Bratilclious Litha Sapien's blog: "Cherokee"

˜Cherokee Indian Fact Sheet – How do you pronounce the word "Cherokee"? What does it mean? It's pronounced "CHAIR-uh-kee," and it comes from a Muskogee word meaning 'speakers of another language.' The Cherokee originally called themselves Aniyunwiya, "the principal people," but they have generally accepted the name Cherokee, which is spelled and pronounced Tsalagi in their own language. Where do the Cherokees live? The Cherokees are original residents of the American southeast, particularly Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky. Most Cherokees were relocated to Oklahoma in the 1800's by the infamous Trail of Tears, and the descendants of those who survived this death march still live in Oklahoma to this day. Some Cherokees escaped deportation by hiding in the Appalachian hills, or were sheltered by sympathetic white neighbors. The descendants of these people still live scattered throughout the original Cherokee homelands, particularly in North Carolina, where they have their own federally recognized tribe. How is the Cherokee Indian nation organized? There are three federally recognized Cherokee communities, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (the largest with 125,000 members), the United Keetoowah Band in Oklahoma 'with about 7000 members' and the Eastern Band of Cherokee in North Carolina (with about 10,000 members). Each Cherokee tribe has its own government, laws, police, and other services,just like a small country. However, the US government still considers the Cherokees citizens and controls some of their decisions. In the past, each Cherokee band was led by one war chief and one peace chief,chosen by a tribal council on the basis of their great deeds for the tribe. The war chief was always male, but the peace chief could be of either gender. Today,Cherokee government is similar, but the tribal councils and chiefs are popularly elected, just as senators and governors are. What language do the Cherokees speak? Most Cherokee people speak English but more than 20,000 Cherokees also speak their native Cherokee language. Cherokee is a musical language with an innovative writing system that was invented by the Cherokee scholar Sequoyah. This writing system is a syllabary, which means that each character represents a consonant and a vowel. (Another language that uses a syllabary today is Japanese.) You can see what the Cherokee syllabary looks like here and you can hear what some Cherokee words sound like when they are spoken here. If you'd like to know a few easy Cherokee words, "osiyo" (pronounced oh-see-yoh) is a friendly greeting,and "wado" (pronounced wah-doh) means 'thank you.'You can also read a glossary of some Cherokee words here. What was Cherokee culture like in the past? What is it like now? Here are links to the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and Eastern Band of Cherokees, where you can learn about the Cherokee people past and present. Chrrokee People How do Cherokee Indian children live, and what did they do in the past? They do the same things any children do-- play with each other, go to school and help around the house. Many Cherokee children like to go hunting and fishing with their fathers. In the past, Indian children had more chores and less time to play, just like early colonists' children. But they did have toys and games to play, such as a hoop game where kids tried to throw a dart through a moving hoop. Lacrosse was also a popular sport among teenage boys as it was among adult men. As for babies, Cherokee mothers, like many Native Americans, traditionally carried their babies in cradleboards on their backs-- a custom which many American parents have adopted now. What were Cherokee homes like in the past? The Cherokee people lived in settled villages of houses with plaster and rivercane walls with thatched roofs. They also built larger, seven-sided buildings for ceremonial purposes, and most towns had a lacrosse field with benches for spectators. Cherokee villages often had palisades (reinforced walls) around them, to guard against attack.Today, Cherokees live in modern houses and apartment buildings, Click here for more info just like you. What was Cherokee clothing like? Did they wear feather headdresses and face paint? The Cherokees didn't wear long headdresses like the Sioux. Cherokee men usually cut their hair in the Mohawk style or shaved it completely except for a single scalplock, and sometimes they would also wear a porcupine roach. (These headdresses were made of porcupine hair, not their sharp quills!) Cherokee women always wore their hair long, cutting it only when they were in mourning for a family member. Men tattooed their faces and bodies extensively and painted themselves bright colors in times of war, but unlike in other tribes, Cherokee women didn't paint or tattoo themselves. Originally, Cherokee men wore breechcloths with leather pant legs tied on and the women wore wraparound skirts and poncho-style blouses;both genders wore moccasins on their feet.However, once they encountered Europeans,the Cherokees adapted European costume into their own characteristic style, including long braided or beaded jackets, cotton blouses and full skirts decorated with ribbon applique, feathered turbans, and the calico tear dress.Follow the link to our page on traditional Native American clothing in general, where you can find photographs and more links about these clothing styles. Today, some Cherokee people still wear moccasins or a ribbon shirt, but they wear modern clothes like jeans instead of breechcloths... and they only wear roaches in their hair on special occasions like a dance. What was Cherokee transportation like in the days before cars? Did they paddle canoes? Yes--the Cherokee Indians made long dugout canoes from hollowed-out logs. When they were on dry land, Cherokee people usually just walked. There were no horses in North America until colonists brought them over from Europe, so the Cherokees used dogs to help them carry their belongings over land. What was Cherokee food like in the days before supermarkets? The Cherokee were farming people. Cherokee women did most of the farming, harvesting crops of corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers. Cherokee men did most of the hunting, shooting deer, wild turkeys, and small game and fishing in the rivers and along the coast. Cherokee dishes included cornbread, soups, and stews cooked on stone hearths. What were Cherokee weapons and tools like in the past? Cherokee hunters used bows and arrows and blowguns;fishermen generally used spears and fishing poles. In war, Cherokee men used their bows and arrows or fought with tomahawks and spears. What are Cherokee arts and crafts like? The Cherokees were known for their pipe carving, rivercane baskets, gourd art, and pottery. When they were moved to Oklahoma, the Cherokees couldn't get the materials they used to use for their traditional crafts, so they concentrated more on other crafts such as beadwork and textile arts. You can see some photographs and read some more details about these art forms at our Native American art site. These Facts For Kids sections are being added in response to the many emails we've been receiving from young people looking for information about the Cherokees for school or home-schooling reports. We encourage students, especially older kids, to look through our Cherokee language and culture pages for more in-depth information about the tribe, but here are some straightforward answers to the questions we are most often asked by children, with Cherokee pictures and links we believe are especially suitable for all ages. http://www.bigorrin.org/cherokee_kids.htm