Cherokee

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Cherokee ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯ
Sequoyah, 1835.
Total population
320,000+
Regions with significant populations
Federally Enrolled members: Cherokee Nation (f):    280,000+ 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
Religions
Christianity (Southern Baptist and Methodist), Traditional Ah-ni-yv-wi-ya, other small Christian groups.
Related ethnic groups
Tuscarora, Iroquoians, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole.

The Cherokee (ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯ, a-ni-yv-wi-ya, in the Cherokee language) are a people native to North America, who, at the time of European contact in the sixteenth century, inhabited what is now the Eastern and Southeastern United States. Most were forcibly moved westward to the Ozark Plateau in the 1830s. They are one of the tribes referred to as the Five Civilized Tribes. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, they are the largest of the 563 federally recognized Native American tribes in the United States.

The Cherokee refer to themselves as Tsa-la-gi (ᏣᎳᎩ, pronounced "Zah la gee" or "Sa lah gi" in the eastern Giduwa dialect or pronouced "ja-la-gee" in western dialect) or A-ni-yv-wi-ya (pronounced "ah knee yuh wee yaw" (western) or "Ah nee yuhn wi yah" (Eastern dialect), literal translation: "Principal People").

The characteristics of the Cherokee people were described in the writings of William Bartram in his journey through the Cherokee lands in 1776;

"The Cherokee…are tall, erect and moderately robust; their limbs well shaped, so as generally to form a perfect human figure; their features regular, and countenance open, dignified, and placid, yet the forehead and brow are so formed as to strike you instantly with heroism and bravery; the eye, though rather small, yet active and full of fire, the iris always black, and the nose commonly inclining to the aquiline. Their countenance and actions exhibit an air of magnanimity, superiority, and independence. Their complexion is a reddish brown or copper colour; their hair, long, lank, coarse, and black as a raven, and reflecting the like lustre at different exposures to the light. The women of the Cherokees are tall, slender, erect and of a delicate frame; their features formed with perfect symmetry; the countenance cheerful and friendly; and they move with a becoming grace and dignity" (R. C. Pritchard, Researches into the Physical History of Mankind (Volume V, 1847), p.403-4)

The Cherokee Nation and United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians have headquarters in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is located at Cherokee, North Carolina. All three are federally recognized.

History

Swimmer, the Cherokee cultural preservationist, 1888.

Prehistoric and protohistoric periods

In describing the history of Indians living in the interior of the American southeast, scholars use the term prehistory for the time before the mid-sixteenth century, when several Spanish expeditions journeyed through the Southeast. After these expeditions, the European historic record is silent until about 1700. The term protohistory is used for this period. Since historic documentation is generally lacking, Cherokee prehistory and protohistory have been studied via oral tradition, linguistic analysis, and archaeology. The time after about 1700 is called the historic era.

Unlike most other Indians in the American southeast at the start of the historic era, the Cherokee spoke an Iroquoian language. Since the Great Lakes region was the core of Iroquoian languages, it is theorized that the Cherokee migrated south from that region. Linguistic analysis shows a relatively large difference between Cherokee and the northern Iroquoian languages, suggesting a split in the distant past. Glottochronology studies suggest the split occurred between about 1,500 and 1,800 B.C.E.

The ancient settlement of Keetoowah or giduwa (Cherokee:), on the Tuckasegee River near present-day Bryson City, North Carolina, is frequently cited as the original Cherokee City in the Southeast. During the early historic era, Europeans wrote of several Cherokee town groups, usually using the terms Lower, Middle, and Overhill towns to designate the towns, from the piedmont across the Allegheny Mountains.

The Lower towns were situated on the headwater streams of the Savannah River, mainly in present-day western South Carolina and northeastern Georgia. Keowee was one of the chief towns.

The Middle towns were located in present western North Carolina, on the headwater streams of the Tennessee River, such as the Little Tennessee River, Hiwassee River, and French Broad River. Among several chief towns was Nikwasi.

The Overhill towns were located across the higher mountains in present eastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia. Principal towns included Chota and Great Tellico. These terms were created and used by Europeans to describe their changing geopolitical relationship with the Cherokee.

17th Century

In the 17th century, the Powhatan knew them as the Rickahockans or Rechahecrians. The word "Cherokee" may have originally been derived from the Choctaw trade language^{[citation needed]} 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 cave country".

The Cherokee were called "Alligewi" by the Delawares. (Heckewelder) Iroquois called them Oyata’ge'ronoñ', "inhabitants of the cave country" (Hewitt). Allegheny Mountain's Mingo called the Upper-most Cherokee, Uyata'kéá', the "cave" kind, implying steep hollow (Lachler, McElwain).

According to James Mooney, the English first had contact with the Cherokee in 1654. One of the earliest European-American accounts comes from the expedition of James Needham and Gabriel Arthur, sent in 1673 by fur-trader Abraham Wood of Virginia to the Overhill Cherokee country. Wood hoped to forge a direct trading connection with the Cherokee in order to bypass the Occaneechi Indians who were serving as middlemen on the Trading Path. The two Virginians did make contact with the Cherokee, although Needham was killed on the return journey and Arthur was almost killed. By the late seventeenth century, traders from both Virginia and South Carolina were making regular journeys to Cherokee lands, but few wrote about their experiences.

Much of the early trading contact period has only been pieced together by colonial laws and lawsuits involving traders. The trade was mainly deerskins, raw material for the booming European leather industry, in exchange for European technology "trade goods" such as iron and steel tools (kettles, knives, etc), firearms, gunpowder, and ammunition. In 1705 these traders complained that their business had been lost and replaced by Indian slave trade instigated by Governor Moore of South Carolina. Moore had commissioned people to "set upon, assault, kill, destroy, and take captive as many Indians as possible." These captives would be sold and the profits split with the Governor. Although selling alcohol to Indians was made illegal by colonial governments at an early date, rum, and later whiskey, were a common item of trade.

18th century

Tah-Chee (Dutch), A Cherokee Chief, 1837, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Of the southeastern Indian confederacies of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries (Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, etc), the Cherokee were one of the most populous and powerful, and were relatively isolated by their hilly and mountainous homeland. A relatively small-scale trading system was established with Virginia in the late seventeenth century. A much stronger and important trade relationship with the colony of South Carolina, based in Charles Town, began in the 1690s and overshadowed the Virginia relationship by the 1700s.

