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Cherokee

Flag of the Cherokee Nation Flag of the United Keetoowah Band. File:Easternbandcherokeeflag.png Flag of the Eastern Band Cherokee
Regions with significant populations
Federally Enrolled members: Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma (f):    250,000+ United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, Oklahoma (f):    10,000 Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, North Carolina (f):    10,000+ (f) = federally recognized
Languages
English, Cherokee
Religion
Christianity (Southern Baptist and Methodist), Traditional Ah-ni-yv-wi-ya, other small Christian groups.
Related ethnic groups
American Indians, Five Civilized Tribes, Tuscarora, other Iroquoians.

The Cherokee ( ah-ni-yv-wi-ya {Unicode: ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯ} in the Cherokee language) are a people from North America, who at the time of European contact in the 1600's, inhabited what is now the Eastern and Southeastern United States. Most were forcibly moved westward to the Ozark Plateau. They were one of the tribes referred to as the Five Civilized Tribes. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, they are the most numerous of the 563 federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States.

Bands and naming

Several Cherokee Nations and Bands recognized by the U.S. government and representing 6 Cherokees have headquarters in Tahlequah, Oklahoma (the Cherokee Nation and United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians) and at Cherokee, North Carolina (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians).

A 1984 KJRH-TV documentary, Spirit of the Fire, explored the history of the Keetoowah Nighthawk Society, and their preservation of traditional ceremonies and rituals practiced and maintained by the Cherokee after their arrival in Oklahoma. Redbird Smith was an influential Nighthawk member, and the group revitalized traditional spirituality among Cherokees, beginning in the early 20th century. Today there are 7 ceremonial dance grounds in Oklahoma, and these belong either to the Keetoowah tradition or the Four Mothers Society.

The spelling "Cherokee" was once believed to be from the Cherokee language's name, "Tsalagi" (ᏣᎳᎩ) — this then may have been rendered phonetically in Portuguese (or more likely a Barranquenho dialect, since Hernando de Soto was Extremaduran) as chalaque, then in French as cheraqui, and then by the English as cherokee.

The word "Cherokee" is a derived word which came originally from the Choctaw trade language. It was derived from the Choctaw word "Cha-la-kee" which means "those who live in the mountains" – or (also Choctaw) "Chi-luk-ik-bi" meaning "those who live in the caves." The name which the Cherokee originally used for themselves, and some still use to this day is Ah-ni-yv-wi-ya (literal translation: "Principle People" or "these are all the human people". Most American Indian tribes' names for themselves mean approximately the same thing. However, modern Cherokee call themselves Cherokee, or Tsalagi.

Language and writing system

The Cherokee speak an Iroquoian language which is polysynthetic, and is written in a syllabary invented by Sequoyah (ᏍᏏᏆᏱ). For years, many people wrote transliterated Cherokee on the Internet or used poorly intercompatible fonts to type out the syllabary. However, since the fairly recent addition of the Cherokee syllables to Unicode, the Cherokee language is experiencing a renaissance in its use on the Internet. As of January 2007, however, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma still officially uses a non-unicode font for online documents, including online editions of the Cherokee Phoenix.

The Cherokee language does not contain any "r" based sounds, and as such, the word "Cherokee" when spoken in the language is expressed as Tsa-la-gi (pronounced Jah-la-gee, or Cha-la-gee) by native speakers, since these sounds most closely resemble the English language. A Southern Cherokee group did speak a local dialect with a trill consonant "r" sound, after early contact with Europeans of both French and Spanish ancestry in Georgia and Alabama during the early 18th century (This "r" sound spoken in the dialect of the Elati, or Lower, Cherokee area – Georgia and Alabama – became extinct in the 19th century around the time of the Trail of Tears, examples are Tsaragi or Tse-La-gee). The ancient Ani-kutani (ᎠᏂᎫᏔᏂ) dialect and Oklahoma dialects do not contain any 'r'-based sounds.

