I will draw thorns
from your feet.
We will walk the White Path of Life together.
Like a brother of my own blood, I will love you.
I will wipe tears from your eyes.
When you are sad, I will put your aching heart to rest.
Charles Hicks, Tsalagi (Cherokee) Vice Chief on the Trail of Tears, August 4, 1838
Kanagagota (Standing Turkey)
"Many
proposals have been made to us to adopt your laws, your religion,
your manners and your customs. We would be better pleased with beholding
the good effects of these doctrines in your own practices, than with hearing
you talk about them".
Old Tassel, Chief of the Tsalagi (Cherokee)
"Whole Indian Nations have melted away like snowballs in the sun before the white man's advance. They leave scarcely a name of our people except those wrongly recorded by their destroyers. Where are the Delewares? They have been reduced to a mere shadow of their former greatness. We had hoped that the white men would not be willing to travel beyond the mountains. Now that hope is gone. They have passed the mountains, and have settled upon Tsalagi (Cherokee) land. They wish to have that usurpation sanctioned by treaty. When that is gained, the same encroaching spirit will lead them upon other land of the Tsalagi (Cherokees). New cessions will be asked. Finally the whole country, which the Tsalagi (Cherokees) and their fathers have so long occupied, will be demanded, and the remnant of the Ani Yvwiya, The Real People, once so great and formidable, will be compelled to seek refuge in some distant wilderness. There they will be permitted to stay only a short while, until they again behold the advancing banners of the same greedy host. Not being able to point out any further retreat for the miserable Tsalagi (Cherokees), the extinction of the whole race will be proclaimed. Should we not therefore run all risks, and incur all consequences, rather than to submit to further loss of our country? Such treaties may be alright for men who are too old to hunt or fight. As for me, I have my young warriors about me. We will hold our land."
Chief Dragging Canoe, Chickamauga Tsalagi (Cherokee)
Confederate General Stand Waitie, Tsalagi (Cherokee)
"By peace our condition has been improved in the pursuit of civilized life."
Awi
Usdi, the Little Deer
Ball Game of the Birds and the Animals
Bear Man
Coming Of Light
Cycle of
the Seasons
Dance of
The Blue Blanket
Daughter
of the Sun
Doe
and Raven
Eagle
and the Snake
First Fire
How
the Bluebird and Coyote Got Their Color
How the Deer
Got His Horns
How the Red
Bird Got His Color
How the
Milky Way Came To Be
How Terrapin
Beat the Rabbit
Hero with the Horned Snakes
How We Got
Fire
Hunter and the Dakwa
Legend of the
Cedar Tree
Last
Day of Roland the Cherokee
Legend
of the Cherokee Sweet Shrub
Legend of
the Tlanuhwa and the Uhktena
Life
Song
Little Boy
and The Rattlesnake
Little
Feet and the Spirit Bear
Medicine
of Plants
Milky Way
Nest
of the Tla'nuwa
Origin of Bears
Origin of Game and of Corn
Origin of Medicine
Origin of
Disease and Medicine
Origin
of Strawberries
Origin
of the Pleiades and the Pine
Rabbit
Goes Duck Hunting
Return of Ice Man
Stone-Shield
Story of Fire
Story of the Flute
Story of Tobacco
Tears
of the Children
Terrapin's
Escape from the Wolves
Underground
Panthers
Walking Alone
What the Stars
Are Like
Where Eagles Fly
Why Rabbit
Has a Short Tail
Why the Mole
Lives Underground
Why the Opussum's Tail Is Bare
Why the Sun
Follows the Moon
Âgän-uni'tsï's
Search For The Uktena
A Cherokee Prophecy
A Legend of Pilot Knob
A New Bow for Tani
A New Legend For The People
A Trip to the Cherokee Nation East
Ancient Cherokee Rulers
Anisga ya Tsunsdi
Anitsutsa - The Boys
Asgaya Gigagei
Atagâ'hï, The Enchanted Lake
Atagahi -The Secret Lake
Atsi la-wa I
Atsil-dihye gi
Baby Song, To Please The Children
Basic Greetings, and useful phrases
Battle Between Two Worlds
Bean Bread or Tsu-Ya-Ga
Bear Legend
Bear Man
Bigfoot Bird
Blue Jay’s Legs