Although there was some trading contact, the Cherokee remained relatively unaffected by the presence of European colonies in America until the Tuscarora War and its aftermath. In 1711 the Tuscarora began attacking colonists in North Carolina after diplomatic attempts to address various grievances failed. The governor of North Carolina asked South Carolina for military aid. Before the war was over several years later, South Carolina had mustered and sent two armies against the Tuscarora. The ranks of both armies were made up mostly of Indians, with Yamasee troops especially. The first army, under the command of John Barnwell, campaigned in North Carolina in 1712. By the end of the year a fragile peace had been established, and the army dispersed. No Cherokee were involved in the first army. Hostilities between the Tuscarora and North Carolina broke out soon after, and in late 1712 to early 1713 a second army from South Carolina fought the Tuscarora. This army consisted of about 100 British and over 700 Indian soldiers. As with the first army, the second depended heavily on the Yamasee and Catawba. This time, however, hundreds of Cherokee also joined the army. The army's campaign ended after a major Tuscarora defeat at Hancock's Fort. All told, over 1,000 Tuscarora and allied Indians were killed or captured. Those captured were mainly sold into the Indian slave trade. Although the second army from South Carolina disbanded soon after the battle, the Tuscarora War continued for several years. Some previously neutral Tuscarora turned hostile, and the Iroquois confederacy entered the dispute. In the end a large number of Tuscarora moved north to live among the Iroquois.

The Tuscarora War altered the geopolitical context of colonial America in several ways, including creating a general Iroquois interest in the south. For the many southeastern Indians involved, it was the first time so many had collaborated in a military campaign and seen how different the various English colonies were. As a result, the war helped to bind the Indians of the entire region together. It enhanced Indian networks of communication and trade. The Cherokee became much more closely integrated with the region's various Indians and Europeans. The Tuscarora War marked the beginning of an English-Cherokee relationship that, despite breaking down on occasion, remained strong for much of the 18th century.

The Tuscarora War also marks the rise of Cherokee military power, demonstrated in the 1714 attack and destruction of the Yuchi town of Chestowee (in today's southeastern Tennessee). The English traders Alexander Long and Eleazer Wiggan instigated the attack through various deceptions and promises, although there was a pre-existing conflict between the Cherokee and Yuchi. The traders' plot was based in the Cherokee town of Euphase (Great Hiwassee), and mainly involved Cherokee from that town. In May 1714 the Cherokee destroyed the Yuchi town of Chestowee. Inhabitants not killed or captured fled to the Creek or the Savannah River Yuchi. Long and Wiggan told the Cherokee that the South Carolina government wished for and approved this attack, which was not true. The governor of South Carolina, having heard of the plot, sent a messenger to tell the Cherokee not to continue the attack on Yuchi. The messenger arrived too late to save Chestowee. The Cherokee attack on the Yuchi ended with Chestowee, but it was enough to catch the attention of every Indian tribe and European colony in the region. Thus, around 1715, the Cherokee emerged as a major regional power.

In 1715, just as the Tuscarora War was winding down, the Yamasee War broke out. Numerous Indian tribes launched attacks on South Carolina. The Cherokee participated in some of the attacks, but were divided on what course to take. After South Carolina's militia succeeded in driving off the Yamasee and Catawba. the Cherokee's position became strategically pivotal. Both South Carolina and the Lower Creek tried to gain Cherokee support. Some Cherokee favored an alliance with South Carolina and war on the Creek, while others favored the opposite. The impasse was resolved in January 1716, when a delegation of Creek leaders was murdered at the Cherokee town of Tugaloo. Subsequently, the Cherokee launched attacks against the Creek, but in 1717 peace treaties between South Carolina and the Creek were finalized, undermining the Cherokee's commitment to war. Hostility and sporadic raids between the Cherokee and Creek continued for decades.

In 1730, at Nikwasi, Chief Moytoy II of Tellico was chosen as "Emperor" by the Elector Chiefs of the principal Cherokee towns. He unified the Cherokee Nation from a society of interrelated city-states in the early 18th century with the aid of an unofficial English envoy, Sir Alexander Cuming. Moytoy agreed to recognize King George II of Great Britain as the Cherokee protector. Seven prominent Cherokee, including Attacullaculla, traveled with Sir Alexander Cuming back to England. The Cherokee delegation stayed in London for four months. The visit culminated in a formal treaty of alliance between the British and Cherokee, the 1730 Treaty of Whitehall. While the journey to London and the treaty were important factors in future British-Cherokee relations, the title of Cherokee Emperor did not carry much clout among the Cherokee and passed out of Moytoy's direct avuncular lineage.

The unification of the Cherokee nation was essentially ceremonial, with political authority remaining town-based for decades afterward. In addition, Sir Alexander Cuming's aspirations to play an important role in Cherokee affairs failed. In 1735 the Cherokee were estimated to have sixty-four towns and villages and 6000 fighting men. In 1738 - 39 smallpox was introduced to the country via sailors and slaves from the slave trade. An epidemic broke out among the Cherokee, who had no natural immunity, and killed nearly half their population within a year. Hundreds of other Cherokee committed suicide due to disfigurement from the disease.

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Cherokee land claim around 1600

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. Some of these early dissidents moved by 1800 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.

Historians

Much of what is known about pre 19th century Cherokee history, culture, and society comes from the papers of American writer John Howard Payne. The Payne papers describe the memory Cherokee elders had of a traditional societal structure in which a "white" organization of elders represented the seven clans. This group, which was hereditary and described as priestly, was responsible for religious activities such as healing, purification, and prayer. A second group of younger men, the "red" organization, was responsible for warfare. However, warfare was considered a polluting activity which required the purification of the priestly class before participants could reintegrate in normal village life.

This hierarchy had faded by the time of the Cherokee removal in 1838. The reasons for the change have been debated and may include: a revolt by the Cherokee against the abuses of the priestly class, the massive smallpox epidemic of the late 1730s, and the incorporation of Christian ideas, which transformed Cherokee religion by the end of the eighteenth century.

An early 20th Century photo of a traditional Cherokee stickball player.

