Tuskegee (Cherokee town)

35°35′43″N 84°12′08″W / 35.59517°N 84.20227°W / 35.59517; -84.20227

Tuskegee ("Toskegee") and Fort Loudoun, as they appeared on Henry Timberlake's "Draught of the Cherokee Country"

Tuskegee (also spelled Toskegee, Taskigi, and similar variations) was an Overhill Cherokee town located along the lower Little Tennessee River in what is now Monroe County, Tennessee, United States. The town developed in the late 1750s alongside Fort Loudoun, and was inhabited until the late 1770s. It was forcibly evacuated and probably burned during the Cherokee–American wars.

Tuskegee is perhaps best known as the birthplace of Sequoyah (Cherokee, c.1770-1843), a craftsman and polymath who independently created the Cherokee syllabary as an effective writing system for his language. He is one of the few people from a pre-literate society known in recorded history for such an achievement.^[1]^[2]

The Tuskegee town site was investigated by archaeologists in the 1970s, as part of a survey and excavations of known sites prior to inundation of the valley after completion of the Tellico Dam in 1979.

^ Wilford, John Noble (June 22, 2009). "Carvings From Cherokee Script's Dawn". New York Times. Retrieved June 23, 2009.
^ "Sequoyah". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 3, 2009.

[nyt-1] Wilford, John Noble (June 22, 2009). "Carvings From Cherokee Script's Dawn". New York Times. Retrieved June 23, 2009.

[Sequoyah-2] "Sequoyah". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 3, 2009.

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