down in that area we do go there [New Echota] and I think it is because we
feel a closeness."
Ms. Lisa Larue Baker, Acting THPO for the UKB, historian, and musician, shared her feelings on New
Echota as a TCP. Her view is that New Echota has a spiritual relationship to Cherokee people today,
but in a different context then the previous interviewees who stressed the site as a location of the
sacred fire. Ms. Baker feels that to tribal people, towns can be a living place. They can live, breath,
and change. Towns continue to live as ancestors. She sees New Echota as the ancestor of
Tahlequah. “The capitol today of Tahlequah is not complete without its ancestor, New Echota.” Lisa
pointed out that the same institutions founded in New Echota, such as the Supreme Court and the
Cherokee Phoenix were reestablished in Tahlequah. Tahlequah’s layout as well was strikingly similar
to New Echota, including fenced lots, with the public buildings arrayed around a central Capitol
Building. Open spaces, fences, houses on and near the square – all of these features bring to mind
immediately the landscape of New Echota (Figure 13).
Mr. Jack Baker serves as an At-Large Representative to the Cherokee Nation and as President of the
National Trail of Tears Association. He was born on his grandfather’s Cherokee allotment and is
passionate about Cherokee history. In answering the question of why New Echota was important,
Councilor Baker stated, “We look at it as our capitol in the East. For the Cherokee, it is like going
back to hallowed ground. This is it. This is where our capitol was. This was where our people met.”
Like Councilor Baker, Ms. Cathy Monholland, an educator for the Cherokee Nation, has taken
Cherokee citizens on tours to north Georgia and New Echota. For the past six years, Ms. Monholland
has taught the Cherokee Nation History class where New Echota is part of the curriculum. She
noted, “I have also taken two or three fairly large groups of Cherokee citizens back to northeast
Georgia and we toured Cherokee sites in the east. For all of us, it is a beautiful place. It’s where the
eternal flame is. It also has a lot of memories deposited there because it was the last capitol of the
Cherokee Nation in the east.”
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A. Doctor I.D. Leoser Cabin in Tahlequah Near Cherokee B. Cherokee National Capital Building (NHL), Now
National Capital Building, Built 1853
Cherokee Supreme Court
C. Former Cherokee National Supreme Court Building and D. View of Town Square in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, During
Cherokee Advocate and Cherokee Phoenix, Cherokee National Holiday, 2013
Now the Cherokee National Supreme Court Museum
Photographs by Julie Coco, New South Associates, 2013
Figure 13. New Echota as the Ancestor to Tahlequah
A definite thread that through the response of most EBCI interviewees was the importance of the
sacred fire at New Echota and its association with "home." According to the EBCI spokespeople the
name Echota derives from the Cherokee word for fire, atsi'la. The name New Echota accordingly
means "new fire." To Beloved Man Jerry Wolfe "Just the name [New Echota] itself tells you a whole
lot…. My dad used to say when two people met and they were strangers among themselves the first
question was… where is your fire? And where is your fire is the meaning of where is your home?"
Beloved Woman Myrtle Driver supported this view when she stated, "Anytime you rebuild a fire –
that’s home. So – you think of our new home – New Echota being our new home when they settled
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in that area." She goes on by saying: "It’s our home. Even though my ancestors – my great-greatgreat grandparents – may not have exactly lived there, but still it’s home." Ms. Marie Junaluska, a
Cherokee Language Specialist, translator and teacher for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians,
agrees, "I guess because our people were there at one time – you just get a real ‘homey’ feeling
there, you know."
Reference to the fire also seems to link New Echota to the distant past and much older Cherokee
settlements, particularly the Kituhwa Mound site north of Bryson City, not far south of the present
Qualla Boundary. Ms. Junaluska feels that Kituhwa and New Echota are similar in the way the land
lays. Ms. Monteith stated, "When you find there’s a site that people can point to and say that’s the
origin of the people, then Kituhwa is by far the most important site and merits international
recognition. This is where it’s believed that our clan laws were established and we originated as a
people." Beloved Woman Myrtle Driver maintained that the original fire was at Kituhwa. Mr. Eddie
Bushyhead viewed the fire in the following way, "Historically, among the Cherokee people, every year
the New Year would begin with all of the fires being extinguished – all – Nationwide. And them going
back and taking embers of that fire into their home. They would sweep out their house – they would
clean. It was the beginning of a new year. So when the chief lived in certain areas, that’s where that
fire was kept that they would put out and they would go to that location and then take the fire into the
different villages and then from there into the different homes." He continued, "…wherever the chief
was, is where the fire was. New Echota was the last place where the chief was before removal."
The sacred fire was typically kept in the Council House (Hudson 1976). This structure was used for
general meetings and religious ceremonies. The connection between the EBCI and the sacred fire
makes sense considering that conservative sections among this population probably maintained the
closest links to the traditions from their mountain heartland. This inference is supported by James
Mooney's research. After visiting Cherokee communities in Oklahoma and the EBCI in North
Carolina during the late nineteenth century, Mooney concluded, "the bulk of Cherokee traditional
knowledge and ritual remained in the East" (Mooney 1900:12). According to Mooney, it is here
among the "old conservative Kituhwa element, that the ancient things have been preserved."
The meaning of New Echota for EBCI members seems to be spiritual more than political, however,
the overlap between political and spiritual aspects is reflected in Mr. Bushyhead's mention of the
sacred fire at New Echota. Of the last Cherokee capitol town in Georgia, he said, "I think on a larger
scale it really has a historic significance especially for students of Cherokee history – of
understanding the events that lead up to the removal of 1838. In that sense, New Echota would be
significant simply because… that is where the last chief lived – where the fire was – that’s where they
kept the eternal flame." To Beloved Woman Myrtle Driver, New Echota "…[New Echota] was where
they rebuilt the new fire. And fire – not to just us [Kituhwa] but to everybody – is so comforting. And
of course it was the basis of our livelihood. That’s where we made our medicine [over the fire] –
that’s where we cooked our food – it gave us warmth. So it’s very important."
When asked if the Cherokee still conduct any ceremonies at New Echota, respondents did not think
so, or were not sure. However, according to Beloved Woman Myrtle Driver, traditional Cherokee visit
the Kituhwa site every fourth Friday to conduct ceremonies and obtain medicines. The ostensible
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lack of ceremonies at New Echota when compared to Kituhwa may point to more secular significance
for some contemporary Cherokee visitors, but more importantly, it may underscore another very real
problem with utilizing New Echota for ceremonial purposes – proximity. Kituwah Mound, now owned
by the EBCI, lies near the Qualla Boundary and is easily accessible to those Cherokee living in the
North Carolina Mountains on, or near, EBCI land. In contrast, New Echota is a three-hour drive away
and inside a State Historic Site whose hours are currently limited by budget cuts. Traveling from the
Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma to New Echota covers more than 700 miles and takes about 12 hours.
Beloved Woman Myrtle Driver said that if she lived close to New Echota it is not inconceivable that
she might go there to conduct ceremonies. Mr. James Bird, former THPO for the EBCI, suggested
that since "the wildlife, forest, plants were conducive to continuous occupation" at New Echota,
Cherokee visitors to the site should be allowed to collect plants and medicines on the property.
The late Mr. Archie Mouse, former THPO and Assistant Chief of the UKB felt that New Echota should
be preserved, preferably in its natural state. His emotional attachment to New Echota can be seen in
the following statement, "We do come down from time to time to pay our respects to the people that
were once here." He considered New Echota as a TCP and considers the preservation of the place
important, preferably in a more natural state, with more trees and wildlife.
For some EBCI members such as Beloved Woman Myrtle Driver, this history has negative
connotations. For instance, Ms. Driver associates New Echota with the infamous "Trail of Tears,"
when Cherokee were taken away from the "land of light and birth in the east, to the land of darkness
and death in the west." On a more positive note New Echota signifies "the point of resistance to
removal" and "initial uses of the Sequoyahian script" (Mr. Russ Townsend). Even though they
associated both positive and negative events with New Echota, members of the EBCI consider New
Echota as a TCP.