Ethnographer James Mooney, who studied the Cherokee in the late 1880s, traced the decline of the former hierarchy to the revolt. By the time of Mooney, the structure of Cherokee religious practitioners was more informal and based more on individual knowledge and ability than upon heredity. In addition, separation of the Eastern Cherokee, who had not participated in the removal and remained in the mountains of western North Carolina, further complicated the traditional hierarchies.

Another major source of early cultural history comes from the materials written in Cherokee by the didanvwisgi (Cherokee:ᏗᏓᏅᏫᏍᎩ), or Cherokee medicine men, after the creation of the Cherokee syllabary by Sequoya in the 1820s. These materials were initially only used by the didanvwisgi (Cherokee:ᏗᏓᏅᏫᏍᎩ) and were considered extremely powerful. Later, these were widely adopted by the Cherokee people.

19th century

In 1815—after the War of 1812 in which Cherokees fought on behalf of both the British and American armies— the U.S. Government established a Cherokee Reservation in Arkansas. The reservation boundaries extended from north of the Arkansas River to the southern bank of the White River. Cherokee bands 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.

Chief John Ross, c. 1840

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. John Ross 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.

Trail of Tears

Cherokees were displaced from their ancestral lands in northern Georgia and the Carolinas in a period of rapidly expanding white population. Some of the rapid expansion was due to a gold rush around Dahlonega, Georgia in the 1830s. Various official reasons for the removal were given. One official argument was that the Cherokee were not efficiently using their land and the land should be given to white farmers. Others suggest that President Andrew Jackson's reasons for this removal policy were humanitarian. Jackson said that the policy was an effort to prevent the Cherokee from facing the fate of "the Mohegan, the Narragansett, and the Delaware". However there is ample evidence that the Cherokee were adapting modern farming techniques, and a modern analysis shows that the area was in general in a state of economic surplus.

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 Nunna Daul Tsunny (Cherokee:The Trail Where They Cried) and by another term Tlo Va Sa (Cherokee:The Tragedy). This took place during the Indian Removal Act of 1830, although as of 1883, the Cherokee were the last large southern Indian tribe to be removed. Even so, the harsh treatment the Cherokee received at the hands of white settlers caused some to enroll to emigrate west. As the Cherokee were slaveholders, they took enslaved African Americans with them west of the Mississippi.

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."

Ridge opposition

Among the Cherokee, John Ross led the battle to halt their removal. Ross's position was in opposition to a group known as the "Ridge Party" or the "Treaty Party." This was in reference to the Treaty of New Echota, which exchanged Cherokee land for land in the west and its principle signers John Ridge and his father Major Ridge.

Cherokee Nation Courthouse in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, mid-19th century

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

In the early 1860s, John Ridge's son, novelist John Rollin Ridge, led a group of delegates to Washington, D.C. in a failed attempt to gain federal recognition for a Cherokee faction that was opposed to the leadership of Chief John Ross.

Separation

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 the Rocky Mountains in present-day Colorado, then followed the base of the mountains northward into present-day Wyoming, before turning westward. The route become known as the Cherokee Trail or the Rocky Mountain Trail. Starting from Fort Smith, Arkansas, it extended northward to the Canadian border near Cut Bank, 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.

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Map of the present-day Cherokee Nation Tribal Statistical Area

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 on behalf of the Confederacy, 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 the chief of the Southern Cherokee Nation'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.

As in southern states, the end of the Civil War brought freedom to enslaved African Americans. By an 1866 treaty with the US government, the Cherokee agreed to grant tribal citizenship to freedmen who had been held by them as slaves. Both before and after the Civil War, some Cherokee intermarried or had relationships with African Americans, just as they had with whites. Many Cherokee Freedmen were active politically within the tribe.

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. In 1893 the Southern Cherokee Nation was recognized as an Indian tribe in Kentucky.

20th century

These and other acts were designed to end tribal sovereignty and 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. In reaction to this, 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, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt confirmed the election in 1941.

W. W. Keeler was appointed chief in 1949. Because the federal government had adopted a 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 and then Wilma Mankiller.

The 1997 Cherokee Constitutional Crisis

The Cherokee Nation was seriously destabilized in May 1997 in what was variously described as either a nationalist "uprising" or an "anti-constitutional coup" instigated by Joe Byrd, their Principal Chief. Elected in 1995, Byrd became locked in a battle of strength with the judicial branch of the Cherokee tribe. The crisis came to a dramatic head on March 22, 1997, when Joe Byrd, Principal Chief, stated in a press conference that he would decide which orders of the Cherokee Nation’s Supreme Court were lawful and which were not.

A simmering crisis continued over Byrd's creation of a private, armed paramilitary force. The crisis came to a head on June 20, 1997 when his private army illegally seized custody of the Cherokee Nation Courthouse from its legal caretakers and occupants, the Cherokee Nation Marshals, the Judicial Appeals Tribunal and its court clerks. They ousted the lawful occupants at gunpoint. Immediately the court demanded that the courthouse be returned to the judicial branch of the Cherokee Nation, but these requests were ignored by Byrd.

The Federal authorities of the United States initially refused to intervene because of potential breach of tribal sovereignty. The State of Oklahoma recognized that Byrd's activities were breaches in state law. By August it sent in state troopers and specialist anti-terrorist teams. Byrd was required to attend a meeting in Washington DC with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in which he was compelled to reopen the courts. He served the remainder of his elected term under supervision and remains a free man.

In 1999 Byrd lost the election for Principal Chief to Chad Smith.

The United Keetoowah Band

The United Keetoowah Band took a different track than the Cherokee Nation and received federal recognition after the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 . Members of the United Keetoowah Band are descended from the Old Settlers, Cherokees who moved west before the Removal. The tribe requires a quarter blood quantum for enrollment and UKB members must have at least one ancestor listed on the Final Dawes Roll of the Cherokee.

Customs and Ceremonies

Marriage

In Indian Territory, marriage between Cherokees and non-Cherokees was complicated on both sides. A white US man could legally marry a Cherokee woman by petitioning the federal court with approval of ten of her blood relatives.

Once married, the man became a member of the Cherokee tribe but had restricted rights; for instance, he could not hold any tribal office. He also remained a citizen of and under the laws of the United States. Many white men and Cherokee women chose instead simply to live together and call themselves married. This was known as "common law" marriage. After several years of cohabitation (requirements varied), the couple had the legal status of a formally married couple.

