File:Image from page 263 of "Bulletin" (1901).jpg

English: Title: Bulletin

Identifier: bulletin3011907smit Year: 1901 (1900s) Authors: Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology Subjects: Ethnology Publisher: Washington : G. P. O. Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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Text Appearing Before Image: 246 CHEROKEE [b. a. e. in allusion to the numerous caves in their mountain country. They some- times also call themselves AnV-Y-Ci-jY- iviijiV, 'real people,' or Ani'-Kltu'liwagL, 'people of Kituhwa,' one of their most important ancient settlements. Their northern kinsmen, tlie Iroquois, called them Oyatagerouon', ' inhabitants of the cave country' (Hewitt), and the Dela- wares and connected tribes called them KiUuvKi, from the settlement already noted. They seem to be identical with the Rickohockans, who invaded central Virojinia in 1658, and with the ancient Talligewi, of Delaware tradition, who were represented to have been driven southward from the upper Ohio r. region by the combined forces of the Iroquois and Delawares. The language has three principal dia- lects: (1) Ebtti, or Lower, spoken on the

Text Appearing After Image: CHEROKEE GIRL heads of Savannah r., in South Carolina and Georgia; (2) Middle, spoken chiefly on the waters of Tuckasegee r., in w. North Carolina, and now the prevail- ing cMalect on the East Cherokee res.; (3) A'tali, Mountain or Upper, spoken throughout most of upper Georgia, e. Tennessee, and extreme w. North Caro- lina. The lower dialect was the only one which had the r sound, and is now extinct. The upper dialect is that which has been exclusively used in the native literature of the tribe. Traditional, linguistic, and archeologic evidence shows that the Cherokee orig- inated in the N., but they were found in possession of the s. Allegheny region when first encountered by De Soto in 1540. Their relations with the Carolina colonies began 150 years later. In 1736 the Jesuit (?) Priber started the first mis- sion among them, and attempted to or- ganize their government on a civilized basis. In 1759, under the leadership of A^gansta'ta (Oconostota), they began war with the English of Carolina. In the Revolution they took sides against the Americans, and continued the struggle almost without interval until 1794. Dur- ing this period jiarties of the Cherokee pushed down Tennessee r. and formed new settlements at Chickamaaga and other points about the Tennessee-Alabama line. Shortly after 1800, missionary and educa- tional work was estal)lished among them, and in 1820 they adopted a regular form of government modeled on that of the United States. In the meantime large numbers of the more conservative Chero- kee, wearied by the encroachments of the whites, had crossed the Mississippi and made new homes in the wilderness in what is now Arkansas. A year or two later Sequoya (q. v.), a mixed-blood, in- vented the alphabet, which at once raised them to the rank of a literary people. At the height of their prosperity gold was discovered near the present Dahlone- ga, Ga., within the limits of the Cherokee Nation, and at once a powerful agitation was begun for the removal of the Indians. After years of hopeless struggle under the leadership of their great chief, John Ross, they were compelled to submit to the inevitable, and by the treaty of New Echota, Dec. 29, 1835, the Cherokee sold their entire remaining territory and agreed to remove beyond the Mississippi to a country there to be set apart for them—the present (1905) Cherokee Na- tion in Indian Ter. The removal was accomplished in the wdnter of 1838-39, after considerable hardship and the loss of nearly one-fourth of their number, the unwilling Indians being driven out by military force and making the long jour- ney on foot. On reaching their destina- tion they reorganized their national gov- ernment, Avith their capital at Tahlequah, admitting to equal privileges the earlier emigrants, known as "old settlers." A part of the Arkansas Cherokee had pre- viously gone down into Texas, where they had obtained a grant of land in the e. part of the state from the ^Mexican gov- ernment. The later Texan revolutionists refused to recognize their rights, and in spite of the efforts of Gen. Sam Hous- ton, who defended the Indian claim, a conflict was precipitated, resulting, in 1839, in the killing of the Cherokee chief, Bowl (q. v.), with a large number of his men, by the Texan troops, and the expul- sion of the Cherokee from Texas.

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