New Echota and Cherokee Identity – A Place for Nationalism and Pride
From the statements of the majority of Cherokee Nation spokespeople, one level of significance at
New Echota is that it marks the genesis of a new political system and nation. This view is perhaps
most dramatically reflected in former Principal Chief Chadwick Smith's statement, "It [New Echota]
marks the beginning of modern Cherokee history. Cherokees took the admonition of Thomas
Jefferson to heart in 1802 to develop a government with regular laws that would emulate the United
States." In a similar vein, Former Councilor Mary Flute-Cooksey stated, "New Echota to me is
definitely historic for our people. I just feel like that was part of our beginning, so I think it’s a very
historic property there." Dr. Allen maintained, "Being Cherokee and understanding your history has a
lot to do with what happened in New Echota."
Cherokee Nation At-Large National Council Representative, Dr. Julia Coates, in her role as a teacher
of Cherokee history and culture, has had ample opportunity to reflect on the history of her people.
She described New Echota as, “the birthplace and symbol of Cherokee nationalism. This is the place
where the entity we refer to as the Cherokee Nation was formed.” She continued by describing the
use of the name ‘New Echota’ in Tahlequah (Figure 14). It is found on “streets, a ceremonial ground,
restaurant, churches; it’s all over, it’s very powerful.”
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Figure 14. The Name New Echota – Occurrences in Tahlequah (Photographs by Julie Coco, New South
Associates, 2012)
Councilor Coates feels strongly about the strength of the link between New Echota and Cherokee
cultural identity. “I think it is very critical to our sense of identity in particular. I mean when we talk
about the Cherokees and what they are known for; they are known for two things. One of them is
education, the Sequoyahian syllabary and their education system, but the other thing that we are
really renown for is a sophisticated government and a long history of sophisticated government
(Figure 15). Every people, every nation, gains a sense of their identity on what they are known for as
a people, and for us, this is one of those things. New Echota is the place where that emerges. I think
it is a very important place of where we understand ourselves as a people – it emerges out of this
location.”
Supreme Court Justice Troy Wayne Poteete described his first visit to New Echota when he was a
Cherokee Nation Council Member, “Our visit to New Echota when I was on the Tribal Council was a
bit emotional. I didn’t think that it would be; I had been there before. But when we gathered as a
group and went and reflected, all of us together… Alexander McCoy was an early secretary to the
National Council. He was my 4th great grandfather.” When asked to describe what New Echota
means to him, he stated, “That site represents a great deal to us as a people. It’s a symbol that when
I look at it, I see all of our resilience and adaptability…We draw a lot of inspiration from the trials and
tribulations of that era, and that particular place and what’s left of it. We know Reverend Worcester’s
house and he’s a tremendously important person to our story.” For Poteete as a sitting Justice on the
Cherokee Supreme Court, the missionary Reverend Worcester’s story does have particular
significance. Worcester’s arrest and subsequent victory in his case before the U.S. Supreme Court,
Worcester v. the State of Georgia, affirmed the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation. It is clear when
listening to Justice Poteete that there is an emotional tie to his predecessors in the Cherokee
Supreme Court and to a non-Indian missionary who, in standing up for Cherokee sovereignty at the
risk of his freedom and ruin of his health, took his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Photographs by Julie Coco, New South Associates
A. Students in the Cherokee Language Immersion Program,
Tahlequah Oklahoma
B. Statue of Sequoyah at Cherokee Female Seminary, C. Phoenix Sculpture at Oaks Mission School,
Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, Oklahoma Oaks, Oklahoma
D. Cherokee Phoenix Masthead Today
Source: Cherokee Phoenix Newspaper
Figure 15. Importance of the Cherokee Language in Cherokee Identity
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The EBCI spokespeople recognized the political role of New Echota during arguably the most
traumatic period of Cherokee history. In addition to marking the location where a contested shift from
traditional clan law to a Euro-American style of constitution occurred, New Echota was a sad place
where many Cherokee were ultimately removed from their homeland. Ms. Monteith, Chairman of the
board for the EBCI Indian Health Service, perhaps best summarized feelings about the tragic episode
at New Echota, "This place is a reminder to us of something tragic that happened, so I don’t get good
feelings." She continued, "When you separate families, you hit at the core of that community. It’s a
reminder of that." Mr. Bowman, founding member of the Cherokee Preservation Foundation Board of
Directors, echoed these sentiments about New Echota, "It was a significant place in history during a
sad period in the Cherokee Nation and sad for the country."
To the EBCI spokespeople, one positive aspect about the political legacy of New Echota is that it was
here that independent Cherokee demonstrated to neighboring Euro-American Georgians that Native
American Indians can embrace "civilization" and organize an efficient system of government. This
sentiment was expressed in the following words of Former THPO James Bird, "When you look at New
Echota… it was a town that was as advanced a civilization as a town could be on the frontier at that
time… to have a Supreme Court building, a printing press, a schoolhouse. It represented the urgency
the Cherokee Nation felt in expressing and showing to the people in the country that we were
capable." Ms. Monteith accentuated this positive side of New Echota's legacy in her statement,
"There was great pride in knowing that we were able to try at least to be accepted as a civilized group
of people that could live harmoniously with others."
EBCI members also connect to New Echota as the birthplace of the Cherokee Phoenix, a native
newspaper printed in both the English alphabet and Sequoyah's Cherokee syllabary. Mr. Bowman
claimed that it is this newspaper that taught the isolated traditionalists in the Great Smokey Mountains
how to read and write the Cherokee language. Indeed, what is arguably even more remarkable than
the quick adoption of the syllabary as a means of documentation and correspondence among the
educated elite, is its ready absorption by previously illiterate traditionalists. Interestingly, Mooney
(1900:112) stated, "What is perhaps strangest of all this literary evolution is the fact that the same
invention has been seized by the priests and conjurers of the conservative party for the purpose of
preserving to their successors the ancient rituals and secret knowledge of the tribe." Whereas New
Echota might signify division between educated and traditional Cherokee, it is also seen as a place
that unified the Cherokee by means of a printed language. To Mr. Bushyhead, Cherokee flute maker,
musician, and language specialist, the Cherokee language: "…bonds us not only to us today {and} to
those in Oklahoma but those who came before us and those who came after us as well."
New Echota and Enculturation – Learning about a Shared Past and Teaching our Children
Having visited New Echota many times, Dr. Coates commented on the Cherokee returning to Echota
to learn about their cultural identity. “A lot of people who travel to that area visit that site. I know I
certainly did when I was of an age where I wanted to know more of myself; who I was, where I came
from, and who my people were. That was a very important thing for me to go back to that area. New
Echota was one of the very special places that really began to inform me about myself and my place
within my people and my nation.”
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Over the years, Councilor Baker has visited New Echota many times and taken many groups of
Cherokee there to learn about their heritage. “With all the reconstructed buildings, [New Echota]
gives people an idea of what our culture was like in the early 1800s. It makes people very proud to
be a Cherokee citizen.” New Echota was a TCP to him because, “all aspects of Cherokee culture
would have been on display here.”
Mr. James Bird and Beloved Man Jerry Wolfe see New Echota as the "Mother Capitol," or "Peace
Town" of the Cherokee people prior to removal. According to Mr. Wolfe, the site is a good place to
teach children about Cherokee history. In a similar vein Ms. Monteith maintained, "New Echota is
important as a window in our history and cultural evolution." Emphasizing the political meaning of
New Echota, current THPO Mr. Townsend stated, "I see New Echota as a governmental center. New
Echota was the point of resistance to removal. New Echota was the place where our government
was structured… And it’s not so much a spiritual location – though some people might incorporate
that into that these days."
Approximately two decades ago, Russ Townsend's dad took him all the way from Oklahoma to New
Echota in Georgia. Russ pointed out that the "…cabin where they printed the Cherokee Phoenix may
just be a little old cabin, but to many Cherokees whether they’re from Oklahoma or from here in the
East – that little old cabin’s like the Washington Monument or the Smithsonian Institution or the
Lincoln Memorial. It is a truly important place for us to see and remember." Beloved Woman Myrtle
Driver considers visits to New Echota as a pilgrimage.
EBCI members insist that the integrity of New Echota as a place for visitation should be maintained in
an appropriate fashion. According to Mr. Russ Townsend, a New Echota that "…falls into disrepair or
is damaged in any way would be viewed in much the same way as Washington, D.C. being sold or
destroyed." As an Advisory Council member working for the Tribal Historic Preservation Office, Ms.
Monteith called for minimal alteration of the landscape. She recalled, "When it came time for the
county commissioners to approve a travel plaza at that exit, I was called and appeared before the
commissioners as a concerned Cherokee that something like that would intrude on the site. When
you get all sorts of distractions around an historic site, that historic site gets lost. It’s no longer there
as an important site, it’s devalued in my opinion when you start encroaching on that site." On a
positive note Jim Bowman was "very impressed with what the state of Georgia has done to the
capitol, as a Cherokee and as a tourist passing through."
