Cherokee 1

Cherokee

Cherokee

ᏣᎳᎩ

ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ

From the top, L-R: John Ross or Tsanusdi; Colonel E. C. Boudinot Jr.; Samuel Smith; Lilly Smith; Walini; Marcia Pascal; LillianGross; William Penn; Thomas M. Cook

Total population

316,049+(Eastern Band: 13,000+, Cherokee Nation: 288,749, United Keetoowah Band: 14,300)[1]

Regions with significant populations

United States( North Carolina, Oklahoma)

Languages

English, Cherokee

Religion

Christianity, Kituhwa, Four Mothers Society,[2] Native American Church[3]

The Cherokee (/ˈtʃɛrəkiː/; Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩ Tsalagi) are a Native American people historically settled in theSoutheastern United States (principally Georgia, North Carolina, and East Tennessee). Their language is anIroquoian language. In the 19th century, historians and ethnographers recorded their oral tradition that told of thetribe having migrated south in ancient times from the Great Lakes region, where other Iroquoian-speaking peopleswere located.[] They began to have contact with European traders in the 18th century.In the 19th century, white settlers in the United States called the Cherokee one of the "Five Civilized Tribes",because they had assimilated numerous cultural and technological practices of European American settlers. TheCherokee were one of the first, if not the first, major non-European ethnic group to become U.S. citizens. Article 8 inthe 1817 treaty with the Cherokee stated Cherokees may wish to become citizen of the United States.[4] According tothe 2000 U.S. Census, the Cherokee Nation has more than 300,000 members, the largest of the 565 federallyrecognized Native American tribes in the United States.[]

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Of the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes, the Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band ofCherokee Indians (UKB) have headquarters in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The UKB are mostly descendants of "OldSettlers", Cherokee who migrated to Arkansas and Oklahoma about 1817. The Cherokee Nation are related to thepeople who were forcibly relocated there in the 1830s under the Indian Removal Act. The Eastern Band of CherokeeIndians is located on the Qualla Boundary in western North Carolina.In addition, there are Cherokee bands in the Southeast that are recognized as tribes by state governments, such as theEchota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama, but not the U.S. federal government.

NameThe Cherokee refer to themselves as Tsalagi (ᏣᎳᎩ) or Aniyvwiyaʔi (ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ), which means "Principal People."The Iroquois, who were based in New York, called the Cherokee Oyata’ge'ronoñ (inhabitants of the cave country).Many theories – though none proven – abound about the origin of the word Cherokee. It may have originally beenderived from the Choctaw word Cha-la-kee, which means "those who live in the mountains", or ChoctawChi-luk-ik-bi, meaning "those who live in the cave country".[5] The earliest Spanish rendering of Cherokee, from1755, is Tchalaquei.[6] Another theory is that "Cherokee" derives from a Lower Creek word, Ciló-kki, meaningsomeone who speaks another language.[7] The most common derivation, however, is an Anglicisation of theirautonym, or name for themselves: Tsalagi in their language.

Origins

Great Smoky Mountains

There are two prevailing views aboutCherokee origins. One is that theCherokee, an Iroquoian-speakingpeople, are relative latecomers toSouthern Appalachia, who may havemigrated in late prehistoric times fromnorthern areas, the traditional territoryof the later Haudenosaunee five nations and other Iroquoian-speaking peoples. Researchers in the 19th centuryrecorded conversations with elders who recounted an oral tradition of the Cherokee people's migrating south fromthe Great Lakes region in ancient times.[] The other theory, which is disputed by academic specialists, is that theCherokee had been in the Southeast for thousands of years. There is no archeological evidence for this.[citation needed]

Some traditionalists, historians and archaeologists believe that the Cherokee did not come to Appalachia until the15th century or later. They may have migrated from the north and moved south into Muscogee Creek territory andsettled at the sites of mounds built by the Mississippian culture. During early research, archeologists had mistakenlyattributed several Mississippian culture sites to the Cherokee, including Moundville and Etowah Mounds. Late20th-century studies have shown conclusively[citation needed] instead that the weight of archeological evidence at thesites shows they are unquestionably related to ancestors of Muskogean peoples rather than to the Cherokee.Pre-contact Cherokee are considered to be part of the later Pisgah Phase of Southern Appalachia, which lasted from circa 1000 to 1500.[8] Despite the consensus among most specialists in Southeast archeology and anthropology, some scholars contend that ancestors of the Cherokee people lived in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee for a far longer period of time.[9] During the late Archaic and Woodland Period, Indians in the region began to cultivate plants such as marsh elder, lambsquarters, pigweed, sunflowers and some native squash. People created new art forms such as shell gorgets, adopted new technologies, and followed an elaborate cycle of religious ceremonies. During the Mississippian Culture-period (800 to 1500 CE), local women developed a new variety of maize (corn) called eastern flint. It closely resembled modern corn and produced larger crops. The successful cultivation of corn surpluses allowed the rise of larger, more complex chiefdoms with several villages and concentrated populations

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during this period. Corn became celebrated among numerous peoples in religious ceremonies, especially the GreenCorn Ceremony.

Early culturesMuch of what is known about pre-18th-century Native American cultures has come from records of Spanishexpeditions. The earliest ones of the mid-16th century encountered people of the Mississippian culture, the ancestorsto later tribes in the Southeast such as the Creek and Catawba. Specifically, in 1540-41, a Spanish expedition led byHernando de Soto passed through Cherokee country. De Soto's expedition visited many of the Georgia andTennessee villages later identified as Cherokee, but recorded them as then ruled by the Coosa chiefdom, while aChalaque nation was recorded as living around the Keowee River where North Carolina, South Carolina andGeorgia meet.[10] Some of this work was not translated into English and made available to historians until the 20thcentury. In addition, the dominance of English colonists over the Southeast led to a discounting of Spanish sourcesfor some time.The American writer John Howard Payne wrote about pre-19th century Cherokee culture and society. The Paynepapers describe the account by Cherokee elders of a traditional two-part societal structure. A "white" organization ofelders represented the seven clans. As Payne recounted, this group, which was hereditary and priestly, wasresponsible for religious activities, such as healing, purification, and prayer. A second group of younger men, the"red" organization, was responsible for warfare. The Cherokee considered warfare a polluting activity, and warriorsrequired the purification by the priestly class before participants could reintegrate into normal village life. Thishierarchy had disappeared long before the 18th century.Researchers have debated the reasons for the change. Some historians believe the decline in priestly poweroriginated with a revolt by the Cherokee against the abuses of the priestly class known as the Ani-kutani.[11]

Ethnographer James Mooney, who studied the Cherokee in the late 1880s, was the first to trace the decline of theformer hierarchy to this revolt.[12] By the time of Mooney, the structure of Cherokee religious practitioners was moreinformal, based more on individual knowledge and ability than upon heredity.[11]

Another major source of early cultural history comes from materials written in the 19th century by the didanvwisgi(ᏗᏓᏅᏫᏍᎩ), Cherokee medicine men, after Sequoyah's creation of the Cherokee syllabary in the 1820s. Initially onlythe didanvwisgi adopted and used such materials, which were considered extremely powerful in a spiritual sense.[11]

Later, the syllabary and writings were widely adopted by the Cherokee people.Unlike most other Indians in the American Southeast at the start of the historic era, the Cherokee spoke an Iroquoianlanguage. Since the Great Lakes region was the core of Iroquoian-language speakers, scholars have theorized that theCherokee migrated South from that region. This is supported by the Cherokee oral history tradition. According to thescholars' theory, the Tuscarora, another Iroquoian-speaking people who inhabited the Southeast in historic times, andthe Cherokee broke off from the major group during its northern migration.Other historians hold that, judging from linguistic and cultural data, the Tuscarora people migrated South from otherIroquoian-speaking people in the Great Lakes region in ancient times. In the 1700s, the Tuscarora left the Southeastand "returned" to the New York area by 1722 because of warfare in the southern region. The Tuscarora wereadmitted by the Iroquois as the Sixth Nation of their political confederacy.[13]

Linguistic analysis shows a relatively large difference between Cherokee and the northern Iroquoian languages.Scholars posit a split between the groups in the distant past, perhaps 3500–3800 years ago.[] Glottochronologystudies suggest the split occurred between about 1,500 and 1,800 BCE.[14] The Cherokee have claimed the ancientsettlement of Kituwa on the Tuckasegee River, formerly next to and now part of Qualla Boundary (the reservation ofthe Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), as the original Cherokee settlement in the Southeast.[]

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History

17th century: English contactIn 1657, there was a disturbance in Virginia Colony as the Rechahecrians or Rickahockans, as well as the SiouanManahoac and Nahyssan, broke through the frontier and settled near the Falls of the James, near present-dayRichmond, Virginia. The following year, a combined force of English and Pamunkey drove the newcomers away.The identity of the Rechahecrians has been much debated. Historians noted the name closely resembled thatrecorded for the Eriechronon or Erielhonan, commonly known as the Erie tribe. The Iroquoian people had beendriven away from the southern shore of Lake Erie by the powerful Iroquois Five Nations in 1654. The anthropologistMartin Smith theorized some remnants of the tribe migrated to Virginia after the wars (1986:131–32). Few historianssuggest this tribe was Cherokee.[15]

Virginian traders developed a small-scale trading system with the Cherokee before the end of the 17th century; theearliest recorded Virginia trader to live among the Cherokee was Cornelius Dougherty or Dority, in 1690.[16][17] TheCherokee sold the traders Indian slaves for use as laborers in Virginia and further north.[]

