New Echota

New Echota was the capital of the Cherokee Nation from 1825 to their forced removal in the 1830s. New Echota is 3.68 miles north of present-day Calhoun, Georgia, and south of Resaca, Georgia. The site is a state park and a historic site, and is designated as a National Historic Landmark.

The site is at the confluence of the Coosawattee River and Conasauga River, which join to form the Oostanaula River, a tributary of the Coosa River. It is near Town Creek. Archeological evidence has shown that the site of New Echota had been occupied by ancient indigenous cultures prior to the Cherokee Native Americans. Known to them as the Cherokee town called Gansagiyi (abbreviated Gansagi), they renamed it New Echota in 1825 after making it the capital.

History

Prior to relocating to Gansagi and building the community of New Echota, the Cherokee had used the nearby town of Ustanali on the Coosawattee River as the seat of their tribe, beginning in 1788. Ustanali had been established in 1777 by refugees from the Cherokee Lower Towns in northwestern South Carolina. In that year, Old Tassel and several other Cherokee leaders were murdered while on an embassy to the State of Franklin. In response, warriors across the frontier increased attacks on European-American settlers, in addition to the Chickamauga Cherokee followers of Dragging Canoe, who were already in the midst of the Cherokee–American wars. Following the murders, Little Turkey was elected chief of the Cherokee. The seat of the Cherokee council was then moved from Chota to Ustanali.