United Keetoowah Band Chief George Wickliffe, left, greets Duke Energy President Brett Carter before a Feb. 17 meeting between the UKB and Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians leaders and Duke Energy officials regarding a substation being built near the Kituwah mound in North Carolina. COURTESY PHOTOTAHLEQUAH, Okla. – North Carolina’s Swain County board of commissioners issued on March 9 a 90-day moratorium on the building of a substation near the historic Cherokee site of Kituwah.


Citizens and governments of all three federally recognized Cherokee tribes – the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the United Keetoowah Band and Cherokee Nation – have expressed concern that a Duke Energy substation would sit too close to Kituwah, which is considered the sacred mother town for Cherokees.
The moratorium prevents the issuance of soil erosion control and building permits related to the construction of utility substations. The SCBC said it’s considering a permanent ordinance to regulate land development within Swain County as it applies to substation and cell tower construction.
Commissioner David Monteith said county commissioners in January noticed work being done on a mountain adjacent to Kituwah. Curious, he and other citizens investigated and realized Duke was building a substation.
Subsequently, a Duke representative attended a SCBC meeting to obtain a permit for the substation’s retaining wall, but Monteith said commissioners “couldn’t get a definite answer” about what Duke was doing near Kituwah.
The representative told commissioners of a private meeting on Feb. 17 between the EBCI and Duke’s president. At the meeting, Duke representatives ignored the commissioners, who had to ask questions by writing notes, Monteith said.
“We were treated like we didn’t exist, not by the tribe but by Duke Power,” he said.
Monteith said commissioners asked Duke officials why they had not talked to the SCBC. He said Duke reps told them since Swain County did not have an ordinance preventing them from building the substation they did not have to meet with commissioners.
Before clearing 15 acres, Duke obtained a soil erosion permit but not a retaining wall permit. Duke is still grading at the site because nothing can be built until a retaining wall is in place, said Duke spokesman Jason Walls.
Walls said Duke would work with Swain County to obtain a retaining wall permit for the 300-by-300-square foot substation.
“…our interest in this whole process is to make sure we can supply our customers in that region, including the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians reservation and others outside of the reservation, with reliable electricity. So we’re certainly going to be working with the county over these 90 days to better understand how the proposed ordinance could affect our ability to provide reliable electricity to customers.” Walls said.
Monteith said he realizes more power is needed, but isn’t sure why Duke was not forthright with commissioners.
The moratorium allows the county to study the substation more thoroughly, and hopefully, allow the tribe, county and Duke to talk more, he said.
“To me we were being talked down to and so was the tribe because they said they didn’t have to come talk to the tribe either,” Monteith said. “You think out of respect a company like Duke…would be willing to contact the board of commissioners in that county. They should have some common courtesy to talk with us.”
In the moratorium, the five commissioners cite the county’s tourism industry, which is tied to “the scenic and unspoiled areas of Swain County.”
Walls said Duke is looking at other options for the substation, including continuing near the Kituwah site but adding camouflage to reduce its visual impact. Another is to work with the EBCI to possibly place the substation at an alternate site, which would include land owned by the EBCI and Duke.
Duke is also looking at land it owns “in the vicinity” of the site that may work, with some “re-engineering,” Walls said.
“If at the end of the day that site (near Kituwah) proves to be the only option, we have to continue to serve those customers with reliable electricity. We will do everything that we can to further camouflage that site,” he said.
Walls said Duke has found a growing energy demand from the tribe’s expanding Harrah’s Casino and general customers in a two-county area that includes the EBCI boundary. He said the line that would be attached to the substation needs to be upgraded to serve the region in the future.
He said Duke did not anticipate the backlash it has received and that a meeting with the EBCI and commissioners earlier in the process may have prevented some misunderstandings.
“We wish we would have been having these conversations with folks in the community months earlier. Following our standard process, it wasn’t required, but looking back we certainly wish we would have invested the time to sit down with both the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian leadership, as well as the Swain County Commissioners to help them understand what we were doing and why we were doing it.”

–Reprinted with permission of the Cherokee Phoenix, www.cherokeephoenix.org