Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones (D-District 52) presents a copy of Tennessee General Assembly Bill H.J. 452 to Mary Crowe, an EBCI tribal elder, and Lavita Hill, EBCI Dinilawigi (Tribal Council) Kolanvyi (Big Cove) Rep. elect, during the Kuwohi Celebration on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 16. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photos)
By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
KUWOHI – The sun peeked through the moving clouds and fog covered the mountain peaks at Kuwohi (Mulberry Place) on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025 for a special event. Members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) and friends gathered at the site to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the restoration of the name of the area to its original Cherokee name, Kuwohi.
The U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) approved the application for the name restoration on Sept. 18, 2024.
The name restoration effort was led by Lavita Hill, EBCI Dinilawigi (Tribal Council) Kolanvyi (Big Cove) Rep. elect, and Mary Crowe, an EBCI tribal elder.
Mary Crowe, an EBCI tribal elder, speaks at Tuesday’s event.
“What a blessing,” said Crowe. “Just to let you know right now that my heart is full. If the Creator was to call me home today, my heart is full.”
She spoke of the importance of Kuwohi to herself personally. “This place was significant to my family and my father. And when this issue came up, I told Lavita, ‘I don’t know where this is going because not everybody has heard of this place and knows of this place as Kuwohi’. We know because of forced assimilation and acculturation a lot of our traditions and our ways were kept from us. The stories were kept from us. I told Lavita we don’t have to be that way anymore. We can tell our stories. We can share our stories.”
Crowe went on to speak about the effort for the name restoration. “We both knew that it was important that we at least tried. We knew we had to try.
“We worked for two-and-a-half years. She would go to some places that I couldn’t go to, and I would go to places that she couldn’t go to, but we still had that same message. And, that same common goal was to restore Kuwohi…We did this for our community. We did this for our families. This belongs to us. Not in an ownership way, this belongs to us in our hearts and in our minds knowing that this is that sacred place.”
Hill commented, “I’m so happy to see this much love and this much reconnection to our land and to one another.”
She spoke of her relationship with her grandmother and noted, “She loved us so much and I really wanted to honor her by being brave enough to go do something that has so much meaning for our people.”
Hill spoke about the meaning of the name restoration. “People have negative things to say all the time about a lot of things. Do it anyway. Step out of your comfort zone and do it anyway. Our mountain, since time immemorial, was Kuwohi. For only 166 years it was Clingman’s Dome. So, let’s put that into perspective. For more than 12,000 years it was Kuwohi, and then it became Clingman’s Dome. But, now it’s Kuwohi again and we get to celebrate.”
EBCI Ugvwiyuhi (Principal Chief) Michell Hicks thanked Crowe and Hill for all of their work on the name restoration effort. “As we think about what we’re doing today, what comes to mind for me is, we’re not rewriting history, but we’re reestablishing true history…I think it’s our job, it’s our role…we’ve got to find that passion to do these things. Thank you ladies for all your work.
It’s our jobs to make sure that we reestablish the true history…that has to change. People need to know…we have to make an effort – each and every one of us.”
Nancy Pheasant, an EBCI tribal member and storyteller, told the crowd, “I just want you all to stop, turn around, and look. Look where you’re standing. Even though the mountain is covered in clouds this morning, and we can see the mist as it rolls down the mountainside and over the tops of the pine trees and down the rocks, this is a sacred place. I just want you guys to take in that connection, not only to the land that we stand on, but to each other. For everyone that is gathered here this morning, we’re here for a reason.”
Lavita Hill, Kolanvyi (Big Cove) Rep. elect, speaks at the event.
She has participated for several years in the Kuwohi Connection Days event where area students visit the site to learn about its history and the culture of the Cherokee people. “This is the fourth year in a row that I’ve come up here this early in the morning, when I was standing here in the clouds to share our true history, our oral histories, to fifth graders and seniors from all the surrounding schools.
I’ve told many stories standing here in this exact same spot, everything from Bear Council, which was mentioned earlier, to other stories – the origin of medicine and disease, and how we also got our clans. It came from right here where we’re standing. So, when people say, ‘why did you want that name changed back to Kuwohi instead of known as Clingman’s Dome’, those are the reasons, and they’re the reasons we’re standing here this morning.”
Tennessee House Rep. Justin Jones (D-District 52) was in attendance during Tuesday morning’s event and presented Crowe and Hill with a copy of Tennessee General Assembly Bill H.J. 452. That will was introduced by Rep. Jones and honored Crowe and Hill for their work on the name restoration effort.
During Tuesday’s event, he said, “It’s just the beginning, and I just want to thank you because you’ve also inspired our people back home. In Nashville, after you all restored the name of Kuwohi, just last year they changed the name of our park to Wasioto Park, back to its Shawnee name. So, you are inspiring so many people and the ripples continue to reverberate across our state and across this nation.”
Background
The Dinilawigi (Tribal Council) of the EBCI passed Res. No. 72 (2024) unanimously during its regular session on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024 that approved the submittal of an application on behalf of the Tribe to restore the name. The application to BGN was filed by Hill and Crowe on behalf of Ugvwiyuhi (Principal Chief) Michell Hicks and Dinilawigi on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024.
Res. No. 72 speaks to the support for the name restoration regionally stating, “…community support for the restoration of the Kuwohi name has been overwhelming, including formal support from multiple local governments, including the counties of: Buncombe, Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain, Graham, Clay, and Cherokee, and the towns of Asheville, Andrews, Murphy, Hayesville, Fontana Dam, Lake Santeetlah, Robbinsville, Canton, Clyde, Maggie Valley, Waynesville, Dillsboro, Sylva, Webster, the Village of Forrest Hills, Franklin, Highlands, and Bryson City in western North Carolina, and the counties of Knox and Cambel in eastern Tennessee.”
In 2023, Hill and Crowe were recognized for their efforts by the Tennessee General Assembly with the passage of Bill H.J. 452. That legislation, submitted by State Rep. Justin Jones (D-District 52), stated, “Ms. Crowe and Ms. Hill are testaments to the power of dedication and determination, and their laudable mission deserves to be acknowledged; now, therefore, be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the One Hundred Thirteenth General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, the Senate concurring, that we honor and commend Mary Crowe and Lavita Hill on their efforts to restore the traditional Cherokee name of ‘Kuwohi’ to Clingman’s Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and wish them all the best in their future endeavors.”
That legislation passed 92-0 in the Tennessee House of Representatives on March 20, 2023, and it passed 31-0 in the Tennessee Senate on March 30, 2023. Gov. Lee signed it on April 11, 2023.
Dinilawigi passed legislation on July 14, 2022 which officially lent support from the EBCI for the name restoration effort. That legislation, submitted by Crowe and Hill, describes the area, “Kuwohi or ‘mulberry place’, is the highest point in our area and has significance to us as Cherokee as it was visited by medicine people who prayed and sought guidance from the Creator regarding important matters facing our people, and then returned to our towns to give guidance and advice.”