The Cherokee interviewed from both tribes in Oklahoma stressed the connections between their land
in the east and in the west. Ms. Larue Baker believes that for older generations, some expressed
their desire to “go back to the East” with their choice of names for their sons. A common Cherokee
first name for boys in the mid to late 1800s was “Goback.” There was a famous furniture maker and
wood carver named Goback Christie, brother to the famed Cherokee patriot Ned Christie. The last
man she knew of with that name passed away only recently; his name was Goback Sanders. In
addition to names for children, places and towns in Oklahoma were named for settlements in
Georgia. The inhabitants of Spring Place and New Echota settled in New Spring Place around what
is now Oaks, Oklahoma, along with the Spring Place Mission. The name New Echota is used
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frequently as well. Road names, restaurants, and a newer ceremonial ground carry the name
Echota. While speaking with Ms. Larue Baker, she drove the interviewer to numerous locations in the
Cherokee Nation to stress the similarities in the patterns of settlement and to see the number of
markers emphasizing the connections between New Echota, Spring Place, the Cherokee Nation in
Georgia before removal, and Oklahoma. She sees these places as a continuum. While driving the
roads in Oklahoma, one is reminded of the roads and places in northeast Georgia. These
connections tie present locations to ancestral places and are very important particularly for people
who were forced to leave their ancestral homelands.
Ms. Betty Kingfisher and her son, Mr. Choogie Kingfisher, travel east to Georgia and North Carolina
almost every year. They take along family members and visit family in both states. Both are full
bloods, but Choogie is a member of the UKB and his mother a member of the Cherokee Nation.
Family members they visit in North Carolina are members of the EBCI. For many years, they have
performed gospel music, in Cherokee and in English, with the Kingfisher Family Singers. Mr.
Kingfisher also serves the UKB as the Director of History and Culture, as well as a Traditional
Keetoowah Storyteller. Ms. Kingfisher’s family came from Spring Place, Georgia on the Trail of
Tears.
Choogie described why he thinks it’s important to return to Georgia and North Carolina with his
children. “They know where they came from. Right now they are still in that phase where it’s not that
important to them. They are young. But I’m telling them, and I keep telling them, because eventually
they are going to realize how important those places are. Mom told me, that’s why I remembered.
Granny talked about it, and when I was old enough I began to travel. I looked all these places up. It
was important for me to take Mom there because she’d always talked about it, but she’d never been.
With Mom growing up around those springs there, around Twin Oaks Mission which became part of
New Spring Place [Oklahoma], the first thing that Mom did was touch that water there at Spring Place
[Georgia]. It was almost coming full circle” (Figure 16).
When discussing New Echota as the place where everything changed and as a place of turmoil, Mr.
Kingfisher said, “I try not to remember it like that. I know it happened there. When I walk those
grounds [at New Echota] I always try to think of before that period of time. What they were doing laughing, going to church. What they were singing? What hymns? Because in our church, we are
still singing in Cherokee, preaching in Cherokee. So when I go there, I try not to [think of the bad],
course it’s inevitable going down Agency Road because I know it’s the beginning of the end as far as
our presence in the East. I can try to remember northeast Georgia in its grandeur. We can only
speculate on what it was like.” Ms. Larue Baker added, “That was the last place that all was good.
Because it could change in a moment, the wink of an eye. So that for our people, that [New Echota]
was the last spot where it was ever like that. That, to me, was what I always thought was the perfect
memorial.”
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Figure 16. Connections Between Cherokee Lands in the East and the West. These images of
eastern Oklahoma show the similarities between the landscape and place names in north Georgia
and Cherokee lands in Oklahoma.
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“Choogie took me to New Echota,” Ms. Kingfisher stated. “I could see why the people in that area
relocated to the area around Oaks [Oklahoma] where I grew up. The trees, the big oaks, the spring,
hills – and yet they’ve got a little flat land. It’s similar in a lot of areas.” She continued, “[At New
Echota] well, you get to looking around there and you’re thinking, ‘How did this happen?’ It’s like there
are feelings of anger. They are just there that remind you… you get this overwhelming feeling of
sadness that just happens.” Choogie Kingfisher added, “For me it’s trying to understand why it
happened – I mean historically, I understand the greed. But here we were… you walk into New
Echota and you see the magnitude of their [our ancestors] accomplishments and not only from a
financial point of view, but from an education point of view. If you compare and contrast the other
[non Indian] settlers that were around there, we were far above them.”
Ms. Kingfisher said, “When we go down there, it is home. You can drive around down there, and then
come up here [Oklahoma] and you are really driving the same roads. You are seeing some of the
same places. The only difference is that they carry the old names and we have the new names
here.” This illustrates the strong ties still binding the Cherokee to their sites in the East, even though
they can’t visit them regularly.
Integrity of Condition
For a property to be a TCP it needs to retain not only integrity of relationship, but also integrity of
condition. Based on the statements from individuals from all three federally recognized Cherokee
tribes, New Echota retains a close relationship with modern Cherokee people and is considered a
TCP. But does it have the ability to convey that intact relationship? The amount of use by the
Cherokee today, even though many reside far from Georgia and North Carolina today, speaks to the
positive ability of the site to convey its connection to Cherokee identity. The following section presents
some of the tangible ways the Cherokee use New Echota today.
A major theme of discussion among the three tribes today is that they are of “One Flame, One
People.” Recognizing that even though they have three completely independent Nations and
sovereign governments, they are all Cherokee. In July 2012, leaders of the three tribes met at
Kituwah Mound in North Carolina at the historic Tri-Council meeting (Cherokee One Feather July 13,
2012). When the Cherokee left New Echota and the Southeast from New Echota, they brought the
fire with them to Oklahoma and it is still preserved in several communities in Oklahoma. “Many hope
to bring that fire back to the Eastern Band of Cherokee and Kituwah” (Cherokee One Feather July 12,
2013). Representative Taylor from the EBCI remembered an elder telling him, “One thing we have to
remember is that flame is just a flame. The eternal flame is the one that lives within our souls. When
the Cherokee people forget who they are, when they forget their language, when they forget what
they are supposed to do, that’s when the flame will go out” (Cherokee One Feather July 12, 2013).
The idea of one flame, one family, one people shows up frequently in Oklahoma as well. Figure 17
shows examples of the importance of the flame and its origins to all Cherokee people.
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A. Cherokee National Holiday Float
C. Unity Fire Sign, Cherokee Nation
B. Unity Fire with Rocks from Special Places Including
New Echota, Cherokee Nation Headquarters Building
Figure 17. One Flame, One Fire
Source: The Cherokee One Feather 2012
D. Leaders of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians,
Cherokee Nation, and United Keetoowah Band of
Cherokee Indians at Kituwah Mound, North Carolina
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The governments of the tribes have used New Echota as well (Figure 18). In 1977, a celebration was
held at New Echota to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Cherokee Constitution and the
listing of New Echota as a NHL (Figure 18). A year later in 1978, they returned to celebrate the 150th
anniversary of the Cherokee Phoenix, a newspaper that continues today, with issues from 1828 to the
present serving as historical documentation for this nomination. In 1988, there was a memorial for
the 150th anniversary of the Trail of Tears and in 1992, the Cherokee Nation National Council met at
New Echota, for the first time in Georgia since 1830. The Georgia Supreme Court recognized the
significance of New Echota in 1993 by holding a special session at New Echota and in 1996, for the
dedication of the reconstructed Council House, the Olympic Flame Torch Relay went through New
Echota (GPB Television Website 2013). In 2008, the Elders Advisory Board for the EBCI visited and
toured New Echota during a meeting and presentation by the GDOT. The EBCI Chief and his
Council returned again in 2012 for a visit and a tour. April 2012 saw Cherokee representatives
attending the 50th anniversary celebrations of the New Echota State Historic Site and Cherokee
National Council member Jack Baker present a Cherokee National Council Resolution to Park
Director, David Gomez. In May 2013, representatives of all three tribes attend a memorial at New
Echota for the 175th anniversary of the Trail of Tears (Cherokee Phoenix May 17, 2013).