If a Cherokee man married a white woman, however, he was cut off from the tribe and no longer considered a member and citizen of its nation. Such marriages were much less frequent than between white men and Cherokee women.

Cherokee mythology

This article concerns itself with the mythology of the Cherokee, Native Americans indigenous to the southeastern United States and to Oklahoma

Yowa

The Cherokee revered the Great Spirit, called the Yowa (a name so sacred that only a priest could say it), who presided over all things and created Mother Earth.

Signs, visions, dreams

They held that signs, visions, dreams, and powers were all gifts of the spirits, and that their world was intertwined and presided over by the spirit world.

Other venerated spirits

The Cherokee believed that every aspect and thing had a spirit presiding over it, but did not hold a belief in multiple gods. All figures identified as 'gods' were simply greater beings in the Cherokee belief whose names were so great there were no English words for them, and thus they were recognized as 'gods' by Englishmen. However, the Cherokee paid direct respect to and worshipped only Yowa.

• Sint Holo: A horned serpent
• Tsul 'Kalu: Spirit of the Hunt
• Oonawieh Unggi ("the oldest wind"): Spirit of the Wind
• Kana'ti ("The Lucky Hunter"): The Great Hunter
• Selu ("maize"): The Corn Woman
• Nûñnë'hï: The Spirit People

The thunder beings

The Cherokee held that there were two classes of the thunder beings, those who lived close to the Earth, and the holiest and most powerful of the thunder beings who lived in the land of the west beyond the Mississippi River, and visited the people to bring the rains and blessings from the South.

• Ani Yuntikwalaski: Spirits of thunder and lightning (the thunder beings)
• Asgaya Gigagei (Thunder Beings of the West): Spirit of thunderstorms, also called Asagaya Gigaei

It was believed that the thunder beings who lived close to the Earth's surface could and did harm the people at times. There were three Thunder Beings from the West in the ancient legends, a greater spirit and his two sons.

Evil

The Cherokee assigned a feminine personality to the concept of the personification of spiritual evil, and named her "wi-na-go" in the ancient language, and believe that mosquitos were created when she was destroyed in ancient legends. There is also Nun'Yunu'Wi, an evil spirit monster who preys on humans, and Raven Mocker, the evil spirit of a witch who steals the souls of the dead.

Animals, plants, and disease

It was also believed that all human disease and suffering originated with the killing of animals for improper purposes, and that for each animal killed for pleasure or without proper ceremonies, it allowed a new disease to enter the physical world from the spirit world. It was also believed that the plants, in response to witnessing the suffering in the world, made a medicine to cure each sickness that entered the world in order to restore the balance of forces between the two worlds, the physical world and the spirit world.

Green corn ceremony

The thunder beings were viewed as the most powerful of the servants of the Apportioner (Creator Spirit), and were revered in the first dance of the Green Corn Ceremony held each year, as they were directly believed to have brought the rains for a successful corn crop.

The Green Corn Ceremony (Cherokee:ᎠᎦᏪᎳ ᏎᎷᎤᏥ) is an English term that refers to a general religious and social theme celebrated by a number of American Indian peoples of the Eastern Woodlands and the Southeastern tribes. The Green Corn festivals are also known to have been practiced by the Mississippian Mound builders as part of their Southeastern Ceremonial Complex.

Green Corn festivals are still practiced today by many different native peoples of the Southeastern Woodland Culture. The Green Corn Ceremony typically coincides with late summer and was tied to the ripening of the corn crops. The ceremony is marked with dancing, feasting, fasting and religious observations.

Among the Cherokee people, the Green Corn Ceremony (Cherokee:ᎠᎦᏪᎳ ᏎᎷᎤᏥ) honors Selu (ᏎᎷ), the Corn Mother. In ancient times it lasted for four days. The ceremony was comprised of sacred dances which were performed by the dancers within the sacred circle. The ceremony would begin with all the members of the town going to a running body of water and washing themselves.

Within the sacred circle, a deep pit would be dug and a branch of wood from a tree struck by lightning would be lit and used to bless the grounds for the ceremony. The coals from this thunderwood would be used to kindle the sacred fire in the pit in the center of the circle.

The dancers would then perform several rounds of sacred dances which typically lasted from 2-4 hours. The War Dance was also performed by the men. Several other dances which symbolized the planting of and harvesting of the corn were performed.

Within the dance circle, the dance leader and priest would make offerings to the Thunder Beings and the ancestor spirits as a gesture of thanks for a fruitful corn harvest. The final dance of Green Corn was the running dance, which would involve not only the sacred dancers, but also the entire assembly in a combined social dance, who would enter the circle and form a snaking, sinuous line of dancers circling the fire.

The dancers would use rattles made from gourds which were filled with small rocks and a stick of wood from a lightning struck tree during all the dances with the exception of the war dance and the running dance, which was accompanied by a drum made from a hollow log and covered with deerskin.

During the ceremony all the clan matrons would take coals from the sacred fire in the circle to the new year's home fires.

In many tribal towns, all the residents would bring out their furniture and shared living items and destroy them as a symbol of renewal of the new corn harvest. They would then remake new furniture and shared items for their clan dwellings.

Minor infractions of the religious and clan law, as well as debts were typically forgiven during green corn between parties as a symbol of rebirth and new beginnings, which allowed minor deviations from the ancient religious laws in deference to community bonding and cohesion as part of traditional Cherokee culture in ancient times.

Dance

The Cherokee People performed numerous social and religious dances which have evolved over time to include and incorporate new social concepts as a result of contact with other cultures, the arrival of the horse, gunpowder-based weapons, and forced integration with other cultures due to relocation and removal from the Cherokee homeland.

Many of the traditional dances performed in ancient times have been preserved and are still practiced. However, many of these dances are, in modern times, obscure, or no longer serve the same functions as before and are performed only for religious ceremonies or as reenactments of the ancient culture. Some of the dances are now illegal to perform as they traditionally incorporate the taking of human scalps.

Modern Cherokee societies also have divergent customs as the result of geographical isolation and varying degrees of contact with other tribes and local cultural influences that have shaped the modern dance customs of the Cherokee groups occupying North America.

Cherokee Dances fall into two basic categories: Social Dances and Religious Dances. Religious Dances always involved pre-selected dancers and complex choreography and steps, and also included at least one social dance at the end of the ceremonies which was open to all of the participants in a ceremonial dance.

