Tuskegee (Cherokee town)

Reconstruction of a typical 19th-century Tuskegee Village dwelling at Ft. Loudoun State Park

Tuskegee was an Overhill Cherokee village originally on the bank of the Little Tennessee River at the mouth of the Tellico River. Today the site lies under the artificial lake, Tellico Reservoir, created by Tellico Dam.

During the Chickamauga wars, nearly all of Tuskegee's inhabitants joined the warriors of Dragging Canoe and emigrated southwest to the later Chattanooga, Tennessee area, where they founded a town with the same name on an island in the Tennessee River which is now called Williams Island but for nearly a century was called Tuskeegee Island. Its Cherokee name was "Taskigi".

Tuskegee was the childhood home of Sequoyah, who created the Cherokee syllabary.

See also

• Ft. Loudoun State Park - near Vonore, Tennessee

• Cherokee Heritage Trails - Provides directions to and basic information on the Overhill Cherokee towns in Tennessee

References

• Mooney, James. "Myths of the Cherokee" (1900, reprint 1995). (see James Mooney)