Cherokee from all three tribes visit New Echota, traveling there to learn more about where they came
from in the East. In 1984, the Cherokee Nation held its first “Remember the Removal Ride.” Bike
riders retracing the northern Trail of Tears route rode for almost 900 miles, beginning symbolically at
New Echota. Although the removal on Trail of Tears began from many points, the signing of the
Treaty of New Echota in 1835 triggered the event. In 2009, the Cherokee Nation decided to revive
the ride, sponsoring a number of young cyclists to complete the long ride and learn about their history
and their heritage along the way (Bishop 2012). The ride has been held annually since and now
riders from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians join those from Oklahoma on the ride (Figure 19).
One of the original riders from 1984, Taylor Alsenay, has returned on the trip yearly as mentor and
organizer along with a number of his teenage children. Many of the riders we spoke with at the start
of the 2012 ride indicated that they saw this ride as a chance to understand where they had come
from and experience in some small way the challenges their ancestors faced along the Trail of Tears.
At New Echota the night before their ride began, David Gomez, Manager of the New Echota State
Historic Site, gave the riders a tour of New Echota. Cherokee genealogists also helped the riders
trace their ancestry to personalize their experience on the ride. LaTasha Atcity of Tahlequah told the
Cherokee Phoenix that she wanted to make the ride to learn about her Cherokee heritage. “That’s
something that really motivated me – to figure out what my heritage is the ancestors that brought me
where I am today. When I struggled every single day, or when it was hot and I’m hungry, I knew that
there was an end. My ancestors didn’t really know what the end was going to be.” (Cherokee
Phoenix June 25, 2013)
In researching New Echota, other examples were found where Native American groups and
individuals travelled there frequently. The Cherokee Nation Tourism Department has been operating
cultural heritage tours to Georgia and specifically New Echota for a number of years. On one such trip
in 2011, the tour included the participation of the Cherokee National Youth Choir (Cherokee One
Feather June 14, 2011).
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Figure 18. Tribal Leaders at New Echota, 1976.
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Figure 19. Remember the Removal Ride. Each year bike riders from the Eastern Band of Cherokee
Indians and the Cherokee Nation ride their bikes along the northern route of the Trail of Tears,
beginning in New Echota and ending in Tahlequah.
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In October 2007, the staff of the Cherokee Phoenix from Tahlequah, travelled to Cherokee sites in
Georgia and North Carolina for the purpose of team building and learning about their Cherokee
heritage (Figure 20). Of that trip, Phoenix staff member Nicole Hill said, “Getting to see the Print
Shop at New Echota gave me a tremendous sense of how far the Cherokee Phoenix has come. We
have accomplished so much and must continue to grow and protect our language and culture with a
strong press” (Cherokee Phoenix October 12, 2007).
There are mentions of Cherokee Princesses and Miss Cherokees visiting the site as Goodwill
Ambassadors (Calhoun Times May 1, 2009), as well as visiting artists programs sponsored by the
Friends of New Echota (Calhoun Times April 8, 2010). For the 50th Anniversary of the State Historic
Site, internationally known mezzo-soprano opera singer Barbara McAlister travelled to New Echota to
sing America the Beautiful in Cherokee. A member of the Cherokee Nation and native of Muskogee,
Oklahoma, it was her first visit to the site and she was visibly moved by the experience of singing
there (Figure 21).
The commitment of the tribes to New Echota was obvious in 2009 when budget cuts resulted in
employee layoffs and a substantial cut in operating hours at the park. The Cherokee Nation offered
funds, up to $40,000, to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for both New Echota
and the Chief Vann House. Money was offered conditionally if former employees were offered their
original jobs with original pay and if the parks’ hours were fully restored (Cherokee Phoenix August
20, 2009). Although the state was unable to accept the funds, the offer extended by the Cherokee
Nation clearly shows the value they place on New Echota. The offer also speaks to the trust that has
formed between the staff of New Echota and the tribes. Knowing how much New Echota meant to
them, the tribes wanted the original staff restored, as they felt confident in the ability of these known
individuals to care for it.
In a non-traditional way, New Echota today maintains integrity of location, design, setting, materials,
workmanship, feeling, and association. Archaeological excavations and archival records have allowed
the site to be reconstructed in a way that buildings lie in approximately their original locations, with the
design of the town kept intact. The setting retains the dispersed open feeling of a typical nineteenthcentury Cherokee town, with fields next to buildings and orchards abutting the town square. Materials
and workmanship in some cases are original, as in the case of the Worcester House and relocated
Cherokee Cabins, but in other cases are designed to replicate the buildings from the historical
descriptions. Association at the site remains strong with many Cherokee attesting to feeling like they
have stepped back into the past at the site. New Echota as it exists today allows the Cherokee to
interact with the place in such a way that it strengthens their identity as Cherokee. What matters for
the integrity at New Echota as a TCP is that it has that the integrity of condition is sufficient to support
the integrity of relationship.
Many Cherokee do not have the means to travel to, and physically use, New Echota, having been
removed from their ancestral lands in the east. Even though they may not be able to travel there, the
place and associated ideals of New Echota remains a touchstone for them. It is a place to point to
and to consider when searching for the intersection between the Cherokee as a people in the late
1700s and the modern Cherokee tribes – The Cherokee Nation, the Eastern Band of Cherokee
Indians, and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians.
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Figure 20. The Cherokee Phoenix Staff Visit New Echota
Source: Cherokee Phoenix, 2007
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A. Barbara McAlister, Internationally-known opera
singer from the Cherokee Nation sings “America
the Beautiful” in Cherokee at the New Echota State
Historic Site’s 50th Anniversary Celebration.
B. Jack Baker, President of the National
Trail of Tears Association and Cherokee
National Council Representative,
presents David Gomez, Director of the
New Echota State Historic Site with a
Cherokee National Council Resolution
Figure 21. New Echota State Historic Site 50th Anniversary Celebration
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PART III. SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANCE
Today, although Cherokee people from all three federally recognized tribes view New Echota through
different lens, spiritually, historically, and culturally, they all feel that understanding the many layers of
significance at New Echota and visiting New Echota are important to their cultural identity. The lens
used to view New Echota is personal and does not seem to correspond to membership in a particular
federally-recognized tribe. In other words, while one might predict stronger bonds with the Cherokee
Nation as many residents of New Echota were removed on the Trail of Tears to Indian Territory,
instead of staying in the Appalachians, or moving to Indian Territory on their own in advance of forced
removal, this is not the case. Within one family, members may hold citizenship in different or multiple
Cherokee tribes. In the Kingfisher family, for example, Betty Kingfisher holds citizenship in the
Cherokee Nation while her son Choogie is a citizen of the United Keetoowah Band. They have family
in North Carolina who are members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
Criterion A – Ethnic Heritage, Education, and Religion
Under Criterion A, New Echota is significant as a TCP for its association with events that have made
a significant contribution to the broad patterns of Cherokee history. Ethnographic, documentary, and
archaeological evidence clearly point to a property that functions on many levels as a TCP,
specifically for its significance in Ethnic Heritage, Religion and Education. All three of these areas are
deeply rooted in Cherokee history and important in maintaining their cultural identity.
Ethnic Heritage
New Echota stands at the center of a number of pivotal events that have defined Cherokee identity in
the last two hundred years. First, it was the location chosen for the Cherokee Capitol and the location
where the first Cherokee Constitution was created. The Cherokee formed the first Supreme Court at
New Echota and established many of the modern laws of the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee Phoenix
newspaper, which was established at New Echota, was the first bilingual newspaper in the United
States, the first Native American newspaper, and the first widespread published use of the Cherokee
syllabary. In Worcester v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court decided a case, which although it was
ineffective in allowing the Cherokee to stay in the Georgia, affirmed Cherokee sovereignty and still
stands as an important legal precedent for all tribes today. Finally, New Echota was the location where
the Treaty of New Echota was signed, marking the end of the Cherokee Nation in Georgia and
launching many Cherokee onto the Trail of Tears. Many modern Cherokee see the Trail of Tears as
something personal and not just something that happened to their ancestors. It has a very real
connection for them today and the power to immediately invoke sadness and a sense of loss. The
Cherokee place high value on their form of government, education, language, and syllabary. These are
many, but of course not all, of the values that they believe define them as a people. New Echota
stands as a symbol of both tremendous historical accomplishments and tremendous loss. Dr. Richard
Allen maintained, "Being Cherokee and understanding your history has a lot to do with what happened
in New Echota." It significant under Criterion A for ethnic heritage not only for the historical importance
of these events as recognized by its NHL status, but also for its critical links to Cherokee cultural
identity today. New Echota is one place that defines the Cherokee as a people.
