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Madoc or Madog ab Owain Gwynedd

Year	What
12th century	It is said that he was an illegitimate child of Owain Gwynedd, who was born around 1100 and died on November 23 or 28, 1170. He was King of Gwynedd, North Wales, from 1137 until his death and is buried in Bangor Cathedral (Saint Deiniol's Cathedral, Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales). Owain was married to Gwladus ferch Llywarch (Cristin ferch Goronwy). They had many childred, one of whom is said to have been Madoc ab Owain Gwynedd. A populair legend from Wales says that the Welsh prince Madoc (Madog) crossed the Atlantic in 1170 to colonize America. Iclandic sagas refers to a Welsh sailor of the 12th century.
13th century	Around the middle of the 13th century, a Flemish writer named Willem called himself 'Willem the Madoc Maece' (Willem, the author of Madoc, known as Willem the Minstrel) in his poem 'Van den Vos Reinaerde'. No copies of this poem have survived. However, a fragment of an alleged copy of the work was found in Poitiers (France). It states that Madoc discovered an island, Pardise, on which he intended to build a kingdom of love and music. This wondrous new land is believed to be what is now Mobile Bay, Alabama. The choice of Mobile Bay as Madoc's landing site and starting point for his colonists is based on two main reasons. The first is the logical assumption that ocean currents would have carried him to the Gulf of Mexico. Once there and in search of a landing site, he would have been attracted to the perfect harbor in Mobile Bay, just as the explorers Ponce de Leon, Alonzo de Pineda, Hernando de Soto and Amerigo Vespucci would later be. Another reason is a series of "pre-Columbian" forts built along the Alabama River and the "white man" tradition passed down from the Cherokee Indians who built them. * A letter dated 1810 from Governor John Sevier of Tennessee in response to an inquiry by Major Amos Stoddard. A copy of that letter can be found at the Georgia Historical Commission. It recounts a conversation Sevier had in 1782 with the then 90-year-old Oconostota, a Cherokee who had been the ruling chief of the Cherokee Nation for nearly sixty years. Sevier had asked the chief about the people who had left the "fortifications" in his country. The chief told him: "They were a people called the Welsh, and they had crossed the Great Water." He called their leader "Modok". If this is true, it fits with the well-known story of the 12th century Welsh Prince Madoc. He went on, "It is handed down by the ancestors that the works were made by the whites who formerly inhabited the land . ." and gave him a brief history of the 'whites'. When asked if he had ever heard what nation these whites belonged to, Oconostota told Sevier that he ". heard that his grandfather and father had said they were a people called Welsh, and that they had crossed the Great Water and first landed near the mouth of the Alabama River at Mobile. . .." * Three major forts, completely unlike any known Indian structure, were constructed along the route settlers arriving at Mobile Bay would have taken up the Alabama and Coosa rivers to the Chattanooga area. Archaeologists have testified that the forts are of pre-Columbian origin, and most agree they date several hundred years before 1492. All are believed to have been built by the same group of people within the period of a single generation, and all bear striking similarities to the ancient fortifications of Wales. 1) The first fort, erected on top of Lookout Mountain, near DeSoto Falls, Alabama, was found to be nearly identical in setting, layout, and method of construction, to Dolwyddelan Castle in Gwynedd, the birthplace of Madoc. The situation of the forts, blended with the accounts given by the Indians of the area, has led to a plausible reconstruction of the trail of Madoc's colonists. The settlers would have traveled up the Alabama River and secured themselves at the Lookout Mountain site, which took months, maybe even years to complete. It is presumed the hostility of the Indians forced them to move on up the Coosa River, where the next stronghold was established at Fort Mountain, Georgia. Situated atop a 3,000 foot mountain, this structure had a main defensive wall 855 feet long, and appears to be more hastily constructed than the previous fort. 2) Having retreated from Fort Mountain, the settlers then built a series of minor fortifications in the Chatanooga area, before moving north to the forks of the Duck River (near what is now Manchester, Tennessee), and 3) their final fortress, Old Stone Fort. Formed by high bluffs and twenty-foot walls of stone, Old Stone Fort's fifty acres was also protected by a moat twelve hundred feet long. Like the other two major defense works, Old Stone Fort exhibits engineering proficiency well beyond the skills of the Indians. * The trail of the settlers becomes more speculative with the desertion of Old Stone Fort. Chief Oconostota, in relating his tribal history, tells of the war that had existed for years between the White people who had built the forts and the Cherokee. Eventually a treaty was reached in which the Whites agreed to leave the area and never return. According to Oconostota, the Whites followed the Tennessee River down to the Ohio, up the Ohio to the Missouri, then up the Missouri ". . .for a great distance. . .but they are no more White people; they are now all become Indians.." Chief Oconostota's testimony has been very thoroughly followed up by later historians, and several points have been corroborated with other reports of "bearded Indians" and their trek upriver in retreat from hostile natives. Throughout the years ". . .there was abundant evidence. . .that travelers and administrators had met Indians who not only claimed ancestry with the Welsh, but spoke a language remarkably like it." * It must be assumed that the remaining settlers were eventually assimilated by Indians, and that by the early eighteenth century very few traces of their Welsh ancestry remained.
