"A considerable portion of the city of Nashville has been built over an extensive Indian graveyard which lay along the valley of Lick Branch. A large number of these graves have been destroyed in the the building of North Nashville." 5)
"Across the Cumberland River, below the mouth of Lick Branch, on the same side as the city of Nashville, another mound once stood which has since been leveled in the formation of streets and in building North Nashville." 1)

The first white contact is said to be Monsieur Charleville who built a store upon the mound. This was in 1714 and today is near or at present site of the Bicentennial Mall State Park. Yet on the Pathway of History at the mall no mention is made of the mound that was there.

"On the 21st of July, 1821, Mr. Earl proceeded to the mound near Nashville on the field of David McGavock, Esquire, with workmen furnished with spades and pickaxes to cut into it. This is the mound upon which Monsieur Charleville, a French trader, had his store in the year 1714, when the Shawanese were driven from Cumberland by the Cherokees and Chickasaws. It stands on the west side of the river and on the north side of French Lick Creek, and about 70 yards from each. It is round at the base, about 30 yards in diameter, and about 10 feet in height at this time...
The great extent of the burying ground and the vast number of internments, induce the belief that a population once resided here, which more than 20 times exceeded that of the present day: and suggested also another idea, that the cemetery was in the vicinity of the mound,...
But to raise the mound, was in the estimation of the builders, a duty of immense importance. For it must have been formed by a succession of deposites, and by contributions from thousands of hands, at different and perhaps distant periods. The principle, whatever it was; that impelled them to action was not only of irresistible force, but also permanent and perpetual in point of duration...
This mound was erected before the coming of the Shawanese to settle on Cumberland river. They did not reckon it among places consecrated to religion, otherwise they would not have suffered a trader to live on it." (1)

It is said that 5000 individuals were removed from the present site of the courthouse parking lot. During construction of the First American Bank Building a cave was found containing the remains of a man, woman, child, and a saber tooth tiger. This gave rise to the pro-hockey team's name of the Predators. During the construction of the arena, Gaylord Entertainment Center, eyewitnesses stated they saw numerous Native graves found and discarded into dumpsters.

The East bank area of Nashville was slower to develop than the West bank or downtown. Native occupation is thought to have begun about 13000 BP. Historic habitation rose in the late 1800's and gave rise the area known as East Ridge. Gates P. Thruston in his 1897 book The Antiquities of Tennessee told of an 1844 account of a mile long burying ground on the banks of the Cumberland opposite Nashville. A major fire destroyed many homes in the area and it then became and industrial area. No one knows how many burials were removed during this time. However, several feet of fill were eventually done both as a dump site and to prevent flooding. During 1991 construction on the Jefferson Street bridge uncovered many burials which were removed. (see map) With Nashville's acquisition of the Texas Oilers (Tennessee Titans) the East bank was chosen for the Adelphia Colosseum. Previous historic filling of the area was not beneficial to preserving any remaining graves as the Colosseum construction required stripping the soil to the bedpan (rock layer underneath). Tennessee law requires only mortuary features be considered during any construction work. However, burials were quite common in this area under the floor of houses. So if any burials house sites were located the project was not required to ''look' for burials. No burials were reported found during this project, but were there none found really?

It appears from the testimony of John Haywood, in his "Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, "that the mound formerly standing within the limits of North Nashville was carefully examined by Mr. Earle, in 1821, and that, to a certain extent, the structure was similar to that of the mound which I explored directly across on the opposite bank of the Cumberland."

"Thus in a small mound, about one hundred feet in diameter, and about ten feet high, which I explored on the eastern bank of the Cumberland River, opposite the city of Nashville, across from the mouth of Lick branch, at the foot of a large mound, which had been apparently used as a residence or site of a temple,... Graves also extend to the river's edge, many of which are uncovered from time to time by the crumbling of the sandy bank;... About fifty yards higher up the Cumberland, and evidently connected with the mound previously described, are two smaller mounds, about forty feet in diameter, and about four feet high. These contained stone graves irregularly arranged... Several of the skeletons in these mounds bore unmistakable marks of the ravages of syphilis." 1)

About the intersection of Harding Road and Granny pike (see map) was a large native site known as the Noel site. It was removed in the late 1800's by Gates P. Thruston and many looters. Even today many homeowners in the area find burials in their 'flowerbeds'.

