Some say that the mounds were built by another people. Others say
they were built by the ancestors of the old Ani'-Kitu'hwagi for
townhouse foundations, so that the townhouses would be safe when
freshets came. The townhouse was always built on the level bottom
lands by the river in order that the people might have smooth ground
for their dances and ballplays and might be able to go down to water
during the dance.
When they were ready to build the mound they began by laying a circle
of stones on the surface of the ground. Next they made a fire in
the center of the circle and put near it the body of some prominent
chief or priest who had lately died--some say seven chief men from the
different clans--together with an Ulûñsû'ti stone, an uktena scale or
horn, a feather from the right wing of an eagle or great tla'nuwa,
which lived in those days, and beads of seven colors, red, white,
black, blue, purple, yellow, and gray-blue. The priest then conjured
all these with disease, so that, if ever an enemy invaded the country,
even though he should burn and destroy the town and the townhouse,
he would never live to return home.
The mound was then built up with earth, which the women brought in
baskets, and as they piled it above the stones, the bodies of their
great men, and the sacred things, they left an open place at the fire
in the center and let down a hollow cedar trunk, with the bark on,
which fitted around the fire and protected it from the earth. This
cedar log was cut long enough to reach nearly to the surface inside the
townhouse when everything was done. The earth was piled up around it,
and the whole mound was finished off smoothly, and then the townhouse
was built upon it. One man, called the fire keeper, stayed always in
the townhouse to feed and tend the fire. When there was to be a dance
or a council he pushed long stalks of the ihyâ'ga weed, which some
call atsil'-sûñ'ti, "the fire maker" (Erigeron canadense or fleabane),
down through the opening in the cedar log to the fire at the bottom. He
left the ends of the stalks sticking out and piled lichens and punk
around, after which he prayed, and as he prayed the fire climbed up
along the stalks until it caught the punk. Then he put on wood, and by
the time the dancers were ready there was a large fire blazing in the
townhouse. After the dance he covered the hole over again with ashes,
but the fire was always smoldering below. Just before the Green-corn
dance, in the old times, every fire in the settlement was extinguished
and all the people came and got new fire from the townhouse. This was
called atsi'la galûñkw'ti'yu, "the honored or sacred fire." Sometimes
when the fire in a house went out, the woman came to the fire keeper,
who made a new fire by rubbing an ihyâ'ga stalk against the under
side of a hard dry fungus that grows upon locust trees.
Some say this everlasting fire was only in the larger mounds at
Nikwasi', Kitu'hwa, and a few other towns, and that when the new fire
was thus drawn up for the Green-corn dance it was distributed from them
to the other settlements. The fire burns yet at the bottom of these
great mounds, and when the Cherokee soldiers were camped near Kitu'hwa
during the civil war they saw smoke still rising from the mound.
The Cherokee once had a wooden box, nearly square and wrapped up
in buckskin, in which they kept the most sacred things of their old
religion. Upon every important expedition two priests carried it in
turn and watched over it in camp so that nothing could come near to
disturb it. The Delawares captured it more than a hundred years ago,
and after that the old religion was neglected and trouble came to the
Nation. They had also a great peace pipe, carved from white stone,
with seven stem-holes, so that seven men could sit around and smoke
from it at once at their peace councils. In the old town of Keowee they
had a drum of stone, cut in the shape of a turtle, which was hung up
inside the townhouse and used at all the town dances. The other towns
of the Lower Cherokee used to borrow it, too, for their own dances.
All the old things are gone now and the Indians are different.