Mid 15th century	The earliest certain mention of Madoc or Madog is in a cywydd (the main metrical forms in traditional Welsh poetry) by Maredudd ap Rhys (c. 1450 to 1483) of Powys, in which Madog, a descendant of Owain Gwynedd who went to sea, is mentioned.
1568	There is an account of Sir John Hawkin's famous fight at San Juan Ulloa in 1568. According to this, the Spanish commander in Mexico had hanged twelve Enlishmen caught on shore and had written to Sir John, "I did not hang your countrymen, sailors and soldiers, Sir, as Englishmen but as pirates, pluderers and invaders". Whereupon, in that true-born Briton style to which we have sadly grown unaccustomed, Edward Thurlow stormed the fort and put the garrison of 500 to the sword, saving only 36 gentlemen for the gallows "to satisfie the manes of 12 brave English men". I have given as revenge to each Ghost thre Spainards in order to appease their sorrowful and wandering spirits". And, ramming home the Cymric lesson of Sir Walter, he added that he'd had these men hangged.. not because they were Spainards - and Men - but because they were Traitors to England, usurpers of the Territorys of her Crown dan Sovereignty, Murderers and Robbers of Mexicans, the Descendants of the Antient Brittons whom we are come to Rescue from the yoke of Spainish tyranny and usurping slavery ..."
1584	The Madoc History, printed in 1584 says: Madoc. . .left the land in contention betwixt his brethern and prepared certain shipps with men and munitions and sought adventures by seas, sailing west. . .he came to a land unknown where he saw manie strange things. . . . Of the viage and returne of this Madoc there be manie fables faimed, as the common people do use in distance of place and length of time, rather to augment than diminish; but sure it is that there he was. . . .And after he had returned home, and declared the pleasant and fruitfulle countries that he had seen without inhabitants, and upon the contrarie part, for what barren and wilde ground his brethern and nepheues did murther one another, he prepared a number of shipps, and got with him such men and women as were desirous to live in quietnesse, and taking leave of his freends tooke his journie thitherward againe. . . This Madoc arriving in the countrie, into which he came in the yeare 1170, left most of his people there, and returning back for more of his own nation, acquaintance, and friends, to inhabit that fayre and large countrie, went thither againe.
1595	Letter of Walter Raleigh "Island of Trinadada, City of St. Joseph, 20th of Maye, 1595. I, Sir Walter Raleigh commander in chief by land and sea etc etc etc - for the most hight and Pusiant Princess Elizabeth Queen of England, Wales, France and Irland - and of the Dominions and seas there unto belonging and of all lands, continents, islands and seas, in the beyond the Atlantic ocean round the great continent called America and unto the South Seas - in and over All Landa and Estates beretofore had and discovered for and on the behalf of the most Excellen, high and Renowned Prince Owen Guyeneth or Guyneth pronce ans Sovereing of North Wales, next unto the Nation of the Scotch or Northern Brittons, discoveris and conquests first made in the year of our Redemption and Salvation 1164 (or their about) be the great and valliant Prince Madock ap Owen Gyneth the youngest son of the said Prince Owen guneth, he being proved with a powerfull fleete and Men of War, and arms famous for valour by Land and Sea taking with him Many Noble Brittons both of Wales and of the Northern race bsides Valliant Men from Irland and other adventurers for new and great dicoverys, did first come into these Seas in the year of Salvation aforesaid named and set down 1164 and the second time in 1170 and did Make notable discovery conquest and settlements of all the Parts of the said great Continent of America and of all the Islands round that Mighty tract of Land and in all the seas, from the Latitude of 36 degrees North all along and round deht saide Continete Unto this said Island of Trinadada passing Unto Guyeneth, Guyneth of Guyannah, to which Vast Space of COuntry he, the said prince Madock ap Owen Guyneth gave his now Name, Gueneth, Guyenth, Guyneth, now COrrupted and Calid Guyannah, from thence passing on To the degree and Latitude of five North and to Mouth of the Amaonia Great River or Rio Aragona and round the vast coast of Brazillia Unto the south Sea of Pacific Ocean. All with Lands, COntinents and Islands, from that of the great, wealthy and vast Empire of Mexico (Otherwise The Empire of Madock) which he, the said Madock ap Owen Gyneth did first conquer and People with his Welshmen and his Brittons and his tribes of brave adventurers, from whence he did carry into Wales three Several times Mighty sore