numerous mounds and petroglyphs in their later home
territory, asserting that these ancient works had exhibited the same
appearance when they themselves had first occupied the region. 1 This
accords with Bartram's statement that the Cherokee, although some-
times utilizing the mounds as sites for their own town houses, were a-
ignoranl as the whites of their origin or purpose, having only a gen
era! tradition that their forefathers had found them in much the same
condition on first coming into the country. 8
Although, as has been noted. Haywood expresses the opinion that
the invading Cherokee had overrun and exterminated the earlier
inhabitants, lie says in another place, on halfbreed authority, that
the newcomers found no Indians upon the waters of the Tennessee,
with the exception of some Creeks living upon that river, near the
mouth of the Hiwassee, themain body of that tribe being established
up md claiming all the streams to the southward. 3 There is
considerable evidence that the Creek- preceded the Cherokee, and
within the last century they still claimed the Tennessee, or at least
the Tennessee watershed, for their northern boundary.
There is a dim bul persistent tradition of a strange white race pre-
ceding the ( 'herokee. .-onie of the Molic- e\ ell going SO far as to locate
their former settlements and to identify them as the authors of the
ancient works found in the country. The earliest reference appeal's
to he that of Barton in 1797, on the statement of a gentleman whom
he quotes as a valuable authority upon the southern tribes. "The
Cheerake tell us, that when they first arrived in the country which
they inhabit, they found it