The Cherokîs, Chérokîs, Chérakis or Cherokees (ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯ ah-ni-yv-wi-ya in the Cherokee language) according to the English spelling are a people of North America who lived in the east and southeast of the United States before being forced to move to the Ozark plateau. They were part of the organization known as the Five Civilized Tribes. Ethnologists estimate that there are today between 5 and 7 million people of Cherokee descent.
Currently, the main communities are the Cherokee Nation, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians (Oklahoma) and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (North Carolina). The nation is also represented in Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee.
For some, the spiritual heart of the nation is the Keetoowah Nighthawk Society.
Etymology
The name Cherokee comes from Tsalagi, the name of the Cherokees in the language of the Creeks, and also the name they themselves used most often. Tsalagi was pronounced Cha-ra-gi in a dialect that has since disappeared. It then transformed over time until it became Cherokee. Originally, the Cherokees were called Aniyunwiya.
History
According to an oral tradition, the Cherokees, speaking an Iroquoian language, migrated south from the Great Lakes region, where we find different Iroquois peoples3. According to another oral tradition, the Cherokees originated in the southeastern United States, but no archaeological evidence supports this theory.
From 1736 to 1743, the German utopian Christian Priber went to Cherokee territory and organized as "prime minister" the Indian resistance against the English.
During the era of the American Revolutionary War, repeated treaty violations by white settlers caused some Cherokees to leave the Cherokee Nation. These dissidents, named the Chickamaugas, led by Chief Dragging Canoe, allied themselves with the Shawnees and carried out raids on settler settlements, aided by the British.
John Ross (Koowescoowe in the Cherokee language) is one of the important figures in the history of the Cherokee nation. His father emigrated from Scotland before the American Revolution. His mother, also a Scottish daughter, has quarter Cherokee blood. John Ross began his public career in 1809. As authorized by the constitution at the time, the Cherokee Nation was created in 1820, with elected official representatives, John Ross was named the nation's leader, in 1828, and the rest until his death.
The Cherokees were forcibly moved from their ancestral lands in northern Georgia and the Carolinas to Indian Territory in Oklahoma, primarily because of the gold rush around Dahlonega in the 1830s. The deportation of the Cherokee people is called the Trail of Tears.
Once there, tensions escalate and the suspension of the Cherokee Blood Law is ignored. On June 22, 1839, after the adjournment of a tribal assembly, several of the most important signatories of the Treaty of New Echota were assassinated, including the reporter of the Law of Blood, Major Ridge, as well as John Ridge and Elias Boudinot. This is the start of a 15-year civil war among the Cherokees. One of the notable survivors Stand Watie became a Confederate general during the Civil War. The Cherokees are one of the Five Civilized Tribes that signed treaties, and were recognized by the Confederate States of America.
Other Cherokees in western North Carolina served with the Thomas' Legion, a unit of about 1,100 men of Cherokee and white descent, fighting primarily in Virginia, where their success is impressive. . The Thomas' Legion was the last Confederate unit to march to North Carolina, Waynesville, May 9, 1865.
Prior to the Civil War, the Cherokee, like other Indian peoples in the southern United States, had slaves. These were freed at the end of the war, but many of them then remained in the nations where they were, and some married Native Americans.
The Oklahoma Cherokees lost the right to elect their own leader in 1907 when Oklahoma became a state. Various leaders are appointed by the presidents until 1970, when the Cherokees regained the right to elect their government, through an executive order of Congress signed by President Richard Nixon, W. W. Keeler was the first elected leader of the Cherokees of Oklahoma, he was also president of Phillips Petroleum. Ross Swimmer, Wilma Mankiller, Joe Byrd and currently Chad Smith succeeded him.
On June 14, 2004, the Tribal Council of the Cherokee Nation officially defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman, effectively outlawing same-sex marriage. This decision responds to a request for union from a lesbian couple filed on May 13. Chief Chad Corntassel Smith explains that the main reason for this decision is to harmonize the laws of the Cherokee Nation and the State of Oklahoma.
At the beginning of March 2007, the Cherokees voted by a majority, at 77%, for the expulsion of the descendants, in particular mixed race, of former African-American slaves from their nation4. The Cherokees practiced black slavery before the Civil War.
Like all Indian nations officially recognized by the U.S. government, the Cherokees enjoy benefits and subsidies, and critics see the ballot as simply a way to exclude those who are not pure Indian blood.
Demography
Censuses of the Cherokee people were conducted using a different method from 1970.
Population Evolution Year Population
1650 22,000
1808 13,000
1835 21,500
1850 16,000
1890 28,000
1910 31,500
1970 66,000
1980 232,000
1990 258 132
2000 286 049
2010 316 049
Language and alphabet
The Cherokee speak a polysynthetic Iroquoian language, Tsa-la-gi, which is written using a syllabary invented by Sequoyah. For years, many people transcribed in the Latin alphabet or used fonts that were not very suitable for writing the syllabary on computer tools. However, after the recent addition of Cherokee syllables to Unicode, the Cherokee language is experiencing a renaissance in its use on the Internet. There is a Wikipedia in Cherokee.
Famous Cherokees
Many North American personalities claim Cherokee ancestry, despite the fact that, in many cases, this ancestry could not be proven or has not been recognized by the various Cherokee Nations.
Sequoyah, inventor of the writing system specific to the Cherokee language. He never learned to speak, read or write in English.
Elias Boudinot
Christian Priber, German utopian and adventurer turned Cherokee.
The following people claim to have Cherokee ancestry :
Mackenzie Rosman, actress, Cherokee through her father.
Charlie Parker, saxophonist and jazz composer, Cherokee through her mother.
Johnny Bench, baseball player for the Reds of Cincinnati from 1967 to 1983.
Cher, singer and actress, Cherokee through her mother.
Chad Corntassel Smith, politician.
Kevin Costner, actor.
Johnny Depp, actor.
Meagan Good, actress.
Jimi Hendrix, blues guitarist- rock, Cherokee through his mother and paternal grandmother, Nora Rose Moore.
Wilma Mankiller, politician.
Chuck Norris, actor and karateka.
Aaron Norris, American actor, director and producer (brother of Chuck Norris).
Miley Cyrus, actress and singer, Cherokee by her mother.
Shannon Elizabeth, actr ice and model.
Milo Ventimiglia:actor born in 1977.
Oral Roberts, Pentecostal evangelist from the 1950s to 1990s.
Will Rogers, comedian.
Ross Swimmer, politician.
Wes Studi, actor.
Quentin Tarantino, director, side from his mother.
Steven Tyler, member of the rock band Aerosmith.
Tina Turner, singer, from his mother's side.
Elvis Presley, singer
Nikki Reed, actress
Cameron Diaz, actress, on her mother's side.
Kim Basinger, actress
Tori Amos, singer, Cherokee by her maternal grandmother
Kevin Jonas, singer, musician
Joe Jonas, singer , musician
Nick Jonas, singer, musician
Colton Haynes, actor
Brad Pitt, actor
Angie Harmon, actress, Cherokee by her father
Tommy Lee Jones, actor