North Carolina Cherokees claim to be descendants of Clovis Culture
The original Native American inhabitants of the French Broad River Valley lived in simple huts woven from saplings.
The
Eastern Band of Cherokees recently issued a press release, in which a
cultural heritage official of the tribe, Barbara Duncan, described a
program, which will help preserve 10,000 year old Cherokee artifacts
around North America. An initial project is on the Biltmore Estate
near Asheville,
NC. Archaeologists label these artifacts as the Clovis Culture. A
newspaper in Asheville developed the press release into a community news
article about archaeological projects on the Biltmore Estate.
The Asheville-Citizen Times reporter and Duncan described the Cherokee-Clovis artifacts as being associated with the Archaic Period. However, the Clovis Culture belongs to the Paleo-American Period. Clovis artifacts date from about 13,500 to 10,500 years ago, not 8,000 BC as stated by the article.
No archaeological reference could be found that confirmed the Eastern Band’s new claim of Clovis and Archaic Period artifacts being made by the Cherokees. The oldest known Clovis artifacts were found at the Topper Site on the Savannah River in Allendale County, SC, north of Savannah, GA. At the time that French Huguenots explored that region in 1562 through 1565, it was occupied by Uchee and Apalache-Creek Indian villages. Nearby was the famous Apalache-Creek town of Palachikola.
Without specifically mentioning the Clovis Culture, the Eastern Band of Cherokees has long claimed that the Cherokees were the first humans in North America, plus that the Aztecs and Mayas were their descendants. However, most such films and publications get their chronology mixed up and place the Aztecs in an earlier time period than the Mayas, when in fact, the opposite is true.
A humorous mistake was made by the North Carolina archaeologists and Eastern Band tribal officials, who were interviewed for the newspaper article. Both claimed that a Woodland Period (250-500 AD) village on the Biltmore Estate was a Cherokee community, but was for scientific reasons, was labeled as being the Connestee Culture. The meaning of the Cherokee word, Coneste was supposedly forgotten. According to the Dictionary of Muskogee-Creek by University of Oklahoma professors Jack Martin and Margaret Mauldin, Connestee is the Anglicization of the Itsate-Creek word Konos-te, which means, "Spotted Skunk People." Neither the English or Creek word has any meaning in Cherokee, other than being a proper noun.
Duncan is employed by the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. The museum’s logo is a shell gorget, which was found in eastern Missouri across the Mississippi River from Cahokia Mounds. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Cultural Preservation Office uses as its logo, a shell gorget, which was found in Mound C at Etowah Mounds in northwest Georgia, which the Muscogee-Creek Nation of Oklahoma considers to be its Mother Town.
Cherokee Heritage Trails Guide, a book published by the University of North Carolina Press claims that the Cherokees were the people, who developed corn, beans and squash into cultivated crops in addition to being the first humans in the Americas. The book was co-authored by Duncan and Dr. Brett Riggs, an anthropology professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, These claims also cannot be verified by other anthropological or archaeological references.
When French explorers first paddled up the French Broad River in the 1690s, the entire region around present day Asheville and Hendersonville, NC was occupied by Shawnee and Creek Indians. The Swannanoa River gets its name from the Creek words, Suwano Owa, which mean Shawnee River. A very large Shawnee village was located near the present location of entrance gate at the Biltmore Estate. The region around Asheville continued to be occupied by Shawnee villages until 1763, when the Shawnee were expelled because they were allies of the French. No American Indians were allowed to live in the region afterward. However, in the late 20th century, the Asheville Chamber of Commerce began advertising Asheville as the "Ancient Heart of the Cherokee Nation" and residents quickly forgot the region's actual Shawnee heritage.
The Asheville-Citizen Times reporter and Duncan described the Cherokee-Clovis artifacts as being associated with the Archaic Period. However, the Clovis Culture belongs to the Paleo-American Period. Clovis artifacts date from about 13,500 to 10,500 years ago, not 8,000 BC as stated by the article.
No archaeological reference could be found that confirmed the Eastern Band’s new claim of Clovis and Archaic Period artifacts being made by the Cherokees. The oldest known Clovis artifacts were found at the Topper Site on the Savannah River in Allendale County, SC, north of Savannah, GA. At the time that French Huguenots explored that region in 1562 through 1565, it was occupied by Uchee and Apalache-Creek Indian villages. Nearby was the famous Apalache-Creek town of Palachikola.
Without specifically mentioning the Clovis Culture, the Eastern Band of Cherokees has long claimed that the Cherokees were the first humans in North America, plus that the Aztecs and Mayas were their descendants. However, most such films and publications get their chronology mixed up and place the Aztecs in an earlier time period than the Mayas, when in fact, the opposite is true.
A humorous mistake was made by the North Carolina archaeologists and Eastern Band tribal officials, who were interviewed for the newspaper article. Both claimed that a Woodland Period (250-500 AD) village on the Biltmore Estate was a Cherokee community, but was for scientific reasons, was labeled as being the Connestee Culture. The meaning of the Cherokee word, Coneste was supposedly forgotten. According to the Dictionary of Muskogee-Creek by University of Oklahoma professors Jack Martin and Margaret Mauldin, Connestee is the Anglicization of the Itsate-Creek word Konos-te, which means, "Spotted Skunk People." Neither the English or Creek word has any meaning in Cherokee, other than being a proper noun.
Duncan is employed by the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. The museum’s logo is a shell gorget, which was found in eastern Missouri across the Mississippi River from Cahokia Mounds. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Cultural Preservation Office uses as its logo, a shell gorget, which was found in Mound C at Etowah Mounds in northwest Georgia, which the Muscogee-Creek Nation of Oklahoma considers to be its Mother Town.
Cherokee Heritage Trails Guide, a book published by the University of North Carolina Press claims that the Cherokees were the people, who developed corn, beans and squash into cultivated crops in addition to being the first humans in the Americas. The book was co-authored by Duncan and Dr. Brett Riggs, an anthropology professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, These claims also cannot be verified by other anthropological or archaeological references.
When French explorers first paddled up the French Broad River in the 1690s, the entire region around present day Asheville and Hendersonville, NC was occupied by Shawnee and Creek Indians. The Swannanoa River gets its name from the Creek words, Suwano Owa, which mean Shawnee River. A very large Shawnee village was located near the present location of entrance gate at the Biltmore Estate. The region around Asheville continued to be occupied by Shawnee villages until 1763, when the Shawnee were expelled because they were allies of the French. No American Indians were allowed to live in the region afterward. However, in the late 20th century, the Asheville Chamber of Commerce began advertising Asheville as the "Ancient Heart of the Cherokee Nation" and residents quickly forgot the region's actual Shawnee heritage.
No comments:
Post a Comment