Landslide Update: Nikwasi Mound Saved

It has taken more than 200 years, but the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have finally reclaimed the Nikwasi Mound—a sacred piece of their ancestral homeland that is core to their identity. The approximately 1,000-year-old mound, the last physical vestige of the 100-acre agrarian community of Nikwasi, has played a pivotal role in the history of the region and has withstood numerous attempts of erasure.

On January 5, 2026, the Franklin, North Carolina-based Noquisi Iniative (formerly Nikwasi Initiative) announced that the deed for the mound was successfully conferred to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The site was featured by The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) in the report and digital exhibition Landslide 2021: Race and Space; it was among thirteen threatened cultural landscapes across eleven states and spanning almost a millennium of history—from this Cherokee mound, to the modern urban landscapes of Chicago, Milwaukee, and New York.

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Nikwasi is considered one of two Cherokee “mother towns,” closely associated with the Cherokee origin story. Built during the Mississippian period (approximately 1000 to 1700 A.D.), the mound, situated at the center of the town, is typical of other Cherokee mounds in that it originally supported a council house that was central to the daily practical and spiritual needs of the community.

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The town of Nikwasi sustained great damage during the French and Indian War of 1761; during which the mound was occupied by the English army for a field hospital. During the American Revolution fifteen years later, the Nikwasi Mound was again occupied, this time by American General Griffith Rutherford and his troops waging attacks on the Cherokee.

In the early nineteenth century, the Cherokee lost control of the land, and Nikwasi was gradually redeveloped into the town of Franklin, North Carolina. The central mound was purchased by a wealthy, white North Carolinian in 1821 and kept as a novelty greenspace for decades. In 1946 the town took possession of the mound, utilizing it as a tourist attraction despite persistent Cherokee claims of ownership. While the mound was preserved, the land surrounding it was developed for infrastructure.

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Concerns about Franklin’s stewardship escalated in 2012 when a town employee sprayed herbicide across the mound’s surface, killing its vegetation. Members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians reignited their appeal to reclaim ownership, but their offers to purchase the land were rejected.

In 2016 the Noquisi Initiative was established, a partnership comprising members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Franklin Town Council, Macon County officials, and Mainspring Conservancy, along with community heritage advocates, seeking to honor and protect the heritage and homeland of the Cherokee people. Three years later the Town of Franklin agreed to transfer the deed for the Nikwasi Mound to the Noquisi Initiative. The nonprofit had hoped to subsequently bequeath the deed fully to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, but language in the deed precluded the transfer without a town council vote.

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TCLF enrolled the mound as a Landslide site in 2021 because the encroaching commercial development, environmental contamination, and years of deferred care by the town threatened the integrity of the site’s cultural and historical significance.

In early 2025, the Noquisi Initiative revitalized their efforts, and on January 5, 2026, the Franklin Town Council voted in favor of conferring the deed for the Nikwasi Mound to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Dr. Ben Steere, professor and head of the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Western Carolina University, who is featured in a Landslide Conversation about the site, said that the Nikwasi Mound “is a very special place…The Town of Franklin’s resolution to return the mound to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is exciting news, and it is the result of meaningful partnerships between the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the Noquisi Initiative, and many people in the region who care about the preservation of this important place.” With the site now reclaimed, the Cherokee can work to rehabilitate this sacred cultural landscape.