"One of the largest and richest of these aboriginal cemeteries, about five miles south of Nashville, lying along the waters of Brown's creek, and in the midst of the historic battle field, has recently been explored, in fact, devastated by relic hunters and collectors. It is situated upon the farm of Mr. 0. F. Noel, adjoining Glendale Park, between Franklin and the Middle Franklin turnpikes, and in one of the most fertile, well watered, and beautiful sections of Tennessee.
Upon this favored site, centuries ago, there was a large town or city, probably the ancient metropolis of the Stone Grave race of Middle Tennessee. Not less than three thousand closely laid stone graves were found in the adjacent cemetery, and at least a thousand more were discovered upon the adjoining farms, Many towns, villages, and settlements were located in the surrounding country, and the smaller cemeteries upon nearly every large farm in this general section, establish the fact that a widely distributed population once occupied this fertile territory, and buried its dead, for several generations at least, in various local or family burial grounds." 4)

AND

"A medium sized pyramidal mound, about seventy feet in diameter at the base and about fifteen feet high, with regular angles, is situated near the Franklin Pike, about two and a half miles from Nashville, upon the slope of a hill overlooking the valley of Brown's Creek. As far as my examination extended, this mound was in like manner used for religious purposes. Numerous stone graves have been found in the vicinity, and a number of relics obtained. A number of stone graves were exposed by the earthworks hastily thrown up by the Confederate troops under the command of General Hood, in the field adjoining this mound." 1)

Where did all these pieces of pottery end up?

"GATES PHILLIPS THRUSTON (1835-1912), a Civil War general of the Army of the Cumberland, was a wealthy Nashville businessman, a graduate of Miami University and Cincinnati Law School. In 1888, an Indian cemetery was discovered on the 0. F. Noel farm in what is today the area of Greater Nashville. Thruston, assisted by skilled collectors under his pay, collected some 600 to 700 quality articles, illustrations of which formed the core for his now rare book, The Antiquities of Tennessee and Adjacent States. By 1890 the some 3,000 to 4,000 stone graves in the Noel Indian cemetery were completely obliterated by relic hunters. Today, the Thruston Collection is cared for by Vanderbilt University." 4)

There is a rumor that catacombs exist under Vanderbilt University containing thousands of Native American remains. Could the donations of Gates also been human remains. Also students at Vanderbilt have used remains of Native American bones in their course work..

When Judge Overton constructed his residence atop this mound, it was dubbed Golgotha, or Hill of Skulls, because of the great number of skulls found during excavation of the cellar for the house. Many accounts are given of this site and much was destroyed by pot hunters. Judge Haywood described a spring adjacent to the village and within the confines of the fortifications as "never failing of pure and well tasted water." The Traveller's Rest Home came into possession of the National Society of Colonial Dames, Tennessee, in 1954. By the fall of 1963 this spring and valley were mostly filled and paved over by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. In 1963 a great portion of the archaeological site to the SE had been covered by houses. A section to the NW had been cut away by L. &N. Railroad for switch yards. In 1964 L.& N. leveled the valley where the spring was for a parking area. They cut into the hillside and destroyed a large portion of the site. A group of amateur archaeologists (SIAS) began 'excavation' on the site in 1963/64. In July 1964 an old smoke house was converted into a museum with four stone box graves reconstructed and put on display with their remains. In 1995 plans were made to open a Educational Center on the grounds of Traveller's Rest. During construction 14 graves were removed.

"About six miles south of Nashville, Tennessee, just east of Franklin Pike at Farrell Parkway, one may observe a hill of somewhat modest elevation, at lease when measured against the nearby knobs stretching Southward and Westward. When Judge John Overton was starting his four room log house on the hill top, they called this hill "Golgotha, the place of the skulls. The hill top is now crowned with the stately Overton mansion which is an out-growth of the first tour room structure. This large building set amid the well kept lawn, gives no present indication that this hill top was once the center of a large, well fortified, prehistoric Indian town. Most people, for the first time visiting Judge Overton's home, (now known as Traveller's Pest), are unaware that Overton was a late comer to this hill. However, several hundred years before, the hills and surrounding slopes had been occupied by a people now known as the "Mississippian" or the "Stone-Box People". The name "Mississippian" gives them a place in time from about 900 A.D. to 1650 A.D., while the name "Stone-Box People" describes their method of burying their dead." Brehm Report

"The hill on which the residence of Colonel Overton stands, about nine miles from Nashville, was in former times occupied by an aboriginal settlement. The circular depressions of the wigwams are still visible in this locality. The aborigines appeared to have been attracted to this place by the noble spring which bursts out at the foot of the hill. "Thousands of bones" were said to have been exhumed in excavating the basement and cellar of the family mansion, and the summit of the hill appeared to have been crowned by a burial mound which has been almost entirely destroyed. The crest and southeastern slope of the hill are covered with stone graves, many of which have been opened. A large number are concealed by the rank growth of weeds and grass." 1)