Social Dances are more prevalent in modern Cherokee societies and some of these dances were adopted as the result of contact with other Native American tribes.

Oklahoma Cherokee Dance Forms

The Cherokee Stomp Dance performed by the Western Cherokee People in Oklahoma is unique within Cherokee culture. The Stomp Dance had its origins with the Creek Indians and was incorporated into the Cherokee culture after their arrival in Oklahoma following their forced removal and arduous trek on the Trail of Tears. The Stomp Dance was not one of the original dances performed by the Ah-ni-ku-ta-ni or a traditional element of the Cherokee Moons Ceremonies. In modern times, the Stomp Dance has come to replace the Green Corn Ceremony (old woman corn mother/Ah-ga-we-la se-lu ut-si) as the principal gathering of the Cherokee people during the first moon of harvest for the Western Cherokees in Oklahoma. These gatherings normally occur during the last part of August and first week of September.

After arriving in Oklahoma, numerous other Native Americans were being relocated into the Indian Territory. This forced integration of cultures allowed a mixing of customs between various Native American Tribes. Not surprisingly, the Cherokee people began to incorporate the customs of other tribes. As a result, the Western Cherokees lost or abandoned much of their original culture and ceremonies, but preserved their language, and many of their traditional stories. Other Cherokee groups in Missouri, Texas, and various areas of the South attempted to preserve and practice their ancient ceremonies at night or in secret due to activities of the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups. This was particularly true in areas of Missouri, where many a tale of dread is still told of Cherokees being forced to flee their homes in the night due to midnight raids by the Ku Klux Klan and other groups who feared Indians and attempted to drive their settlements out of various areas of Missouri.

The Stomp Dance is performed by the Western Cherokees at the Stokes Stomp Dance Ground which is located in an isolated area of the Cherokee Nation Tribal Lands. The Dance Grounds contain an elevated platform upon which a very large bonfire is kindled after sunset. Women wear traditional Cherokee Tear Dresses, men wear Western blue jeans and cowboy hats with a single Eagle feather in the hat band. The dance leader is a male Cherokee Elder who calls the people to the dance for each round in the Cherokee language. The women wear turtle-shell shakers on both legs, typically three on either side of their legs, or six per leg which are punched with holes and filled with rocks or shot.

In the Dance, the women keep the beat for the dancers, and the men repeat the songs sung by the leader. The dancers circle the fire in counter-clockwise direction with slow, stomping steps set to the rhythm created by the women as the stomp with their shell skakers. The order of the dancers is male-female-male-female in a continuous spiral or circle. As the dance begins several hundred people may join the circle as the dance progresses. The dance continues until four rounds of four songs are completed by the Dance Leader, and the dance concludes until the next round. There is normally a 5 minute break between rounds. The dance continues throughout the entire night until dawn of the next day. The Stomp Dance is a grueling and physically challenging event and almost every Cherokee on the grounds will dance until they drop out from exhaustion. Following and during the dance at dawn an enormous feast of fried pork is consumed throughout the night, along with potatoes, bean bread, and numerous Cherokee traditional dishes. At dawn, a special medicine made from 7 secret roots gathered by the 7 clans is given to all the Cherokees who completed the dance. This medicine is very invigorating and imbibing execessive amounts typically results in emetic and purgative affects.

The Stomp Dance has a decidedly Western flair and is a no holds barred event, and although performed by Indians, does not resemble the reserved, quiet, and highly focused religious ceremonies performed by the Ah-ni-ku-ta-ni with their many intricate and distinct dances. The Western Cherokee Stomp Dance is a unique evolution of the Cherokee culture in Oklahoma, and is enormously fun, engaging, and spirited event that encourages community bonding and interaction. Many Cherokee's have commented that the Western Cherokee Stomp Dance is immensely more fun and socially uplifting than the more traditional dances performed during Green Corn, which may explain its immense popularity among the Western Cherokee.

During the Stomp Dance, at various rounds in the dance, one of the ancient Ah-ni-ku-ta-ni dances called the running dance does emerge. In this variation, the dancers do not form a spiral into the fire, but form a snaking, sinuous line of people that haphazardly circles the fire. This is a variation of a more traditional social dance performed during the Green Corn Ceremony and is the only element of the Stomp Dance that resembles the ancient running dance, which was the final social dance performed during a traditional Green Corn ceremony.

The Keetoowah Nighthawk Society preserved many of the original Ah-ni-ku-ta-ni dance forms and continue to practice these ceremonies and dances in modern times.

Eastern Band of Cherokees

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians still perform most of the original Ah-ni-ku-ta-ni dances which slowly evolved over time into unique forms. The Eastern Band still performs the Green Corn Ceremony each year and the sacred eagle dance and the booger dances. The Eastern Band has also begun to perform many dances for the general public in support of tourism which formerly were considered sacred dances. Many of the ancient sacred dances are still performed by the Eastern Band and which are only open to Cherokees and their families, and not the general public.

Ah-ni-yv-wi-ya (Ah-ni-ku-ta-ni) Missouri and Central New Mexico Dance Forms

The Western Cherokee Community in Albuquerque, New Mexico is a community comprised predominantly of members of the Cherokee Nation, and some United Keetoowah Band Cherokees and their families. The community has existed in New Mexico since the 1940s and 1950s, when large numbers of Cherokee relocated to New Mexico from Oklahoma due to economic issues and hardships during this period in history. This group has unique dance forms influenced by contact with Southwestern Culture and Southwestern Spanish Influences, and also perform the Ah-ni-ku-ta-ni traditional dances and ceremonies. The community has been expanding in recent times.

A large number of Western Cherokees are members of the Gourd Society and participate in the Gourd Dance in the New Mexico and Four Corners area. Due to the strong influence of the Native American Church in the Southwestern United States, a large number of Western Cherokee also participate with the Native American Church and have adopted many of its dance forms and customs, and Gourd Dancing is considered an important social event. Each dance typically hosts a large number of dancers and family members at community Gourd Dances.

The Ah-ni-ku-ta-ni travel to the New Mexico community yearly from Missouri, and perform the traditional ceremonies and dances which are not open to the public and can only be attended by Cherokees and their families. The Ah-ni-ku-ta-ni practice the ancient dance forms and traditional ceremonies for the Green Corn Ceremony and the Cherokee Moons Ceremonies, and are currently based in Grassy, Missouri as a religious organization called the Ah-ni-yv-wi-ya.

