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WCU - Great Smoky Mountains - A Park for America

Kephart's address before Bryson City Women's Club

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Item 1 - Kephart's address before Bryson City Women's Club
wcu_great_smoky_mtns-10439.jpg

Kephart's address before Bryson City Women's Club

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wcu_great_smoky_mtns-10440.jpg

Kephart's address before Bryson City Women's Club

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Item 3 - Kephart's address before Bryson City Women's Club
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Kephart's address before Bryson City Women's Club

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Item 4 - Kephart's address before Bryson City Women's Club
wcu_great_smoky_mtns-10442.jpg

Kephart's address before Bryson City Women's Club

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Item 5 - Kephart's address before Bryson City Women's Club
wcu_great_smoky_mtns-10443.jpg

Kephart's address before Bryson City Women's Club

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Item 6 - Kephart's address before Bryson City Women's Club
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Kephart's address before Bryson City Women's Club

GSMNP_13150_30_06
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Item’s are ‘child’ level descriptions to ‘parent’ objects, (e.g. one page of a whole book).

  • #d southern Appalachian region, mos; | of which they held at the time of j the coming of the whites. '7XM| W_CVf The ethnologist James Mooney who is by far our best authority on ' the language, legends and history ■of the CheKokiees,, sayisi Ithat their original nucleus in the South seems to have been the village of Kituwha. which extended from Governor's Island to well within the presenl limits of Bryson City. Kituwha is mentioned as one of he "seven mother towns" of the tribe in a document of the year 1730. It also appears in a South Carolina act of 1755 regulating tne Indian trade. It was e .'identiy oris of the Cherokee towns destroyed py Rutherford's expedition in 1778, and it was not rebuilt. The inhabitants of Kituwha town were . called Ani_Kituhwagi (pronounced, Ah_nee Ki_too_whah gi.l meaning people of Kituwha. They seem to have controlled all the towns on the Tuckaseegee, the Oko_ naluftee and the Little Tennessee south of the Smoky Mountains; so their name was often given to tne whole body of: Cherokees living o:. those watersheds. And since these as a body were the first to be met in battle by invading tribes from the north, it became a custom of the Delawares, Shawnees, and other northern tribes, to call all Cherokee?" by the name of the Kituwhans. De Soto's March The Cherokees are first mentioned in history in connection with the. great adventure of De Soto, who, in 1539, started from Tampa, Florida with 600 soldiers and 213 horses, on nn exploring and gold_hunting expedition that led for four years through an unknown wilderness. De Soto's little army went first norm into the Appalachian Mountains, then westward across the Mississippi to the great plains, back again to ■A'.e Mississippi, where De Soto diec;. .rid finally to Mexico. Three of De Soto's companions wrote narratives of this extraordi_ n...y march, namely: Ranjel, secre_ n ry of the expedition; Biedma, one of the officers; and a Portuguese I eu ;alier who remains anonymous I o*.i is known simply as "the Gentle_ | man of Elvas." _.( .A'.f _ A* There is a fourth narrative, by e scholarly Inca of Peru, Garcilaso ■ la Vega, who took it from tne , s of an old soldier in the ranxs 4. the expedition; but this was dic_ aeedfrorn memory, forty years af_ ' ter the event, and is not so depend_ iLle as the others. In May, 1540, De Soto was on tne lower Savannah River. The tribe with which he was resting at the . ;ie w:as governed by a woman chief whom the Spaniards called "the queen." Lust For Gold De Soto, lusting for gold, was *iown some implements of copper ikat seemed to be mixed with tne pr'ecious metal. These, the Indians tc.d him, came from a mountain laiovince in the north. He had already eean told by more southern tr.bes . f a rich pro ._ince called Coosa, in he country cf the 'Creeks, lying or_ the watershed of the Coosa River ar.d extending into the mountains This was the particular magnet thai a as drawing him on. The Spaniards were, of course, living off the country as they traveled j This does not mean subsisting o: rame: and fish; for golcl_hunters, have ho time to hunt and fish. Any way, a whole regiment, with horsea could not have been supported m any such manner. It means that 'nt laid tribute upon the IndMns_ wher_ ever^hey went. As a rule, the Indians were, hospitable to the limit of their humble resources; but it was an outrageous tax to meet the needs of so great i: company of visitors. This, we remember, was in May, and the Indians' stock of corn left over from the_ previous year mu_t hav,e been ■ scant by that time. Abuse Hospitality And tthe Spaniards were arrogan:, cruel. They abused the hospitality _f the natives and so_ roused the resentment of the "queen" tftat she refused to furnish them with food I or pack_bearers for the trip into the mountains. Thereupon De Soto eeized the royal lady herself and took her along as coerced guide ano hostage. They struck out northward and "irst met Cherokees in what the chroniclers call "the .province cf .nhalaque," which Mooney locates o he Keowee River, near the presert P'tckens, South Carolina. Tnere #••*._• fvMwn to have been a cluster ot Cherokee villages in that region. It was a focus of important trails, one of which, at a later time, and pro_ /*^J
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Great Smoky Mountains - A Park for America

This digital collection was created to contribute to the public's understanding of the forces and ideas that led to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934. The most vi...

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