18th centuryThe Cherokees gave sanctuary to a band of Shawnee in the 1660s, but from 1710 to 1715 the Cherokee andChickasaw, allied with the British, fought Shawnee, who were allied with the French, and forced them to movenorthward.[18] Cherokees fought with the Yamasee, Catawba, and British in late 1712 and early 1713 against theTuscarora in the Second Tuscarora War. The Tuscarora War marked the beginning of a British-Cherokeerelationship that, despite breaking down on occasion, remained strong for much of the 18th century. With the growthof the deerskin trade, the Cherokee were valuable trading partners, since deer-skins from the cooler country of theirmountain hunting-grounds were of a better quality than those supplied by neighboring tribes.In January 1716, Cherokee murdered a delegation of Muscogee Creek leaders at the town of Tugaloo, marking theirentry into the Yamasee War. It ended in 1717 with peace treaties between South Carolina and the Creek. Hostilityand sporadic raids between the Cherokee and Creek continued for decades.[] These raids came to a head at the Battleof Taliwa in 1755, present-day Ball Ground, Georgia, with the defeat of the Muscogee.In 1721, the Cherokee ceded lands in South Carolina. In 1730, at Nikwasi, a former Mississippian culture site, aScots adventurer, Sir Alexander Cumming, crowned Moytoy of Tellico as "Emperor" of the Cherokee. Moytoyagreed to recognize King George II of Great Britain as the Cherokee protector. Cumming arranged to take sevenprominent Cherokee, including Attakullakulla, to London, England. The Cherokee delegation signed the Treaty ofWhitehall with the British. Moytoy's son, Amo-sgasite (Dreadful Water) attempted to succeed him as "Emperor" in1741, but the Cherokees elected their own leader, Cunne Shote (Standing Turkey) of Chota.[19]

Political power among the Cherokee remained decentralized and towns acted autonomously. In 1735 the Cherokeewere estimated to have sixty-four towns and villages, and 6,000 fighting men. In 1738 and 1739 smallpox epidemicsbroke out among the Cherokee, who had no natural immunity. Nearly half their population died within a year.Hundreds of other Cherokee committed suicide due to their losses and disfigurement from the disease.

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After the Anglo-Cherokee War, bitternessremained between the two groups. In 1765,Henry Timberlake took three of the former

Cherokee adversaries to London to help cementthe newly declared friendship.

From 1753 to 1755, battles broke out between the Cherokee andMuscogee over disputed hunting grounds in North Georgia. TheCherokee were victorious in the Battle of Taliwa. British soldiers builtforts in Cherokee country to defend against the French in the SevenYears War, called the French and Indian War in North America. Theseincluded Fort Loudoun near Chota. In 1756 the Cherokee were allies ofthe British in the French and Indian War. Serious misunderstandingsarose quickly between the two allies, resulting in the 1760Anglo-Cherokee War. King George III's Royal Proclamation of 1763forbade British settlements west of the Appalachian crest, as hisgovernment tried to afford some protection from colonialencroachment to the Cherokee and other tribes. The ruling was difficultto enforce.[20]

In 1771–1772, North Carolinian settlers squatted on Cherokee lands inTennessee, forming the Watauga Association.[21] Daniel Boone and his party tried to settle in Kentucky, but theShawnee, Delaware, Mingo, and some Cherokee attacked a scouting and forage party that included Boone’s son. TheAmerican Indians used this territory as a hunting ground; it had hardly been inhabited for years. The conflict sparkedthe beginning of what was known as Dunmore's War (1773–1774).

In 1776, allied with the Shawnee led by Cornstalk, Cherokee attacked settlers in South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia,and North Carolina in the Second Cherokee War. Overhill Cherokee Nancy Ward, Dragging Canoe's cousin, warnedsettlers of impending attacks. Provincial militias retaliated, destroying over 50 Cherokee towns. North Carolinamilitia in 1776 and 1780 invaded and destroyed the Overhill towns. In 1777 surviving Cherokee town leaders signedtreaties with the states.Dragging Canoe and his band settled along Chickamauga Creek near present-day Chattanooga, Tennessee, wherethey established 11 new towns. Chickamauga Town was his headquarters and his entire band became known as theChickamauga. From here he fought a guerrilla war against settlers, the Chickamauga Wars (1776–1794). The firstTreaty of Tellico Blockhouse, signed November 7, 1794, ended the Chickamauga Wars. In 1805, the Cherokeeceded their lands between the Cumberland and Duck rivers (i.e. the Cumberland Plateau) to Tennessee.

Scots (and other Europeans) among the Cherokee in the 18th century

The traders and British government agents dealing with the Southern tribes in general and the Cherokee in particularwere nearly all of Scottish extraction, especially from the Highlands, though a few were Scots-Irish, English, French,even German (see Scottish Indian trade). Many of these married women from their host people and remained afterthe fighting had ended, some fathering children who would later become significant leaders.[22]

Notable traders, agents, and refugee Tories among the Cherokee included John Stuart, Henry Stuart, AlexanderCameron, John McDonald, John Joseph Vann (father of James Vann), Daniel Ross (father of John Ross), JohnWalker Sr., John McLemore (father of Bob), William Buchanan, John Watts (father of John Watts Jr.), John D.Chisholm, John Benge (father of Bob Benge), Thomas Brown, John Rogers (Welsh), John Gunter (German, founderof Gunter's Landing), James Adair (Irish), William Thorpe (English), and Peter Hildebrand (German), among manyothers, several attaining the status of minor chiefs and/or members of significant delegations.In contrast, a large portion of the settlers encroaching on their territories and against whom the Cherokee (and otherIndians) took most of their actions were Scots-Irish, Irish from Ulster of Scottish descent, a group which alsoprovided the backbone for the forces of the Revolution (a famous example of a Scots-Irishman doing the reverse isSimon Girty). It is a historical irony that those from a group seen as rebels or "Whigs" back home in the Isles becameTories in the Americas while those from a group now considered one of the most "Tory" in regards to the UnitedKingdom became Whigs in the Americas.

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19th century

Acculturation

The Cherokee lands between the Tennessee and Chattahoochee rivers were remote enough from white settlers toremain independent after the Chickamauga Wars. The deerskin trade was no longer feasible on their greatly reducedlands, and over the next several decades, the people of the fledgling Cherokee Nation began to build a new societymodeled on the white Southern United States.

Portrait of Major Ridge in 1834,from History of the Indian Tribes of

North America.

George Washington sought to 'civilize' Southeastern American Indians, throughprograms overseen by the Indian Agent Benjamin Hawkins. He encouraged theCherokee to abandon their communal land-tenure and settle on individualfarmsteads, facilitated by the destruction of many American Indian towns duringthe American Revolutionary War. The deerskin trade brought white-tailed deerto the brink of extinction, and as pigs and cattle were introduced, they becamethe principal sources of meat. The government supplied the tribes with spinningwheels and cotton-seed, and men were taught to fence and plow the land, incontrast to their traditional division in which crop cultivation was woman's labor.Americans instructed the women in weaving. Eventually Hawkins helped themset up blacksmiths, gristmills and cotton plantations.

The Cherokee organized a national government under Principal Chiefs LittleTurkey (1788–1801), Black Fox (1801–1811), and Pathkiller (1811–1827), all

former warriors of Dragging Canoe. The 'Cherokee triumvirate' of James Vann and his protégés The Ridge andCharles R. Hicks advocated acculturation, formal education, and modern methods of farming. In 1801 they invitedMoravian missionaries from North Carolina to teach Christianity and the 'arts of civilized life.' The Moravians andlater Congregationalist missionaries ran boarding schools, and a select few students were educated at the AmericanBoard of Commissioners for Foreign Missions school in Connecticut.

In 1806 a Federal Road from Savannah, Georgia to Knoxville, Tennessee was built through Cherokee land. ChiefJames Vann opened a tavern, inn and ferry across the Chattahoochee and built a cotton-plantation on a spur of theroad from Athens, Georgia to Nashville. His son 'Rich Joe' Vann developed the plantation to 800 acres (3.2 km2),cultivated by 150 slaves. He exported cotton to England, and owned a steamboat on the Tennessee River.[23]

The Cherokee allied with the U.S. against the nativist and pro-British Red Stick faction of the Upper Creek in theCreek War during the War of 1812, and Cherokee warriors led by Major Ridge played a major role in GeneralAndrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. Major Ridge moved his family to Rome, Georgia, wherehe built a substantial house, developed a large plantation and ran a ferry on the Oostanaula River. Although he neverlearned English, he educated his son and nephews in New England mission schools. His interpreter and protégéChief John Ross, the descendant of several generations of Cherokee women and Scots fur-traders, built a plantationand operated a trading firm and a ferry at Ross' Landing (Chattanooga, Tennessee). During this period, divisionsarose between the acculturated elite and the great majority of Cherokee, who clung to traditional ways of life.Around 1809 Sequoyah began developing a written form of the Cherokee language. He spoke no English, but hisexperiences, as a silversmith dealing regularly with white settlers and as a warrior at Horseshoe Bend, convinced himthe Cherokee needed to develop writing. In 1821, he introduced Cherokee syllabary, the first written syllabic form ofan American Indian language outside of Central America. Initially his innovation was opposed by both Cherokeetraditionalists and white missionaries who sought to encourage the use of English. When Sequoyah taught children toread and write with the syllabary, he reached the adults and, by the 1820s, the Cherokee had a higher rate of literacythan the whites around them in Georgia.

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Cherokee National Council building, New Echota

In 1819, the Cherokee began holding council meetings at New Town,at the headwaters of the Oostanaula (near present-day Calhoun,Georgia). In November 1825, New Town became the capital of theCherokee Nation, and was renamed New Echota, after the OverhillCherokee principal town of Chota.[24] Sequoyah's syllabary wasadopted. They had developed a police force, a judicial system, and aNational Committee.