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New Echota is significant as a TCP at the national level of significance for Ethnic Heritage for the
period 1825 to the present. While significant dates between 1825 and 1838 represent the important
historical events that defined an element of Cherokee identity, the entire period from 1825 to the
present recognizes the role that the site continues to play in maintaining that part of their identity.
Religion
Like so many other elements of spirituality, New Echota as a religious place means different things to
different people. Some interviewees described it as both sacred and hallowed ground. Others
defined it in more secular terms, but still acknowledged that while it is not a traditional religious site
where ceremonies are held today, that it once held the sacred flame as the location of the chief and
the government for all Cherokee, is very significant. Numerous individuals noted that the location of
the flame or fire meant “home” and even the name Echota means fire. It is also significant in that it
was the last home of the sacred fire in the East. While Kituwah is the source of the sacred fire, flame
was taken to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears and has not been returned. As Chief Wickliffe noted,
the most important thing at New Echota was the fire and that the fire was carried with the Cherokee to
Indian Territory. Your fire is your home. Additionally New Echota is viewed by some Cherokee in
Oklahoma as the ancestor of their current capitol Tahlequah. The places in the west stemmed from
the places in the east and the connection between these places remains alive today. One without the
other is not complete.
As a TCP, New Echota has significance at the national level under Criterion A for Religion as the last
place of the sacred fire in the East and as the ancestor town of Tahlequah today. The period of
significance begins in approximately 1825 and stretches to the present. Although the fire was only
present until 1838, it retains its spiritual significance as a location where the sacred fire has been kept.
Education
As a TCP, New Echota is significant under Criterion A for Education. New Echota is a place where
Cherokee come to understand their culture and their place in that culture. As Dr. Coates noted, New
Echota is place for Cherokee people to visit or to learn about in order to understand not only who they
were in the past, but they who they are in the present. It underscores the values of education, service
to your nation, innovation, and perseverance. For a cultural group that has been forced to leave its
ancestral lands, having places like New Echota to travel to, or to understand as a real place, are
critical for teaching Cherokee people about their own culture. From Mr. Choogie Kingfisher it is a
place to teach his children who they are. He feels that the telling of stories and the shared
remembrances passed down from generation to generation are critical to identity as are visiting those
places to keep those connections alive.
New Echota is significant as a TCP at the national level of significance under Criterion A for
Education for the period from 1825 to the present. For the Cherokee, New Echota is a place to learn
about their past and a place to teach their children about their culture and heritage.
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PART IV. CRITERIA CONSIDERATIONS
Three Criteria Considerations were considered for New Echota. As a cemetery is included as a
contributing property, and as there are both reconstructed and relocated buildings at New Echota,
Criteria Considerations B, D, and E were considered and found to apply in all cases. All three of
these criterion considerations were in effect for both the National Historic Landmark and for the 2003
NRHP boundary increase. These three Criteria Considerations also apply to the TCP.
Criteria Consideration B
For Criterion Consideration B, relocated properties, New Echota contains buildings that have been
moved to the site. The relocated buildings were Cherokee buildings and date to the early decades of
the 1800s, just as the buildings that once stood in these locations. They have a setting and general
environment that are comparable to those that would historically have been present on the site. New
Echota had a mix of larger and smaller landowners, farms and businesses and the so-called
“Common Cherokee” buildings and the “Middle Class Cherokee” buildings accurate reflect the likely
dwellings of actual Cherokee residents at New Echota. They were placed based on evidence from
the field notes of surveyor Stephen Drane, the archaeological excavations, and historical records
such as personal and governmental correspondence and Cherokee Phoenix articles. In the case of
Vann’s Tavern, although the building is not original to the site, it is a Cherokee built tavern from the
same period as New Echota. Its owner, Joseph Vann, was a participant in many of the key events in
New Echota’s history.
All of these relocated buildings are critical to public interpretation of the site and do not detract from
the site’s ability to convey its significance as a TCP. Instead, these building create a landscape that
makes it easier for the Cherokee to connect with the site. Instead of an empty field, they are actual
Cherokee buildings and buildings which are contemporaneous to the 1820s and 1830s.
Relocated Buildings at New Echota include:
•
Vann’s Tavern: Built in Georgia, 1805; relocated 1955
•
Common Cherokee Cabin: Built in Alabama, early nineteenth century; relocated 1991
•
Common Cherokee Corn Crib: Built in Tennessee, early nineteenth century, relocated 1991
•
Common Cherokee Stable: Built in Tennessee, early nineteenth century, relocated 1991
•
Middle Class Cherokee Cabin: Built in Gordon Co., early nineteenth century, relocated 1983
•
Middle Class Cherokee Smokehouse: Built in Gordon Co., early nineteenth century, relocated
1983
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Middle Class Cherokee Corn Crib: Built in Gordon Co., early nineteenth century, relocated
1983
•
Middle Class Cherokee Barn; Built in Gordon Co., early nineteenth century, relocated 1983
Criteria Consideration D
For Criterion Consideration D, cemeteries, New Echota contains the original cemetery that dates to
the period between 1825 and 1838 and is one of the few remaining original constructs from this
period. The cemetery is one of the few marked Cherokee Historic Period cemeteries in Georgia.
There are no known burials in the cemetery that post date Cherokee occupation. Far from detracting
from the significance of the site as a TCP, the cemetery underscores how the Cherokee had adapted
in some ways to Western traditions.
Criteria Consideration E
For Criterion Consideration E, reconstructed properties, New Echota contains buildings that have
been reconstructed. The reconstructed buildings have a setting and general environment that are
comparable to those that would historically have been present on the site. The reconstructed
buildings are grounded in historical documentation such as the field notes of surveyor Stephen
Drane, Cherokee personal and governmental correspondence and articles in the Cherokee Phoenix.
Additionally, archaeological excavations at New Echota have contributed greatly to the reconstructing
the landscape at New Echota. Clemens de Baillou undertook the first study in 1954 for the Georgia
Historic Commission. The de Baillou excavations, which consisted of surface survey, block
excavations, and large-scale stripping of plow zone to locate subsurface features, identified the
remains of the old road, public well, seven residential structures and two larger, public buildings
associated with the 1820-1828 occupation of New Echota. His excavations showed that the locations
of buildings plotted by Stephen Drane 1832 by were reasonably accurate. De Baillou also found
evidence of a domestic structure and two possible public buildings that likely were built prior to 1819.
The reconstructed buildings at New Echota were built with period appropriate materials and are
construction styles. All are critical to public interpretation of the site and do not detract from the site’s
ability to convey its significance as a TCP. Instead these building create a landscape that makes it
easier for the Cherokee to connect with the site.
Reconstructed Buildings at New Echota include:
•
Council House: Built in 1994 on approximate original location
•
Supreme Courthouse: Built in 1950s on approximate original location
•
Print Shop: Built in 1950s on approximate original location
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List of Interviewees
For the Cherokee Nation interviews included the following individuals: Dr. Richard Allen, Mr. Jack
Baker, Dr. Julia Coates, Ms. Mary Flute-Cooksey, Ms. Cathy Monholland, Mr. Troy Wayne Poteete,
Mr. Hastings Shade, and Mr. Chadwick Smith.
•
Dr. Richard Allen has served the Cherokee Nation for many years as Policy Analyst and
NAGPRA/Section 106 Contact.
•
Councilor Jack Baker serves as Cherokee Nation as an At-Large Representative on the
Cherokee National Council. He is president of the National Trail of Tears Association,
Treasurer for the Cherokee Historical Society, and on the Board of Directors for the Oklahoma
Historical Society.
•
Dr. Julia Coates serves the Cherokee Nation as an At-Large Representative to the Cherokee
National Council. In addition, she has taught the Cherokee Nation History Course to citizens
of the Cherokee Nation at locations throughout the country and has been a professor of Native
American Studies at the University of California at Davis and Northeastern State University in
Tahlequah.
•
Ms. Mary Flute-Cooksey is a former Tribal Councilor of the Cherokee Nation.
•
Ms. Cathy Mulholland had taught the Cherokee Nation History Course and has lead Cherokee
Nation-sponsored tours to Georgia.
•
Justice Troy Wayne Poteete is a sitting Justice on the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court, Vice
President of the National Trail of Tears Association and a former Councilor of the Cherokee
Nation.
•
The late Mr. Hastings Shade served as Deputy Principal Chief and was named a Cherokee
National Treasure in 1991.