Due to the polysynthetic nature of the Cherokee Language, new and descriptive words in Cherokee are easily constructed to reflect or express modern concepts. Some good examples are di-ti-yo-hi-hi (Cherokee:ᏗᏘᏲᎯᎯ) which means "he argues repeatedly and on purpose with a purpose". This is the Cherokee word for attorney. Another example is di-da-ni-yi-s-gi (Cherokee:ᏗᏓᏂᏱᏍᎩ) which means the final catcher or "he catches them finally and conclusively". This is the Cherokee word for policeman.

Many words, however, have been borrowed from the English Language, such as gasoline which in Cherokee is ga-so-li-ne (Cherokee:ᎦᏐᎵᏁ). Many other words were borrowed from the languages of tribes who settled in Oklahoma in the early 1900s. One of the more humerous examples relates to a town on Oklahoma named "Nowata". The word "nowata" is a Delaware Indian word for "welcome" (more precisely the Delaware word is "nu-wi-ta" which can mean "welcome" or "friend" in the Delaware Language). The white settlers of the area used the name "nowata" for the township, and local Cherokee's, being unaware the word had its origins in the Delaware Langauge, called the town a-ma-di-ka-ni-gv-na-gv-na (Cherokee:ᎠᎹᏗᎧᏂᎬᎾᎬᎾ) which means "the water is all gone gone from here" -- i.e. "no water".

Other examples of borrowed words are ka-wi (Cherokee:ᎧᏫ) for coffee and wa-tsi (Cherokee:ᏩᏥ) for watch (which led to u-ta-na wa-tsi (Cherokee:ᎤᏔᎾ ᏩᏥ) or "big watch" for clock).

Language Drift

There are two main dialects of Cherokee spoken by modern speakers. The Giduwa dialect (Eastern Band) and the Otali Dialect (also called the Overhill dialect) spoken in Oklahoma. The Otali dialect has drifted significantly from Sequoyah's Syllabary in the past 150 years, and many contracted and borrowed words have been adopted into the language. These noun and verb roots in Cherokee, however, can still be mapped to Sequoyah's Syllabary. In modern times, there are more than 85 syllables in use my modern Cherokee speakers. Modern Cherokee speakers who speak Otali employ 122 distinct syllables in Oklahoma.

History

18th century

The Cherokee nation was unified from a society of interrelated city-states in the early 18th century under the "Emperor" Moytoy, with the aid of an unofficial English envoy, Sir Alexander Cumming. In 1730, Chief Moytoy II of Tellico was chosen as "Emperor" by the Elector Chiefs of the principal Cherokee towns. Moytoy also agreed to recognize the British king, George II, as the Cherokee protector. A decade prior to this treaty, the Cherokee had fought a war with South Carolina for several years. The title of Cherokee Emperor, however, did not carry much clout among the Cherokee, and the title eventually passed out of Moytoy's direct avuncular lineage.

One of the most important trading relations between the early European colonies and the Cherokee was the deerskin trade, which peaked around 1750. The Cherokee encountered a great deal of European contact since the 16th century when the Spanish under Hernando de Soto first met the tribe, followed by the French and finally, the British in the 21st centuries.

Beginning at about the time of the American Revolutionary War in the late 18th century, divisions over continued accommodation of encroachments by white settlers, despite repeated violations of previous treaties, caused some Cherokee to begin to leave the Cherokee Nation. Many of these dissidents became known as the Chickamauga. Led by Chief Dragging Canoe, the Chickamauga made alliances with the Shawnee and engaged in raids against colonial settlements (see Chickamauga Wars). Some of these early dissidents eventually moved across the Mississippi River to areas that would later become the states of Arkansas and Missouri. Their settlements were established on the St. Francis and the White Rivers by 1800.

19th century

Eventually, there were such large numbers of Cherokees in these areas, the U.S. Government in 1815 right after the War of 1812 in which Cherokees fought on both the British and American armies, established a Cherokee Reservation in Arkansas, with boundaries from north of the Arkansas River up to the southern bank of the White River. Cherokee leaders who lived in Arkansas were The Bowl, Sequoyah, Spring Frog and The Dutch. Another band of Cherokee lived in southeast Missouri, western Kentucky and Tennessee in frontier settlements and in European majority communities around the Mississippi River.