of massey silver and gold, precious stones, diamonds and emeralds etc etc, And his race therafter reigned Emperors of Mexico untill Montazuma which the Reccords of North Wales and Brittons and Mexico are the noblest testimonials, proofs and the Most Effectual truth and genologies of rith- th speech and confession ot the Emperor Montazuma before the Captain of the Spainish robers Hernand COrtez in 1620 whe the spainiard Usurped Mexico - Are undeniable truths besides the Proofs of creccord History and the assertions and confessions of many Noble Spainiard particularly Francis Lopez de Gomara, Don Alonzo de Mequira and Don Juan de Gallowania and also Don Carlos d?Ownea Madoxus, all Noble Natibe Mexicans owing and challenging their descent from the Brittons - these being Princes of the Blood of Montazuma by Marriage and Descent, besides these, The Mexican Tonguq, their habits, manners and various British Customs still remain amongst the Descendants fo the FIrst Welch Settlers in Mexico at this day, 431 sind the Royal Race of Prince Owen Gwynath possessed the Mexican Empire. Of which Continents and Islands, I, Sir Walter Raleigh, am in command and Empowerd to Expell, Drife out of every part of the said Continent and Islands all the spanish, Portugez or foreign usurpers, subjects of every kind, officers, Commanders, Governors and all persons whatever Presuming to keep or hold Lands and possessions Either in the Island or upon the Main Land, but such as shall Submit unto end Remain in the Alleigance and Obedience of My said Royal Mistresse the Princess Elizabeth Queen of England, Wales, France nad Irland - and of all the Kingdoms and Dominions Annexed unto her Royal Dignity, Crown and Tittles etc as Lineally and of right descendend from and of the said Prince Owen Gwyneth and of the son and general of the said Prince and as in relation unto the said Madock Ap Owen Gwyneth, the Leutenent and vice roye of the said Prince his father. I do take Possession of this Island and Government of Trinadada heretofore Usurped by the said King of Spain - By you his governor and Leutenant Don Antonio de Bereo whom I do now dispossess, and do Replace in the government of Trinadada my trusty friend and Brave Leutenant for and on behalf of my said Royal Mistresse the Queen of England, Wales, France and Irland and of the said Continent and Islands as before described, Captain Joseph Whiddon, with all full and ample Command over this and all the Surrounding Islands: As set forth in our COmmission unto the said Capt. Joseph Whiddon. And here i do set up the standard of England etc forever takeing posession for the said Royal Queen, her Heirs and sucessors for Ever. Sign Walter Raleigh Joseph Whiddon Don Antonio de Bereo Don Michael de Lars Reccorded the same day by Order of the persons Undersigning - it being first noted That Don Antonio de Bereo and Don Michael de Lara are at the time of their signing Prisoners of the English commander as I aslo am the under signing Public Reccorder. Marc Antonio Meliora de Galvez 159 Maye 20, Island of Trinadada City and fort of St. Joseph To note One must not forget. In the 16th century, the English tried to get a part of America that the Pope had granted to the Spanish and Portuguese kings. When they seceded from the Catholic Church in 1534 and created their own religion with the king as the supreme authority, they did not feel obliged to obey the Pope's decision. In order to disqualify Spain and Portugal as the rightful owners of America, the old Medoc story was certainly a good way of doing this and legitimizing themselves as the actual owners. Such considerations had certainly been made at the English royal court and also disseminated accordingly. Therefore, Raleigh's letter and Hawkin's "statement" must certainly be treated with caution.
1669	In 1669, Morgan Jones a minister from Bassaleg, Monmouthshire, Wales, sailed south from Virginia with Major-General Bennett's expedition. Supplies ran out and they made a run for it, throught Indian territory. They were captured by a party of Tuscarora Indians, with some Doegs. Told to prepare for death, Jones cried aloud, in his despaire reverting to the language of his childhood. A tremour ran through the Doegs. They creid hlat: Or rather, they cried Arhoswch: For these Indians spoke Welch. Jones was released and preached to the Doegs three times a week in their common language. Madoc's men had survived after all. And from this point on, the Madoc myth begins to burn across the continent.
17th century	Beginning in the 17th century, and perhaps somewhat earlier, Welsh-speaking Indians, descendants of Madoc's men, appeared on the American mainland and were added to the Madoc history printed in 1580.
1752	In 1752, Welsh-American Baptists claimed that Welsh Indians had been discovered west of the Mississippi River. Later, men discovered strange old stone forts moving up from Mobile Bay that could not have come from Indians.
1782	In 1782, a very old Cherokee chief said his people had a tradition that, in ancien times, they had fought against white people.
18th century	James Girty (1743-1817, son of an Irish immigrant, was a prisoner of the Shawnees and later an interpreter and trader) said that he had met so many Welsh Indians that he wrote a Welsh-Indian dictionary. One Welshman said it was very difficult to talk to the Comanches. But he was South Welsh himself, and the Comanche spoke North Welsh.

