DICTIONARY OF INDIANS. 



17 



Cherokee. — Continued. 



tween the Upper and Lower Chero- 

 kee, were the Middle Cherokee, 

 speaking a third dialect, fomiing the 

 connecting link between the other 

 two. This is the dialect now chiefly 

 spoken on the East Cherokee reserva- 

 tion. The Upper dialect is the liter- 

 ary dialect, while the Lower dialect — 

 the only one having the r — is now 

 pi^actically extinct. The Cherokee 

 were always closely associated with 

 the Shawnee, and at war with the 

 Iroquois. For a long period the 

 Shawnee lived adjacent to them in 

 Tennessee, and in 1705 a band of 

 Cherokee was living with the Shawnee 

 on Scioto river in Ohio. The main 

 body of the Shawnee are now con- 

 federated with the Cherokee in 

 Indian Territory. As the white set- 

 tlements gradually extended into the 

 interior of Carolina the Cherokee 

 were pressed back into the moun- 

 tains, and about the period of the 

 Revolution they began to form new 

 settlements along the middle Ten- 

 nessee and in upper Georgia and Ala- 

 bama. Here they remained, with 

 constantly contracting limits, until, 

 by the treaty of New Echota in 1835, 

 they sold all their remaining country 

 and removed soon after to a new 

 tract assigned them west of the Mis- 

 sissippi, being joined there by a party 

 of the tribe which had previovisly set- 

 tled in Arkansas. 



When the main body removed in 

 1838, a number of individuals who 

 had decided to abandon their tribal 

 relations remained behind, and most 

 of these, with a large number of fugi- 

 tives who had fled to the inountains 

 during the removal, gradually con- 

 centrated in western North Carolina, 

 and are now known as the Eastern 

 Band of Cherokees. 



Of their fourteen clans the Wolf is 

 the leading one, and the Wolf, Bird, 

 Paint, and Deer clans seem to be 

 most numerous, while some of the 

 others are perhaps now extinct, al- 

 though their naines are still remem- 

 bered. There were originally seven 

 clans, the others having been formed 

 by separation from these. The seven 

 original clans seem to have had a 

 connection with the "seven mother 

 towns" of the Cherokee, described 

 by Cumming in 1730 as having each 

 a chief, whose oitice was hereditary 

 in the female line. 



The Cherokee are probably about 

 as numerous now as at any period in 

 their history. With the exception of 

 an estimate in 1730 which placed 



them at about 20,000, most of the 

 estimates up to a recent period give 

 them but 12,000 or 14,000 souls, and 

 in 1 7 58 they were computed at only 

 about 7500. The majority of the 

 earlier estimates are probably too 

 low, as the Cherokee occupied so ex- 

 tensive a territory that only a part of 

 them came in contact with the whites. 

 In 1708 Governor Johnson estimated 

 them at sixty villages and "at least 

 500 men" (Rivers, Sotith Carolina, 

 238, 1856). In 17 15 they were ofti- 

 cially reported to number 11,210 

 (Upper, 2760; Middle, 6350; Lower, 

 2100) souls, including 4000 warriors, 

 and living in sixty villages (Upper 19, 

 Middle 30, Lower 11). In 1720 they 

 were estimated to have been reduced 

 to about 10,000, and again in the 

 same year reported at about 11,500 

 souls, including about 3800 warriors 

 (Gov. Johnson's Report, 1720, in 

 Rivers, Early Hist. South Carolina, 

 93,94,103,1874). In 1729 they were 

 estimated at 20,000 souls, at least 

 6000 warriors and sixty-fotir towns 

 and villages (Stevens, Hist. Ga., i, 

 48-49, 1847) . They dre said to have 

 lost a thousand warriors in 1739 from 

 smallpox and rum, and suffered a 

 steady decrease during their wars 

 with the whites, extending from 1760 

 to the close of the Revolution. They 

 had again increased to 16,542 at the 

 time of their forced removal to the 

 west in 1838, but a large number per- 

 ished in the transit, 311 going down 

 together in a steamboat collision on 

 the Mississippi. The Civil War in 

 1861-65 again checked their progress, 

 but they recovered from its effects in 

 a remarkably short time, and in 1885 

 numbered about 19,000, of whom 

 about 17,000 were in the Indian Ter- 

 ritory, together with about 5000 

 whites, negroes, Delawares, and Shaw- 

 nee, while the remaining 2000 were 

 still in their ancient homes in the 

 east. Of this "Eastern Band," 1376 

 are on the East Cherokee (Qiialla) 

 reservation in Swain and Jackson 

 counties. North Carolina; about 300 

 more are on Cheowah river in Graham 

 county. North Carolina; while the re- 

 mainder — chiefly mixed bloods — are 

 scattered over East Tennessee and 

 northern Georgia and Alabama. The 

 Eastern Band lost about 300 by small- 

 pox at the close of the Civil War. By 

 the census of 1S98 there were in In- 

 dian Territory 26,500 persons of Cher- 

 okee blood, including all degrees of 

 admixture. There were also 87 1 

 Delawares, 790 Shawnee, and 4000 

 negro freedmen living with the tribe. 