"Two miles from Mr. W. Parkin's at Judge John Overton's is another entrenchment which takes in or includes 12 acres of land and is rather round than square: the Judge's dwelling house is built within its walls. In digging the cellar under one part of the house (20 feet square) was taken up at least 55 or more human skulls and a vast number of bones. In running a post and rail fence where over a hole was made there was to be got bones this appears as if the whole face of the enclosed earth was used as burying places. All the surface appears dispersed throughout with concavities in the earth which appears as if houses must have been set there and from bones been found so universally, it seems as if the inhabitants were in the habit of interring the dead in the same manner as the Chickasaws do at present, which is in their houses under the cabins. In digging the cellar muscle shells and pieces of earthen ware were got some distance under which favours the idea that the surfacing of the earth rises. Stone pipes and faces of men wrought in the earthen ware was also found.
I have just examined the boundary of this fortification. It seems to be nearly round or at least the corners or where they might be are wanting. Its on a declivity and on the east where the creek runs it appears as if the earth was dug perpendicularly down and thrown off so that a compleat and impenetrable wall was left; but where it left the creek there was to be seen the ditch with the earth thrown on the inner side which made a wall on an unknown height, but from the width of the ditch (which is about 10 feet wide) it seems as if the wall must have been five or six feet high. What other fortification was built on the summit of this wall is unknown as no vestiges of the like is to be seen now. Within here is an elevation of three feet high, it is square and 27 feet each way, level on top this might have been the place, where the public house or some other of distinction stood. All this earth is dispersed with irregular sink-holes, most of them round some nearly square; generally seven or eight yards across (some nine) it may be supposed that here stood the houses, as it's common to see the floors of houses to be lower than the common level, excepting it be raised and what tends more to illustrate the fact is what we see no trees within them of any size which is common to suppose that the floors were very hard and the earth so baked and deadened by frequent fires, that it was unfavorable to vegetable for many years after the town or houses fell into ruins and dissolation."

A graveyard was noted in Antiquities of Tennessee as situated at the mouth of the Stone's River where it empties into the Cumberland. This area is developed and it is unknown how many graves were removed from here. There is also a report that somewhere along Stones River is a popular fishing site near which are many exposed burials. A dam was constructed on the river forming what is now known s Percy Priest Lake. During construction of a Boy Scout camp on the lake eyewitness accounts told of a mound which was breached during construction. however, investigation by both state and US Army Corps of Engineers failed to find evidence of such an event.

White's Bend once was planned to be used as a landfill by Waste Management Inc. Waste Management's plan to put a landfill on this property drew opposition from the Indian community because of the probability of finding Indian burials in the area. The "Alabama Report", a survey conducted by the University of Alabama of archaeological sites in areas being considered as landfill locations, shows 17 sites in an area on White's Bend just to the north of the property now owned by River Hills Estates. One is a burial site. This situation will require careful monitoring to avoid disturbance of burials.

In 1989, in a case involving the removal of Native American remains from a subdivision construction site on property on Myatt Drive in Nashville, the Alliance won the right to claim the remains and then arranged for their transportation and reburial in South Dakota. Another termination of cemetery petition Was been filed in Davidson County Chancery Court for property adjacent to the site terminated in 1989. An Indiana partnership called Northgate Business Park owns the land and asked for permission to remove five remains located by Duvall & Associates, and any remains discovered on the property in the future. They did find and remove several burials at this site.

A large burial site is located in this area. Industrial development and looting have removed a significant number of graves, an exact number will never be known. This bend was the site of a reburial in the 1990's? but even the reburials have been threatened with removal. An elusive archaeological report known as the Alabama Report indicated a large site as well.

The burial ground at Cleece's Ferry has been looted extensively over the years. The Cleece's Ferry site contains material from all of Tennessee's pre-historic cultural periods, defined by archaeologists as the Paleo, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods. The main component of the site is a large, Archaic Period shell mound.

A shell mound along the river bank that suffered much damage, with over a dozen large holes being found in 1997. National Materials posted the site and the looting seems to have stopped.

This area was proposed for development as a landfill about 1990. There is an estimated 6000 Native burials there. After protesters blockaded the site in peaceful protest 1991 Native Americans were permanently barred from the site. Eventually plans were scrapped for the landfill but a incinerator has ben built there and it is unknown how many burials have been removed.

Charlotte pike A large burial ground was noted as being along this road 6 miles from Nashville (4). A super WalMart was built at a location which fits this description west of Nashville at the junction of Charlotte and River Road. There were at least 174 burials removed during construction and an news aerial film showed a mound running from the road to near the river where the village and many burials were removed. This site was known also in the 1960's and was heavily looted. Witnesses have relayed that during the salvage archeology of burials it took place at such a rate that some may not have been counted. As of 1/1/2000 the remains and artifacts have not been reburied.

It has been reported that burials along islands in this lake are being looted. People are taking boats to these islands and probing along the edges and removing bones and artifacts.

SITES are also known to have been on White's Creek, Dickerson Road, Haysboro, McCabe Park, Centennial Park, and the fork of Highways 70 and 100.

The Snake Doctor