Chilhowee (Cherokee town)

Chilhowee (Cherokee: ᏧᎷᎾᎢ, romanized: Tsulunawe) was a prehistoric and historic Native American site in present-day Blount and Monroe counties in Tennessee, in what were the Southeastern Woodlands.

Although Chilhowee was destroyed by Euro-American frontiersmen who fought the Cherokee in the late 18th century, the village's name is still used for various entities throughout East Tennessee.

Chilhowee Dam, completed in 1957 by the Aluminum Company of America's Tapoco Division, is situated approximately 34 miles (55 km) above the mouth of the Little Tennessee.

According to anthropologist Charles Hudson, the Juan Pardo expedition entered the upper Tennessee Valley (then occupied by part of the Chiaha chiefdom) in late 1567 via the Pigeon River.

Based on the chronicles of the Pardo expedition, which were not translated into English until the late 20th century, Hudson believes Olamico was located on Zimmerman's Island (now submerged by Douglas Lake).

On October 13, Pardo left Olamico, traveling southwest across the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains en route to the Coosa chiefdom in northern Georgia.

[1] Expedition notary Juan de la Bandera described Chalahume's topographic situation as similar to the Spanish city of Córdoba—a grapevine-filled valley at the base of high mountains—a description that fits Chilhowee.

[5] Timberlake's map, Draught of the Cherokee Country (1762), published with his memoir, shows 18 dwellings and a townhouse at Chilhowee; he listed Yachtino as the town's headman and noted 110 warriors residing there.

When the Cherokee aligned themselves with the British at the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1776, Old Abraham, The Raven, and Dragging Canoe (the head man at Mialoquo) led a three-pronged attack against the rebel encampments at Fort Watauga, Carter's Valley, and Heaton's station, respectively.

[7] In 1788, Old Abraham and several other chiefs were tomahawked to death under a flag of truce by a son of John Kirk, a settler whose family had been massacred by members of the Cherokee militant factions on Nine Mile Creek.