North Carolina Rock’s Inscription

Architect Richard Thornton is a member of an alliance of Creek, Choctaw and Seminole scholars, who over the past seven years have been intensely studying the heritage of the Muskogean peoples. Much of their activities have involved re-examination of the archives of the early Spanish, English and French exploration of the Southeastern United States. We have asked Richard to provide AccessGenealogy with some of his work.  As we add to these articles we will also be providing a question and answer section for the reader to ask questions of Richard.

People of One Fire
A national alliance of Muskogean scholars and their friends
P.O. Box 941 ~ Blairsville, GA 30512 ~ 706-781-3315 ~ PeopleofOneFire@aol.com

December 12, 2010

North Carolina rock’s inscription will ultimately change the history books
Can you solve the mystery of this 395 year old testimonial of love?

While homeless and living in the North Carolina Mountains last winter, I sought to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, by carrying out a thorough study of the possible routes of the de Soto (1539-1543) and Pardo (1567-1568) expeditions through the Southern Highlands. I drove to as many locations as financially possible to compare their appearance today with descriptions of the 16th century. I hiked or cross country skied the ancient trails that were probably used by the conquistadors, and definitely by our Muskogean ancestors. Yes, it was very COLD at night in that sleeping bag! Surviving chronicles of both expeditions are enigmatic because they will give detailed descriptions of some locations; then say virtually nothing about long distances of their journeys. However, the differing routes of their journeys crossed at a town in the Southern Highlands named, “Chiaha.”

The location of Chiaha described in many websites and books is Zimmerman Island, TN. However, that theoretical location was selected in the 1980s by an academic team that was trying to prove that de Soto took an indirect northerly route though the heart of North Carolina while trying to travel from Kofitachikee, a Muskogean town on the Santee River near the coast of South Carolina to northwest Georgia. Zimmerman Island is also about 75 miles too north, to match the route of Juan Pardo. Both men were trying to reach the great town of Kaushe (Coosa) that was about 85 miles northwest of Atlanta. The place name “Santee” became very critical in determining the actual routes of de Soto and Pardo.

Chiaha was perhaps the most important key for unlocking the riddles of the 16th Spanish expeditions. The word means, “beside the river” in the Itza Maya language. It was also the only town where Spanish chroniclers mentioned the surprising discovery of honey being consumed. The Mayas to this day, maintain hives of domesticated honey bees that are indigenous to Central America. No other Native American people were known to have honey until after the arrival of European colonists, who brought along Eurasian honey bees.

The chronicles of both expeditions stated that Chiaha was a long island in a river. De Soto visited the town first before entering the Tennessee River Valley. Juan Pardo visited Chiaha after first being in the Tennessee Valley and visiting a large town named Taskeke Olamikko. Taskeke means “Woodpecker People” means “Woodpecker People” in the Muskogee-Creek language. Olamikko means “capital” in the Hitchiti-Creek language. The North Carolina place name of "Tusquitee" is derived from the Hitchiti-Creek way of saying "Woodpecker People." One chronicle called Chiaha a province. Another called it an “olamikko.” Perhaps the two expeditions visited two different towns on long rivers in the same province?

Juan de la Bandera, who accompanied Juan Pardo everywhere he went, provided much more detailed information about the region around the capital of Chiaha. At Chiaha, the main trade route along a major river in the mountains diverged. One continued through the Smoky Mountains to the Tennessee Valley. Another cut through gaps in the Nantahala Mountains to take a direct route to the town of Kaushe. The chronicler mentioned that Pardo elected not to take the direct route to Kaushe, because the king of Chiaha had warned him that he would be ambushed on that trail.

Pardo’s conquistadors found silver ore in the mountains west of Chiaha. The presence of silver in the region made Pardo especially interested in Chiaha. He cancelled his visit to Kaushe, and hung around Chiaha for awhile. On the way back home to Santa Elena (Parris Island, SC) Captain Pardo constructed a chain of small forts that would protect silver shipments from Chiaha to Santa Elena. He left small garrisons at each fort. However, within a year all the forts had been abandoned and burned. It has always been presumed that the Spanish soldiers were killed by local native peoples; maybe, maybe not.

