The Cherokee Tribe

New post!

In today’s blog we are going to talk about the Cherokee tribe, which was one of the largest Native Americans tribes in the country. The tribe came from Iroquoian descent and its name came from a Muskogee (a language of the American Southeast) word, which means ‘’speaker of another language’’, however Cherokee Indians originally called themselves Aniyunwiya, which means ‘’the most important people’’. Nowadays they accept the name Cherokee.

The localization of the Cherokee tribes are originally in the southeast region (North and South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee). Many Cherokees had to move to Oklahoma along the Trail of Tears or how they called, Indian Removal (1800’s) created by the US government, however some of these Cherokees run away to the Appalachian hills.

The Cherokees did not want to leave their land and to achieve that they asked the Supreme Court for help. Unfortunately the Cherokee could not stay in their homeland although they were allies of the Americans and many died during the travel.

 The Cherokee Indian nation is federally organized in:

                -the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma

                -the United Keetoowah Band in Oklahoma

                -the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina

The Cherokee people live on a reservation (Indian reservations are lands that belong to Native American tribes and are under their control. In these lands each Cherokee tribe has its own government, laws, police, and services. However, they are also US citizens and must obey American law.

Currently the Cherokee people speak English but there is also another language that they use: The Cherokee Indian language, which contains words like wahya (wolf) or wado (thank you)

The inventor of the Cherokee writing system (and syllabary alphabet) was Sequoyah, about whom we will write more in another post.

Like in others tribes, the Cherokee men were in charge of hunting, war and diplomacy, while the Cherokee women were in charge of farming, property and family.

The Cherokee’s villages used to be located near a river and had palisades around them for protection. In these villages could live thirty to fifty families, they would be part of a larger Cherokee clan such as the Wolf Clan or the Bird Clan.

A fun Facts about the Cherokee is that they enjoyed playing a stickball game called Anejodi which was similar to lacrosse. 

Dodadagohvi! (goodbye in Cherokee language)

Bibliography:
http://www.bigorrin.org/cherokee_kids.htm
http://www.ducksters.com/history/native_american_cherokee.php
http://www.kidport.com/reflib/socialstudies/nativeamericans/Cherokee.htm