Over a year after the Town of Franklin transferred the deed to the Nikwasi Mound to the Nikwasi Initiative, the project took a step forward with a ceremonial ground breaking on Monday morning.
Mayor Bob Scott and Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians principal chief Richard Sneed each dug up a shovel full of dirt on the Sanders property adjacent to the mound. The site is set to become the home of an information kiosk promoting the mound’s history, similar to the Nikwasi Initiative’s other installation in Cowee.
Sneed said he was proud to see that progress was being made. He feels that the mound’s history has been often ignored due to its inconspicuous location and hopes that it will become an integral and visible part of a Cherokee cultural corrider.
“I remember driving by here 20 or 25 years ago and noticing how out of place this beautiful piece of history looked in the middle of this patch of industrialized land,” Sneed said. “I’m glad that the Nikwasi Mound is going to play an important role in our community’s cultural corridor.”
Scott felt that the kiosk would be an excellent addition to the downtown area that would make a good impression on visitors.
“It’s a new era for Franklin,” Scott said. “The kiosk is going to be beautiful, and it’s going to be the first thing many tourists see when they first come into town.”
Nikwasi Initiative board member Juanita Wilson said that they’ll be organizing a soil transfer this fall with the Kituwa Mound site near Bryson City as a tribal show of togetherness.
“Women of the different clans will be bringing dirt from Kituwa as a symbol of the connection between the two mounds,” Wilson said. “Hopefully, that will be happening in October.”
Sneed said the EBCI will also be taking a more active role in developing the mound site in the near future. Plans to purchase the former Dan’s Auto building for a Cherokee heritage museum were complicated early this year by the COVID-19 pandemic, but he said that with business picking up again, the tribe is investigating financial options to jumpstart the project.
“We need to begin to take action on the Dan’s Auto building,” Sneed said. “We were getting good work done on that front before COVID-19 happened. There’s no timeline yet, but options are opening up.”
For now, however, everyone involved in the revitalization of the mound is relieved to see a little bit of progress being made.
“It’s a really great day,” said Nikwasi Initiative member and Franklin vice mayor Barbara McRae. “We’re happy to see all of these different people coming together.”
Construction on the kiosk itself is set to start sometime over the next week and be finished by mid-September or earlier, depending on the weather.
For more information on projects currently under way with the Nikwasi Initiative, contact executive director Elaine Eisenbraun at 541-620-0752 or elaine@nikwasi-initiative.org.