Cherokee Ceremony
Cherokee Clan Blood Revenge
Cherokee Culture
Chief Dragging Canoe
Chiefs
Color Symbolism
Constitution Of The Cherokee Nation
Corn Dance
Corn Maiden and Lucky Hunter
Corn Meal Mush
Cowee Town
Creation story
Creation Story 2
Creation story Cherokee 3
Cycle of the Seasons
Dancing Drum
Daughter of the Sun
Di-S-Qau-Ni (chestnut bread)
Division of the Cherokees
Dogwood Clan
Eagle and the Snake
Eagles revenge
Earth making
Escape Of The Seneca Boys
Fairies
False Warriors Of Chilhowee
Feathered serpent
First Bear Song
First Contact with Europeans
First Contact With Whites
Firstman and Firstwoman
Fish Story
Flint Visits The Rabbit
Four Legged Nations
Four Wind Messengers
Government
Grandmother Spider Steals the Sun
Grandmother Turtle and the Story of the Creation
Great Buffalo Lick
Great New Moon Ceremony
Great Teacher
Hemp-carrier
Herbert's Spring
Herbology
Herbs Common to the Cherokee Country
Hero with the Horned Snakes
Hiadeoni, The Seneca
Houses
How Deer Got His Horns
How Dragging Canoe Got His Name
How Grandmother Spider Brought Fire to the People
How Rabbit Stole Otter's Coat
How The Bluebird And The Coyote Got Their Color
How the Cherokee Learned the Rattlesnake Prayer Song
How The Deer Got His Horns
How the Honey Bee got their stinger
How The Kingfisher Got His Bill
How The Milky Way Came To Be
How The Partridge Got His Whistle
How The Rabbit Stole The Otter's Coat
How the Red Bird Got His Color
How The Terrapin Beat The Rabbit
How the Turkey Got His Beard
How The Wildcat Caught The Gobbler
How The World Was Made
How They Brought Back The Tobacco
How Turtle's Back was Cracked
How Turtle's Back was Cracked
Indians visit London
Information
Ka-ma-ma: The Butterfly
Kanati the Hunter and the Cave of Animals
Little People
Little People Lore
Little People of the Cherokee
Local Legends Of Georgia
Marbles
Medicine Man
Medicine of Plants
Moons
Origin of Bears
Rock Cave Clan
Sacred Pipe
Saligugi (the Mud Turtle) and the Storyteller
Selu the Corn Mother and the Deer
Spear Finger, U'tlu ta
Spiritual Views and Traditions of the Cherokee
Story of Creation
Taboos
The Deluge
The Directions
The First Fire
The Ice Man
The Journey To The Sunrise
The Legend of Uktena
The Moon And The Thunders
The Origin of Strawberries
The Origin Of The Pleiades And The Pine
The Rabbit Goes Duck Hunting
The Rattlesnake in the Corn
The Rattlesnake's Vengeance
The Snake Boy
The Spirit Of Little Deer
The Story of the Groundhog Dance
The Uktena And The Ulûñsû'tï
Trail of Tears found at Coke Ovens
Tsalagi Creation Story
Two Dogs
What The Stars Are Like
Why Mole lives underground
Why The Bullfrog's Head Is Striped
Why The Buzzard's Head Is Bare
Why The Mink Smells
Why the Possum's Tail is Bare
Why the Turkey Gobbles
Wisdom
Wolf’s revenge
Women
Yahula
All
about the Cherokee Font
Cherokee Art Gallery
Cherokee Heritage
Center
Cherokee History
Cherokee Language
Translate English word into Cherokee
Cherokee Moons
George Catlin: Natives' portraits
History of the Cherokee Indians
Official Web Site of the Cherokee Nation
Cherokee Online
Language Class
Cherokee Link Newsletter
Other Cherokee History Resources
on the Web
Raven's
Tsalagi Site (Frame Format)
Raven's
Tsalagi Site (Non-Frame Format)
Roaming
Buffalo
Seven
Cherokee Ceremonies
Tsalagi Language
Resources
Tsalagi Myths and Legends
Tsalagi
(Cherokee) Web Ring
United
Keetoowah Band of Tsalagi (Cherokee)
{chair'-uh-kee}
The Tsalagi (Cherokee) are a nation of North American Indians that formerly inhabited the mountainous region of the western Carolinas, northern Georgia, and eastern Tennessee. An Iroquoian-speaking people, they originally lived near the Great Lakes they migrated to the Southeast, eventually becoming the largest and most powerful group in that region. Their traditional culture included maize agriculture, settled villages, and well-developed ceremonialism. In 1827 the Tsalagi (Cherokee) established a constitutional form of government.