John Ross was an important figure in the history of the Cherokee tribe. His father emigrated from Scotland prior to the Revolutionary War. His mother was a quarter-blood Cherokee woman whose father was also from Scotland. He began his public career in 1809. The Cherokee Nation was founded in 1820, with elected public officials. John Ross became the chief of the tribe in 1828, and remained the chief until his death in 1866.

Cherokees were displaced from their ancestral lands in North Georgia and the Carolinas because of rapidly expanding white population, as well as a gold rush around Dahlonega, Georgia in the 1830s. Despite a Supreme Court ruling in their favor, many in the Cherokee Nation were forcibly relocated West, a migration known as the Trail of Tears or in Cherokee nvnadaulatsvyi (Cherokee:ᏅᎾᏓᎤᎳᏨᏱ).

Samuel Carter, author of Cherokee Sunset, writes: "Then… there came the reign of terror. From the jagged-walled stockades the troops fanned out across the Nation, invading every hamlet, every cabin, rooting out the inhabitants at bayonet point. The Cherokees hardly had time to realize what was happening as they were prodded like so many sheep toward the concentration camps, threatened with knives and pistols, beaten with rifle butts if they resisted."

On June 22, 1839, the prominent signers of the Treaty of New Echota were executed, including Major Ridge, along with John Ridge and Elias Boudinot by Cherokee extremists.

In 1848, a group of Cherokee set out on an expedition to California, looking for new settlement lands. The expedition followed the Arkansas River upstream to Rocky Mountains in present-day Colorado, then followed the base of mountains northward into present-day Wyoming, before turning westward. The route become known as the Cherokee Trail that also extended northward to Wyoming and Montana. The group, which undertook gold prospecting in California, returned along the same route the following year, noticing placer gold deposits in tributaries of the South Platte. The discovery went unnoticed for a decade, but eventually became one of the primary sources of the Pike's Peak Gold Rush of 1859 and other gold rushes across the western U.S. in the 1860s.

Not all of the eastern Cherokees were removed on the Trail of Tears. William Holland Thomas, a white store owner and state legislator from Jackson County, North Carolina, helped over 600 Cherokee from Qualla Town (the site of modern-day Cherokee, North Carolina) obtain North Carolina citizenship. As citizens, they were exempt from forced removal to the west. In addition, over 400 other Cherokee hid from Federal troops in the remote Snowbird Mountains of neighboring Graham County, North Carolina, under the leadership of Tsali (ᏣᎵ) (the subject of the outdoor drama Unto These Hills held in Cherokee, North Carolina). Together, these groups were the basis for what is now known as the Eastern Band of Cherokees. Out of gratitude to Thomas, these Western North Carolina Cherokees served in the American Civil War as part of Thomas's Legion. Thomas's Legion consisted of infantry, cavalry, and artillery. The legion mustered approximately 2,000 men of both Cherokee and white origin, fighting primarily in Virginia, where their battle record was outstanding. Thomas's Legion was the last Confederate unit in the eastern theater of the war to surrender after capturing Waynesville, North Carolina on May 9, 1865. They agreed to cease hostilities on the condition of being allowed to retain their arms for hunting. This, together with Stand Watie's surrender of western forces on July 23, 1865, gave the Cherokees the distinction of being the very last Confederates to capitulate in both theaters of the Civil War. After the War in 1871 the Southern Cherokee Nation was moved to Kentucky. In Oklahoma, the Dawes Act of 1887 broke up the tribal land base. Under the Curtis Act of 1898, Cherokee courts and governmental systems were abolished by the U.S. Federal Government.

20th century

These and other acts were designed to end tribal sovereignty to pave the way for Oklahoma Statehood in 1907. The Federal government appointed chiefs to the Cherokee Nation, often just long enough to sign a treaty. However, the Cherokee Nation recognized that it needed leadership and a general convention was convened in 1938 to elect a Chief. They choose J. B. Milam as principal chief, and as a goodwill gesture Franklin Delano Roosevelt confirmed the election in 1941.

