Cherokee Indian Tribe
Cherokee. A powerful
detached tribe of the
Iroquoian family, formerly holding the whole mountain
region of the south Alleghenies, in southwest Virginia,
western North Carolina and South Carolina, north Georgia,
east Tennessee, and northeast Alabama, and claiming even to
the Ohio River.
The tribal name is a corruption of Tsálăgĭ or Tsárăgĭ, the name
by which they commonly called themselves, and which may be derived
from the Choctaw chiluk-ki 'cave people', in allusion to the numerous
caves in their mountain country. They sometimes also call themselves
Ani'-Yûñ'-wiyd', 'real people,' or Anĭ'-Kitu'hwagĭ, 'people of Kituhwa’,
one of their most important ancient settlements. Their northern
kinsmen, the Iroquois, called them Oyata’ge'ronoñ',
'inhabitants of the cave country' (Hewitt), and the Delawares and
connected tribes called them Kittuwa, from the settlement already
noted. They seem to be identical with the Rickohockans, who invaded
central Virginia in 1658, and with the ancient Talligewi, of Delaware
tradition, who were represented to have been driven southward from the
upper Ohio River region by the combined forces of the Iroquois and
Delawares.
The language has three principal dialects:
(1) Elatĭ, or Lower, spoken on the heads of Savannah River, in South
Carolina and Georgia;
(2) Middle, spoken chiefly on the waters of Tuckasegee River, in
western North Carolina, and now the prevailing dialect on the East
Cherokee reservation;
(3) A'tŭli, Mountain or Upper, spoken throughout most of upper
Georgia, east Tennessee, and extreme western North Carolina. The lower
dialect was the only one which had the r sound, and is now extinct.
The upper dialect is that which has been exclusively used in the
native literature of the tribe.
Traditional, linguistic, and archeological evidence shows that
the Cherokee originated in the north, but they were found in
possession of the south Allegheny region when first encountered by De
Soto in 1540. Their relations with the Carolina colonies began 150
years later. In 1736 the Jesuit (?) Priber started the first mission
among them, and attempted to organize their government on a civilized
basis. In 1759, under the leadership of A'ganstâ'ta (Oconostota), they
began war with the English of Carolina. In the Revolution they took
sides against the Americans, and continued the struggle almost without
interval until 1794. During this period parties of the Cherokee pushed
down Tennessee River and formed new settlements at Chickamauga and
other points about the Tennessee-Alabama line. Shortly after 1800,
missionary and educational work was established among theme, and in
1820 they adopted a regular form of government modeled on that of the
United States. In the meantime large numbers of the more conservative
Cherokee, wearied by the encroachments of the whites, had crossed the
Mississippi and made new homes in the wilderness in what is now
Arkansas. A year or two later Sequoya (q. v.), a mixed-blood, invented
the alphabet, which at once raised them to the rank of a literary
people.
At the height of their prosperity gold was discovered near the
present Dahlonega, Ga., within the limits of the Cherokee Nation, and
at once a powerful agitation was begun for the removal of the Indians.
After years of hopeless struggle under the leadership of their great
chief, John Ross, they were compelled to submit to the inevitable, and
by the treaty of New Echota, Dec. 29, 1835, the Cherokee sold their
entire remaining territory and agreed to remove beyond the Mississippi
to a country there to be set apart for them-the present (1905)
Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory. The removal was accomplished in
the winter of 1838-39, after considerable hardship and the loss of
nearly one-fourth of their number, the unwilling Indians being driven
out by military force and making the long journey on foot. On reaching
their destination they reorganized their national government, with
their capital at Tahlequah, admitting to equal privileges the earlier
emigrants, known as "old settlers." A part of the Arkansas Cherokee
had previously gone down into Texas, where they had obtained a grant
of land in the east part of the state from the Mexican government. The
later Texan revolutionists refused to recognize their rights, and in
spite of the efforts of Gen. Sam Houston, who defended the Indian
claim, a conflict was precipitated, resulting, in 1839, in the killing
of the Cherokee chief, Bowl (q. v.), with a large number of his men,
by the Texan troops, and the expulsion of the Cherokee from Texas.
When the main body of the tribe was removed to the west, several
hundred fugitives escaped to the mountains, where hey lived as
refugees for a time, until, in 1842, through the efforts of Win. H.
Thomas, an influential trader, they received permission to remain on
lands set apart for their use in western North Carolina.
They constitute the present eastern band of Cherokee, residing
chiefly on the Qualla reservation in Swain and Jackson counties, with
several outlying settlements.
