The Noquisiyi Mound in Franklin seems poised to be returned to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians after the town’s council voted unanimously to return the land last week.
The mound was part of a Cherokee mother-town hundreds of years before the founding of the United States and is sacred to the Cherokee people. Since the early 1800s, it has either been owned by private land owners or by the town itself.
“Nikwasi once stood at the center of a living Cherokee community, and today it remains the last visible marker of that town,” Principal Chief of the EBCI Michell Hicks said in a Facebook post. “Bringing it back under Cherokee ownership ensures it will be cared for as it should be, guided by our values and our responsibility to future generations.”
The change of ownership resulted from a joint effort by the EBCI, the Town of Franklin, and the Noquisi Initiative. The Initiative, which is made up of representatives from Franklin, Macon County, the Mainspring Conservation Trust, and the Eastern Band, has held the deed to the mound since 2019.
Elaine Eisenbraun, executive director of the initiative, said the decision closes a circle that has been open for hundreds of years.
“There’s the old adage you can’t go home, but I said at the Town Council meeting, you can go home,” Eisenbraun said. “Not just people can go home but places can go home. It’s time for this mound to go home to its people.”
Conversations about transferring ownership of the mound began in 2012 after a town employee sprayed herbicide on the sacred site, causing the grass to die. The incident led to tension with the Eastern Band.
In 2019, Noquisi Initiative was created to serve as a bridge between Cherokee and non-Cherokee communities and to steward the mound.
READ MORE HERE: Franklin Town Council Moves Forward To Give Sacred Mound To Nonprofit
With the Town Council’s decision on Jan. 5, any preservation agreement restrictions and encumbrances attached to the deed will not carry over in the transfer of the land which was very important to all parties, according to Franklin Mayor Stacey Guffey.
“I’m so proud of our board,” Guffey said. “It was an action they took because their hearts were in the right place to do the right thing.”
The tribe’s council will eventually vote on whether to formally approve the transfer in the coming months.
