THE WAHNENAUHI MANUSCRIPT: HISTORICAL 

 SKETCHES OF THE CHEROKEES 



TOGETHER WITH SOME OF THEIR CUSTOMS, 

 TRADITIONS, AND SUPERSTITIONS 



Edited and with an introduction by 

 Jack Frederick Kilpatrick 



INTRODUCTION 



In September of 1889 Wahnenauhi (pi. 1),^ a Cherokee woman 

 whose English name was Mrs, Lucy L. Keys, sent from her home in 

 Vinita, Indian Territory, a 70-page manuscript of her authorship to 

 the Bureau of American Ethnology. "Please examine," she wrote, 

 "and if of value to you, remit what you consider an equivalent." 

 After some negotiation the manuscript, entitled "Historical Sketches 

 of the Cherokees : Together with Some of Their Customs, Traditions 

 and Superstitions," was purchased in November of the same year 

 for $10.00. 



In a letter to the Bureau of American Ethnology, dated November 

 8, 1889, the author stated: 



The name, 'Wahnenaulii,' signed to the Manuscript, is my own Cherokee 

 name. You are at Hberty to use either Cherokee, or Enghsh name in connection 

 with the Manuscript. Major George Lowrey was my Grandfather and I was 

 at his house when George Guess (Sequoyah) left for the West, also when his 

 comi^anions returned without him. 



The above-stated relationship to Major Lowrey (pi. 2) provided 

 the editor with the strong suspicion that the author was born Lucy 

 Lowrey Hoyt,^ a mixblood of distinguished ancestry, connected by 

 blood and marriage to many of the most prominent families in the 

 Cherokee Nation. Subsequent communication with Clun D. Keys, 



1 Wa:nino:lii ('Over-There-They-Just-Arrived-With-It [long]'). This is a comparatively rare feminine 

 proper name. 



' Wahnenauhi was born in 1831 at Willstown, Ala. After removing to the West she lived at Park Hill, 

 Okla. 



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