Mississippian culture
The South Appalachian Mississippian culture, a regional variation of the classic Mississippian culture, is documented as established in what is now known as Western North Carolina from 1000 CE. Mississippian-culture sites have been identified extending southwest in the river valleys, including the town later called "Kituwa" by the Cherokee, where the ancient platform mound is still visible. The Mississippian-culture peoples were part of vast, indigenous trade networks that connected chiefdoms throughout the present-day eastern United States, spanning the continent from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes. In contrast to some of the larger settlements in the Midwest, which had large complexes of multiple mounds, in North Carolina most of the major towns had a single platform mound. Smaller villages developed near what the Cherokee called the "mother towns".