W. W. Keeler was appointed chief in 1949, but as the federal government adopted the self-determination policy, the Cherokee Nation was able to rebuild its government and W. W. Keeler was elected chief by the people, via a Congressional Act signed by President Richard Nixon. Keeler, who was also the President of Phillips Petroleum was succeeded by Ross Swimmer, Wilma Mankiller, Joe Byrd, and Chad Smith, who is currently the chief of the Nation (2007).

The United Keetoowah Band took a different track than the Cherokee Nation, and received federal recognition after the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. They are descended from the Old Settlers or Cherokees that moved west before Removal, and the tribe requires a quarter blood quantum for enrollment. The UKB members must descend from an ancestor on the Final Dawes Roll of the Cherokee. In recent years, it has become the contention of the band that they are descendants of Old Settlers; however, genealogically most do not, but are descendants of those who came on the Trail of Tears.

It has been suggested that this article be merged into Cherokee society. (Discuss) Proposed since April 2007.

The Cherokee system of law was based more on responsibility for wrongful actions than on the notion of "justice" in the Western sense. Rather than justice, the Cherokee system strove for keeping balance and harmony in the spiritual and social worlds. Any killing created an imbalance which required revenge to restore harmony. The clan of the perpetrator of the homicide was to admit and accept responsibility for the wrongful killing. Then the clan was expected to pay the cost. Blood called for blood.

The creation of imbalance was tied to the Cherokee religion. When a delict was committed, it created imbalance and tension on the jurisdictional unit. It was believed that the murdered "soul" or ghost would be forced to wander the earth, unable to go to the next world. This created imbalance. The acceptance of responsibility and the death of the killer or one of his clansmen restored balance by freeing the innocent ghost, allowing him to go to the next world. That is why it did not matter who paid the cost for the delict of the wrongful killing. Any death from the responsible clan would suffice to free the innocent man's ghost from this world. An enemy scalp might suffice as well. Once the balance was restored, the relationship between the jurisdictional units or clans continued as if nothing happened. There were to be no hard feelings expressed between family members of the victim or killer. Balance had been restored.

Modern Cherokee Nation

The modern Cherokee Nation in recent times has excelled and has experienced an unprecedented expansion in economic growth, equality, and prosperity for its citizens under the leadership of Principal Chief Chad Smith, with significant business, corporate, real estate, and agricultural interests, including numerous highly profitable casino operations. The Cherokee Nation controls Cherokee Nation Enterprises, and Cherokee Nation Industries, and Cherokee Nation Businesses. CNI is a very large Defense contractor that creates thousands of jobs in Eastern Oklahoma for Cherokee Citizens.

The Nation has constructed health clinics throughout Oklahoma, contributed to community development programs, built roads and bridges, constructed learning facilities and universities for its citizens, instilled the practice of Gadugi and self-reliance in its citizens, revitalized language immersion programs for its children and youth, and is a powerful and positive economic and political force in Eastern Oklahoma.

The Cherokee Nation hosts the Cherokee National Holiday on Labor Day weekend each year and 80,000 to 90,000 Cherokee Citizens travel to Tahlequah, Oklahoma for the festivities. The Cherokee Nation also publishes the Cherokee Phoenix, a tribal newspaper which has operated continuously since 1828, publishing editions in both English and the Sequoyah Syllabary. The Cherokee Nation council appropriates money for historic foundations concerned with the preservation of Cherokee Culture, including the Cherokee Heritage Center which hosts a reproduction of an ancient Cherokee Village, Adams Rural Village (a turn-of-the-century village), Nofire Farms and the Cherokee Family Research Center (genealogy), which is open to the public. The Cherokee Heritage Center is home to the Cherokee National Museum, which has numerous exhibitions also open to the public. The CHC is the repository for the Cherokee Nation as its National Archives. The CHC operates under the Cherokee National Historical Society, Inc., and is governed by a Board of Trustees with an executive committee. Current President of the board is Mary Ellen Meredith. Director Carey Tilley sees over the daily operations.