In 1827, the Cherokee Nation drafted a Constitution modeled on theUnited States, with executive, legislative and judicial branches and asystem of checks and balances. The two-tiered legislature was led by

Major Ridge and his son John Ridge. Convinced the tribe's survival required English-speaking leaders who couldnegotiate with the U.S., the legislature appointed John Ross as Principal Chief. A printing press was established atNew Echota by the Vermont missionary Samuel Worcester and Major Ridge's nephew Elias Boudinot, who hadtaken the name of his white benefactor, a leader of the Continental Congress and New Jersey Congressman. Theytranslated the Bible into Cherokee syllabary. Boudinot published the first edition of the bilingual 'Cherokee Phoenix,'the first American Indian newspaper, in February 1828.[25]

Removal era

Tah-Chee (Dutch), A Cherokee Chief, 1837

Before the final removal to present-day Oklahoma, many Cherokeesrelocated to present-day Arkansas, Missouri and Texas.[26] Between1775 and 1786 the Cherokee, along with people of other nations suchas the Choctaw and Chickasaw, began voluntarily settling along theArkansas and Red Rivers.[27]

In 1802, the federal government promised to extinguish Indian titles tolands claimed by Georgia in return for Georgia's cession of the westernlands that became Alabama and Mississippi. To convince the Cherokeeto move voluntarily in 1815, the US government established aCherokee Reservation in Arkansas.[28] The reservation boundariesextended from north of the Arkansas River to the southern bank of theWhite River. Di'wali (The Bowl), Sequoyah, Spring Frog and Tatsi(Dutch) and their bands settled there. These Cherokees became knownas "Old settlers."

The Cherokee, eventually, migrated as far north as the MissouriBootheel by 1816. They lived interspersed among the Delawares and Shawnees of that area.[29] The Cherokee inMissouri Territory increased rapidly in population, from 1,000 to 6,000 over the next year (1816–1817), according toreports by Governor William Clark.[30] Increased conflicts with the Osage Nation led to the Battle of ClaremoreMound and the eventual establishment of Fort Smith between Cherokee and Osage communities.[31] In the Treaty ofSt. Louis (1825), the Osage were made to "cede and relinquish to the United States, all their right, title, interest, andclaim, to lands lying within the State of Missouri and Territory of Arkansas..." to make room for the Cherokee andthe Mashcoux, Muscogee Creeks.[32] As late as the winter of 1838, Cherokee and Creek living in the Missouri andArkansas areas petitioned the War Department to remove the Osage from the area.[33]

A group of Cherokee traditionalists led by Di'wali moved to Spanish Texas in 1819. Settling near Nacogdoches, they were welcomed by Mexican authorities as potential allies against Anglo-American colonists. The Texas Cherokees were mostly neutral during the Texas War of Independence. In 1836, they signed a treaty with Texas President Sam Houston, an adopted member of the Cherokee tribe. His successor Mirabeau Lamar sent militia to evict them in

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1839.

Trail of Tears

Chief John Ross, ca. 1840

During the first decades of the 19th century, Georgia focused on removing theCherokee's neighbors, the Lower Creek. The Georgia Governor George Troupand his cousin William McIntosh, chief of the Lower Creek, signed the Treaty ofIndian Springs (1825), ceding the last Muscogee (Creek) lands claimed byGeorgia. The state's northwestern border reached the Chattahoochee, the borderof the Cherokee Nation. In 1829, gold was discovered at Dahlonega, onCherokee land claimed by Georgia. The Georgia Gold Rush was the first in U.S.history, and state officials demanded that the federal government expel theCherokee. When Andrew Jackson was inaugurated as President in 1829, Georgiagained a strong ally in Washington. In 1830 Congress passed the Indian RemovalAct, authorizing the forcible relocation of American Indians east of theMississippi to a new Indian Territory.

Andrew Jackson said the removal policy was an effort to prevent the Cherokee from facing extinction as a people,which he considered the fate that "the Mohegan, the Narragansett, and the Delaware" had suffered.[34] But, there isample evidence that the Cherokee were adapting modern farming techniques. A modern analysis shows that the areawas in general in a state of economic surplus and could have accommodated both the Cherokee and new settlers.[35]

The Cherokee brought their grievances to a US judicial review that set a precedent in Indian Country. John Rosstraveled to Washington, D.C., and won support from National Republican Party leaders Henry Clay and DanielWebster. Samuel Worcester campaigned on behalf of the Cherokee in New England, where their cause was taken upby Ralph Waldo Emerson (see Emerson's 1838 letter to Martin Van Buren). In June 1830, a delegation led by ChiefRoss defended Cherokee rights before the U.S. Supreme Court in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia.In 1831 Georgia militia arrested Samuel Worcester for residing on Indian lands without a state permit, imprisoninghim in Milledgeville. In Worcester v. Georgia (1832), the US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall ruled thatAmerican Indian nations were "distinct, independent political communities retaining their original natural rights,"and entitled to federal protection from the actions of state governments that infringed on their sovereignty.[36]

Worcester v. Georgia is considered one of the most important dicta in law dealing with Native Americans.Jackson ignored the Supreme Court's ruling, as he needed to conciliate Southern sectionalism during the era of theNullification Crisis. His landslide reelection in 1832 emboldened calls for Cherokee removal. Georgia sold Cherokeelands to its citizens in a Land Lottery, and the state militia occupied New Echota. The Cherokee National Council,led by John Ross, fled to Red Clay, a remote valley north of Georgia's land claim. Ross had the support of Cherokeetraditionalists, who could not imagine removal from their ancestral lands.

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Cherokee beadwork sampler, made at DwightMission, Indian Territory, 19th century,

collection of the Oklahoma History Center.

A small group known as the "Ridge Party" or the "Treaty Party" sawrelocation as inevitable and believed the Cherokee Nation needed tomake the best deal to preserve their rights in Indian Territory. Led byMajor Ridge, John Ridge and Elias Boudinot, they represented theCherokee elite, whose homes, plantations and businesses wereconfiscated, or under threat of being taken by white squatters withGeorgia land-titles. With capital to acquire new lands, they were moreinclined to accept relocation. On December 29, 1835, the "RidgeParty" signed the Treaty of New Echota, stipulating terms andconditions for the removal of the Cherokee Nation. In return for theirlands, the Cherokee were promised a large tract in the Indian Territory,$5 million, and $300,000 for improvements on their new lands.[37]

John Ross gathered over 15,000 signatures for a petition to the U.S. Senate, insisting that the treaty was invalidbecause it did not have the support of the majority of the Cherokee people. The Senate passed the Treaty of NewEchota by a one-vote margin. It was enacted into law in May 1836.[38]

Two years later President Martin Van Buren ordered 7,000 Federal troops and state militia under General WinfieldScott into Cherokee lands to evict the tribe. Over 16,000 Cherokee were forcibly relocated westward to IndianTerritory in 1838–1839, a migration known as the Trail of Tears or in Cherokee ᏅᎾ ᏓᎤᎳ ᏨᏱ or Nvna Daula Tsvyi(The Trail Where They Cried), although it is described by another word Tlo-va-sa (The Removal). Marched over 800miles (1,300 km) across Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas, the people suffered from disease,exposure and starvation, and as many as 4,000 died.[39] As some Cherokees were slaveholders, they took enslavedAfrican Americans with them west of the Mississippi. Intermarried European Americans and missionaries alsowalked the Trail of Tears. Ross preserved a vestige of independence by negotiating for the Cherokee to conduct theirown removal under U.S. supervision.[40]

In keeping with the tribe's "blood law" that prescribed the death penalty for Cherokee who sold lands, Ross's sonarranged the murder of the leaders of the "Treaty Party". On June 22, 1839, a party of twenty-five Ross supportersassassinated Major Ridge, John Ridge and Elias Boudinot. The party included Daniel Colston, John Vann,Archibald, James and Joseph Spear. Boudinot's brother Stand Watie fought and survived that day, escaping toArkansas.In 1827, Sequoyah had led a delegation of Old Settlers to Washington, D.C. to negotiate for the exchange ofArkansas land for land in Indian Territory. After the Trail of Tears, he helped mediate divisions between the OldSettlers and the rival factions of the more recent arrivals. In 1839, as President of the Western Cherokee, Sequoyahsigned an Act of Union with John Ross that reunited the two groups of the Cherokee Nation.

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Eastern Band

Cól-lee, a Band Chief, painted byGeorge Catlin, 1834

The Oconaluftee Cherokee of the Great Smoky Mountains were the mostconservative and isolated from European-American settlements. They rejectedthe reforms of the Cherokee Nation. When the Cherokee government ceded allterritory east of the Little Tennessee River to North Carolina in 1819, theywithdrew from the Nation.[41] William Holland Thomas, a white store owner andstate legislator from Jackson County, North Carolina, helped over 600 Cherokeefrom Qualla Town obtain North Carolina citizenship, which exempted them fromforced removal. Over 400 Cherokee either hid from Federal troops in the remoteSnowbird Mountains, under the leadership of Tsali (ᏣᎵ),[42] or belonged to theformer Valley Towns area around the Cheoah River who negotiated with thestate government to stay in North Carolina. An additional 400 Cherokee stayedon reserves in Southeast Tennessee, North Georgia, and Northeast Alabama, ascitizens of their respective states. They were mostly mixed-race and Cherokee

women married to white men. Together, these groups were the ancestors of the federally recognized Eastern Band ofCherokee Indians, and some of the state-recognized tribes in surrounding states.

Civil War

Cherokee confederates reunion in New Orleans, 1903.