•
Former Principal Chief Chadwick Smith served the Cherokee Nation for three four-year terms
from 1999-2011.
Interviews for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians included the following individuals: Mr. James
Bird, Mr. Jim Bowman, Mr. Eddie Bushyhead, Ms. Myrtle Driver, Ms. Marie Junaluska, Ms. Carmelita
Monteith, Mr. Russ Townsend, and Mr. Jerry Wolfe.
•
Mr. James Bird served as the Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO) for the EBCI for a
number of years before assuming his current position in the National Park Service.
•
Mr. Jim Bowman was one of the founding members of the Board of Directors of the Cherokee
Preservation Foundation, served as vice chairman on the Cherokee Indian Tribal Council.
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Mr. Eddie Bushyhead is a Cherokee flute maker, musician, language specialist.
•
Beloved Woman Myrtle Driver has advocated for and taught the Cherokee language for almost
40 years. She has translated a number of books into Cherokee and currently teaches at the
EBCI Cherokee language immersion school, the Kituwah Academy.
•
Ms. Marie Junaluska is a Cherokee language specialist, translator, and instructor of the
Cherokee language. In addition she has served on the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
Tribal Council.
•
Ms. Carmelita Monteith serves as Chairman of the Board for Indian Health Service and as a
mentor for the Jones-Bowman Leadership Award Fellows.
•
Mr. Russ Townsend is the current THPO for the EBCI.
•
Beloved Man Jerry Wolfe is a tribal elder, fluent Cherokee speaker and traditionalist.
Interviews for the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians included the following individuals:
Ms. Lisa Larue-Baker, Ms. Betty Kingfisher, Mr. Choogie Kingfisher, Mr. Archie Mouse, and Mr.
George Wickliffe.
•
Ms. Lisa Larue-Baker is a musician, historian, and current THPO for the United Keetoowah
Band of Cherokee Indians.
•
Ms. Betty Kingfisher, a full blood Cherokee, is the matriarch of the Kingfisher family and the
Kingfisher Family Singers, a traditional Cherokee Gospel group.
•
Mr. Choogie Kingfisher, Betty Kingfisher’s son, sings with the group, but in addition serves as
the Director of History and Culture for the UKB and as a Traditional Keetoowah Storyteller.
•
The late Mr. Archie Mouse was the former THPO for the UKB and served in the previous
administration as Assistant Chief.
•
Chief George Wickliffe serves as the Principal Chief of the UKB and in the past has been a
school administrator and teacher. Today he is also actively engaged in the teaching Cherokee
language to tribal citizens.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Developmental history/additional historic context information (if appropriate)
See Above
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9. Major Bibliographical References
Bibliography (Cite the books, articles, and other sources used in preparing this form.)
Oral interviews with various members of the Cherokee tribes were conducted by New South
Associates. The master tapes from the 2001-2003 interviews are housed at Omega Media Group,
3100 Medlock Bridge Road, Suite 100, Norcross, GA 30071; 770-449-8870. The tapes are also
available through the Georgia Department of Transportation, maps division. Contact Eric Duff (404)
699-4437. Audio files from the 2012-2013 interviews are available from the Georgia Department of
Transportation. Contact Heather Mustonen at (404) 631-1166 or Matthew Kear at (404) 631-1468.
A list of individuals interviewed follows. Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma: Former Principal Chief
Chadwick Smith; Former Deputy Chief Hastings Shade; Dr. Richard Allen (NAGPRA Specialist and
Policy Analyst); Dr. Julia Coates, Cherokee National Council Representative; Cherokee Justice Troy
Wayne Poteete, Cherokee Supreme Court; Jack Baker, President National Trail of Tears Association;
Cathy Monholland, Cherokee Nation Educator; and Mary Flute Cooksey. Eastern Band of
Cherokees: Principal Chief Leon James, James Bird, Myrtle Driver (Translator), Jim Bowman, Martha
Sherrill, Jose Santiago, Rita Driver, Marie Junaluska, Eddie Bushyhead, Carmelita Montieth, Jerry
Wolfe, Russell Townsend (THPO), Garefield Long, Mike Crowe, Agnes Wolfe, Lee Clauss, Emmaline
Driver, Jose Santiago, Justin McLaughlin, Anissa Santiago, and David Bushyhead. United
Keetoowah Band: Chief George Wickliffe; Lisa Larue Baker, Acting THPO; Choogie Kingfisher,
Director of the United Keetoowah Band Culture and History; Betty Kingfisher; and Archie Mouse
(Former THPO) and Former Principal Chief Dallas Proctor.
Baker, Steven G. New Echota Archaeology 1969.
Commission, Atlanta, Georgia, 1970.
Submitted to Georgia State Historical
Barlow, James Leonard. Andrew Jackson and the Worcester v. Georgia Decision: State Rights and
National Politics. Master’s Thesis, University of Tennessee, 1975.
Barse, William P. and John G. Gill. Phase I and II Investigations along State Route 225, Adjacent to
New Echota, Gordon County, Georgia. Submitted to the Georgia department of Transportation by
URS Corporation. 2007
Bishop, Jeff. “Commemorative Bicycle Tours Catch On with Two Other Tribes.”
newsletter of the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail. Number 19, June 2012.
Trail News,
Calhoun Times. “New Echota ‘Rambling, Scattering Wooden Town.’” August 16, 1972.
_____. “Miss Cherokee 2009 to Visit New Echota May 1.” April 29, 2010.
_____. “Cherokee Artists to Visit New Echota.” April 8, 2010.
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Castelow, Teri L. “Miss Sophia Sawyer: Founder of the Fayetteville Female Seminary. The Arkansas
Historical Quarterly Vol. 68, No. 2: 177-200. 2009.
Cherokee Nation. Laws of the Cherokee Nation: adopted by the Council at various periods [18081835]. Printed for the benefit of the nation, 1852.
“The Cherokee Nation.” Website of the Cherokee Nation. Accessed http://www.cherokee.org .
Davis, Dave. Memorandum from Lewis H. Larson, Office of the State Archaeologist, Georgia, to
David S. Baird, Principle Landscape Architect. “Phase I Archaeological Survey of Possible Location
of 1839 Stockade near New Echota State Historic Site, Gordon County, Georgia.” May 25, 1994.
de Baillou, Clemens. “The Excavations at New Echota in 1954.” Early Georgia 1(4):19-29, 1955.
_____. “Notes on Cherokee Architecture.” Southern Indian Studies XIX:25-33, 1967.
Elliot, Daniel T., Karen G. Wood, Grace F. Keith, and Scot J. Keith. The Archaeology of the New
Echota State Historic Site, Gordon County, Georgia. Report submitted to the Georgia Historic
Preservation Division by Southern Research. 2003
Fabian, S. M. Letter to the Forum Editor of the National Geographic Magazine. April 25, 1995.
http://www.uark.edu/depts/comminfo/UKB/three.html.
Georgia Parks and Recreation files. New Echota file, Fort Wool Project, n.d.
Georgia Public Broadcasting Television. New Echota –Cherokee Capital State Historic Site.
Accessed at http://www.gpb.org/sitestobehold/new-echota-cherokee-capital on October 7, 2013.
Hendricks, Nancy. “Fayetteville Female Seminary.” The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and
Culture.
Accessed
at
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entrydetail.aspx?entryID=2171 on April 10, 2013.
Hill, Sarah H. Cherokee Removal From Georgia (Final Report). Submitted to the National Park
Service and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources/Historic Preservation Division. 2005.
Hodler, T. W. and Schretter, H. A. The Atlas of Georgia. Athens: The Institute of Community and
Area Development, University of Georgia, 1986.
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Hudson, Charles. The Southeastern Indians. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1976.
Journal of Cherokee Studies. “A Visit to New Echota.” 4(2):78. Originally printed in The New York
American (1830).
Kear, Matthew and Heather Mustonen. Survey Report Addendum: GDOT Project BHF00-015101(006), Gordon County, P.I. #631570 and HP #0400607-001. Interdepartmental Correspondence.
Report on File at the Georgia Department of Transportation Office of Environmental Services, Atlanta,
Georgia.
Keith, Scot, Julie Coco, Jackie Tyson, and J. W. Joseph. Addendum to Phase I and II Archaeological
Investigations Along State Route 225: Archaeological and Historical Investigations for Proposed Elks
Club Golf Course Cost-to-Cure Alterations, Gordon County, Georgia. Report submitted to the
Georgia Department of Transportation by New South Associates. 2012.