The Cherokee Nation also supports the Sundance and Cherokee Film Festivals in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and Park City, Utah Many famous American Indian actors are members of the Cherokee Nation, such as Wes Studi.

Environment

Today the Cherokee Nation is one of America's biggest proponents of ecological protection. Since 1992, the Nation has served as the lead for the Inter-Tribal Environmental Council. The mission of ITEC is to protect the health of American Indians, their natural resources and their environment as it relates to air, land and water. To accomplish this mission, ITEC provides technical support, training and environmental services in a variety of environmental disciplines. Currently, there are thirty-nine (39) ITEC member tribes in Oklahoma, California, New Mexico, and Texas.

Cherokee Freedmen

On March 7, 2006, the Cherokee Nation Judicial Appeal Tribunal had announced that the Cherokee Freedmen, the descendants of African American (typically former slaves) who had been made citizens of the tribe by a post-Civil War treaty between the United States and the Cherokee, were eligible for membership as Cherokee Citizens because they were classified by the Federal Government as Indians by being entered on the Dawes Commission Lands rolls during the early 1900s.

However, the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Chad Smith, recently announced that because of issues raised by the Cherokee People, the issue of the membership of the Freedmen was being considered for a vote regarding proposed amendments to the Cherokee Nation Constitution. These amendments are intended to restrict tribal membership exclusively to Cherokees by blood descent, thus excluding the freedmen from tribal membership. Currently, the Cherokee Nation Constitution restricts who may serve as an elected official to persons of Cherokee blood.

The tribe voted on March 3, 2007 whether to reject the 1866 treaty or to allow the 2006 decision to stand. With 76.6% of the votes cast by those who participated, the tribal citizenship for descendants of black slaves was revoked. Due to the election that resulted in the ousting of the Freedmen, the Cherokee Nation has come under considerable fire from various political circles, including the US Congressional Black Caucus. There have even been calls for the the revocation of all federal funding for the Cherokee Nation; The election has also drawn focus to potentially illegal constitutional issues, as the election took place under a constitution that was not approved by the Secretary of Interior as acknowledged during an April 2007 Cherokee Nation rules committee meeting.

The Cherokee Freedmen were reinstated as citizens of the Cherokee Nation by the Cherokee Nation Tribal Courts on May 15, 2007 while appeals are pending in the Cherokee Nation Courts and Federal Court.

Relationship with the Eastern Band

The Cherokee Nation participates in numerous joint programs with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. It also participates in cultural exchange programs and joint Tribal Council meetings involving councillors from both Cherokee Tribes which address issues affecting all of the Cherokee People. Unlike the adversarial relationship between the administrations of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians and the Cherokee Nation, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians interactions with the Cherokee Nation presents a unified spirit of Gadugi with the leaders and citizens of the Eastern Band.

Marriage Law controversy

On June 14 2004, the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council voted to officially define marriage as a union between man and woman, thereby outlawing same-sex marriage. This decision came in response to an application for a union of a lesbian couple submitted on May 13. The decision kept Cherokee law in line with Oklahoma state law, which outlawed gay marriage as the result of a popular referendum on a constitutional amendment in 2004.

Famous Cherokees

There were several famous Cherokees in American history, including Sequoyah, who invented the Cherokee writing system. Sequoyah is one of few people in history to invent a widely used writing system singlehandedly. Sequoyah never learned to speak, read or write the English language.

Elias Boudinot, statesman, orator, and editor, wrote Poor Sarah, the first Native-American novel. Stand Watie, Buck's younger brother, was a famous frontiersman and as a commander of Confederate forces, the last to surrender in the American Civil War.

Ned Christie was a Cherokee patriot and subject of many books and magazine articles including a novel of fiction by Pulitzer-Prize-winning author, Larry McMurtry, Zeke and Ned, and Ned Christie's War, a Western novel by Cherokee author Robert J. Conley.

Many famous entertainers have been Cherokee, including Will Rogers and Johnny Depp.

