THOMAS. THE CHEROKEES AS MOUND-BUILDERS. 95 
Three conical copper ear-pendants. 
Three buttons of modern type. 
One small brass gouge. 
Fragments of iron articles belonging to a bridle. 
One bronze sleigh-bell. 
One stone awl or drill. 
Fragment of a soapstone pot. 
One soapstone gorget. 
Several polished stone celts of the same pattern as those found in the 
North Carolina mounds. 
Grooved stone axes. 
A piece of sheet lead. 
This admixture of articles of civilized and savage life confirms the 
statement made by Haywood, at least so far as regards the early 
presence of white people in this section. It follows from what has been 
presented that the Indians must have been Cherokees, and the fact that 
the implements and ornaments of aboriginal manufacture found here 
are throughout precisely like those found in the mounds before men- 
tioned affords a very strong proof that they were built by the Chero- 
kees. 
It is worthy of notice that close by the side of this washout stands 
amound. Permission to open it has not yet been obtained. 
teturning to our mounds, we note that a large number of stones, evi- 
dently used for cracking nuts, were found in and about them; some 
charred acorns, or nuts of some kind, were also found in them. We 
have only to refer to Adair and other early writers to see how well the 
indications agree with the customs of the Cherokees. 
According to the Cherokee tradition, they founda settlement of Creeks 
on the Lower Hiawassee, when they reached that region, and drove 
them away. Ramsay expresses the opinion in his Annals of Tennes- 
see, on what authority is not known, that this was a Uchee settlement. 
Hence the southern boundary of their possessions, at this early date, 
which must have been before the time of De Soto’s expedition, was 
about the present northern boundary of Georgia. That their borders, 
at the time of De Soto’s march, extended into northeastern Georgia is 
proved by the chroniclers of his expedition, but that they did not reach 
as far south as Bartow County can be shown from one somewhat sin- 
gular circumstance, which, at the same time, will furnish strong reasons 
for believing that the authors of the works immediately south of this 
boundary could not have built the mounds we have been considering. 
It will be admitted, I presume, by every one, that the people over 
whom the famous cacique of Cutifachiqui reigned could not have been 
Cherokees; yet her territory included Xuala, probably in Nacoochee 
valley, and extended westward well toward Guaxule on the headwaters 
of the Coosa, but that the latter was not within the territory of her tribe 
is expressly stated by Garcilasso de la Vega. I think it may be safely 
assumed that her people were Creeks; and, if so, that the people of 