Although several tribes have been considered as possible descendants of the Welsh settlers, the most likely is the Mandan tribe, who once inhabited villages along tributaries of the Missouri River.

These Mandan villages were visited in 1738 by a French explorer, The Sieur de la Verendrye, and he kept a detailed journal describing the people and their villages. At the time of Verendrye's visit, the tribe numbered about 15,000 and occupied eight permanent villages. The Mandan chief told him that the tribe's ancestors had formerly lived much farther south but had been driven north and west by their enemies. Verendrye described the Mandans as "white men with forts, towns and permanent villages laid out in streets and squares." He indicated that their customs and lifestyle were totally different from other tribes he had encountered, and was the first of many to remark about the beards of their men, the grey hair of their older people, and the magnificent beauty of their women! The Mandans had several visitors throughout the next century, (including Louis and Clark in 1804), each one reiterating the striking differences in their culture and appearance.

* The Mandans had been repeatedly driven out of their villages and forced upriver by their continual conflicts with the Sioux. By the 1830s, when George Catlin made his memorable visit, their numbers had decreased by two thirds. Catlin spent several years living with, studying, and painting various Indian tribes, and in 1841 published his classic work: Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs and Condition of the North American Indians.

He devoted sixteen of his fifty-eight chapters to the Mandans, explaining:
I have dwelt longer on the history and customs of these people than I have or shall on any other tribe. . .because I have found them a very peculiar people. From the striking peculiarities in their personal appearance, in their customs, traditions, and language, I have been led conclusively to believe that they are a people of a decidedly different origin from that of any other tribe in these regions.

