O-Ten-Talla Service Unit
O-Ten-Talla is located in Signal Mountain, TN. We have over 200 girls and 42 adults in the O-Ten-Talla service unit. The girls participate in many activities throughout the year, which include the fall scarecrow - making project, a cleanup day called Sparkle Day, a father/daughter dance, and camping at Camp Adahi on Lookout Mountain. All girls in the mountain community are welcome in scouting and adult leadership is always needed for troops and projects
Here is a record of how O-Ten-Talla got it's name.
The Moccasin Bend Council determined that all the Girl Scouts should choose Indian related names for their Service Units.
So the Service Team, which is made up of your leaders, met to consider some ideas. (Some leaders who were there were Debbie Chadwick, Helen Chandler Gray, and Karen Stone). Of course there were the obvious suggested names Cherokee, Creek and Chickamauga, since these were well known Indian tribes who lived in the Chattanooga valley. Then Karen Stone showed the group a publication which had been distributed by the Chattanooga Area Convention and Visitors Bureau many years before. It described interesting points along the river at given mileage points from the Chickamauga dam. The publication reads:
River Mile 455: Signal Mountain rises to the starboard. At the mountain's base was located the "old French store," built by early French traders who abandoned further plans in the Cherokee nation after the fall of Fort Loudoun. Their river expeditions failed to get past "THE SUCK," so they opened for business where they were. During the Civil War, telegraph lines ran to the mountain but not across the river. Messages were relayed by flag (or lantern flash) to other points in the area, thus the name "Signal Mountain". The Indians gave the name "O-Ten-Talla-Ta Tunna-Kunna-ee" to that part of the Chattanooga area which encompasses LOOKOUT and SIGNAL MOUNTAINS. The word is most descriptive, for it means "mountains looking at each other."
River Mile 452: THE SUCK, a huge whirlpool, (where Suck Creek enter the river) was difficult to navigate in low water and was a boat-destroying maelstrom when heavy rains swelled its size to immense proportions. According to Indian legend, "Thunder" was not a thing, but a man who along with "Mrs. Thunder" lived at O-Tule_Ton-Tanna-Ta-Kunna-ee. They had a son who suffered from skin troubles, so they boiled him in a pot full of medicinal herbs and roots and threw the whole works emerged cured, but the pot remained to boil and churn for all time.
River Miles 448-445: THE POT, THE SKILLET, AND THE PAN were other dangerous passages. So filled with danger were these waters that the Indians felt the river bottom was filled with dreaded spirits called "Nunehi" who snatched the unwary from the stream and carried them to their underwater lodges.
After hearing these stories, the Service Team members decided to use them as a basis for our name. The considered the "Kunna-ee" because it was common to both stories of Signal Mountain and The Suck. "O-Tule-Ton" and "Ta Tunna-Kunna-ee" were suggested because of their rhythmic sounds. Most of all, however, everyone liked the expression "mountains looking at each other," and they decided to use part of that phrasse as a name. That night the Service Team unanimously voted to adopt the phrase "O-Ten-Talla" as a name for our unit.
written by: Karen Stone