The plot thickens There was only one area of the Southern Highlands that matched the geographical descriptions of Chiaha in the Spanish chronicles and had silver deposits. It is surrounded by the Snowbird and Nantahala Mountains of Graham, Swain, Cherokee and Clay Counties, North Carolina. The remnants of very ancient and primitive silver mines can be seen in the Nantahala Gorge in that region. West of Bryson City, NC the main highway, Route 74 follows very ancient Indian trade routes and splits. One route continues west along the Little Tennessee River. The other route diverts southwestward toward Murphy, and eventually, the site of Kaushe.

The place name, “Chiaha” was still in what is now Graham County on early English maps. It is now spelled as the Cheoah River and Cheoah Mountains. In the movie, “The Fugitive,” Harrison Ford appeared to jump off the Cheoah River dam. There is a very long and large island in the Little Tennessee River as it cuts through the Smoky Mountains, just downstream of where the Cheoah joins the Little Tennessee. The place is now called Talassee. The Talassee were another branch of the Creek Indians, who in the 1700s, moved south into the Okefenokee Swamp of deep southeastern Georgia and helped compose the Seminole Indians. This island may not be the site of Chiaha. It may be farther east near Bryson City. Several rivers come together there in a broad, fertile flood plain.

There was another bit of intriguing evidence. The lake formed by the Cheoah River is Lake Santeetlah. Although the Snowbird Band of the Cherokees now live near the lake’s banks, the word is not Cherokee, it is derived from the Hitchiti-Creek word Santee-tle, which means “Santee People.” Ah-ah . . . both de Soto and Pardo left the capital of Kofitachikee and headed toward Kaushe on a route controlled by Kofitachikee's allies. Kofitachikee was on the Santee River and there were Santee People living near Chiaha.

One of the few places where one can photograph this possible site of the town of Chiaha is on top of Hoopers Bald in the high range of mountains that separates North Carolina and Tennessee. The highway drops over 5000 feet in the journey down into Tennessee. The top of the mountain has few trees (hence, the name “bald”) There on a rock face with a magnificent view were the letters, p-r-e-d-a-r-m-s c-a-s-a-d-a . . . Sep 15, 1615 ! There was more writing below it, but dirt covered most of the letters and one is not allowed to dig at archaeological sites on federal land without permission. In fact there was all sorts of writing and abstract designs chiseled into rocks on Hooper Bald. With time and the right technical skills, perhaps an archaeologist could make so more discoveries.

This examiner drove directly back to Robbinsville, NC and questioned local history buffs. I turned out that there was a mention of the stone on a web site maintained by a Marshall McClung of Graham County. His web site said that an archaeologist with the McClung Museum at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville had looked at a photo of the said that it meant, “We will defend with arms, what we hold.”

Ever since that day on Hoopers Bald, this examiner has been intrigued by the inscription. The archaeologist at the University of Tennessee obviously did not speak Spanish. “Casada” means MARRIED! The word for arms in Spanish is “armas” and Spanish abbreviations to do not drop last vowels. “Pre” is the Aragonese word for “price,” but may have nothing to do with the inscription. “E” was the medieval Aragonese and Castilian way of saying “and.”

Was this inscription the initials of a couple, who married each other on that day long ago of September 15, 1615? They most likely were Melungeons (Iberian free thinkers, Protestants, Sephardic Jews, Moors, etc. ) who escaped the Inquisition by living in the mountains of the New World.) There is permission in Hebrew tradition for a couple to state seven times each “I marry you” and they are legally married, if no rabbi or priest was available. For those readers who have seen the movie, "Cold Mountain," the lead actors use that biblical clause to marry themselves, since there was no parson available. Then, it all made sense. On that day, a man and a woman stood on top of that rock on that mountain, where they could see forever, and pronounced their love for each other. The man then chiseled a record of their marriage in stone, to make it all legal. The riddle that remains, though, is the meaning of the first group of letters predarms. Is it the abbreviation of the Aragonese, “pre-dar-mesa” . . . before giving mass. Does it represent the initials of two people’s names plus some words? Is it the abbreviation of Latin words used in the Catholic Mass? It is an abbreviation of several Hebrew words? Are they words in Basque or some North African language? “Darm” means “morning” in Moorish.

A beautiful, romantic movie, this story would make. On September 15, 1615, two lovers stood on top of a high mountain and proclaimed their eternal love. If you can figure out the rest of the riddle, their message will be remembered for the ages.

The Truth is out there somewhere! 

Additional information on North Carolina Rock Inscriptions

Notes About this Material

Source: Richard Thornton, an alliance of Muskogean scholars, professors and professionals. Copyright Richard Thornton, Blairsville, GA, 2010. Used here with permission. 

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