Keith et al. Phase III Archaeological Data Recovery Mitigation of 9GO297, Gordon County, Georgia.
Report in Progress by New South Associates for the Georgia Department of Transportation.
Levy, Benjamin. “New Echota.” National Register of Historic Places nomination. March 9, 1973.
Loubser, Johannes H. N., Leslie E. Raymer, J. Faith Meader, and J. W. Joseph. A Traditional
Cultural Property Study of New Echota, the First Cherokee National Capitol from 1825-1838, Gordon
County, Georgia. Report submitted to the Georgia Department of Transportation by New South
Associates, 2003.
Malone, Henry T. “New Echota-Capitol of the Cherokee Nation.” Early Georgia 1(4):6-13. 1955.
_____. Cherokees of the Old South. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1956.
Mooney, James. “Myths of the Cherokee.” Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology, 1897-1898. Washington, D.C., 1900.
National Park Service. Trail of Tears National Historic Trail Website. Comprehensive Management
Plan
and
Multiple
Property
Documentation
Form
available
at
http://www.nps.trte/parkmgmt/planning.htm and http://www.nps.trte/parkmgmt/upload/Trailword.pdf.
New Echota Museum files. Harvard University Manuscripts, Council House file, n.d.
“New Echota Self-Guided Trail.” Booklet produced by the New Echota State Historic Site, n.d.
Reed, Ed. Site Booklet: New Echota Historic Site. New Echota Library files, 1991.
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OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
Name of Property
County and State
Rogers, Mary Evelyn. A Brief History of the Cherokees: 1540-1906.
http://www.innernet.org/tsalagi/background.html#11 on June 6, 2001.
Shadburn, Don L. Cherokee Planters in Georgia 1832-1838.
Associates, Roswell, Georgia, 1989.
1986.
Accessed at
Roswell, Georgia: WH Wolfe
Sherwood, Adiel. A Gazetteer of the State of Georgia. Washington, DC: P. Force, 1837.
Starkey, Marion. The Cherokee Nation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946.
Sultzman, L. and K. Martin. “Cherokee History: Parts 1 and 2.” February 28, 1996. Accessed at
http://www.tolatsga.org/Cherokee1.html
Wharton, C. H. The Natural Environments of Georgia. Bulletin 114. Atlanta: Office of Planning and
Research, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, 1989.
Wood, Karen G. Archeological Testing at the New Echota State Historic Site, Gordon County,
Georgia. Prepared for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Atlanta, Georgia by Southern
Research Historic Preservation Consultants, Inc., 1994
Previous documentation on file (NPS):
preliminary determination of individual listing (36 CFR 67 has been
requested)
X previously listed in the National Register
previously determined eligible by the National Register
X designated a National Historic Landmark
recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey #____________
recorded by Historic American Engineering Record # __________
recorded by Historic American Landscape Survey # ___________
Primary location of additional data:
X State Historic Preservation Office
Other State agency
Federal agency
Local government
University
Other
Name of repository:
Historic Resources Survey Number (if
assigned):
65
NPS Form 10-900
OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
Name of Property
County and State
10. Geographical Data
Acreage of Property
(Do not include previously
listed resource acreage.)
Discontiguous Boundary
Main Section=247.680393 acres; Cemetery=0.537119 acres
Total = 248.217512 acres.
Note: Original acreage of NHL is unknown. Original nomination did
not specify acres.
Latitude/Longitude Coordinates
Datum if other than WGS84: N/A
(enter coordinates to 6 decimal places)
1. Latitude: 34.543216
Longitude: -84.914947
2. Latitude: 34.544557
3. Latitude: 34.541092
4. Latitude: 34.535454
5. Latitude: 34.535418
6. Latitude: 34.533089
UTM References
(Place additional UTM references on a continuation sheet.)
1
16N
Zone
691331
Easting
3824364
Northing
5
16N
Zone
691878
Easting
3823510
Northing
2
16N
Zone
692065
Easting
3824528
Northing
6
16N
Zone
691951
Easting
3823253
Northing
3
16N
Zone
692620
Easting
3824155
Northing
7
Zone
Easting
Northing
16N
Zone
692844
Easting
382353
Northing
8
Zone
Easting
Northing
4
Verbal Boundary Description (Describe the boundaries of the property.)
The boundary of the nominated property is delineated by the polygons whose vertices are marked by
the preceding UTM and Latitude/Longitude reference points. The TCP boundary is discontiguous
and consists of primary acreage in an irregular polygon of 247.680393 acres, which contains the core
of the New Echota State Historic Site and National Historic Landmark, and a separate polygon of
0.537119 acres, which contains the New Echota Cemetery. See the New Echota TCP Boundary Map
on the following page.
66
NPS Form 10-900
OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
Name of Property
County and State
2
Oo
s ta
Cona
sau g
a Ri v
er
na
u
la
Ri
ve
1
SR
-2
r
25
3
os
Co
aw
at
te
e
ve
Ri
247.680393 Acres
r
4
5
New Echota Cemetery
6
0.537119 Acres
New Town Creek
New Echota
TCP Boundary
$
0
0
500
130
Gordon Co.
1,000 Feet
260 Meters
NAD 83: State Plane Georgia West
Total Acreage = 248.217512
67
NPS Form 10-900
OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
Name of Property
County and State
Boundary Justification (Explain why the boundaries were selected.)
An accurate estimate of New Echota’s historic limits could not be obtained, mainly due to the absence
of any contemporary 1825 map indicating the actual boundary. Nevertheless, the verbal description
of the town, quoted previously, together with the 1832 Drane map, archaeological evidence, and
consultation with representatives from the federally recognized Cherokee tribes, allowed for a fairly
reliable reconstruction of the original town boundary at the time of the 2003 boundary. Together, the
evidence indicated that the six main buildings within the center of New Echota, plus the surrounding
residences of Hicks, McCoy, Rogers, and Worcester, and the New Echota Cemetery fall within the
New Echota area as delineated by the Cherokee National Council in 1825. The 2003 TCP boundary
was thus drawn to incorporate the historically and culturally significant sites of Fort Wool and the
Hicks and McCoy properties. The boundary also included of a “triangle” of lots west of the historic
site, south of Highway 225 and east of Newtown Church Road. These lots were historically part of
New Echota. Additionally, representatives of the tribes felt that the New Echota Cemetery should
also be included in the boundaries. Modern, private residences now occupy the land between the
New Echota State Historic Site and National Register Landmark boundary and the New Echota
Cemetery. The New Echota Cemetery is historically and culturally significant and was included in the
2003 TCP boundary because it contains the gravesites of important figures in Cherokee history,
interred while New Echota served as the Cherokee Nation capitol. Because of the spatial separation
between the park and the cemetery, the 2003 TCP boundary forms a discontiguous district. The 900
feet in between the historic town limits and the cemetery are infilled with modern, private, residential
properties that have no relationship to the two sites.
This TCP nomination includes two changes to the boundary for New Echota as was determined
eligible in 2003. First, for the TCP in 2003, the area where Fort Wool may be located is not
definitively identified archaeologically or historically at this point. Second, there has been commercial
development on the corner of Newtown Church Road NE and SR 225 (Chatsworth Road NE, Joseph
Vann Highway). Even though this area remains within the current NRHP boundaries, it no longer
retains its integrity of feeling and association and has been excluded from the TCP boundary.
11. Form Prepared By
name/title
Julie Coco and Joe Joseph
organization New South Associates, Inc.
date
street & number 6150 East Ponce de Leon Avenue
telephone (770) 498-4155 ext. 103
city or town Stone Mountain
state GA
e-mail
zip code 30083
jcoco@newsouthassoc.com
68
NPS Form 10-900
OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
Name of Property
County and State
Additional Documentation
Submit the following items with the completed form:
•
Maps: A USGS map (7.5 or 15 minute series) indicating the property's location.
A Sketch map for historic districts and properties having large acreage or numerous resources. Key all
photographs to this map.
•
Continuation Sheets
•
Additional items: (Check with the SHPO or FPO for any additional items.)
Photographs:
Submit clear and descriptive photographs. The size of each image must be 1600x1200 pixels at 300 ppi (pixels per inch)
or larger. Key all photographs to the sketch map.
Name of Property: New Echota Traditional Cultural Place
City or Vicinity:
County:
Gordon County
State: Georgia
Photographer: David Diener and Julie Coco, New South Associates, Inc.