Catlin was so impressed by these differences that he speculated that the Mandan tribe could very well be the remains of the lost colony of Madoc. Although he had no Welsh ancestry himself, and no particular motivation for pursuing this theory, he went to great effort to investigate their origin and traced their migration up the Missouri and Ohio Rivers.

His book contains several pages, including a vocabulary comparing numerous Mandan and Welsh words, in support of his theory. He reflects, "If my reasons do not support me, they will at least be worth knowing, and may be the means of eliciting further and more successful enquiry."

They lived in fortified camps, not in tents but in beehive houses, and they used round boats very like the coracles of Wales. John Evans, Welch origine, stayed with the Mandans for about one year in the 1790s said "There is no such people as the Welsh Indians".

* In or around 1980 Professor Gwyn A. Williams, Department of History at Cardiff Univeristy sat in an Indian reservation in North Dakota and listed to one of the last Mandan Indians who said:"
The lone man was the founder of our people. He was a white man who brought our people in his big canoe across a great water and landed them on the Gulf of Mexico."

Professor Williams followed in the footsteps of Evans and surprisely he discovered "It was very eerie. The stone forts with their dry stone walling are just like the Gaer above Brecon. And then you seen these reconstuctions of the Mandan villages which look just like the old Celtic beehive huts. And the the coracles..:"

As with modern folk tales so a tradition can enter a community and be passed down until all accept it as true. It was, said Professor Williams, a sort of osmosis.
But there was something else that day in North Dakota. "The mandan went on to speak about the disappearance of his tribe and of the need to keep the language going. And there was this sudden familiarity about it all. i had heard it before." That is the final irony in the Madoc myth. Beside the Missouri , a Welshman felt he had come home.

* 1953 a memorial tablet was erected at Fort Morgan, Mobile Bay, Alabama which reads: In memory of Prince Madoc, a Welsh explorer, who landed on the shores of Mobile Bay in 1170 and left behind, with the Indians, the Welsh language.

There are around 90 documented instances of people claiming to have directly spoken in Welsh to Red Indians.

Multiple Indian languages had been identified as Welsh but often by linguists not enabled in Welsch language.

There are many more references to Madoc, but they have all been lost to this day. So, do we ever will know the trueth about this history.

Quintessence
There was evidently some tradition of a Welsh prince who sailed away to an unknown land. Particularly that of a Flemish poet of the 13th century makes it clear that such story was common in Wales long before Columbus.

And what about the stone structures?
1 ) The Welsh Caves at the top of Lookout Mountain, near DeSoto Falls

A hidden network of caves carved into the rock face at Lookout Mountain's De Soto State Park near the town of Mentone. Few are aware of their existence and know how to reach them. The cave system is only accessible via a narrow, unmarked trail that clings to a steep rock face and consists of three chambers. An outer chamber, which could be mistaken for a natural overhang, with an artificial pillar on the back wall. Behind it is a small hole and a narrow passage leading to a larger room. It is assumed that this structure was used for defensive purposes.

The design of the structure is also instructive. While the outer chamber is hard enough to reach, the inner room would be virtually impregnable for an invading force unless the easily guarded narrow passage is breached.

Hardly any academic research has been published, and the little that's available isn't conclusive regarding who specifically built them. But it is going to the assumption that they are natives build.

In 1876 the structure was examinated by the Smithsonian Institute and again in 1928 by a Tennessee State Archealogist and finally in 1966 by the University of Tennessee Department of Anthropology which determined the buuilders as Native Americans of the Middle Woodland period. Their findings based on Radiocarbon analysis of charcoal dated 30-430 AD. The Structure composition is similar to other structures built by Middle Woodland cultures.

Between 1966 and 1971, five Middle Woodland settlements were discovered within 20 miles (32 km) of the Old Stone Fort, including a substantial habitation area 3 miles (4.8 km) downstream.