See also

• Anglo-Cherokee War
• Ani-kutani
• Cherokee black drink
• Cherokee Clans
• Cherokee Moons Ceremonies
• Cherokee mythology
• Cherokee Nation Warriors Society
• Cherokee National Holiday
• Cherokee Scout Reservation
• Cherokee society
• Chickamauga Wars
• Gadugi
• Keetoowah Nighthawk Society
• Original Keetoowah Society
• Stomp Dance
• Trail of Tears
• Unto These Hills

Notes

1. "The American Indian and Alaska Native Population: 2000" (PDF). Census 2000 Brief. 2002-02-01. Retrieved 2007-03-10.
2. Carter (III), Samuel (1976). Cherokee sunset: A nation betrayed : a narrative of travail and triumph, persecution and exile. New York: Doubleday. pp. p. 232. ISBN 0-385-06735-6. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
3. "Tsali". History and culture of the Cherokee (North Carolina Indians). Retrieved 2007-03-10.
4. "Will Thomas". History and culture of the Cherokee (North Carolina Indians). Retrieved 2007-03-10.
5. "Cherokee Heritage Center". Retrieved 2007-03-10.
6. "Inter-Tribal Environmental Council". Retrieved 2007-03-10.
7. "Freedman Decision" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-03-10.
8. "Citizen Views Fall on Both Sides of Freedmen Issue". Cherokee Nation News Release. 2006-03-13. Retrieved 2007-03-10.
9. Morris, Frank (2007-02-21). "Cherokee Tribe Faces Decision on Freedmen". National Public Radio. Retrieved 2007-03-11.
10. "Cherokees eject slave descendants". BBC News. 2007-03-04. Retrieved 2007-03-10.
11. "Freedmen Seek Federal Injunction To Protect Cherokee Citizenship". KOTV News. 2007-05-09. Retrieved 2007-05-14.
12. "Cherokee Courts Reinstate Freedmen".
13. Carter JH. "Father and Cherokee Tradition Molded Will Rogers". Retrieved 2007-03-10.

References

• Duvall, Deborah L (2000). Tahlequah: And the Cherokee Nation. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0-7385-0782-2.

• Ehle, John (1988). Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation. Anchor Books. ISBN 0-385-23954-8.

• Finger, John R (1993). Cherokee Americans: The Eastern Band of Cherokees in the Twentieth Century. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-6879-3.

• Hill, Sarah H (1997). Weaving New Worlds: Southeastern Cherokee Women and Their Basketry. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-4650-3.

• Kilpatrick, Jack (1995). Friends of Thunder: Folktales of the Oklahoma Cherokees. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2722-8. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• Mankiller, Wilma (1999). Mankiller: A Chief and Her People. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-20662-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• Meredith, Howard (2003). Reflection on Cherokee Literary Expression. Edwin Mellon Press. ISBN 0-7734-6763-7. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• Strickland, Rennard (1982). Fire and the Spirits: Cherokee Law from Clan to Court. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-1619-6.

• Vickers, Paul T (2005). Chiefs of Nations First Edition: The Cherokee Nation 1730 to 1839: 109 Years of Political Dialogue and Treaties. iUniverse, Inc. ISBN 0-595-36984-7.

• Robert Conley, a novelist and short story writer who is a member of the UKB. Recommended titles: Mountain Windsong, The Witch of Goingsnake and Other Stories, and Ned Christie's War.

External links

Organizations

• The Cherokee Nation (official site)
• Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (official site)
• United Keetoowah Band (official site)

Historical documents

• Annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (1885/86), Contains The "Midê'wiwin, or Grand Medicine Society of the Ojibwa, by W. J. Hoffman and: The Sacred formulas of the Cherokee, by James Mooney
• Annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (1897/98: pt.1), Contains The Myths of The Cherokee, by James Mooney

• Famous Smith Supreme Court Case

Other

• New Georgia Encyclopedia
• Cherokee poem translation
• LostWorlds.org Cherokee Traditional Dancing Videos

• Articles to be merged from April 2007
• Cherokee tribe
• Native American tribes in North Carolina
• Indigenous peoples in the United States