21g BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 118 



wrote of what lie saw, with no intent to do other than convey a cor- 

 rect impression, one is driven to the conclusion that the Cherokee 

 town house in use by the Over Hill Cherokee in 1762, on Little 

 Tennessee Eiver, was, except in form (circular), quite similar to 

 those discovered in the Norris Basin. 



In his Memoirs, Timberlake published a map of the Over Hill 

 Cherokee country, a map which for that day was remarkable for 

 its accuracy and wealth of information. This map has been re- 

 published by many later historians and may be seen as plate XXVI 

 of the Twelfth Annual Eeport of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 

 In this map of the Little Tennessee Kiver country Timberlake shows 

 the location of some ten or more large villages of the Over Hill 

 Cherokee, along the course of the Little Tennessee River. The most 

 important of these villages, named from east to west in order down- 

 stream, are: Tellassee, Chilhowey, Halfway Town, Settacoo, Great 

 Chote, Tennessee, Toqua, Tommotley, Toskegee, and Mialaquo, or 

 Great Island. Not only does he locate each of these villages, and 

 show a map of the river and the trails connecting these settlements, 

 together with old Fort Loudon on Tellequo River, but his map 

 actually shows the location of the town house in each village. 



After reading Timberlake's description of these Cherokee town 

 houses, and comparing it with the remains found in the Norris Basin, 

 it is quite natural to wonder if a town house site on the Little Tennessee 

 River would show the same archaeological features as those found in 

 the Norris Basin. The question arises as to whether the sites of the 

 old town houses of the Over Hill Cherokee can be definitely located 

 today ; and, if so, what story would they have to tell. To obtain a par- 

 tial answer to these questions the author visited the Over Hill Chero- 

 kee country in the spring of 1934 and was greatly surprised to note 

 with what ease these old village sites may still be located. In the 

 vicinity of nearly every village located by Timberlake can be found 

 one or more mounds which, the author believes, in many cases, repre- 

 sent the collapsed town house of the village, where such town houses 

 were "raised with logs" and "covered with earth", as Timberlake says. 



In 1881 Cyrus Thomas began for the Bureau of American Eth- 

 nology a long series of mound explorations, which continued for 

 several years and covered the eastern United States. During these 

 investigations Thomas excavated, more or less completely, most of the 

 mounds on the Little Tennessee River. Had these remained undis- 

 turbed until the present time they would surely have presented a 

 very similar appearance to the mounds of the Norris Basin. Plate 136 

 shows the mound which today marks Toqua town-house site. The 

 results of these excavations were submitted by the Bureau of Ameri- 

 can Ethnology, 1891, to the Smithsonian Institution in the Twelfth 