Date Photographed:
Description of Photograph(s) and number:
1 of 99.
2 of 99.
3 of 99.
4 of 99.
5 of 99.
6 of 99.
7 of 99.
8 of 99.
9 of 99.
10 of 99.
11 of 99.
12 of 99.
13 of 99.
14 of 99.
15 of 99.
16 of 99.
17 of 99.
18 of 99.
19 of 99.
Entrance to New Echota State Historic Site. View Southwest.
New Echota State Historical Marker. View South.
Entrance to New Echota State Historic Site Visitor Center. View West.
Northwest Corner of TCP Boundary. View Southeast.
Northwest Corner of TCP Boundary. View Northeast.
Access Road Along Side of Middle Class Cherokee Farmstead. View South.
Tributary of New Town Creek. View East.
New Town Creek Trail Head. View East.
View Along 1832 Survey Line Between Parcels 124 and 125. View North.
Coosawattee River From Fork Ferry Bridge. View Southeast.
Coosawattee River From Fork Ferry Bridge. View Northwest.
View Across the Golf Course toward the Oostanaula River. View Northeast.
View Across the Golf Course toward the Oostanaula River. View North.
Context View of Supreme Courthouse. View Northeast.
Visitors walk along New Town Road. View North.
New Town Road. View North.
Boudinot Peach Orchard. View Southwest.
Context View of Council House. View North.
Context View of Middle Class Cherokee Farmstead. View Northwest.
69
NPS Form 10-900
OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
Name of Property
County and State
20 of 99.
21 of 99.
22 of 99.
23 of 99.
24 of 99.
25 of 99.
26 of 99.
27 of 99.
28 of 99.
29 of 99.
30 of 99.
31 of 99.
32 of 99.
33 of 99.
34 of 99.
35 of 99.
36 of 99.
37 of 99.
38 of 99.
39 of 99.
40 of 99.
41 of 99.
42 of 99.
43 of 99.
44 of 99.
45 of 99.
46 of 99.
47 of 99.
48 of 99.
49 of 99.
50 of 99.
51 of 99.
52 of 99.
53 of 99.
54 of 99.
55 of 99.
56 of 99.
57 of 99.
58 of 99.
59 of 99.
60 of 99.
61 of 99.
62 of 99.
63 of 99.
64 of 99.
Context View of Middle Class Cherokee Homestead. View South.
Context View of Middle Class Cherokee Homestead. View Southeast.
Context View of Middle Class Cherokee Homestead. View Southwest.
Context View of Middle Class Cherokee Homestead Garden. View South.
Context View of Common Cherokee Homestead. View North.
Context View of Common Cherokee Homestead. View East.
Context View of Vann’s Tavern. View North Northwest.
Road to Worcester House. View East.
Road to Worcester House. View Southeast.
View From Access to New Echota Cemetery towards State Historic Site. View North
Northeast.
Council House, Oblique View. View Southeast.
Council House, Front Façade. View South.
Interior Council House, Council Bench and Seating Area from Doorway. View Southwest.
Interior Council House, Council Bench and Fireplace from Doorway. View Southeast.
Interior Council House, Council Bench. View Southwest.
Visitors walk toward the Council House at the New Echota 50th Anniversary Celebration. View
West.
Supreme Courthouse, Front Façade. View East.
Supreme Courthouse, Oblique. View Northeast.
Supreme Courthouse, Front Façade. View East.
Interior Supreme Courthouse, View of Judges Bench. View East.
Interior of Supreme Courthouse, Upstairs room. Once used for School House. View Southeast.
Interior Supreme Courthouse, Close-up of Judges Bench. View East.
Print Shop, Front Façade. View North.
Print Shop, Oblique. View Northeast.
New Echota Volunteer demonstrates the Cherokee Phoenix Replica Printing Press.
Cherokee and English Type Detail. Print Shop.
Vann’s Tavern, Oblique View. View South.
Vann’s Tavern, Oblique View. View West.
Vann’s Tavern, Rear Elevation. View Northeast.
Vann’s Tavern Rear Elevation Oblique. View Northwest.
Vann’s Tavern Interior, Ground Floor, Eating Area. View Southeast.
Vann’s Tavern Interior, Ground Floor, Sales Counter to the Right. View Southeast.
Vann’s Tavern Interior, Ground Floor, Common Area, Fireplace. View Northwest.
Vann’s Tavern Interior, Ground Floor, Common Area, Traveler’s Bench. View Southeast.
Vann’s Tavern Interior, Upper Floor, Larger Sleeping Room with Fireplace. View North.
Vann’s Tavern Interior, Upper Floor, Smaller Sleeping Room. View West.
Worcester House from Entrance Road. View South Southeast.
Worcester House from Fence, Oblique. View South Southeast.
Worcester House Showing Stonewall and Steps. View South Southeast.
Worcester House Front Facade. View Southeast.
Worcester House, Kitchen. Ground Floor. View Southeast.
Worcester House, Second Floor. First Bedroom. View Southeast.
Worcester House, Second Floor. Second Bedroom. View Southeast.
Worcester Smokehouse, Front Façade. View South East.
Worcester Smokehouse Southwest Elevation and Rear Oblique of Worcester House. View
Northwest.
70
NPS Form 10-900
OMB No. 1024-0018
(Expires 5/31/2012)
Name of Property
County and State
65 of 99. Common Cherokee Cabin, Front Façade, Oblique View. Showing Common Cherokee Corn
Crib front Façade on Right. View North.
66 of 99. Common Cherokee Cabin, Rear Elevation, Oblique View. View South.
67 of 99. Common Cherokee Cabin, Interior View Showing Loft. View East.
68 of 99. Common Cherokee Cabin, Interior Wide Angle View, Showing Front Door. View East
69 of 99. Common Cherokee Cabin, Interior View Showing Fireplace. View North.
70 of 99. Common Cherokee Corn Crib, Front Façade. View East.
71 of 99. Common Cherokee Corn Crib, Oblique View. View Northwest.
72 of 99. Common Cherokee Stable, Front Façade. View North.
73 of 99. Common Cherokee Stable, South Elevation. View North.
74 of 99. Common Cherokee Stable, Interior detail of Stall. View East.
75 of 99. Middle Class Cherokee Cabin, Front Façade. View North Northwest.
76 of 99. Middle Class Cherokee Cabin, Front Façade. View North.
77 of 99. Middle Class Cherokee Cabin, Rear Elevation. View South.
78 of 99. Middle Class Cherokee Corn Crib, Front Façade. View West.
79 of 99. Middle Class Cherokee Corn Crib, Oblique Elevation. View Southwest.
80 of 99. Middle Class Cherokee Smokehouse, Front Façade. View East.
81 of 99. Middle Class Cherokee Smokehouse, Oblique View. View Southeast.
82 of 99. Middle Class Cherokee Smokehouse, Interior. View East
83 of 99. Middle Class Cherokee Barn, Front Façade. View North.
84 of 99. Middle Class Cherokee Barn, Oblique View. View Northwest.
85 of 99. Middle Class Cherokee Barn, Rear Elevation. View South.
86 of 99. Middle Class Cherokee Barn, Interior. View South.
87 of 99. Cherokee Memorial Monument. View West.
88 of 99. Cherokee Memorial Monument. Plaque Detail. View West.
89 of 99. New Town Road Alignment. View North.
90 of 99. Boudinot House Site, Well and Basement Location. View Northwest.
91 of 99. Boudinot House Site, Well and Basement Location. Print Shop is Visible. View East.
92 of 99. Boudinot House Site, Well and Basement Location. View South.
93 of 99. New Echota Cemetery, Path to New Echota Cemetery from Parking Area. View Southwest.
94 of 99. New Echota Cemetery, Path to New Echota Cemetery from Parking Area. View Southwest.
95 of 99. New Echota Cemetery, Northern Corner of Cemetery Wall. View Southwest.
96 of 99. New Echota Cemetery, Southwest wall of Cemetery. View Northeast.
97 of 99. New Echota Cemetery, Chief Pathkiller’s Grave. View West.
98 of 99. New Echota Cemetery, Harriet Ruggles’ Grave. View West.
99 of 99. New Echota Cemetery, Jerusha Worcester’s Grave. View West
Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate
properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain a
benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C.460 et seq.).
Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 18 hours per response including time for reviewing
instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of
this form to the Office of Planning and Performance Management. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 1849 C. Street, NW, Washington, DC.
71

National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

Transcription

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