The Story of Tanasi, Part 1: Birth of a River

What is the story behind silos that stick up out of the middle of a lake in the foothills of the Smokies? As we tour around this lake, we see more sites, like an old bridge descending into the water, a few markers of a deep history of Cherokee habitation, then large, extravagant houses that overlook the water’s edge. It all helps paint a picture of the complex history that lives under the water’s surface, in what used to be a river valley. This is the first episode in a series we’re calling The Story of Tanasi. In this series we’ll follow a decades-long battle that took the river’s people all the way to the Supreme Court as they tried to save their way of life in the river valley.