Language and writing system

Cherokee Syllabary

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.

Language drift

There are two main dialects in 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 by modern Cherokee speakers. Modern Cherokee speakers who speak Otali employ 122 distinct syllables in Oklahoma.

Treaties, Government and Tribal Recognition

Treaties

Treaty of Hopeville, 1785

Changed the boundaries between the U.S. and Cherokee lands. Known as the "Talking Leaves Treaty" since the Cherokee claimed that when the treaties no longer suited the Americans, they would blow away like talking leaves.

Treaty of Holston, 1791

Established boundaries between the United States and the Cherokee Nation. Guaranteed by the United States that the lands of the Cherokee Nation have not been ceded to the United States.

Treaty with the Cherokee, 1798

The boundaries promised in the previous treaty had not been marked and white settlers had come in. Because of this, the Cherokee were told they would need to cede new lands as an "acknowledgement" of the protection of the United States. The U.S. would guarantee the Cherokee could keep the remainder of their land "forever."

Treaties of Tellico, 1804 - 1806

Roads had been built on the Cherokee land, and the U.S. added that it's citizens should have "free and unmolested use and enjoyment of them," plus build a new road to deliver mail. Give the State of Tennessee some land for to convene an assembly. The U.S. wanted the Cherokee to become farmers. They began to send farming tools and spinning wheels as part of the treaties in place of some of the monies that were to be paid.

Treaties of Washington, 1819 - 1835

Resolution of Rattlesnake Springs, 1838

"Resolved, by the Committee and Council of the Cherokee Nation in General Council assembled, that the whole Cherokee territory, as described in the first article of the treaty of 1819 between the United States and the Cherokee Nation, and, also, in the constitution of the Cherokee Nation, still remains the rightful and undoubted property of the said Cherokee Nation; and that all damages and losses, direct or indirect, resulting from the enforcement of the alleged stipulations of the pretended treaty of New Echota, are in justice and equity, chargeable to the account of the United States. The inherent sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation, together with the constitution, laws, and usages, of the same, are, and, by the authority aforesaid, hereby declared to be in full force and virtue, and shall continue so to be in perpetuity, subject to such modifications as the general welfare may render expedient. The Cherokee people do not intend that it shall be so construed as yielding or giving sanction or approval to the pretended treaty of 1835; nor as compromising, in any manner, their just claim against the United States hereafter, for a full and satisfactory indemnification for their country and for all individual losses and injuries."

Treaties with the Republic of Texas, 1836 - 1844

Generally overlooked as Cherokee treaties are three that are very important for Cherokee historians. These three consist of the Treaty of Bowles Village on February 23, 1836, granting nearly 1,000,000 acres (4,000 km²) of east Texas land to the Texas Cherokees and twelve associated tribes. Violation of this treaty led to the Cherokee war of 1839 in which most Cherokees were driven north into the Choctaw Nation or who fled south into Mexico. Following this bloody episode, remaining Texas Cherokees under Chicken Trotter joined Mexican forces in a guerilla war that culminated with the invasion of San Antonio by Mexican General Adrian Woll. Cherokee and allied Indians saw action at the Battle of Salado Creek and against the Dawson regiment. Following this conflict, it was apparent that Mexico was not going to be able to provide the remaining Texas Cherokees with any stability or lands in Texas. This led to a push for peace by newly re-installed Texas President Sam Houston. The result was the Treaty of Birds Fort on September 29, 1843 which ended hostilities among several Texas tribes, including the Cherokees. The Treaty which was ratified by the Congress of the Republic of Texas, recognized the tribal status of the Texas Indians as distinct, including the Cherokees that would later become known as the Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands-Mount Tabor Indian Community. This treaty, honored by the State of Texas following annexation has never been aboragated by the Congress of the United States and in theory is still valid. The following year of 1844 additional treaties were made in which Chicken Trotter and Wagon Bowles were involved. The last, however, was never ratified.

Government

1822	A Cherokee supreme court was established
1823	National committee given power to review acts of national council.
1827	Cherokee Constitution
1839	Cherokee Constitution (after relocation)
1868	First declaration of a formal government of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
1888	Charter of Incorporation issued by the State of North Carolina to the Eastern Band
1975	Constitution of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma

The Moytoy ruled the Cherokee people through the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries culminating with the destruction of Chota-Tanasi by the American revolutionary forces fighting Oconostota in 1780. However Oconostota's successor, Hanging Maw, married a granddaughter of Moytoy I (and sister of Attacullaculla). During this time, inheritance was largely matrilineal. Kinship and clan membership was of primary importance until around 1820.

After being ravaged by smallpox, and pressed by increasingly violent land-hungry settlers, the Cherokee adopted a whiteman's form of government in an effort to retain their lands. They established a governmental system modeled on that of the United States, with an elected principal chief, senate, and house of representatives. On April 10, 1810 the seven Cherokee clans met and began the abolition of blood vengeance by giving the sacred duty to the new Cherokee National government. Clans formally relinquished judicial responsibilities by the 1820s when the Cherokee Supreme Court was established. In 1825, the National Council extended citizenship to the children of Cherokee men married to white women. These ideas were largely incorporated into the 1827 Cherokee constitution. The constitution stated that "No person who is of negro or mulatlo [sic] parentage, either by the father or mother side, shall be eligible to hold any office of profit, honor or trust under this Government," with an exception for, "negroes and descendants of white and Indian men by negro women who may have been set free." This definition to limit rights of multiracial descendants, may have been more widely held among the elite than the general population.

Today the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma has judicial, executive and legislative branches with executive power vested in the Principal Chief, legislative power in the Tribal Council, and judicial power in the Cherokee Nation Judicial Appeals Tribunal.

The Principal and Deputy Principal Maura, and the council are elected to four-year terms by the registered tribal voters. The council is the legislative branch of government and represent the nine districts of the Cherokee Nation in the 14 county jurisdictional area.

The judicial branch of tribal government includes the District Court and Judicial Appeals Tribunal, which is comparable to the U.S. Supreme Court. The tribunal consists of three members who are appointed by the Principal Chief and confirmed by the council. It is the highest court of the Cherokee Nation and oversees internal legal disputes and the District Court. The District Judge and an Associate District Judge preside over the tribe’s District Court and hear all cases brought before it under jurisdiction of the Cherokee Nation Judicial Code.