The American Civil War wasdevastating for both East and WesternCherokee. The Eastern Band, aided byWilliam Thomas, became the ThomasLegion of Cherokee Indians andHighlanders, fighting for theConfederacy in the American CivilWar.[43] Cherokee in Indian Territorydivided into Union and Confederatefactions, with most supporting theConfederacy.

Stand Watie, the leader of the RidgeParty, raised a regiment forConfederate service in 1861. JohnRoss, who had reluctantly agreed to ally with the Confederacy, was captured by Federal troops in 1862. He lived inself-imposed exile in Philadelphia, supporting the Union. In Indian Territory, the national council of those whosupported the Union voted to abolish slavery in the Cherokee Nation in 1863, but they were not the majorityslaveholders and the vote had little effect on those supporting the Confederacy.

Watie was elected Principal Chief of the pro-Confederacy majority. A master of hit-and-run cavalry tactics, Watiefought those Cherokee loyal to John Ross and Federal troops in Indian Territory and Arkansas, capturing Unionsupply trains and steamboats, and saving a Confederate army by covering their retreat after the Battle of Pea Ridgein March 1862. He became a Brigadier General of the Confederate States; the only other American Indian to hold therank in the American Civil War was Ely S. Parker with the Union Army. On June 25, 1865, two months after RobertE. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Stand Watie became the last Confederate General to stand down.

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Reconstruction and late 19th century

William Penn (Cherokee), His Shield(Yanktonai), Levi Big Eagle (Yanktonai), Bear

Ghost (Yanktonai) and Black Moustache(Sisseton).

After the Civil War, the US government required the Cherokee Nationto sign a new treaty, because of its alliance with the Confederacy. TheUS required the 1866 Treaty to provide for the emancipation of allCherokee slaves, and full citizenship to all Cherokee freedmen and allfree African Americans who chose to continue to reside within triballands, so that they "shall have all the rights of native Cherokees."[44]

Both before and after the Civil War, some Cherokee intermarried orhad relationships with African Americans, just as they had with whites.Many Cherokee Freedmen have been active politically within the tribe.

The US government also acquired easement rights to the western partof the territory, which became the Oklahoma Territory, for theconstruction of railroads. Development and settlers followed therailroads. By the late 19th century, the government believed that

Native Americans would be better off if each family owned its own land. The Dawes Act of 1887 provided for thebreakup of commonly held tribal land into individual household allotments. Native Americans were registered on theDawes Rolls and allotted land from the common reserve. The US government counted the remainder of tribal land as"surplus" and sold it to non-Cherokee individuals.

The Curtis Act of 1898 dismantled tribal governments, courts, schools, and other civic institutions. For IndianTerritory, this meant abolition of the Cherokee courts and governmental systems. This was seen as necessary beforethe Oklahoma and Indian territories could be admitted as a combined state. In 1905, the Five Civilized Tribes of theIndian Territory proposed the creation of the State of Sequoyah as one to be exclusively Native American, but failedto gain support in Washington, D.C.. In 1907, the Oklahoma and Indian Territories entered the union as the state ofOklahoma.

Map of present-day Cherokee Nation Tribal Jurisdiction Area (dark blue)

By the late 19th century, the Eastern Band ofCherokee were laboring under the constraintsof a segregated society. In the aftermath ofReconstruction, conservative white Democratsregained power in North Carolina and othersouthern states. They proceeded to effectivelydisfranchise all blacks and many poor whitesby new constitutions and laws related to voterregistration and elections. They passed JimCrow laws that divided society into "white" and"colored", mostly to control freedmen.Cherokee and other Native Americans wereclassified on the colored side and suffered the same racial segregation and disfranchisement as former slaves. Theyalso often lost their historical documentation for identification as Indians, when the Southern states classified them ascolored. Blacks and Native Americans would not have their constitutional rights as US citizens enforced until afterthe Civil Rights Movement secured passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s, and the federal governmentbegan to monitor voter registration and elections, as well as other programs.

Cherokee 12

Culture

Cultural institutionsThe Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual, Inc., of Cherokee, North Carolina is the oldest continuing Native American artco-operative. They were founded in 1940 to provide a venue for traditional Eastern Band Cherokee artists.[45] TheMuseum of the Cherokee Indian, also in Cherokee, displays permanent and changing exhibits, houses archives andcollections important to Cherokee history, and sponsors cultural groups, such as the Warriors of the AniKituhwadance group.[46]

In 2007, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians entered into a partnership with Southwestern Community Collegeand Western Carolina University to create the Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts (OICA), to emphasize nativeart and culture in traditional fine arts education, thus preserving traditional art forms and encouraging exploration ofcontemporary ideas. Located in Cherokee, OICA offered an associate's degree program.[47] In August 2010, OICAacquired a letterpress and had the Cherokee syllabary recast to begin printing one-of-a-kind fine art books and printsin the Cherokee language.[48] In 2012, the Fine Art degree program at OICA was incorporated into SouthwesternCommunity College and moved to the SCC Swain Center, where it continues to operate.[49]

The Cherokee Heritage Center, of Park Hill, Oklahoma hosts a reproduction of an ancient Cherokee Village, AdamsRural Village (including 19th-century buildings), Nofire Farms, and the Cherokee Family Research Center forgenealogy.[] The Cherokee Heritage Center also houses the Cherokee National Archives. Both the Cherokee Nation(of Oklahoma) and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee, as well as other tribes, contribute funding to the CHC.

MarriageBefore the 19th century, polygamy was common among the Cherokee, especially by elite men.[50] The matrilinealculture meant that women controlled property, such as their dwellings, and their children were considered born intotheir mother's clan, where they gained hereditary status. Advancement to leadership positions were generally subjectto approval by the women elders. In addition, the society was matrifocal; customarily, a married couple lived with ornear the woman's family, so she could be aided by her female relatives. Her oldest brother was a more importantmentor to her boys than was their father, who belonged to another clan. Traditionally, couples, particularly women,can divorce freely.[51]

It was unusual for a Cherokee man to marry a European-American woman. The children of such a union weredisadvantaged, as they would not belong to the nation. They would be born outside the clans and traditionally werenot considered Cherokee citizens. This is because of the matrilineal aspect of Cherokee culture.[50] As the Cherokeebegan to adopt some elements of European-American culture in the early 19th century, they sent elite young men,such as John Ridge and Elias Boudinot to American schools for education. After Ridge had married aEuropean-American woman from Connecticut and Boudinot was engaged to another, the Cherokee Council in 1825passed a law making children of such unions full citizens of the tribe, as if their mothers were Cherokee. This was away to protect the families of men expected to be leaders of the tribe.[52]

In the late nineteenth century, the US government put new restrictions on marriage between a Cherokee andnon-Cherokee, although it was still relatively common. A European-American man could legally marry a Cherokeewoman by petitioning the federal court, after gaining approval of ten of her blood relatives. Once married, the manhad status as an "Intermarried White," a member of the Cherokee tribe with restricted rights; for instance, he couldnot hold any tribal office. He also remained a citizen of and under the laws of the United States. Common lawmarriages were more popular. Such "Intermarried Whites" were listed in a separate category on the registers of theDawes Rolls, prepared for allotment of plots of land to individual households of members of the tribe, in the earlytwentieth-century federal policy for assimilation of the Native Americans.

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Traditional herbal medicinePlants used in traditional Cherokee herbalism include common agrimony, used to treat fever,[] blue false indigo, theroots of which were used in a tisane as a purgative or to treat tooth aches and nausea,[] downy woodmint, used in apoultice to treat headaches,[]Goldenseal, referred to by Prof. Benjamin Smith Barton in his first edition ofCollections for an Essay Toward a Materia Medica of the United States (1798), as being used by the Cherokee as acancer treatment, Gray hydrangea,[53][54]Virginia Iris,[] and Jeffersonia diphylla used in an infusion for treatingdropsy and urinary tract problems, it was also used as a poultice for sores and inflammation.[55]

Language and writing system

Sequoyah, the inventor of theCherokee syllabary

The Cherokee speak a Southern Iroquoian language, which is polysynthetic andis written in a syllabary invented by Sequoyah (ᏍᏏᏉᏯ).[56] For years, manypeople wrote transliterated Cherokee or used poorly intercompatible fonts to typeout the syllabary. However, since the fairly recent addition of the Cherokeesyllables to Unicode, the Cherokee language is experiencing a renaissance in itsuse on the Internet.

Sequoyah's syllabary in the order that heoriginally arranged the characters.

Because of the polysynthetic nature of the Cherokee language, new anddescriptive words in Cherokee are easily constructed to reflect orexpress modern concepts. Examples include ditiyohihi (ᏗᏘᏲᎯᎯ),which means "he argues repeatedly and on purpose with a purpose,"meaning "attorney." Another example is didaniyisgi (ᏗᏓᏂᏱᏍᎩ) whichmeans "the final catcher" or "he catches them finally andconclusively," meaning "policeman."

Many words, however, have been borrowed from the Englishlanguage, such as gasoline, which in Cherokee is ga-so-li-ne (ᎦᏐᎵᏁ).Many other words were borrowed from the languages of tribes whosettled in Oklahoma in the early 20th century. One example relates to atown in Oklahoma named "Nowata". The word nowata is a DelawareIndian word for "welcome" (more precisely the Delaware word isnu-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 Cherokees, beingunaware the word had its origins in the Delaware Language, called the town Amadikanigvnagvna (ᎠᎹᏗᎧᏂᎬᎾᎬᎾ)which means "the water is all gone from here", i.e. "no water".

