Cherokee Indians
The most familiar name, Cherokee, comes from a Creek word “Chelokee” meaning “people of a different speech.” In their own language the Cherokee originally called themselves the Aniyunwiya (or Anniyaya) “principal people” or the Keetoowah (or Anikituaghi, Anikituhwagi) “people of Kituhwa.” Although they usually accept being called Cherokee, many prefer Tsalagi from their own name for the Cherokee Nation (Tsalagihi Ayili).
It is suggested that the Cherokee Indians like all other Native Americans came to the Americas by crossing the Bering Strait (Alaska) from Asia during the Ice Age when the Bering Strait was still frozen. These Native Americans who crossed the Bering Strait were Nomadic tribes and spread out far and wide across Canada, North and South America including the Caribbean.
At the time of contact with European explorers in the 16th century, the Cherokee were living mainly in what are now North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama. They were the largest tribe in the southeast, numbering about 29,000 in the 17th century. They engaged primarily in hunting and agriculture. The Cherokee Indians were one of the four civilized tribes in the United States during colonial times. The Cherokee people were interested in the white men and their ways.
The Cherokee language is spoken by 22,000 people, mostly in Oklahoma and North Carolina. Tsalagi is an Iroquoian language invented by a Cherokee Scholar named Sequoyah, who was one of the most famous Indians in Cherokee history. He was a brilliant man, who, despite the fact that he could not read or write in any other language, succeeded in writing a system for Cherokee which is still in use today.
While tribes had always relied heavily on oral tradition, a history passed from one generation to the next by stories and songs, in 1828 a Cherokee named Sequoyah decided to develop a native alphabet. Eventually Sequoyah ( a mixed-blood) teamed up with Elias Boudinot, who was educated in white schools. Boudinot served as editor for the very first American Indian newspaper, published in Sequoyah’s alphabet and English alike. The paper thrived until its publication was ceased in 1835 when the Cherokee were marched to Indian Territory hundreds of miles away.
The Cherokee played an important role in Colonial American history with help from Sequoyah and learning the ways of white men. The Cherokee were originally located in the southeast United States. This area included: the western sides of the Carolinas, the northern parts of Georgia and Alabama, southwest Virginia, and the Cumberland Basin. Around 1781 the Cherokee population was around 25,000. They had just lost around half of their population due to smallpox and other diseases. The population remained stable at 25,000 until 1838, the Cherokee Nation was removed from their lands in the Southeastern United States to the Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma).
The Trail of Tears was the relocation and movement of Native Americans in the United States from their homelands to Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma) in the Western United States. The phrase originated from a description of the removal of the Choctaw Nation in 1831. Many Native Americans suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation while en route to their destinations, and many died, including, for example, 4,000 of the 15,000 relocated Cherokee.
The Cherokee Trail of Tears resulted from the enforcement of the Treaty of New Echota, an agreement signed under the provisions of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 which exchanged Native American land in the East for lands west of the Mississippi River, but which was never accepted by the elected tribal leadership or a majority of the Cherokee people.
Today, the Cherokees are split into three federally recognized tribes, with “unofficial” tribal bands in Georgia, Missouri, Alabama, and Arkansas plus members who have migrated to urban areas. The federally recognized tribes include the Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band, both in Oklahoma, and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation in North Carolina.
Tags: Chelokee, Cherokee Indians, Trail of Tears
