[ambient music] JOYCE DUGAN: We always strive to keep tribal council and chief's office separate, but there are times when we have to come together, and that was one of the times.

I recall standing at that podium and my knees started shaking, thinking they're going to fight me on this one.

And we've had this first opportunity ever to purchase our land back.

We all knew that it was important, because it had the mound on it.

It's like any government, you know, you never know.

When the camera comes on, what's going to happen.

I was the principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians from '95-'99.

I was the first woman to ever be elected to that position.

And to date, I'm the only woman who's been elected to that position.

And today, we're overlooking the Kituwa property behind me.

It had been out of our hands for over 100 years.

It was known then as Ferguson Fields.

The owner called one day because they had someone interested in buying it.

She just said, we're ready to sell, and we feel very strongly this should go back to the tribe.

And I knew then if there was a way we can get this property, then we're going to have to go for it.

SHEYASHE LITTLEDAVE Hikkaduwa mound is basically the center of origin for the Cherokee people.

It's what we call Mothertown.

The mound right now doesn't reflect what it was like thousands of years ago.

Back then, it was 15, 20 feet tall.

There was a sacred fire on top, and there were keepers that kept the fire going.

So essentially, it was the heart of the village and the people around it.

- I had gone from Qualla Boundary to Bryson City in the past the site of Kituwa for over 200 times, over 300 times.

Until one day, passing by, I looked out and this immense cornfield and saw there was a feature in the middle of the field that all the corn in that huge field, all the corn was the same size.

I stopped and realized that wasn't natural, you know.

And I was looking at it, and I thought there had to be something there.

I mean, something's buried there.

JOYCE DUGAN: If I go in with a resolution to buy this land, people are going to say, but we need houses, we need roads, we need health care.

We had so many other needs that I was afraid they were going to say we don't need to buy land right now.

But I also was afraid that someone was going to buy that land out from under us and we might never get it.

- I remember she didn't have a lot of support in trying to get this.

Like it was not a big deal to a lot of people and they felt like she was making a mistake.

- I think she-- she'll tell you.

She took a big risk.

- And I remember thinking, I'm so worried that this is not going to pass, because we had just begun receiving gaming revenue, and we were still poor in our minds.

I remember just being more nervous than any time during my tenure as chief, because something was leading me to want that property back for the tribe so badly.

[chirping] - In '97, I started to put a little garden up there right where they now have stomp dance.

It was in the late 90s when I began to really ask questions from different people.

What is down there?

And that's whenever-- what little bit I know.

And I don't know much, but I know that we have to honor this, because this is where our history started for all of us Cherokees.

TOM BELT: Archaeologically and historically, the tribes of the Southeast built ceremonial centers on top of mounds.

The mounds were extremely important places of worship places of governance, places of education.

- I'm told that the way the mounds were built was that during ceremony, green corn specifically, every family member would bring a scoop of dirt in a turtle shell to ceremony and add it to the mound.

And that's how the mounds grew over time.

MARISA PERALES: Growing up, people in our tribe didn't really know the significance of it.

It's where we started.

It's where we come from.

And what I think is crazy is that we didn't own it for the longest time.

- So then I had to do a resolution to the tribal council, because they had to approve the purchase.

The day before, I knew it was coming up.

I knew I had to stand before council.

It was not an easy night before and it wasn't easy as I came into work that day.

I was full of anxiety.

I was in my office and I was alerted that the resolution was getting ready to hit the floor.

So I came and sat down on the front row, which is where we usually sit, and then the chairman calls me up.

It's when I get to the podium that my knees start shaking, thinking they're going to fight me on this one.

The chairman says, chief, can you talk to us about this?

And so I began to tell them how we have an opportunity here to purchase 300 and something acres that have such of great importance to the tribe.

You know, it goes around for any comments.

Someone asks, well, why are we going to do with this land?

We can't do anything with it because we're buying a graveyard.

And I believe my response was more so the reason we should buy it, because those are the graves of our ancestors.

When the chairman called for the vote, I waited and watched.

And when the vote came, it was unanimous.

And I think I said, thank you.

And I promptly went back to my office and sat down, I believe I'd probably cried because it was over and we were on our way.

There's no other place I want to be, but in these mountains.

This is a safe place for me.

And it's what has helped me to find my identity and to stand in my truth, in a way that I don't know other kinds of places I could have gone.

- I think that the reason the land back means so much is because how the land was taken.

The land was taken by force.

It was taken under false pretense.

It was taken-- deals were made.

Treaties were signed, and then they were not respected, and the treaty obligations were not honored.

- The family that owned it had lived and farmed on this land for over 170 years and that dates back to removal, which is crazy.

I'm just grateful that this family felt compelled to be like, you know what?

This land is yours, you know.

And it gave us the chance to get it back.

- Any time there's injustice, that is a wound and it's an open wound until things are made right.

And so when a tribe has the ability to take land back, especially land that was wrongfully taken from them, it brings healing and it brings peace.

- People begin to realize the importance of our history and what that meant.

And then it just reverberated throughout the community.

That's why I say, I think Kituwa created a cultural renaissance for our people.

[tribal singing] - [speaking Cherokee] Today we are currently at the Kituwa celebration.

We are currently celebrating that this land is in trust and we were able to buy it back.

So we have a celebration going on today for all of the Cherokee people from all three federally recognized Cherokee tribes.

[music playing] Big family coming together for a big-time event in a long time coming.

We've owned this land, and worked this land.

We farmed this land.

Our houses were on this land.

And this is a heart town and the Mothertown of our people, who after hundreds of years of persecution, 22 years of fighting the government to put it back in our name, it's ours.

[speaking Cherokee] We are still here.

[upbeat music playing] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - [Announcer] Support for "Reel South" is provided by the ETV Endowment and the National Endowment for the Arts.

And South Arts.