We Are All Kituwah

“We’re all Kituwah.”

That was the greeting whenever Western Cherokees (those relocated to Oklahoma) met North Carolina Cherokees. To what were they referring? To discover the answer, go back 5,000 years; yes 5,000. Before Moses.

Kituwah was a Cherokee village on the Tuckasegee River near today’s Bryson City. Because it was the oldest Cherokee village, Kituwah was a “mother town.” Whenever a new village was being started, Cherokees would come to Kituwah’s great council fire for embers to start their own council fire.

Although now only a mound, legend has it that all Cherokee villages came from Kituwah.

– Ron Smith, S&A Communications