The Noquisiyi Mound (formerly known as Nikwasi), in Franklin, N.C., is shown in this photo taken on the afternoon of Monday, Jan. 5. Several hours after the photo was taken, the Franklin Town Council approved a resolution that paves the way for the Mound’s deed to be transferred to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photo)
By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
CHEROKEE, N.C. – According to officials from the Noquisi Initiative, their organization will transfer the deed to the Noquisiyi (formerly known as Nikwasi) Mound to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) early next week. The details are still being finalized.
The deed transfer got the springboard last month as the Franklin Town Council approved a resolution paving the way for it to occur as they approved a resolution unanimously during its regular meeting at the Franklin Town Hall on Jan. 5, 2026.
The resolution states, “The Town Council of the Town of Franklin recognizes, honors, and celebrates the deep historical and shared cultural significance of Noquisiyi and the Mound.”
It continues, “The Town of Franklin held title to the real property of the Nikwasi Mound site from Oct. 7, 1946 until May 6, 2019, when it conveyed the site to Nikwasi Initiative, a North Carolina nonprofit formed for the express purpose of preservation of the site as required by N.C.G.S (North Carolina General Statute) 160A-266.”
The Noquisiyi Mound is a site sacred to the EBCI and was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, being listed there as Nequasee.
Elaine Eisenbraun, Noquisi Initiative executive director, told the One Feather, “Together with EBCI, Noquisi Initiative has been on a supreme journey to mend a broken circle and bring Noquisiyi Mound back to her family. The path has been winding, with legalities, social nuances, and partner relations to navigate. But sometimes when a view opens up to reveal the ultimate destination, a traveler can inhale that holistic sense of contentment that doesn’t fit into words – at least in English.”
She added, “Watching the Mound come home provides an absolute sense of completeness. Everyone at Noquisi Initiative feels it and offers the transfer back to you, all Cherokee people, with hope for peace, fulfillment, and closure for all Tsalagi, past, present, and future.”
Bob McCollum, Noquisi Initiative board co-chair, opened comments at the meeting on Jan. 5 by stating, “80 years ago some of my relatives, some of your relatives, started this process and what I would like to see here tonight is a vote of good faith. Let’s close the loop on this. Let’s give this third-acre piece of property back to the people that should have it. And, set a gold standard here for other communities across the country that face similar things and don’t have a process, a guidepost, to go by if they want to do it. This community can be that and I look to each of you here tonight to help make that happen.”
Also that night, Angelina Jumper, an EBCI tribal member and Noquisi Initiative board member, told the Town Council, “What you all are discussing and voting on tonight is really, really important for us as Cherokee people. It’s amazing, and I’m almost speechless, that when we get land back that it means so much to us. But, particularly this site, Noquisiyi Mound.”
Information from the Noquisi Initiative states, “Noquisiyi means star place and was a Cherokee town situated in present-day Franklin, N.C. Though its exact age remains unknown, Noquisiyi appears on maps as early as 1544, and British colonial records first mention it by name in 1718. At the heart of Noquisiyi on the banks of the Little Tennessee River, the town’s meeting hall once towered over the landscape, built atop the mound which was formed by Cherokee women carrying baskets of soil to that location. Today, Noquisiyi Mound, the settlement’s only surviving landmark, rises as the gateway to Franklin.”