Other examples of borrowed words are kawi (ᎧᏫ) for coffee and watsi (ᏩᏥ) for watch (which led to utana watsi(ᎤᏔᎾ ᏩᏥ) or "big watch" for clock).The following table is an example of Cherokee text and its translation:

Cherokee 14

ᏣᎳᎩ: ᏂᎦᏓ ᎠᏂᏴᏫ ᏂᎨᎫᏓᎸᎾ ᎠᎴ ᎤᏂᏠᏱ ᎤᎾᏕᎿ ᏚᏳᎧᏛ ᎨᏒᎢ. ᎨᏥᏁᎳ ᎤᎾᏓᏅᏖᏗ ᎠᎴ ᎤᏃᏟᏍᏗ ᎠᎴ ᏌᏊ ᎨᏒ ᏧᏂᎸᏫᏍᏓᏁᏗ ᎠᎾᏟᏅᏢ ᎠᏓᏅᏙ ᎬᏗ.[]

Tsalagi: Nigada aniyvwi nigeguda'lvna ale unihloyi unadehna duyukdv gesv'i. Gejinela unadanvtehdi ale unohlisdi ale sagwu gesv junilvwisdanedianahldinvdlv adanvdo gvhdi.[]

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one anotherin a spirit of brotherhood. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)[]

Treaties and government

TreatiesThe Cherokee have participated in at least thirty-six treaties in the past three hundred years.

Government

1794 Establishment of the Cherokee National Council and officers over the whole nation

1808 Establishment of the Cherokee Lighthorse Guard, a national police force

1809 Establishment of the National Committee

1810 End of separate regional councils and abolition of blood vengeance

1820 Establishment of courts in eight districts to handle civil disputes

1822 Cherokee Supreme Court established

1823 National Committee given power to review acts of the National Council

1827 Constitution of the Cherokee Nation East

1828 Constitution of the Cherokee Nation West

1832 Suspension of elections in the Cherokee Nation East

1839 Constitution of the reunited Cherokee Nation

1868 Constitution of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

1888 Charter of Incorporation issued by the State of North Carolina to the Eastern Band

1950 Constitution and federal charter of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians

1975 Constitution of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma

1999 Constitution of the Cherokee Nation drafted[57]

After being ravaged by smallpox, and pressed by increasingly violent land-hungry settlers, the Cherokee adopted aEuropean-American Representative democracy form of government in an effort to retain their lands. Theyestablished a governmental system modeled on that of the United States, with an elected principal chief, senate, andhouse of representatives. On April 10, 1810 the seven Cherokee clans met and began the abolition of bloodvengeance by giving the sacred duty to the new Cherokee National government. Clans formally relinquished judicialresponsibilities by the 1820s when the Cherokee Supreme Court was established. In 1825, the National Councilextended citizenship to the children of Cherokee men married to white women. These ideas were largelyincorporated into the 1827 Cherokee constitution.[58] The constitution stated that "No person who is of negro ormulatto [sic] parentage, either by the father or mother side, shall be eligible to hold any office of profit, honor ortrust under this Government," with an exception for, "negroes and descendants of white and Indian men by negrowomen who may have been set free."[59] This definition to limit rights of multiracial descendants, may have beenmore widely held among the elite than the general population.[60]

Cherokee 15

Modern Cherokee tribes

Cherokee Nation

Flag of the Cherokee Nation

Cherokee Nation Historic Courthouse inTahlequah, Oklahoma.

The Cherokee Female Seminary was built in1889 by the Oklahoma Cherokees.

During 1898–1906 the federal government dissolved the formerCherokee Nation, to make way for the incorporation of IndianTerritory into the new state of Oklahoma. From 1906 to 1975,structure and function of the tribal government were not clearlydefined. In 1975 the tribe drafted a constitution, which theyratified on June 26, 1976,[61] and the tribe received federalrecognition. In 1999, the CNO changed or added severalprovisions to its constitution, among them the designation of thetribe to be "Cherokee Nation," dropping "of Oklahoma."According to a statement by BIA head Larry Echohawk theCherokee Nation is not the historical Cherokee tribe but instead a"successor in interest." The attorney of the Cherokee Nation hasstated that they intend to appeal this decision.[62]

The modern Cherokee Nation, in recent times, has experienced analmost unprecedented expansion in economic growth, equality,and prosperity for its citizens. The Cherokee Nation, under theleadership of Principal Chief Chad Smith, has significant business,corporate, real estate, and agricultural interests, includingnumerous highly profitable casino operations. The CN controlsCherokee Nation Entertainment, Cherokee Nation Industries, andCherokee Nation Businesses. CNI is a very large defensecontractor that creates thousands of jobs in eastern Oklahoma forCherokee citizens.

The CN has constructed health clinics throughout Oklahoma,contributed to community development programs, built roads andbridges, constructed learning facilities and universities for itscitizens, instilled the practice of Gadugi and self-reliance in itscitizens, revitalized language immersion programs for its childrenand youth, and is a powerful and positive economic and politicalforce in Eastern Oklahoma.

The CN hosts the Cherokee National Holiday on Labor Dayweekend each year, and 80,000 to 90,000 Cherokee Citizens travelto Tahlequah, Oklahoma, for the festivities. It also publishes the

Cherokee Phoenix, the tribal newspaper, published in both English and the Sequoyah syllabary. The CherokeeNation council appropriates money for historic foundations concerned with the preservation of Cherokee Culture.

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

Cherokee 16

Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

Flag of the Eastern Band Cherokee

The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians in North Carolina, ledby Chief Michell Hicks, hosts over a million visitors a year tocultural attractions of the 100-square-mile (260 km2) sovereignnation. The reservation, the "Qualla Boundary", has a populationof over 8,000 Cherokee, primarily direct descendants of Indianswho managed to avoid “The Trail of Tears”.

Attractions include the Oconaluftee Indian Village, Museum of theCherokee Indian, and the country’s oldest and foremost NativeAmerican 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 tribegenerated $78 million dollars in the local economy in 2005.

United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians

Flag of the United Keetoowah Band of CherokeeIndians

The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians formed theirgovernment under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 andgained federal recognition in 1946. Enrollment into the tribe islimited to people with a quarter or more of Cherokee blood. Manymembers of the UKB are descended from Old Settlers –Cherokees who moved to Arkansas and Indian Territory before theTrail of Tears.[63] Of the 12,000 people enrolled in the tribe,11,000 live in Oklahoma. Their chief is George G. Wickliffe. TheUKB operate a tribal casino, bingo hall, smokeshop, fuel outlets,truck stop, and gallery that showcases art and crafts made by tribalmembers. The tribe also issues their own tribal vehicle tags.[64]

Relations among the three federally recognized Cherokee tribesThe Cherokee Nation participates in numerous joint programs with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. It alsoparticipates in cultural exchange programs and joint Tribal Council meetings involving councilors from bothCherokee Tribes. These are held to address issues affecting all of the Cherokee People.The administrations of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians and the Cherokee Nation have a somewhatadversarial relationship. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians interacts with the Cherokee Nation in a unified spiritof Gadugi.[citation needed]

The United Keetoowah Band tribal council unanimously passed a resolution to approach the Cherokee Nation for ajoint council meeting between the two Nations, as a means of "offering the olive branch", in the words of the UKBCouncil. While a date was set for the meeting between members of the Cherokee Nation Council and UKBrepresentative, Chief Smith vetoed the meeting.[citation needed]

Cherokee 17

Contemporary settlement

Dorothea Lange's famous photograph, MigrantMother, that epitomized the Great Depression,

features Florence Owens Thompson(Cherokee)[65] and her three children

Cherokees are most concentrated in Oklahoma and North Carolina, butsome reside in the US West Coast, due to economic migrations causedby the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression, job availability duringthe Second World War, and the Federal Indian Relocation programduring the 1950s–1960s. Cherokees constitute over 2% of populationof three largely rural communities in California–Covelo, Hayfork andSan Miguel, one town in Oregon and one town in Arizona).[citation

needed] Destinations for Cherokee diaspora included multi-ethnic/racialurban centers of California (i.e. the Greater Los Angeles and SF Bayareas), and they usually lived in farming communities, by militarybases and other Indian reservations.[66]

See also the Albuquerque Cherokee Nation Township (CherokeeNation) about the Cherokee community of Albuquerque, NM.

Membership controversies

Tribal recognition and membership

The three Cherokees tribes have differing requirements for enrollment.The Cherokee Nation determines enrollment by lineal descent from Cherokees listed on the Dawes Rolls and has nominimum blood quantum requirement.[67] Currently, descendents of the Dawes Cherokee Freedman rolls aremembers of the tribe, pending court decisions. CN has numerous members who also have African-American, Latino,Asian, European-American, and other ancestry. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians requires a minimumone-sixteenth Cherokee blood quantum (genealogical descent, equivalent to one great-great-grandparent) and anancestor on the Baker Roll. The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians requires a minimum one-quarterKeetoowah Cherokee blood quantum (equivalent to one grandparent), and the UKB does not allow members thathave relinquished their membership to re-enroll in the UKB.[68]

In 2000 the U.S. census reported 875,276 people self-identified as Cherokee Indian;[69] however, only approximately316,049 people are enrolled in the federally recognized Cherokee tribes.Over 200 groups claim to be Cherokee nations, tribes, or bands.[70] Cherokee Nation spokesman Mike Miller hassuggested that some groups, which he calls Cherokee Heritage Groups, are encouraged.[71] Others, however, arecontroversial for their attempts to gain economically through their claims to be Cherokee. The three federallyrecognized groups assert themselves as the only groups having the legal right to present themselves as CherokeeIndian Tribes and only their enrolled members as Cherokee.[72]

One exception to this may be the Texas Cherokees. Prior to 1975, they were considered a part of the CherokeeNation, as reflected in briefs filed before the Indian Claims Commission. At one time W.W. Keeler served not onlyas Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, but at the same time held the position as Chairman of the Texas Cherokeeand Associated Bands (TCAB) Executive Committee.Following the adoption of the Cherokee constitution in 1976, TCAB descendants whose ancestors had remained apart of the physical Mount Tabor Community in Rusk County, Texas were excluded from citizenship. Theirancestors did not appear on the Final Rolls of the Five Civilized Tribes, registered under the Dawes Commission.However, most if not all TCAB descendants did have an ancestor listed on the Guion-Miller or Old settler rolls.While most Mount Tabor residents returned to the Cherokee Nation following the death of John Ross in 1866, today there is a sizable group that is well documented but outside that body. It is not actively seeking a status clarification.