The Cherokee in the Cherokee Nation were for years divided into
two hostile factions, those who had favored and those who had opposed
the treaty of removal. Hardly had these differences they been adjusted
when the civil war burst upon them. Being slave owners and surrounded
by southern influences, a large part of each of the Five Civilized
Tribes of the territory enlisted in the service of the Confederacy,
while others adhered to the National Government. The territory of the
Cherokee was overrun in turn by both armies, and the close of the war
found them prostrated. By treaty in 1866 they were readmitted to the
protection of the United States, but obliged to liberate their Negro
slaves and admit them to equal citizenship. In 1867 and 1870 the
Delawares and Shawnee, respectively, numbering together about 1,750,
were admitted from Kansas and incorporated with the Nation. In 1889
Cherokee Commission (see Commission) was created for the purpose of
abolishing the tribal governments and opening the territories to white
settlement, with the result that after 15 years of negotiation an
agreement was made by which the government of the Cherokee Nation came
to a final end Mar. 3, 1906: the Indian lands were divided, and the
Cherokee Indians, native adopted, became citizens of the United
States.
The Cherokee have 7 clans, viz:
Ani'-wa'`ya (Wolf)
Ani'-Kawĭ' (Deer)
Ani'-Tsi'skwa (Bird)
Ani'-wi'dĭ (Paint)
Ani'-Sah'a'ni
Ani'-Ga'tagewĭ
Ani'-Gi-lâ'hĭ
The names of the last 3 cannot be translated with
certainty. There is evidence that there were anciently 14, which by
extinction or absorption have been reduced to their present number.
The Wolf clan is the largest and most important. The "seven clans" are
frequently mentioned in the ritual prayers and even in the printed
laws of the tribe. They seem to have had a connection with the "seven
mother towns" of the Cherokee, described by Cuming in 1730 as having
each a chief, whose office was hereditary in the female line.
The Cherokee are probably about as numerous now as at any period
in their history. With the exception of an estimate in 1730, which
placed them at about 20,000, most of those up to a recent period gave
them 12,000 or 14,000, and in 1758 they were computed at only 7,500.
The majority of the earlier estimates are probably too low, as the
Cherokee occupied so extensive a territory that only a part of them
came in contact with the whites. In 1708 Gov. Johnson estimated them
at 60 villages and "at least 500 men" (Rivers, So. Car., 238, 1856).
In 1715 they were officially reported to number 11,210 (Upper, 2,760;
diddle, 6,350; Lower, 2,100), including 4,000 warriors, and living in
60 villages (Upper, 19; Middle, 30; Lower, 11). In 1720 were estimated
to have been reduced to about 10,000, and again in the same year
reported at about 11,500, including about 3,800 warriors (Gov.
Johnson's Rep. in Rivers, op. cit., 93, 94, 103, 1874). In 1729 they
were estimated at 20,000, with at least 6,000 warriors and 64 towns
and villages (Stevens, Hist. Ga., r, 48, 1847).
They are said to have lost 1,000 warriors in 1739 from
smallpox and rum, and they suffered a steady decrease during their
wars with the whites, extending from 1760 until after the close of the
Revolution. Those in their original homes had again increased to
16,542 at the time of their forced removal to the west in 1838, but
lost nearly one-fourth on the journey, 311 perishing in a steamboat
accident on the Mississippi. Those already in the west, before the
removal, were estimated at about 6,000. The civil war in 1861-65 again
checked their progress, but they recovered from its effects in a
remarkably short time, and in 1885 numbered about 19,000, of whom
about 17,000 were in Indian Territory, together with about 6,000
adopted whites, Negroes, Delawares, and Shawnee, while the remaining
2,000 were still in their ancient homes in the east.
Of this eastern band, 1,376 were on Qualla reservation,
in Swain and. Jackson Counties, N. C.; about 300 are on Cheowah River,
in Graham County, N. C., while the remainder, all of mixed blood, are
scattered over east Tennessee, north Georgia, and Alabama. The eastern
band lost about 300 by smallpox at the close of the civil war. In 1902
there were officially reported 28,016 persons of Cherokee blood,
including all degrees of admixture, in the Cherokee Nation in the
Territory, but this includes several thousand individuals formerly
repudiated by the tribal courts.
There were also living in the nation about 3,000
adopted Negro freedmen, more than 2,000 adopted whites, and about 1700
adopted Delaware, Shawnee, and other Indians. The tribe has a larger
proportion of white admixture than any other of the Five Civilized
Tribes. See Mooney, Myths of the
Cherokee, 19th Rep. B. A. E., 1902; Royce,' Cherokee Nation, 5th Rep.
B. A. E., 1887
Additional Cherokee Indian Resources
Cherokee Chiefs, Page 1
Cherokee Chiefs, Page 2
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