What does the name mean?

You ever wonder how your state park or favorite lake, river or waterway got its name? Several in this part of Tennessee are given Cherokee Indian names, of course most all of this area belonged to the native people of the Cherokees. I live near a lake named after the once great nations of native people, Cherokee Lake. This name is easily figured out where it got its name from, but others aren't so obvious. I frequently camp on a lake about a hundred miles from home, and I knew the name was Cherokee, but that's all I knew about it. Tellico Lake got its name from the one of the largest Cherokee towns in the region, Great Tellico or written more properly in Cherokee "Telikwa". 191 bodies were recovered from the area before building the Dam that now floods these areas with water. The bodies were placed at the site of Sequoyah Birthplace Museum which is surrounded by Tellico Lake.

I've camped and fished all over this area, and never realized that I have boated over and fished above some of the mounds of this once great town. I've been up stream to Chota site where there are 8 pillars, one for each of the 7 Cherokee Clans and one pillar for the Cherokee Nation.

I was so oblivious to all of this I feel somewhat ashamed. I will be going there next week to camp, and I will remember this once great nation, the same place that I will be sleeping under the stars, where possibly at the same spot where some of the great warriors like Oconastota slept.

So let's hear about your neck of the woods.

 

Oh I forgot, here's a picture of the site and monument of Chota. I hope the picture posts.

 

I used to live in Upstate NY, not far from the Onondaga Nation. The Iroquois Confederacy started out with 5 nations, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga and Seneca, then the Tuscarora people joined later. There is a lot of their history there, and in the names too. When i lived up there, the Onondaga Nation was trying to remain a traditional nation, no casinos and such.
Now where i live, the Yemassee people used to reside. Most places (not all) local to me are named after famous Europeans" from history.

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Located at the East Gate entrance.

 

At 173 feet tall, the wooden tribal totem in Alert Bay, British Colombia is demonstrably the tallest tower of its kind in the entire world, but many people have argued that for a number of reasons it is not worthy of the surprisingly contentious title. One reason being that it is two parts.



The true heir to the title of world’s tallest totem pole is a 140 foot pole located in Kalama, Washington, which is one solid length of wood. However because it was not carved by an indigenous artisan some do not count it as a proper totem pole either.

 

Interesting. The Cherokee Reservation, just over the mountains in North Carolina, have casinos there now. The Cherokee there weren't very financially prosperous till the casinos came. The Cherokee nation are slowly buying some of their tribal lands back. My personal belief is that the Tennessee Valley Authority shouldn't have dammed up Tellico lake. It flooded some of the trible lands of the Cherokee. When I get there next Thursday morning maybe I should drop an offering of tobacco, beans and corn over the front of the boat where the town used to be. Maybe have my wife write up something in Cherokee for me to recite, she's pretty good with that stuff. Thank the great spirits of the past for allowing me to camp and fish on their land.

The totem poles are awsome. I've seen some when I lived in Michigan, but down here the Cherokee aren't to into that. I think they prefer to make canoes out of the trees. We don't have the birch trees, for canoe making, down here like up north.

 

I hate that the places were dammed. But to be honest, the alternative of nuclear power was rejected. I mean, I'm from the local area also, and I did read about the plant planned over the mountain from me. But anyway, at the time of the damming, there wasn't even a nuclear option and also well, the lakes are rather enjoyable for recreation.

 

I am amused with the interesting place you have shown especially with the description about Cherokee Lake and other lakes as well. But I am more interested with the line that you said you have camped and fished in the area. I still have to experience real fishing in a camping trip where we would catch big fish that aside from eating we would also bring some for home. My father used to fish in a water called Angat Dam which is near Manila. But they didn't use rod and reel. What he brought was his 22-caliber rifle and ammunition. When he would shoot a fish, the natives there would dive on the water to get the fish. He and his companions would shoot so many catfish and mudfish that they would put inside bamboo poles and put salt as a means of preservation. We had eaten a lot of those fish.