The Congress of the United States, The Federal Courts, and State Courts have repeatedly upheld the sovereignty of Native Tribes, defining their relationship in political rather than racial terms, and have stated it is a compelling interest of the United States.This principle of self-government and tribal sovereignty is controversial. According to the Boston College Sociologist and Cherokee Citizen, Eva Marie Garroutte, there are upwards of 32 separate definitions of "Indian" used in federal legislation as of a 1978 congressional survey. The 1994 Federal Legislation AIRFA (American Indian Religious Freedom Act) defines an Indian as one who belongs to an Indian Tribe, which is a group that "is recognized as eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their status as Indians."

Race and blood quantum are not factors in CNO tribal eligibility. To be considered a citizen in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma , you need one Indian ancestor listed on the Dawes Rolls. The tribe currently has members who share African-American, Latino, Asian, white and other ancestry. The Eastern Band Cherokee and United Keetoowah tribes do require one quarter Cherokee blood quantum.

Tribal Recognition

Many groups have sought recognition by the federal government as Cherokee tribes, but today there are only three groups recognized by the federal government. Cherokee Nation spokesman Mike Miller has discussed that some groups, which he calls Cherokee Heritage Groups, are encouraged. Others, however, are controversial for their attempts to gain economically through their claims to be Cherokee, a claim which is disputed by the three federally recognized groups, who assert themselves as the only groups having the legal right to present themselves as Cherokee Indian Tribes.

One exception to this may be the Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands who prior to 1975, was considered a part of the Cherokee Nation as reflected in briefs filed before the Indian Claims Commission. In fact at one time W.W. Keeler a well known Cherokee Chief, served not only as Chief of the Cherokee Nation, but at the same time held the position as Chairman of the TCAB Executive Committee. Following the adoption of the Cherokee consitition in 1975, TCAB descendants whose ancestors had remained a part of the physical Mount Tabor Community in Rusk County, Texas were excluded from citizenship in that their ancestors did not appear on the Final Rolls of the Five Civilized Tribes. However, most if not all, did have an ancestor listed on the Guion Miller or Old Settler rolls. Another problem for the Mount Tabor Community, was that it's members were not all Cherokees. Groups of Yowani Choctaws and McIntosh Party Creeks had joined them in the 1850s, changing the make up of the group. While most Mount Tabor residents returned to the Cherokee Nation following the death of John Ross in 1866, there today exists a sizable group that is very well documented but currently is not actively seeking a status clarification based upon their treaty rights going back to the Treaty of Birds Fort, or their association from the end of the Civil War until 1975 with the Cherokee Nation. The TCAB was formed as a political organization in 1871 by William Penn Adair and Clement Neely Vann, for descendants of the Texas Cherokees and the Mount Tabor Community in an effort to gain redress from treaty violations stemming from the Treaty of Bowles Village in 1836. Today, most Mount Tabor descendants are in fact members of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, only eight hundred or so are stuck in the limbo without status as Cherokees, with many of them still residing in Rusk and Smith counties of east Texas.

New Resolution

The Councils of the Cherokee Nation and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians at the Joint Council Meeting held in Catoosa, Oklahoma on April 9, 2008 passed a resolution Opposing Fabricated Cherokee "Tribes" and "Indians". It denounced any further state or federal recognition of 'Cherokee' tribes or bands, aside from the those already federally recognized, and committed themselves to exposing and assisting state and federal authorities in eradicating any group which attempts or claims to operate as a government of the Cherokee people.

In addition, the resolution asked that no public funding from any federal or state government should be expended on behalf of non-federally recognized 'Cherokee' tribes or bands and that the Nation would call for a full accounting of all federal monies given to state recognized, unrecognized or SOI(c)(3) charitable organizations that claim any Cherokee affiliation.

It called for federal and state governments to stringently apply a federal definition of "Indian" that included only citizens of federally recognized Indian tribes, to prevent non-Indians from selling membership in 'Cherokee' tribes for the purpose of exploiting the Indian Arts and Crafts Act.

In a controversial segment that could affect Cherokee Baptist churches and charitable organizations, the resolution stated that no 501(c)(3) organization, state recognized or unrecognized groups shall be acknowledged as Cherokee.

Celebrities who claim to be Cherokee, such as those listed in this article, are also targeted by the resolution.

“	Any individual who is not a member of a federally recognized Cherokee tribe, in academia or otherwise, is hereby discouraged from claiming to speak as a Cherokee, or on behalf of Cherokee citizens, or using claims of Cherokee heritage to advance his or her career or credentials.	”
—- Joint Council of the Cherokee Nation and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians,

Modern Cherokee Nation

Cherokee Nation Historic Courthouse in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

The Cherokee Female Seminary was built in 1889 by the Oklahoma Cherokees.

The modern Cherokee nation, in recent times, has experienced an almost unprecedented expansion in economic growth, equality, and prosperity for its citizens. The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (CNO), under the leadership of Principal Chief Chad Smith, has significant business, corporate, real estate, and agricultural interests, including numerous highly profitable casino operations. The CNO controls Cherokee Nation Enterprises, 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 CNO 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 CNO 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. It 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.

The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma also supports the Cherokee Nation Film Festivals in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and participates in the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians in North Carolina led by Chief Michell Hicks hosts over a million visitors a year to cultural attractions of the 100-square-mile (260 km²) sovereign nation. This reservation, the "Qualla Boundary" has a population of over 8000 Cherokee consisting primarily of direct descendants of those Indians who managed to avoid “The Trail of Tears.” Attractions include the Oconaluftee Indian Village, Museum of the Cherokee Indian, and the country’s oldest and foremost Native American crafts cooperative. The outdoor drama "Unto These Hills" which debuted in 1950 recently broke record attendance sales. Together with Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Hotel, Cherokee Indian Hospital and Cherokee Boys Club the tribe put over $78 million dollars into the local economy in 2005.

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 over forty ITEC member tribes in Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas.

