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. 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.
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 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 are held 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 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 chiefdoms in present-day northwest Georgia were developed by ancestral Muskogean-speaking groups, who apparently claimed other areas as tributary. The Muscogee, or Creek people, are their descendants.
The scholar T.H. Lewis at first associated the term Xualla with the modern Qualla Boundary 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 at Guasile. The Muskogee Creek people are considered descendants of the Coosa.
Captain Juan Pardo's first expedition
On December 1, 1566, Spanish Captain Juan Pardo and 125 men departed from Santa Elena, a center of Spanish Florida under orders from Governor Pedro Menéndez de Avilés to claim the interior for Spain. Pardo was to pacify the native inhabitants, convert them to Catholicism, and establish a route to Spanish silver mines near Zacatecas, Mexico. The Spanish thought Santa Elena was much closer to the mines than it actually was, and confused the Appalachian Mountains with a range in central Mexico.To stay close to food sources on their journey through the foothills, the Spanish traveled northwest from the coast where there were friendly natives who would help to feed them. The small Spanish force stopped at Otari and Yssa, before arriving at Joara.
Captain Pardo and his men reached Joara in January 1567. He renamed it Cuenca after his hometown of Cuenca, Spain. Snow in the Appalachian Mountains forced the Spanish to establish a winter base in the foothills at Joara. According to the records of the expedition, the explorers built a wooden fort at the north end of Joara and named it Fort San Juan. The fort became the first European settlement of present-day North Carolina, predating the first English colonies of Roanoke Island by 18 years and Jamestown, Virginia by 40 years.
The Spanish kept a base in Fort San Juan and claimed sovereignty over several other settlements in the region, including Guaquiri and Quinahaqui. In February 1567, Captain Pardo established Fort Santiago at Guatari, a smaller town of Guatari natives located in present-day Rowan County, North Carolina.
When Captain Pardo received word of a possible French invasion of Santa Elena, he left a garrison of 30 soldiers to occupy Joara, and four soldiers and his chaplain, Sebastián Montero, to occupy Guatari. He departed the area with the remainder of his force. Pardo appointed sergeant Hernando Moyano to command the force stationed at Fort San Juan.
Hernando Moyano's raids
During the spring of 1567, Hernando Moyano led a combined force of natives and Spanish north. The force attacked and burned the Chisca tribe's village of Maniateque before returning to Joara. After resting and supplying his force, Moyano led the men to Guapere. The Spanish and native force attacked and burned Guapere and marched west to Chiaha. Moyano's force built a fort in Chiaha and waited for Captain Pardo to return.Captain Juan Pardo's second expedition
Captain Juan Pardo returned to Fort San Juan in September 1567 to find the local inhabitants angered by the Spanish raids, and their demands for food, women, and canoes. The deaths from newly introduced infectious diseases, endemic among the Spanish and other Europeans, was destabilizing the indigenous community, causing resentment toward the Europeans. Instead of continuing his mission to Mexico, Captain Pardo left a garrison at Fort San Juan and marched the remainder of his troops westward to resupply Moyano's troops.Pardo first took his troops to the native village of Tocae, then continued to Cauchi (near present-day Canton. The force continued on to Tanasqui and then to Chiaha, where they found Moyano's troops in need of supply. After aiding them, Pardo returned to Santa Elena.