MOo.NEY) TKIMAL NAMES 15 



Oil the other haiul. liy ihi'ir defeat of the ( "rcn^ks and expulsion of 

 the Shawano, the ( 'lierokee made good the claim which the}' asserted 

 to all the lands from iiijper (xt'oru-ia to the Oluo river, incliidini;- the 

 rich liuntiny grounds of Kentucky. Holding as they did the great 

 mountain barrier between the English settlements on the coast and the 

 French or Spaiush garrisons along the ]Mississipj)i and the Oldo, tlieir 

 geogr!i])hic position, no less than their superior number, would have 

 given them tiie balance of power in the South but for a looseness of 

 tribal organization in striking contrast to the coin])actiiess of thi> Iro- 

 quois league, by which foi' more than a century the French ])ower 

 was held in check in the north, 'i'lie English, indeed, found it con- 

 viMiient to I'ecognize certain ciiiefs as supreme in the tribe, l)ut the only- 

 real attempt to weld tlie whole Cherokee Nation into a political unit 

 was that made by the French agent, I'riber. about 17Ij(), which failed 

 from its premature discovery by the English. We fre([uently find 

 their kingdom divided against itself, their vt-rv nundier pre\-enting 

 unity of action, while still giving them an importance above that 

 of iKMghboring tribes. 



The proper name liy which the Cherokee call themselves (1)' is 

 YuiTwiyii', or Ani'-Yun'wiya' in the third person, signifying "real 

 people," or '' ])riiici])al jjeople," a word clos<dy relatinl toOfiwe-iioiiwe, 

 the name by which the cognate Iroquois knt)W thems(d\('s. The word 

 properly denotes '"Indians," as distinguished from people of other 

 races, l)ut in usage it is resti'icted to mean mi'mbers of tiie Cherokee 

 tribe, those of other tribes l)eing designated as Creek, Catawba, etc., 

 as the case maj^ be. On ceremonial occasions they frequently speak of 

 themselves as Ani'-Kitu'hwagi, or " jjcople of Kitu'hwa," an ancient 

 settlement on Tuckasegee ri\er and apparently the original nuideus of 

 the tribe. Among the western Cherokee this name has l)een adopted 

 b}- a secret society recruited from the full-ldood element and pledged 

 to resist the advances of the white man's civilization. Under the 

 various forms of Cuttawa, Gattochwa, Kittuwa, etc., as .spelled by dif- 

 ferent authors, it was also used by st>veral northern Algonipiian lril)es 

 as a synonym for Cherokee. 



Cherokee, the name by which they are conunonly known, iias no 

 meaning in their owti language, and seems to be of foreign origin. 

 As used among themselvt's the form is T.sa'lagi' or Tsa'ragi'. It lirst 

 appears as Chalaque in the Portuguese narrative of De Soto's expedi- 

 tion. ])ublislied originally in Ui^u, while we lind Cheracpii in a French 

 document of 1 (!'.•'.<. and Cherokee as an English form as early, at least, as 

 1708. Tiie name lias thus an authentic history of 360 years. There 

 is evidence that it is derived from the Choctaw word clxil uh or <-/iih(J,\ 

 signifying a pit or cave, and comes to us tiirough the so-called Mobilian 

 trade language, a corrupted Choctaw jargon formerly used as the 



* See the notes to the historical sketch. 