Cherokee 18

They do have treaty rights going back to the Treaty of Bird’s Fort. From the end of the Civil War until 1975, theywere associated with the Cherokee Nation. The TCAB formed as a political organization in 1871 led by WilliamPenn Adair and Clement Neely Vann. Descendants of the Texas Cherokees and the Mount Tabor Community joinedtogether to try 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. Only some 800 are stuck in limbowithout status as Cherokees. Many of them still reside in Rusk and Smith counties of east Texas.Other remnant populations continue to exist throughout the Southeast United States and individually in the statessurrounding Oklahoma. Many of these people trace descent from persons enumerated on official rolls such as theGuion-Miller, Drennan, Mullay and Henderson Rolls, among others. Other descendants trace their heritage throughthe treaties of 1817 and 1819 with the federal government which gave individual allotments to Cherokees. Staterecognized Tribes require irrefutable genealogical proof that applicants are of Cherokee descent. Current enrollmentguidelines of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma do not allow these descendants admission despite the fact that manycurrent Cherokee citizens have provable relatives ineligible to enroll. Such facts were pointed out by Cherokeecitizens of CNO during the Constitutional Convention held to ratify a new governing document. The document thatwas eventually ratified by a small portion of the electorate has yet to be approved by the Federalgovernment.[73]

Cherokee FreedmenThe Cherokee freedmen, descendants of African American slaves owned by citizens of the Cherokee Nation duringthe Antebellum Period, 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 constitutionalamendments granting freedmen citizenship in the United States.In 1988, the federal court in the Freedmen case of Nero v. Cherokee Nation held that Cherokees could decidecitizenship requirements and exclude freedmen. On March 7, 2006, the Cherokee Nation Judicial Appeal Tribunalruled that the Cherokee Freedmen were eligible for Cherokee citizenship. This ruling proved controversial; while theCherokee Freedman had historically been recorded as "citizens" of the Cherokee Nation at least since 1866 and thelater Dawes Commission Land Rolls, the ruling "did not limit membership to people possessing Cherokee blood".[]

This ruling was consistent with the 1975 Constitution of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, in its acceptance of theCherokee Freedmen on the basis of historical citizenship, rather than documented blood relation.On March 3, 2007 a constitutional amendment was passed by a Cherokee vote limiting citizenship to Cherokees onthe Dawes Rolls for those listed as Cherokee by blood on the dawes roll, which did not include partial Cherokeedescendants of slaves, Shawnee and Delaware.[74] The Cherokee Freedmen had 90 days to appeal this amendmentvote which disenfranchised them from Cherokee citizenship and file appeal within the Cherokee Nation TribalCouncil, which is currently pending in Nash, et al. v. Cherokee Nation Registrar. On May 14, 2007, the CherokeeFreedmen were reinstated as citizens of the Cherokee Nation by the Cherokee Nation Tribal Courts through atemporary order and temporary injunction until the court reached its final decision.[75] On January 14, 2011, thetribal district court ruled that the 2007 constitutional amendment was invalid because it conflicted with the 1866treaty guaranteeing the Freedmen's rights.[76]

Cherokee 19

Notable historical Cherokee peopleThis includes only Cherokee documented in history. Contemporary notable Cherokee people are listed in the articlesfor the appropriate tribe. For self-identified people of Cherokee heritage, see List of Self-identified people ofCherokee ancestry.• William Penn Adair (1830–1880), Cherokee senator and diplomat, Confederate colonel.• Attakullakulla (ca. 1708 – ca. 1777), diplomat to Britain, headman of Chota, chief• Bob Benge (ca. 1762–1794), warrior of the Lower Cherokee during the Chickamauga Wars• Elias Boudinot (Galagina) (1802–1839), statesman, orator, and editor, founded first Cherokee newspaper,

Cherokee Phoenix• Ned Christie (1852–1892), statesman, Cherokee Nation senator, infamous outlaw[77]

• Admiral Joseph J. Clark (1893–1971), United States Navy, highest ranking Native American in the US military,awarded the Navy Cross.

• Doublehead, Taltsuska (d. 1807), a war leader during the Chicamauga Wars, led the Lower Cherokee, signed landdeals with US

• Dragging Canoe, Tsiyugunsini (1738–1792), general the militant Cherokee during the Chickamauga Wars,principal chief of the Chicamauga or Lower Cherokee

• Franklin Gritts, Cherokee artist taught at Haskell Institute and served on the USS Franklin• Charles R. Hicks (d. 1827), veteran of the Red Stick War, Second Principal Chief to Pathkiller in early 17th

century, de facto Principal Chief from 1813–1827• Wilma Mankiller (1945-2010), first female Principal Chief of the Cherokees• Junaluska (ca. 1775–1868), veteran of the Creek War, who saved President Andrew Jackson's life• Oconostota, Aganstata (Beloved Man) (ca. 1710–1783), war chief during the Anglo-Cherokee War,• Ostenaco, Ustanakwa (ca. 1703–1780), war chief, diplomat to Britain, founded the town of Ultiwa• Major Ridge Ganundalegi or "Pathkiller" (ca.1771–1839), veteran of the Chickamauga Wars and the Red Stick

War, signer of the Treaty of New Echota• John Ridge, Skatlelohski (1792–1839), son of Major Ridge, statesman, New Echota Treaty signer• John Rollin Ridge, Cheesquatalawny, or "Yellow Bird" (1827–1867), grandson of Major Ridge, first Native

American novelist• Clement V. Rogers (1839–1911), US Senator, judge, cattleman, member of the Oklahoma Constitutional

Convention• Will Rogers (1879-1935), entertainer, roper, journalist, and author[]

• John Ross, Guwisguwi (1790–1866), veteran of the Red Stick War, Principal Chief in the east, during Removal,and in the west

• Sequoyah (ca. 1767–1843), inventor of the Cherokee syllabary[78]

• Nimrod Jarrett Smith, Tsaladihi (1837–1893), Principal Chief of the Eastern Band, Civil War veteran• Redbird Smith (1850–1918), traditionalist, political activist, and chief of the Nighthawk Keetoowah Society• William Holland Thomas, Wil' Usdi (1805–1893), non-Native but adopted into tribe, founding Principal Chief of

the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, commanding officer of Thomas Legion of Cherokee Indians andHighlanders

• Tom Threepersons (1889—1969), Cherokee lawman from Vinita, Indian Territory• James Vann (ca. 1765–1809), Scottish-Cherokee, highly successful businessman and veteran of the Chickamauga

Wars• Nancy Ward, Nanye-hi (ca. 1736–1822/4), (Beloved Woman), diplomat• Stand Watie, Degataga (1806–1871), signer of the Treaty of New Echota, last Confederate general to cease

hostilities in the American Civil War as commanding officer of the First Indian Brigade of the Army ofTrans-Mississippi.

Cherokee 20

Notes[1] "Pocket Pictorial." (http:/ / www. ok. gov/ oiac/ Publications/ ) Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission. 2010: 6 and 37. (retrieved June 11,

2010)[2][2] Sturtevant and Fogelson, 613[3] Minges, Patrick, "Middle and Valley Towns in Western North Carolina." (http:/ / genebrooks. com/ cpijournal2. html) Cherokee Prayer

Initiative Journal. 1999 (retrieved June 11, 2010)[4] Note: Article 8 in the 1817 treaty as quoted, is mostly about certain land use rights (East of the Mississippi [river]), which might be retained

by certain "Indians" if they met certain conditions -- namely, if they [quote] "wish to become citizens of the United States". However, in sodoing, Article 8 implies that such "Indians" (living East of the Mississippi [river]) who "wish to become citizens of the United States", could(would be allowed to) become citizens of the United States. It seems to (be worded so as to) anticipate a future (after 1817) in which landsWest of the Mississippi [river] would remain (territories of, or) outside the boundaries of, the United States.

