90 BURIAL MOUNDS OF THE NORTHERN SECTIONS. 
settlement, or were settled on or near the Nolichucky; the second is, 
that they were driven from some more northern section by their ene- 
mies; and third, their constant and persistent claim that, of right, 
the country about the headwaters of the Holston and eastward into 
North Carolina belonged to them. 
From all the light, therefore, that I can obtain on this subject, Tam 
satisfied the Cherokees had at some time in the past moved south- 
ward from a more northern location than that which they were found 
occupying when first encountered by the whites. ‘Lhis corresponds with 
one of their traditions given by Haywood, that they formerly dwelt 
on the Ohio and built the mounds there. That they did at one time 
actually oceupy the section in which the mounds we allude to are situ- 
ated cannot be doubted. 
Turning now to the mounds of Kast Tennessee and North Carolina, 
to which allusion has been made, let us see what testimony they furnish 
on the point now under discussion. 
The particular works to which we refer are those located in Caldwell 
County, North Carolina, and Sullivan County, East Tennessee, deserip- 
tions of which have been given. 
Although we cannot say positively that no other tribe occupied this 
particular section between 1540 and 1690, still the evidence and indi- 
cations leading to that conclusion are so strong as to justify us in assum- 
ingit. We find their frontiers on the borders of Georgia in 1540; we can 
trace back their settlements on the Hiawassee to a period preceding 1652. 
We have evidence that the settlements on the Little Tennessee were 
still older, and that even these were made subsequent to those on the 
Nolichucky. We have their own tradition, as given by Lederer, that 
they migrated to this region about the close of the thirteenth century 
from a more northern section; and, finally, their uniform and persistent 
statement, from the time first encountered by Europeans, that when 
they came to this region they found it uninhabited, with the exception 
of a Creek settlement on the lower Hiawassee. This clearly indicates 
amovement southward, a fact of much importance in the study of this 
somewhat abnormal tribe. . 
If, therefore, we can show that these mounds, or any of the typical 
ones, were constructed since the discovery of America, we have good 
reason to believe that they are to be attributed to the Cherokees, not- 
withstanding their statement to Bartram that they did not build the 
one at Cowe. 
At the bottom of one of the largest mounds found in this region, the 
T. F. Nelson triangle heretofore described, and by the side of the skel- 
eton of the principal personage interred in it, as shown by the arrange- 
ment of the bodies of those buried with him, and by the ornaments and 
implements found with him, were discovered tuiree pieces of iron. That 
one of the pieces, at least, is part of an implement of Huropean manu- 
facture, I think no one who examines it will doubt (see Fig. 31). It ap- 
