The Council or Town House is a large rotunda, capable of accommodating several hundred people. It stands on the top of an ancient artificial mount of earth of about 20 feet perpendicular and the rotunda on the top of it, being above 30 feet more, gives the whole fabric an elevation of about 60 feet from the common surface of the ground. But it may be proper to observe that this mount on which the rotunda stands is of a much ancienter date than the building, and perhaps was raised for another purpose. The Cherokees themselves are as ignorant as we are by what people or for what purpose these artificial hills were raised. * * *
The rotunda is constructed after the following manner: They first fix in the ground a circular range of posts or trunks of trees, about 6 feet high, at equal distances, which are notched at top to receive into them, from one to another, a range of beams or wall plates. Within this is another circular order of very large and strong pillars, above 12 feet high, notched in like manner at top to receive another range of wall plates, and within this is yet another or third range of stronger and higher pillars, but fewer in number, and standing at a greater distance from each other; and, lastly, in the center stands a very strong pillar, which forms the pinnacle of the building, and to which the rafters center at top; these rafters are strengthened and bound together by cross-beams and laths, which sustain the roof or covering, which is a layer of bark neatly placed and tight enough to exclude the rain, and sometimes they cast a thin superficies of earth over all.
There is but one large door, which serves at the same time to admit light from without and the smoke to escape when a fire is kindled; but as there is but a small fire kept, sufficient to give light at night, and that fed with dry, small, sound wood, divested of its bark, there is but little smoke; all around the inside of the building, betwixt the second range of pillars and the wall, is a range of cabins or sophas consisting of two or three steps, one above or behind the other, in theatrical order, where the assembly sit or lean down; these sophas are covered with mats or carpets very curiously made with thin splits of ash or oak woven or platted together; near the great pillar in the center the fire is kindled for light, near which the musicians seat themselves, and around about this the performers exhibit their dances and other shows at public festivals, which happen almost every night [throughout] the year.
From indications, not necessary to be mentioned here, Professor Carr argues that the mound could not have been intended for burial purposes, but was evidently erected for the foundation of a building of some kind.
In a subsequent paper,[54] "Mounds of the Mississippi Valley," he not only adheres to the theory advanced in the tenth report of the Peabody Museum, but gives additional reasons for believing it to be true.
Although guided by very dim and feeble rays of light I am nevertheless inclined to believe that Professor Carr has succeeded in entering the pathway that is to lead to a correct solution of the problem in this case. As is apparent from what has been given in this paper regarding the burial mounds of this district, much additional data bearing on the point have been obtained since Professor Carr's explorations were made, on which he bases his conclusions.
The Cherokee tribe has long been a puzzling factor to students of ethnology and North American languages. Whether to be considered an abnormal offshoot from one of the well-known Indian stocks or families of North America, or the remnant of some undetermined or almost extinct family which has merged into another, appear to be questions yet unsettled; but they are questions which do not trouble us in the present inquiry; on the contrary, their ethnic isolation and tribal characteristics are aids in the investigation.
That the internal arrangement of the mounds, modes of burial, and vestiges of art of this district present sufficient peculiarities to distinguish them from the mounds, modes of burial, and vestiges of art of all the other districts, as I have already stated, will be conceded by any one who will carefully study them and make the comparison. If, therefore, it be admitted, as stated, that the Cherokees are a somewhat peculiar people, an abnormal tribe, we have in this a coincidence worthy of note, if strengthened by corroborating testimony.
As the mounds and other remains to be referred to are located in the northwest part of North Carolina and the northern part of East Tennessee, the first point to be established is that the Cherokees did actually, at some time, occupy this region.
In the first place, it is well known that they claimed all that portion of the country east of Clinch River to and including the northwest part of North Carolina, at least to the Yadkin, a claim which was conceded by the whites and acted on officially by State and national authority and denied by no Indian tribe.