In the spring of 1783, Oconastota, the Great Warrior and principal chief of the Overhill Cherokees, died and was buried at his beloved town of Chota on the Little Tennessee River in present day Monroe County, Tennessee. In the fall of 1969, the Department of Anthropology of the University of Tennessee, while conducting archaeological investigations at this site, disinterred a burial which exhibits striking correlations with the historic accounts of Oconastota and his inhumation.