Cherokee Freedmen

"Freedmen" is one of the terms given to emancipated African slaves and their descendants after slavery was abolished in the United States. In this context, "Cherokee Freedmen" includes African slaves and former slaves of the Cherokee Nation before and after the Trail of Tears, and the offspring of the slaves, former slaves, and tribal members. The Cherokee freedmen were first guaranteed Cherokee citizenship under a treaty with the United States in 1866. This was in the wake of the American Civil War, when the US emancipated slaves and passed US constitutional amendments granting freedmen citizenship in the United States.

Relationship with the Eastern Band

File:Easternbandcherokeeflag.png

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 present a unified spirit of Gadugi with the leaders and citizens of the Eastern Band. The United Keetoowah Band tribal council unanimously passed a resolution to approach the Cherokee Nation for a joint council meeting between the two Nations, as a means of "offering the olive branch," in the words of the UKB Council. While a date was set for the meeting between members of the Cherokee Nation council and UKB representation Chief Smith vetoed the meeting.

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 by 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 have been many famous Cherokees in American history, including Sequoyah, who invented the Cherokee writing system. It was thought for many years that he was the only person to single-handedly invent a writing system, however it has been recently speculated that there was an ancient clan of Cherokee priests who had an older, mostly secret rudimentary written language from which Sequoyah may have gotten inspiration. Many historians speculate that Sequoyah never learned to speak, read or write the English language for various reasons.

Jimi Hendrix, guitarist and singer of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, was of Cherokee heritage through his maternal grandmother, Nora Rose Moore.

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

Will Rogers was of Cherokee heritage.

Wes Studi, actor, best known for his roles as both brave and vicious Indians, such as the Pawnee warrior in Dances with Wolves and Magua in The Last of the Mohicans (1992). In addition to acting, Studi is a stone carver, an author of two children's books, and plays bass in a local band. He is a native fluent speaker of the Cherokee language and an important advocate for Native American rights.

Other famous people who claim Cherokee ancestry include the actor Chuck Norris, the singers Rita Coolidge and John Phillips (of The Mamas and the Papas), and the activist John Leak Springston.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Christensen, P. G. 1992. Minority Interaction in John Rollin Ridge's The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta. MELUS 17(2): 61-72.

• Duvall, Deborah L. 2000. Tahlequah: And the Cherokee Nation. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0738507822

• Ehle, John. 1998. Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation. Anchor Books. ISBN 0385239548

• Finger, John R. 1993. Cherokee Americans: The Eastern Band of Cherokees in the Twentieth Century. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803268793

• Garroutte, Eva Marie. 2003. Real Indians: identity and the survival of Native America. University of California Press.

• Glenn, Eddie. 2006. A league of nations? Tajlequah Daily Press. Retrieved November 22, 2008.

• Hill, Sarah H. 1997. Weaving New Worlds: Southeastern Cherokee Women and Their Basketry. University of North Carolina Press ISBN 0807846503

• Irwin, L. 1992. Cherokee Healing: Myth, Dreams, and Medicine. American Indian Quarterly 16(2): 237.

• Kilpatrick, Jack, and Anna Gritts Kilpatrick. 1995. Friends of Thunder: Folktales of the Oklahoma Cherokees. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2722-8

• Mankiller, Wilma, and Michael Wallis. 1999. Mankiller: A Chief and Her People. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-20662-3

• Mooney, James. "Myths of the Cherokees." Bureau of American Ethnology, Nineteenth Annual Report, 1900, Part I. Pp. 1-576. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.

• Morello, Carol. "Native American Roots, Once Hidden, Now Embraced." Washington Post, April 7, 2001

• Meredith, Howard, and Mary Ellen Meredith. 2003. Reflection on Cherokee Literary Expression. Edwin Mellon Press. ISBN 0-7734-6763-7

• Perdue, T. "Clan and Court: Another Look at the Early Cherokee Republic." American Indian Quarterly. Vol. 24, 4, 2000, p. 562

• Russell, Steve. "Review of Real Indians: Identity and the Survival of Native America" PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review. May 2004, Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 147-153

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

• Sturm, Circe. Blood Politics, Racial Classification, and Cherokee National Identity: The Trials and Tribulations of the Cherokee Freedmen. American Indian Quarterly, WInter/Spring 1998, Vol 22. No 1&2 pgs 230-258

• Thornton, Russell. The Cherokees: A Population History. University of Nebraska Pres, 1992

• 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

• Wishart, David M. 1995. Evidence of Surplus Production in the Cherokee Nation Prior to Removal. Journal of Economic History 55(1): 120.

• 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.[1]

• Buyer Beware, Only Three Cherokee Groups Recognized Official Statement Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma, Monday, November 13, 2000 (Accessed May 21, 2007 here)

• "Census 2000 PHC-T-18. American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes in the United States: 2000" United States Census Bureau, Census 2000, Special Tabulation (Accessed May 27, 2007 here)

• "Principal Chief results" (Accessed July 5, 2007) [2]

• Howard, James H., and Willie Lena. 1990. Oklahoma Seminoles, Medicines, Magic and Religion. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806122382
• Hudson, Charles M. 1976. The Southeastern Indians. University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 0870492489
• Wright, Jr., J. Leitch, Creeks and Seminoles, University of Nebraska, 1986
• Weisman, Brent Richards. 1999. Unconquered People: Florida's Seminole and Miccosukee Indians , University Press of Florida. ISBN 0813016630
• Sizemore, Donald. 1999. Cherokee Dance Ceremonial Dances and Dance Regalia. Cherokee Publications. ISBN 0-935741-21-6

• Conley, Robert J., and David Fitzgerald. 2002. Cherokee. Graphic Arts Center Publishing. ISBN 1-55868-603-7,

• Waldman, Carl. 2006. Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. New York, NY: Checkmark Books. ISBN 978-0816062744

External links

• Green Corn Ceremony

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

• 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
• Southeastern Native American Documents, 1763-1842, approximately 2,000 documents and images relating to the Native American population of the Southeastern United States from the collections of the University of Georgia Libraries, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville Library, the Frank H. McClung Museum, the Tennessee State Library and Archives, the Tennessee State Museum, the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, and the LaFayette-Walker County Library.

• Meet the Cherokee
• Cherokee Nation Facts
• Smithsonian Institution - Cherokee photos and documents
• Cherokee Heritage Documentation Center
• Cherokee Removal
• Cherokee Indian Removal
• Cherokee Traditional Dancing Videos

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