The Old Stone Fort was built during the Middle Woodland Period, 1,500-2,000 years ago. Native Americans used this area continuously for about 500 years, eventually leaving it abandoned. By the time European settlers arrived, it was unclear of what the area had been used for which resulted in it being misnamed as a fort.

The 1966 excavations points more to a ceremonial function.
- structure was erectedover several centuries
- walls not high enough for defence purposes and no palisades
- walls covers a large area too waste for typical Middle Woodland fighting force
- almost no cultural artifacts let suppose not permanent inhabitated

A serpentine three-hour drive to the east from the Welsh Caves, there's yet another DeSoto Falls. This waterfall, located in North Georgia's Chattahoochee National Forest, has its own link to a historical mystery - the undetermined path of Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto's expedition through the American South in the mid-1500s.

Legend says that a plate of Spanish armor was found near the base of the falls in the 19th century. While there's no proof to validate the claim, de Soto and his men likely wandered close to both waterfalls in Georgia and Alabama bearing his name.

2) Fort Mountain State Park, Georgia.

At the southwestern end of the Cohutta Mountains near the Cohutta Wilderness. Sitting at 2,850 ft above sea level, Fort Mountain. It is named an ancient stone rock edifice situated near the crest of the mountain. The rock wall zigzags along Fort Mountain for 855 feet and varies between two and six feet tall at points. Archaeological estimates state that the wall was constructed between 500 - 1500 CE.

Careful archeological examinations of the site have found no evidence that a battle ever was fought there. No tell-tale items such as buttons, coins, fragments of tools, etc. were found to point to the identity of the builders. Perhaps the origin of the structure will forever remain one of Murray County's unsolved mysteries.

Constructed of stacked rocks without mortar, the wall runs in an almost zig-zag line from a steep precipice on the east side of the mountain to a steep precipice on the west side. The base of the wall originally was about 12 feet. Although the stacked stones now are only two to three feet high, originally they must have been stacked higher. A gateway opening in the wall is thought to have led to a nearby spring.

There are four breaks in the wall as it zigzags between the 2750-2760 foot elevation level. It is thought that these breaks in the wall's structure are recent additions added by European colonists and explorers. There are also between 19 - 29 pits in the wall which are also believed to have been added by looters searching for artifacts within the wall.

The wall is believed to have been built around 400 A.D. and to have had a ceremonial function since it lacks certain characteristics necessary for defensive purposes. First, the wall is so low in spots that people inside the wall would be completely exposed to danger from without. Second, there is no source of water within the wall to sustain its inhabitants during an extensive siege. Third, the wall fails to take advantage of strategic contours of the mountain slope and in some instances actually changes course and makes persons behind the wall more susceptible to hostile actions from persons outside the wall. For these reasons it is doubtful the wall was ever a true fort.

Star Patterns in Stone?

While at first the zigzagging shape of the wall seems random, it may give clues to the actual purpose of the wall. During the same time period that this wall was being constructed, Native Americans in southwest Georgia were producing a type of pottery with strange designs that have perplexed archaeologists for over a century.

The pottery, called Weeden Island sacred pottery, contains zigzagging linear patterns very similar to the pattern made by the Fort Mountain stone wall. It has recently been argued that these zigzagging patterns were actually derived from astronomical observations of specific planets and represent their movement around the night sky over the course of months and years. Could Fort Mountain represent something similar and could it have been the place where such astronomical observations were made?

The pattern of the Fort Mountain stone wall is very similar to the pattern on a pottery vessel found by archaeologist C. B. Moore. This vessel, referred to as "Vessel No. 1 from the Larger Mound Near Hare Hammock," is decorated with two bird-head handles. Incised on both sides of the vessel is a zigzagging pattern. This pattern has been interpreted as representing the movement of the planets Venus and Mercury in the morning sky. (Venus is the brightest object in the eastern sky before sunrise and thus would have naturally drawn the attention of Native American sky gazers.) Could the zigzagging pattern of Fort Mountain's stone wall be an attempt by early Native Americans to map upon the landscape the movements of these same bright objects in the early morning sky?

