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 



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. 