The first explorers of the Southeast discovered the most talented Indians north of Mexico. Builders, agriculturists, artisans, fishermen, and hunters epitomized especially the Tsalagi (Cherokees)' varied skills. Knowledgeable in herb culture, they developed useful medicines from them that are still used today. They also developed environmental concepts about ecological thought and survival. We are blessed by the legacies of Tsalagi (Cherokee) oral traditions, providing ethnologists with opportunities for cultural interpretations: legends about man, animals, supernatural deities, witches, and other evil influences. Their most famous leader, Sequoya, believing literacy provided power to the white man, alone developed the Tsalagi (Cherokee) alphabet (c.1820), and became immortalized when his name was given to Sequoia National Park in California.
A series of fraudulent, land-acquiring treaties were imposed on the Tsalagi (Cherokee) in the 1830s. The Treaty of New Echota (1835), in which a small tribal faction sold 2.83 million ha (7 million acres) of Tsalagi (Cherokee) land, required their removal westward within 3 years. The vast majority of the Tsalagi (Cherokee) Nation repudiated this document, but under Gen. Winfield SCOTT, most remaining Tsalagi (Cherokee) were driven from their land and forcibly marched to Arkansas and Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in 1838-39. About 4,000 of the more than 15,000 Tsalagi (Cherokee) who made the journey died of disease and exposure.
In Indian Territory, they joined the CHICKASAW, CHOCTAW, CREEK, and SEMINOLE to form the so-called FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES. Tribal lands were lost in the 1860s, after the Five Tribes sided with the South during the Civil War, and again in the early 1880s, when the federal government abolished tribal ownership of lands. When Indian Territory became the state of Oklahoma in 1907, all tribal lands were opened for white settlement.
In the 1980s, 43,000 persons of Tsalagi (Cherokee) descent lived in eastern Oklahoma; about 15,000 of these are considered full-blooded. The Tsalagi (Cherokee) who avoided the forced removal of 1838 escaped into the Great Smoky Mountains and resettled in North Carolina, where they formed a tribal corporation in 1889. Tsalagi (Cherokee) on or near the reservation in North Carolina numbered 6,110 in 1987.
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One
of today's best-known actors, Wes Studi, is Tsalagi (Cherokee) and can be contacted through his band, Firecat of Discord. |
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Another well-known actor, Burt Reynolds, is also Tsalagi (Cherokee).
Cherokee
(Tsalagi) Language Syllabary
Character
Names
----------------
|
e ge he le me ne que se de te tle ye o go ho lo mo no quo so do |
tlo tso wo a ga ha la ma na qua sa da yo yu yv wa ya ka hna ta i |
gi hi li mi ni qui si di ti tli tsi wi yi u gu hu lu mu nu quu su |
du tlu tsu wu v gv hv lv nv quv sv dv tlv tla nah s dla tsa tsv wv tse we |
UNIV.
OF TULSA
DEPT OF LANGUAGES
TULSA, OK 74104
(918) 631-2332
Attn: MELVYN C. RESNICK
WESTERN
CAROLINA UNIV.
CULLOWHEE, NC 28723
(704) 227-7241
Attn: SUZANNE MOORE
Tsalagi
(Cherokee) Nation (508)452-2082 96 90:324/296(N)
New Cherokee Phoenix (704)497-5898 24 1:379/601(F), 90:379/601(N)
Tahchee, Tsalagi (Cherokee) guide
May the warm
winds of Heaven blow softly on your home,
And the Great Spirit bless all who enter there.
Return to Indigenous Peoples' Literature
Compiled by:
Glenn Welker
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