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During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, tribal communities composed of several different towns and groups of towns formed out of the vestiges of the diverse Mississippian chiefdoms that rose and fell in southeastern North America from the eleventh through the sixteenth centuries (Galloway 1994, 1995; Knight 1994a; Muller 1997; J. F. Scarry 1994a, 1996a; Wesson 1999; Widmer 1994). As the seventeenth century drew to a close, the community that became known as the Cherokee formed within the cultural landscape of southwestern North Carolina and surrounding areas (Champagne 1983, 1990; Dickens 1978, 1979; Goodwin 1977; Hatley 1989, 1995; Hill 1997; Persico 1979). This paper reviews ethnohistoric evidence about native cultures and communities of southwestern North Carolina and surrounding areas in southern Appalachia and its relevance to the archaeological study of Cherokee cultural history. I concentrate especially on the travel journal of the Quaker naturalist William Bartram and his re®ections on visiting the southern Appalachians during the eighteenth century. Several crisscrossing mountain ranges in western North Carolina form the natural landscape of a cultural and geographic province known as the Appalachian Summit (Figure 5.1)(Kroeber 1939:95; Purrington 1983:83). Bartram visited the Middle Cherokee towns and surrounding countryside in these mountains on the eve of the American Revolution (Figure 5.2)(Waselkov and Braund 1995:72–88). His path of travel across southeastern North America eventually led him through several Upper Creek towns (see Braund 1993:10; Dimmick 1989:2; Lolley 1996:5). Some of his writing compares and contrasts the material culture and social structures of Iroquoian-speaking Cherokee groups and Muskogean-speaking Creek communities (Waselkov and Braund 1995:110–186). Although his travels and journals date to the late eighteenth century, William Bartram’s written descriptions of Cherokee lifeways and architecture are valuable ethnohistoric material for archaeologists interested in earlier periods (see I. W. Brown 1993:278–279; Dickens 1967:10–11; Hammett 1997:201–202; Waselkov 1997:185–187). Of course the lives of native people and communities across the Southeast had changed dramatically during the eighteenth century through their 5 / William Bartram and the Archaeology of the Appalachian Summit Christopher B. Rodning involvement in the deerskin trade and all the con®icts with Europeans and native allies that came with it. However, there are relatively few eyewitness accounts of native cultures and communities in the southern Appalachians between the Spanish explorations during the sixteenth century and the more permanent English presence in the mountains during the middle and late eighteenth century (see Adair 1930 [1775]; Baden 1983; Chicken 1928; Corkran 1962, 1967, 1969; Cuming 1928; Davis 1990; DePratter 1991, 1994; DeVorsey 1971, 1998; Gearing 1958, 1962; Hatley 1995; D. H. King and Evans 1977; Mereness 1916; Merrell 1989; Mooney 1887, 1891, 1900; Randolph 1973; Sattler 1995; B. A. Smith 1979; M. T. Smith 1987; Timberlake 1927). Therefore, archaeologists interested in Cherokee lifeways and the Appalachian Summit cultural landscape during the seventeenth century often rely upon ethnohistoric evidence dating to the late sixteenth or late eighteenth century, at least as starting points for archaeological research (see Beck 1997:162–163; Dickens 1967:3–5; C. Hudson 1990:94–101; M. T. Smith 1987:11–22). This chapter concentrates on the writings of William Bartram, whose journals and essays offer a vivid portrait of what the landscapes along his path of travel looked like.1 I relate his writing to archaeological problems and interests in the Appalachian Summit, where considerable surveys and excavations have been done and where there is great potential for further ¤eldwork.2 First I trace Bartram’s route of travel through the Appalachian Summit. Then I outline several anthropological Figure 5.1 Cherokee towns and the route of William Bartram. 68 / Christopher B. Rodning Figure 5.2 Archaeology in the upper Little T ennessee Valley, North Carolina. topics that come up in Bartram’s journal and that are worth further archaeological consideration in the Appalachian Summit. His journal offers some valuable material to compare and contrast with spatial patterns in the archaeological record of the Appalachian Summit, even though his visit to southern Appalachia came well after the Cherokee became enmeshed in the deerskin trade and other forms of interaction with European colonists. My conclusions comment on one scene from his journal that illustrates both the cultural upheaval within native communities during that century and the persistence of some traditions in the secluded cultural landscape of the Appalachian Summit, which was relatively far away from major European colonial settlements during much of the...

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