Tawodi ― Cherokee of the Blue Mountains Confront Spanish Conquistadors

Almost five hundred years ago, Ca-u-chi, a Cherokee town, was nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains along Pigeon River in present day western North Carolina. We know now it was real, since archaeologists uncovered its remains and historians find it recorded in 16th century Spanish journals. In the following story, details of Cauchi and Cherokee traditions are derived from these discoveries and writings. On the other hand, the people of Cauchi depicted are fictitious, but there must have been ancestral Cherokee living there with names very similar to those used herein. Likewise, there may have been a boy born around 1520 in Cauchi with the name Ta-wo-di (Hawk) and he could have become a warrior and later town chief. With the arrival of Spanish conquistadors Hernando de Soto in 1540 and later Captain Juan Pardo in 1566 the indigenous peoples of southeast North America were challenged to accept these Outsiders — or fight them. Eventually, the Cherokee, Catawba, Creek, Choctaw and Chickasaw chose to fight and it is their intrepid resistance to these Spanish invasions that forever changed the course of history for North America and the yet to be United States of America. Tawodi and the Cherokee lived during this critical time, since imperial Spain was intent on taking these Indian lands for their pleasure, just as Spaniards had already conquered the Caribbean Islands, Mexico and Peru. After all, this was El Siglo de Oro de Espana, The Golden Century of Spain, decades before England’s “Lost Colony” on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, and its Jamestowne settlement in Virginia and France’s soon to be colonies in Canada. Tawodi (“Hawk”) was raised the Cherokee Way in the Blue Ridge Mountains of present day western North Carolina. His life begins in the early 16th century as Imperial Spain attempts to annex southeast North America to its rapidly expanding New World empire. It will be these Spanish invasions that expose Tawodi, as warrior and town chief of Cauchi, to the armies of La Florida Governor Hernando de Soto and, twenty-five years later, to Spanish forts constructed across the Carolinas into Tennessee by soldiers of Captain Juan Pardo. After all, this was el Siglo de Oro de Espana, the Golden Century of Spain, as conquistadors roamed freely throughout the Caribbean Islands and the Americas to the glory of Spain and the Catholic Church. When Spaniards arrived among the Cherokee, Catawba and Creek, these tribes were challenged to either accept the Outsiders — or fight. It is the Indians intrepid resistance to these Spanish invasions which produced a far-reaching twist to history that forever changed the future for North America and the yet to be United States of America.