Sarah Stacke

Noquisiyi Mound in Franklin, North Carolina, photographed on September 23, 2020, was the center of a centuries-old Cherokee town until 1819 when its residents were forced off their land by the U.S. government. Franklin was built on top of the town, destroying all but the mound. The council house – the spiritual and political center of Noquisiyi town – sat on top of the mound, surrounded by about 100 houses, a field for playing stickball, a dance ground, and hundreds of acres of crops, orchards, and gardens. The town of Franklin held title to the mound from 1946 to 2019, when it transferred the deed to Noquisi Initiative, a nonprofit formed to preserve the site. For years, both Franklin and Noquisi Initiative resisted returning the mound to the EBCI. In January 2026, the Franklin Town Council unanimously approved a resolution to transfer the deed to the Tribe.