Finally, astronomer John Burgess found that the wall was aligned with the summer solstice. As he noted in 1987:
The north end of the Fort Mountain Stone Wall points toward the position on the horizon where the sun rises on the summer solstice. If a clear view of the horizon were possible, an observer standing on this nearly straight section of wall would find that, using it as a sightline, the time of the summer solstice could be determined when the sun rises at that point on the horizon pointed to by the wall.

Legend of the Moon-Eyed People

The Cherokee Indians who later inhabited these mountains have a legend that says the stone wall was constructed by a race of "moon-eyed" people. They also said that these people were nocturnal and lived underground, only coming out at night. These people were supposedly tall, light-skinned and had beards.

Archaeologists have noted that the Hitchiti language was once widespread throughout Georgia due to the number of place names in the state that are of Hitchiti origin. When the first Spanish explorers entered this region in the early 1500s they encountered many Hitchiti-speaking tribes. These tribes were described as being tall and wearing mustaches and turbans. The chiefs wore full beards. (One such chief from a town called Ocute had a beard that, according to Spanish accounts, reached his belly button.) Thus the idea that tall, bearded people constructed the Fort Mountain wall isn't completely out of the question.

Spanish records indicate they encountered Hitchiti-speaking tribes living in "hollow'd mounds.fully covered in mud." These mounds are likely identical to the earth lodge discovered at Ocmulgee Mounds in Macon, Georgia- a site also constructed by Hitchiti-speaking Native Americans. The Spanish gave these natives the derogatory name "micos sucios" which translates as "dirty monkeys." This has been conjectured to be the origins of the tribal name Miccosukee, one of the few Hitchiti-speaking tribes remaining in America. The Miccosukee were, in reality, part of a tribe known as the Chiaha, who were located in the mountains of Tennessee and Georgia. Thus it is likely that they are the tribe responsible for the construction of Fort Mountain.

*
The legend states they were nocturnal which suggests they spent their nights on Fort Mountain observing the stars and performing ceremonies. Thus the astronomical interpretation of this site is likely an accurate one.

They would have been astronomer-priests of a Hitchiti-speaking tribe, likely the Chiaha. As priests they would have worn long beards. They would have spent their nights observing the stars and moon, and eventually noticed the strange motions of certain stars that we know today as planets. The brightest and most beautiful of these stars/planets were Venus and Mercury and so they built a monument in stone that reflected the path these bright objects took across the pre-dawn sky. These astronomer-priests then returned to their earth lodges during the day to sleep. Since they would not have gotten much sun they would naturally be a lighter complexion than Native Americans who spent their days in the sun. Outsiders who witnessed these priests would tell stories of how tall, fair-skinned, bearded people who lived underground and only came out at night constructed the rock wall at the top of Fort Mountain.

But what of the name "moon-eyed"? It is possible this simply refers to the fact that the people were part of a lunar cult that worshipped (or studied) the moon. Yet there is another intriguing possibility. Today, there are three main groups of Cherokee still living in the Great Smoky Mountains: the Qualla, Tomotla and Snowbird. The Qualla (who live on the main reservation) refer to the Snowbird as "moon faces" because of their Mexican and/or Central American facial features. Could the builders of Fort Mountain, likely the Chiaha, have had a Mesoamerican origin?

Another interesting phenomenon also occurred in the same mountainous region of Georgia around the same time period: petroglyphs. Located in Track Rock Gap at the base of Brasstown Bald, Georgia's highest peak, is a field of boulders which have been carved with curious designs. Sculptured Rock From Forsyth County, Georgia" appears to be decorated with astronomical symbols which could represent a star map of the night sky.

It is interesting to note that during the time period between 550AD and 750AD, which is when these petroglyphs were possibly carved, the Chinese Royal Court recorded over ninety comets visible to the naked eye, more than any other prior period. Thus there was plenty going on in the night sky to interest Georgia's ancient astronomers.