Joara

Joara was a large Native American settlement, a regional chiefdom of the Mississippian culture, located in what is now Burke County, North Carolina, about 300 miles from the Atlantic coast in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Joara is notable as a significant archaeological and historic site, where Mississippian culture-era and European artifacts have been found, in addition to an earthwork platform mound and remains of a 16th-century Spanish fort.

The first European encounters came in the mid-16th century. In 1540 the party of Spanish conquistador Hernando De Soto recorded visiting this place. A later expedition in 1567 under Juan Pardo, another Spanish explorer, founded the first European settlement in the interior of the continent, establishing Fort San Juan at this site, followed by other forts to the west.David G. Moore, Robin A. Beck, Jr., and Christopher B. Rodning, "Joara and Fort San Juan: culture contact at the edge of the world"
, ''Antiquity'', Vol.78, No. 229, Mar. 2004, accessed 26 Jun 2008 It is thought to be the first and the largest of the six forts that Pardo established in his attempt to establish an overland road to the silver mines of Mexico. At the time, the Spanish mistakenly believed that the Appalachian Mountains were the same as a range running through central Mexico. After about eighteen months, all but one of the Spanish troops at the six forts were killed by the indigenous people of the area. Pardo had already left and survived to return to Spain. The Spanish made no other attempts at settlement in this interior. British-related colonization did not begin here until the mid-to late 18th century.

In the late 20th century, a Spanish account of the Pardo expedition was rediscovered and newly translated in English. Based on it, excavations were undertaken in this area of Burke County beginning in the 1990s. After discovery of both European and Mississippian artifacts at this site in 2008, on July 22, 2013, archeologists announced having found evidence of the remains of Fort San Juan at Joara, including a moat that cut through an earthwork mound built by the Mississippians.John Noble Wilford, "Fort Tells of Spain’s Early Ambitions"
''New York Times'', 22 July 2013, accessed 22 July 2013

History

In the 21st century, archaeological finds from excavations have established evidence of substantial Mississippian and brief Spanish 16th-century settlement in the western interior of North Carolina. The Joara chiefdom was the site of Fort San Juan, established by the Juan Pardo expedition as the earliest Spanish outpost (1567–1568) in the interior of what is now North Carolina. This was 40 years before the English settlement at Jamestown and nearly 20 years before their " Lost Colony" at Roanoke Island.

Located northwest of present-day Morganton, seat of Burke County, the site has been excavated since the early 2000s, in portions, by the Upper Catawba Valley Archaeology Project. Regular open houses and educational events for the public during the summer excavation season.

Established about AD 1000, Joara was the largest Mississippian-culture settlement within the current boundaries of North Carolina. In 1540 a party of Spanish conquistador Hernando De Soto recorded encountering the people at this chiefdom site. De Soto's 1540 expedition also noted the ''Chalaque'' people in the area near Joara. Chalaque is believed by scholars to refer to the Cherokee. The Cherokee, an Iroquoian-speaking people, are believed to have migrated into their homelands of present-day western North Carolina, South Carolina, southeastern Tennessee, and northeastern Georgia from northern areas around the Great Lakes. According to de Soto's account, Cherokee speakers were among the peoples present during the late Mississippian-culture era.

Joara was still thriving in January 1567 when Spanish soldiers under command of Captain Juan Pardo arrived. Pardo established a base there for the winter, called the settlement ''Cuenca'', and built Fort San Juan. Pardo's men also traveled west, establishing five more forts, including one at Chiaha. After 18 months, the natives killed the soldiers at Fort San Juan and burned the structures down. That same year, 1568, the natives destroyed the other five six forts in the southwest interior of the region and killed all but one of the 120 men Pardo had stationed in them. As a result, the Spanish ended their colonizing effort in the interior of the Southeast.

High mortality due to European infectious diseases and warfare reduced the smaller bands of peoples. The historic tribes arose in new political groupings. Joara was abandoned long before English explorers arrived in the region in the 17th century, and the site became lost. English, Scots-Irish and German immigrants arrived in northwestern North Carolina in the later 18th century.

Settlement

Joara is thought to have been settled some time after AD 1000 by people of the Mississippian culture era, who built an earthwork mound at the site. It was developed on the west bank of Upper Creek and within sight of Table Rock, a dominant geographical feature of the area. The Joara natives comprised the eastern extent of Mississippian culture, which was centered in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys. By the time of the first European contact by the Spanish with Native Americans in the foothills of the southern Appalachians, Joara had already grown to be the largest Mississippian-culture settlement in present-day North Carolina. The town served as the political center of a regional chiefdom that controlled many of the surrounding native settlements.

Most contemporary scholars, following John Swanton, connect the various spellings of ''Joara'' with the Cheraw, a Siouan language-speaking people who later inhabited this region.

Cofitachequi, in southeast South Carolina, and the competitor Coosa chiefdom-speaking groups, who apparently claimed other areas as tributary. The Muscogee, or Creek people and thought it was Cherokee. Most modern scholars no longer believe this because historically, the French Broad River is thought to be the eastern boundary for the Cherokee in North Carolina. But anthropologist Charles M. Hudson alone argues that ''Joara'' may be a Cherokee name. Excavations have shown that the site was not Cherokee.

Spanish exploration

Hernando de Soto

In 1540, Hernando de Soto led a Spanish army up the eastern edge of the Appalachian mountains through present-day Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, before turning southwest. This expedition recorded the first European contact with the people of Joara, which de Soto's chroniclers called ''Xuala''. De Soto brought the queen of Cofitachequi province to Joara as an involuntary member of his entourage. The chroniclers also state that the queen claimed political dominion at this time over Joara province as well as the province of ''Chalaque'', believed to refer to the Cherokee. The natives in both places respected her office. She managed to escape from the Spanish after reaching Joara.

The Spanish departed to continue their exploration, crossing westward over the Blue Ridge into present-day eastern Tennessee. They recorded visiting the Coosa chiefdom

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