Isunigu

Isunigu (also called Seneca, Esseneca, and Sinica) was a Cherokee town on the Keowee River, near present-day Clemson, South Carolina and Seneca, South Carolina. It was on the west side of the Keowee River, near the mouth of Coneross Creek, in today's Oconee County, South Carolina. Nearby, on the east side of the Keowee River, was the "Hopewell" plantation of General Pickens, where the 1785 Treaty of Hopewell was signed.

The site of Isunigu today is beneath the waters of Lake Hartwell, the reservoir behind Hartwell Dam.

Isunigu was one of the Cherokee "Lower Towns", the most important of which was Keowee. In the 18th century the land of the Lower Towns was ceded to South Carolina. The Cherokee could not stay. Most migrated to the Middle Towns or beyond.

The meaning of the name "Isunigu" is lost.

References

*Mooney, James. "Myths of the Cherokee" (1900, reprint 1995). See James Mooney.