[5] Cherokee Indian Tribe. (http:/ / www. accessgenealogy. com/ native/ tribes/ cherokee/ cherohist. htm) Access Genealogy. (September 21,2009)

[6] Charles A. Hanna, The Wilderness Trail, (New York: 1911).[7][7] Sturtevant and Fogelson, 349[8][8] Sturtevant and Fogelson, 132[9] Finger, 6–7[10][10] Mooney[11][11] Irwin 1992.[12][12] Mooney, p. 392.[13] David Landy, "Tuscarora" (http:/ / college. hmco. com/ history/ readerscomp/ naind/ html/ na_041100_tuscarora. htm), Encyclopedia of

North American Indians, Cengage Learning Website, Houghton Mifflin Company, accessed January 12, 2010.[14] Glottochronology from: Lounsbury, Floyd (1961), and Mithun, Marianne (1981), cited in Nicholas A. Hopkins, The Native Languages of the

Southeastern United States (http:/ / www. famsi. org/ research/ hopkins/ SouthEastUSLanguages. pdf).[15] Conley, A Cherokee Encyclopedia, p. 3[16] Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee p. 31.[17] Lewis Preston Summers, 1903, History of Southwest Virginia, 1746–1786, p. 40[18] Vicki Rozema, Footsteps of the Cherokees (1995), p. 14.[19] Brown, John P. "Eastern Cherokee Chiefs" (http:/ / digital. library. okstate. edu/ Chronicles/ v016/ v016p003. html), Chronicles of

Oklahoma, Vol. 16, No. 1, March 1938. Retrieved September 21, 2009.[20] Rozema, pp. 17–23.[21] "Watauga Association" (http:/ / www. northcarolinahistory. org/ encyclopedia/ 98/ entry), North Carolina History Project. . Retrieved

September 21, 2009.[22][22] Mooney, James. History, Myths, and Scared Formulas of the Cherokee, p. 83. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1900).[26] Rollings (1992) pp. 187, 230–255.[27][27] Rollings (1992) pp. 187, 236.[28] Logan, Charles Russell. "The Promised Land: The Cherokees, Arkansas, and Removal, 1794–1839." (http:/ / www. arkansaspreservation.

org/ pdf/ publications/ Cherokee_Removal. pdf) Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. 1997 . Retrieved September 21, 2009.[29] Doublass (1912) pp. 40–2[30][30] Rollings (1992) p. 235.[31] Rollings (1992) pp. 239–40.[32] Rollings (1992) pp. 254–5, Doublass (1912) p. 44.[33] Rollings (1992) pp. 280–1[34][34] Wishart, p. 120[35][35] Wishart 1995.[39][39] Georgia Historic Marker, New Echota, 1958[41] Theda Purdue, Native Carolinians: The Indians of North Carolina, pg. 40[42] "Tsali." (http:/ / www. cherokee-nc. com/ history. php?Name=Tsali) History and culture of the Cherokee (North Carolina Indians). (March

10, 2007)[43] "Will Thomas." (http:/ / www. cherokee-nc. com/ history. php?Name=Will Thomas) History and culture of the Cherokee (North Carolina

Indians). (March 10, 2007)[44] "Treaty with the Cherokee, 1866." (http:/ / digital. library. okstate. edu/ kappler/ VOL2/ treaties/ che0942. htm) Oklahoma Historical

Society: Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Vol. 2, Treaties. (retrieved January 10, 2010)[45] Qualla History. (http:/ / www. quallaartsandcrafts. org/ history. php) . Retrieved September 15, 09.[46] The Museum of the Cherokee Indian. (http:/ / www. cherokeemuseum. org/ ) . Retrieved September 15, 09.[47] "Announcement of the founding of the Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts in Cherokee" (http:/ / www. southwesterncc. edu/ news/

06-jul-dec/ EBCI-cultural-arts-inst. htm), Southwestern Community College (retrieved Nov 24, 2010)

Cherokee 21

[48] "New Letterpress Arrives at OICA" (http:/ / www. nc-cherokee. com/ theonefeather/ 2010/ 08/ 13/ new-letterpress-arrives-at-oica/ ), TheOne Feather (retrieved Nov 24, 2010)

[49] "OICA is gone, but not really" (http:/ / theonefeather. com/ 2012/ 11/ oica-is-gone-but-not-really/ ), The One Feather (retrieved Mar 18,2013)

[50][50] Perdue (1999), p. 176[51] Perdue (1999), pp. 44, 57–8[53] Mrs. M. Grieve. A Modern Herbal. Hydrangea arborescens. (http:/ / www. botanical. com/ botanical/ mgmh/ h/ hydran45. html)[54] Plants for a Future: Hydrangea arborescens . (http:/ / www. pfaf. org/ database/ plants. php?Hydrangea+ arborescens)[55] Native American Ethnobotany Database by D. Moerman (http:/ / herb. umd. umich. edu/ )[56] Morand, Ann, Kevin Smith, Daniel C. Swan, and Sarah Erwin. Treasures of Gilcrease: Selections from the Permanent Collection. Tulsa,

OK: Gilcrease Museum,2003. ISBN 0-9725657-1-X[57] This constitution was approved by Cherokee Nation voters in 2003 but was not approved by the BIA. The Cherokee Nation then amended

their 1975 constitution to not require BIA approval. The 1999 constitution has been ratified but the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court iscurrently deciding what year the 1999 constitution officially went into effect. Constitution of the Cherokee Nation. (http:/ / www. cherokee.org/ Docs/ TribalGovernment/ Executive/ CCC/ 2003_CN_CONSTITUTION. pdf) (pdf file). Cherokee Nation. . Retrieved March 5, 2009.

[58][58] Perdue, p. 564.[59] Perdue, pp. 564–565.[60][60] Perdue, p. 566.[61] Constitution of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. (http:/ / thorpe. ou. edu/ constitution/ cherokee/ index. html) University of Oklahoma Law

Center. (retrieved January 16, 2010)[63] Leeds, George R. United Keetoowah Band. (http:/ / digital. library. okstate. edu/ encyclopedia/ entries/ U/ UN006. html) Oklahoma

Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. (retrieved October 5, 2009)[64] Oklahoma Office of Indian Affairs. Oklahoma Indian Nations Pocket Pictorial Directory. (http:/ / www. ok. gov/ oiac/ Publications/ index.

html) 2008:36[67] Cherokee Nation Registration (http:/ / www. cherokee. org/ home. aspx?section=services& service=Registration& ID=8sRG9ZCF7PE=).[68] Enrollment. (http:/ / www. keetoowahcherokee. org/ enrollment. html) United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees. (retrieved October 5, 2009)[69] , Census 2000 Special Reports, United States Census Bureau[70] Glenn, Eddie. "A League of Nations?" (http:/ / www. tahlequahdailypress. com/ cnhi/ tahlequahdailypress/ features/ local_story_006134311.

html?keyword=secondarystory) Tahlequah Daily Press. January 6, 2006 (retrieved October 5, 2009)[71][71] Glenn 2006.[72][72] Official Statement Cherokee Nation 2000, Pierpoint 2000.

• Act of Congress Roll, 1854 (http:/ / www. tngennet. org/ cherokee_by_blood/ aoc. htm)• (Pre-convention – 1999) Oral and Written Testimonies (http:/ / www. cherokee. org/ Government/ 254/ Page/ default. aspx)• Cherokee Census Rolls, a follow-up (http:/ / www. tngennet. org/ cherokee_by_blood/ census. htm)• Chapman Roll Eastern Cherokees, 1851 (http:/ / www. tngennet. org/ cherokee_by_blood/ chapman. htm)• Treaty with the Cherokee, 1817 (http:/ / digital. library. okstate. edu/ kappler/ Vol2/ treaties/ che0140. htm#mn11)

[74] Cherokee Constitutional Amendment March 3, 2007 (http:/ / www. cherokeecourts. com/ Portals/ 5/ 44 - Motion for Summary Judgmentand Brief in Support. pdf).

[76] Gavin Off, "Judge grants Cherokee citizenship to non-Indian freedmen" (http:/ / www. tulsaworld. com/ news/ article. aspx?subjectid=14&articleid=20110114_14_0_AChero292984), Tulsa World, January 14, 2011.

[77] "The Case of Ned Christie" (http:/ / www. nps. gov/ fosm/ historyculture/ case-of-ned-christie. htm), Fort Smith Historic Site, National ParkService. Retrieved February 3, 2009.

[78] "Sequoyah" (http:/ / www. georgiaencyclopedia. org/ nge/ Article. jsp?id=h-618& sug=y), New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 3,2009.

References• Doublass, Robert Sydney. "History of Southeast Missouri", 1992, pp. 32–45• Evans, E. Raymond. "Notable Persons in Cherokee History: Dragging Canoe". Journal of Cherokee Studies, Vol.

2, No. 2, pp. 176–189. (Cherokee: Museum of the Cherokee Indian, 1977).• Finger, John R. Cherokee Americans: The Eastern Band of Cherokees in the 20th century. Knoxville: University

of Tennessee Press, 1991. ISBN 0-8032-6879-3.• Glenn, Eddie. "A league of nations?" (http:/ / www. tahlequahdailypress. com/ cnhi/ tahlequahdailypress/

features/ local_story_006134311. html?keyword=secondarystory) Tahlequah Daily Press. January 6, 2006(Accessed May 24, 2007)

Cherokee 22

• Halliburton, R., jr.: Red over Black – Black Slavery among the Cherokee Indians, Greenwood Press, Westport,Connecticut 1977 ISBN 0-8371-9034-7

• Irwin, L, "Cherokee Healing: Myth, Dreams, and Medicine." American Indian Quarterly. Vol. 16, 2, 1992,p. 237.

• McLoughlin, William G. Cherokee Renascence in the New Republic. (Princeton: Princeton University Press,1992).

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

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

• Perdue, Theda. Cherokee women: gender and culture change, 1700–1835. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,1999. ISBN 978-0-8032-8760-0.

• Pierpoint, Mary. "Unrecognized Cherokee claims cause problems for nation." (http:/ / www. indiancountrytoday.com/ archive/ 28197994. html) Indian Country Today. August 16, 2000 (Accessed May 16, 2007).

•• Rollings, Willard H. "The Osage: An Ethnohistorical Study of Hegemony on the Prairie-Plains." (University ofMissouri Press, 1992)

• Sturtevant, William C., general editor and Raymond D. Fogelson, volume editor. Handbook of North AmericanIndians: Southeast. Volume 14. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2004. ISBN 0-16-072300-0.

• Wishart, David M. "Evidence of Surplus Production in the Cherokee Nation Prior to Removal." Journal ofEconomic History. Vol. 55, 1, 1995, p. 120.

