cherokee2008.jpg Cherokee
                                                               CHEROKEE INDIANS       
I am truly honored to have Cherokee blood running through my veins. I am a member of the United Lumbee Nation. My maternal an Grandmothers and my paternal Great-Grandfather were all part Cherokee. I missed out on many stories and important information about my lineage when I was growing up. I became more interested in my background as I got older, but then those grandparents were gone and I couldn’t ask them the details that I wanted to know. I hope you will embrace your heritage. Ask questions, find out about the things that make you who you are.
The origin and meaning of the name Cherokee, which they pronounce Tsaragi or Tsalagi, are unknown. They commonly call themselves Yûñwiya (“real people”).
The history of the Cherokees begins with De Soto, who passed within their territory in 1540. In 1684 they made their first treaty with the English of Carolina, with whom thereafter they maintained friendly relations throughout the Colonial period, except in the Yamasee war in 1715-1716, and in a war waged on their own account in 1759-1761. They took sides also with the English against the Americans during the Revolution, but made a treaty of peace with the United States in 1785, although the border fighting went on some years longer. In 1821 Sequoya, a mixed blood of the tribe, invented a syllabic alphabet for the language which has been an immense factor in their progress toward civilization. In 1827 they adopted a regular form of government modelled upon that of the United States, but after long controversy with the State of Georgia, which claimed jurisdiction over most of their territory not already ceded, a treaty was forced upon them in 1835 by which they bound themselves to remove to their present home in Oklahoma. The removal was accomplished in 1839, and their tribal existence continued under the style of the “Cherokee Nation“, until dissolved for American citizenship in 1906. As already noted, a small body remained behind in the old home in the East. The tribe at present numbers altogether about 20,000 persons of pure and mixed blood, exclusive of several thousand names carried upon the rolls, but repudiated by the Indians.
The Cherokees were a sedentary and agricultural people, with hunting and fishing as subordinate occupations. The women were expert potters and basket weavers, and the men skilful carvers of stone and wood. They had no central government, each town being independent in its action. They had a system of seven clans, with descent in the female line. In religion they were pantheists, holding in special reverence the Sun, Fire and Water. Their great religious ceremony was the Green Corn dance, a thanksgiving for the new crops, and their chief athletic amusement was a ball game which is the original of our lacrosse. They buried their dead in caves or under piles of stones.
    As a tribute to my Cherokee Indian heritage, I leave this post with a Cherokee prayer.          
                     
           A Cherokee Prayer Blessing
  “May the warm winds of heaven blow softly upon your house,
   May the Great Spirit bless all who enter there,
May your moccasins make happy tracks in many snows,
    And may the rainbow always touch your shoulder.”