External links• Cherokee Nation (http:/ / www. cherokee. org), official site• Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (http:/ / www. nc-cherokee. com/ ), official site• United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians (http:/ / www. unitedkeetoowahband. org/ ), official site• Museum of the Cherokee Indian (http:/ / www. cherokeemuseum. org/ ), Cherokee, NC• Cherokee Heritage Center (http:/ / www. cherokeeheritage. org/ ), Park Hill, OK• Smithsonian Institution – Cherokee photos and documents (http:/ / siris-collections. si. edu/ search/ results.

jsp?q=Cherokee)• Historical Sound Files of Cherokee Stomp Dance (http:/ / www. cherokeeregistry/ )• Cherokee Heritage Documentation Center – Genealogy and Culture (http:/ / www. cherokeeregistry. com/ )• Cherokee article (http:/ / digital. library. okstate. edu/ encyclopedia/ entries/ C/ CH014. html), Oklahoma

Historical Society Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911).

Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.• Cherokee Indians (http:/ / wiki. familysearch. org/ en/ Cherokee_Indians) in FamilySearch Research Wiki for

genealogists

Article Sources and Contributors 23

Article Sources and ContributorsCherokee  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=559766076  Contributors: 10151m, 12coolgirl, 1523, 1GemmaStone, 22star, 2602:306:BC1F:E0B0:5185:78A7:85A0:9502,2620:149:4:1502:F82B:87E4:C2EC:24F1, 28421u2232nfenfcenc, 4twenty42o, 5 albert square, 666lebanese, 7, 9258fahsflkh917fas, AAA!, AMD, ANOMALY-117, Aaron Walden, Aaronlantz,Abc518, Abstrakt, Acalamari, Acroterion, ActivExpression, Addihockey10, Adriaan, Adun12, Aeharris, Aelffin, Aeon1006, Aetheling1125, Agerb1, Ahoerstemeier, Aim Here, Airplaneman,Alan Liefting, Alan smithee, Alansohn, Alanyst, Alarob, Ale jrb, AlexiusHoratius, AlimanRuna, Allsomeheadybrah, Alpha 4615, Alpha Quadrant (alt), Alphaman11, Anderbubble, Andonic,Andre Engels, Andres65, Andrewoid, AndyTheGrump, Angeldeb82, AngelicGE, Angeluser, Angusmclellan, Animum, Anniesophia, Anonymis123456, Anonymous Dissident, Anonymous101,AnthonyQBachler, Apeloverage, Aquariuzz, Arakunem, Arda Xi, ArglebargleIV, Arimis, Arthunter, Arthur Rubin, Arx Fortis, Arxiloxos, Asarelah, Asgaya Gigagei, Ashkani, Ashlux, Atif.t2,Atsutsa, AuburnPilot, Augwp, Auntof6, Autonic, Avono, Avriette, AxelBoldt, Babbage, Badagnani, Band geek13, Barneca, Bazza1971, Bdodo1992, Bedford, Bender235, Benjaminb,BentleyBear, Betterusername, Big Adamsky, Big iron, Billy Hathorn, Bindyree, Biruitorul, Bkobres, Bkonrad, Blazotron, BlueDevil, Bluedvl12, Bms4880, Bob Burkhardt, Bobo192, Bobscola,Bodnotbod, Boerries, Boing! said Zebedee, Bongwarrior, Bookseeker, BrahnTelpefin, Briaboru, Bruin2, Bryan Derksen, BrynAlyn, Bsherr, Btphelps, Buaidh, Bunchofgrapes, Buzztopp, C.Fred,CJLL Wright, CJLippert, COA320, CPacker, Cacaholmes98, CalicoCatLover, Calliopeguy, Caltas, Calvin 1998, Camw, Can't sleep, clown will eat me, CanisRufus, Capitalistroadster,Capricorn42, Carmichael, CarolineshawPR, Carrite, Casull, Cbdorsett, Champthom, Chantessy, Charles Edward, Charles F Ross, Charliecow7, ChasRMartin, Cherokee Nation, CherokeeDotOrg,Chess queen101, Chieftom, Chris 73, Chrislk02, Christian List, Christianboutin, Chumley41, Cilstr, Cirt, Civil Engineer III, Ck lostsword, ClockworkLunch, ClockworkTroll, Closedmouth,Cmdrjameson, Codex Sinaiticus, Colorred, Commander Keane, CommonsDelinker, Conaughy, Corbinb8, Corleywalsh, Corvus cornix, CountElvis, Courcelles, Creepydude, Crimsonedge34,Cuchullain, Czac, DARTH SIDIOUS 2, DBaba, DGaw, Dagon5, Damian Yerrick, Danny, Danthemankhan, Dapete, DarkEvil, Darklilac, Davewild, DavidOaks, Davidjonsson, Dawn Bard,Dcirovic, DeadEyeArrow, Deathrayn, Decumanus, Defender of torch, Deflective, Delirium, Delldot, Denisarona, Der Falke, DerHexer, Dgfsdgsfdgsfdgsdfg, Dgw, Diltsgd, Dimadick, Dina,Discospinster, Djembayz, Dlohcierekim, Dm2ortiz, DocWatson42, Doctor gigglensnizer, Dogface3, Dominic, Dominus Vobisdu, Donfbreed, Dougweller, Dowcet, Dp462090, Dppowell,DragonflySixtyseven, Dtrap, Dudesleeper, Duk, DuncanHill, EJF, EVEL JIM, EamonnPKeane, Eastlaw, Edgar181, Edom23, Edward, Ehheh, 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Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsFile:Cherokees.jpg  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Cherokees.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: RobfergusonjrFile:Flag of the United States.svg  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Flag_of_the_United_States.svg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: AnomieFile:Flag of North Carolina.svg  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Flag_of_North_Carolina.svg  License: Public domain  Contributors: Awg1010, Dbenbenn, Denelson83,Dzordzm, Fry1989, Homo lupus, Hydrargyrum, Illegitimate Barrister, Serinde, Smooth O, Svgalbertian, Vantey, Wknight94, Zscout370, 6 anonymous editsFile:Flag of Oklahoma.svg  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Flag_of_Oklahoma.svg  License: Public domain  Contributors: Anime Addict AA, Denelson83, Dzordzm,Fry1989, Homo lupus, Pagrashtak, Rocket000, Svgalbertian, Trijnstel, Xenophon, Zscout370, 5 anonymous editsFile:Smoky Mtn View.jpg  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Smoky_Mtn_View.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0  Contributors: Frigotoni,Redboston, Vicpeters, 2 anonymous editsFile:Three Cherokee.jpg  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Three_Cherokee.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Henry TimberlakeFile:Major ridge.jpg  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Major_ridge.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Beria, Himasaram, Homo lupus, Nonenmac, PKM,Scewing, Uyvsdi, Walden69, 1 anonymous editsFile:New Echota.jpg  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:New_Echota.jpg  License: GNU Free Documentation License  Contributors: Cculber007 at en.wikipediaFile:Tahchee.jpg  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Tahchee.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Origamiemensch, PKM, Robfergusonjr, Scewing, UyvsdiFile:Chief John Ross.jpg  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Chief_John_Ross.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: = Published by Daniel Rice & James G. ClarkFile:Cherokee beadwork sampler 1840 ohs.jpg  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Cherokee_beadwork_sampler_1840_ohs.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors:UyvsdiFile:Cól-lee, a Band Chief.jpg  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Cól-lee,_a_Band_Chief.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: RobfergusonjrImage:Cherokee Confederates Reunion.gif  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Cherokee_Confederates_Reunion.gif  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Unknown

Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 24

File:Group of Cherokee, Yankton, and Sisseton 1909.jpg  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Group_of_Cherokee,_Yankton,_and_Sisseton_1909.jpg  License: PublicDomain  Contributors: Robfergusonjr, UyvsdiFile:CherokeeOTSA.PNG  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:CherokeeOTSA.PNG  License: Public Domain  Contributors: QuartierLatin1968File:Sequoyah.jpg  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Sequoyah.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Lithographer: Lehman and Duval (George Lehman (d.1870);Peter S. Duval) Painter: Henry Inman (1801-20-28 - 1846-01-17); copy after a painting by Charles Bird King (1785 - 1862) which was lost in a fire in the Smithsonian in 1865.File:Sequoyah Arranged Syllabary .png  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Sequoyah_Arranged_Syllabary_.png  License: Public Domain  Contributors: RobfergusonjrFile:Cherokeenationalflag.png  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Cherokeenationalflag.png  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Aaron Walden, Anime Addict AA,Cycn, Homo lupus, Hurricanefan24, Mattes, Razorbliss, TFCforever, 2 anonymous editsFile:Cherokee National Capitol.jpg  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Cherokee_National_Capitol.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 2.5 Contributors: Caleb LongFile:Seminary Hall.jpg  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Seminary_Hall.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 2.5  Contributors: Caleb Long. Originaluploader was CPacker at en.wikipediaFile:Eastern Band Cherokee Flag.svg  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Eastern_Band_Cherokee_Flag.svg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Pbroks13File:UKBflag (bordered).png  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:UKBflag_(bordered).png  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Jim MayFile:Lange-MigrantMother02.jpg  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Lange-MigrantMother02.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Dorothea Lange, Farm SecurityAdministration / Office of War Information / Office of Emergency Management / Resettlement AdministrationFile:PD-icon.svg  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:PD-icon.svg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Alex.muller, Anomie, Anonymous Dissident, CBM, MBisanz,PBS, Quadell, Rocket000, Strangerer, Timotheus Canens, 1 anonymous edits

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