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Basket weaving techniques

Four basic weaving techniques are used to construct baskets: wicker, plaiting, twining, and coiling. Wicker, plaiting, and twining all interlace wefts (horizontal elements) and warps (vertical elements), but each technique brings to basketry subtleties of design, color, and form. Coiling is more like sewing. Each of the basic weaves has numerous variations, and weavers sometimes use several variations on a technique in a single basket, or combine two or more techniques. Ultimately, the beauty of a basket’s weave reveals the weaver’s creative vision and technical adeptness at both preparing her materials and manipulating them into a basket form.

Plaiting

In plaiting, or checkerwork, two elements are woven over and under each other at right angles. Twilled weave is much the same, except that the weft (horizontal) materials are woven over two or more warps (verticals). In the Southwest, winnowing baskets, known as yucca-ring baskets, are often plaited. Southeastern basket-makers have made twill-plaited cane basketry for thousands of years. Checker- and wicker-plaiting predominate in the Northeast, where 19th-century basket-makers also used curled weft overlays to begin the “fancy basket” tradition that continues among today’s weavers.

Wicker

In wicker, the basket-maker weaves the weft material over and under a stiff foundation or warp of rods or bundles of fiber. In the American Southwest, wicker is used to make serving baskets and trays. Hundreds of wicker plaques are made each year at Hopi to be used in katsina and basket dances and give-aways. Wicker is found less frequently in other parts of North America.

Twining

Twined work begins with a foundation of rigid elements, or warp rods—very often whole plant shoots—around which two, and sometimes three or four, weft elements are woven. The wefts are separated, brought around a stationary warp rod, brought together again, and twisted. The action is repeated again and again, building the basket. Subtle and elegant patterns are made by changing the number of wefts (as in braiding and overlay), or the number of warps the wefts pass over (as in diagonal weaves). A weaver may use any number of twining variations in a single basket. False embroidery, a technique in which a decorative element is wrapped around the wefts, on the outside face of the weave, is often seen on plain twining.

Coiling

Coiling begins at the center of a basket and grows upon itself in spiral rounds, each attached to the round before. Weaving coiled baskets is a sewing technique, as the basket-maker uses an awl to punch holes in the foundation through which she draws sewing strands. These strands are single pieces of plant fiber that have been trimmed to a uniform size. The foundation is made up of one, two, three, or sometimes more slender plant shoots, bundles of grass or shredded plant fibers, or a combination of grass and sticks. In coiling, designs are not made by changing the weave, but rather by using a different color sewing thread. Imbrication, a decorative technique unique to coiled baskets made by Salishan peoples of the Pacific Northwest, involves folding a strip of grass, bark, or other fiber under each sewing stitch on the outer surface of the basket.

How The World was Made

The earth is a great island floating in a sea of water, and suspended at each of the four cardinal points by a cord hanging down from the sky vault, which is of solid rock. When the world grows old and worn out, the people will die and the cords will break and let the earth sink down into the ocean, and all will be water again. The Indians are afraid of this.

When all was water, the animals were above in Gälûñ'lätï, beyond the arch; but it was very much crowded, and they were wanting more room. They wondered what was below the water, and at last Dâyuni'sï, "Beaver's Grandchild," the little Water-beetle, offered to go and see if it could learn. It darted in every direction over the surface of the water, but could find no firm place to rest. Then it dived to the bottom and came up with some soft mud, which began to grow and spread on every side until it became the island which we call the earth. It was afterward fastened to the sky with four cords, but no one remembers who did this.

At first the earth was flat and very soft and wet. The animals were anxious to get down, and sent out different birds to see if it was yet dry, but they found no place to alight and came back again to Gälûñ'lätï. At last it seemed to be time, and they sent out the Buzzard and told him to go and make ready for them. This was the Great Buzzard, the father of all the buzzards we see now. He flew all over the earth, low down near the ground, and it was still soft. When he reached the Cherokee country, he was very tired, and his wings began to flap and strike the ground, and wherever they struck the earth there was a valley, and where they turned up again there was a mountain. When the animals above saw this, they were afraid that the whole world would be mountains, so they called him back, but the Cherokee country remains full of mountains to this day.

When the earth was dry and the animals came down, it was still dark, so they got the sun and set it in a track to go every day across the island from east to west, just overhead. It was too hot this way, and Tsiska'gïlï', the Red Crawfish, had his shell scorched a bright red, so that his meat was spoiled; and the Cherokee do not eat it. The

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conjurers put the sun another hand-breadth higher in the air, but it was still too hot. They raised it another time, and another, until it was seven handbreadths high and just under the sky arch. Then it was right, and they left it so. This is why the conjurers call the highest place Gûlkwâ'gine Di'gälûñ'lätiyûñ', "the seventh height," because it is seven hand-breadths above the earth. Every day the sun goes along under this arch, and returns at night on the upper side to the starting place.

There is another world under this, and it is like ours in everything--animals, plants, and people--save that the seasons are different. The streams that come down from the mountains are the trails by which we reach this underworld, and the springs at their heads are the doorways by which we enter, it, but to do this one must fast and, go to water and have one of the underground people for a guide. We know that the seasons in the underworld are different from ours, because the water in the springs is always warmer in winter and cooler in summer than the outer air.

When the animals and plants were first made--we do not know by whom--they were told to watch and keep awake for seven nights, just as young men now fast and keep awake when they pray to their medicine. They tried to do this, and nearly all were awake through the first night, but the next night several dropped off to sleep, and the third night others were asleep, and then others, until, on the seventh night, of all the animals only the owl, the panther, and one or two more were still awake. To these were given the power to see and to go about in the dark, and to make prey of the birds and animals which must sleep at night. Of the trees only the cedar, the pine, the spruce, the holly, and the laurel were awake to the end, and to them it was given to be always green and to be greatest for medicine, but to the others it was said: "Because you have not endured to the end you shall lose your, hair every winter."

Men came after the animals and plants. At first there were only a brother and sister until he struck her with a fish and told her to multiply, and so it was. In seven days a child was born to her, and thereafter every seven days another, and they increased very fast until there was danger that the world could not keep them. Then it was made that a woman should have only one child in a year, and it has been so ever since.

RICH-HEAP FILMS AWARD


Trail of Tears: Cherokee Legacy, the award-winning film by Rich-Heape
Films of Dallas, was recently named "Best Documentary Feature" at the
31st Annual American Indian Film Institute Festival in San Francisco.

The film chronicles the forced removal of the Cherokees from their
southeastern U.S. homeland to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. During
the forced march in severe winter weather, an estimated 4,000 of
16,000 died. The survivors called it the "trail where they cried."

The film was endorsed by the Cherokee Nation and Eastern Band of
Cherokee Indians of North Carolina, which includes descendants of the
few Cherokees that avoided the removal.

Steven R. Heape, president and executive producer of Rich-Heape Films
and a Cherokee Nation citizen accepted the award for best documentary
in November at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. In his
acceptance speech, Heape praised Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chad
Smith and Eastern Band of Cherokees Chief Michell Hicks for their
support of the documentary project and educating people worldwide
about Cherokee history and culture.

The long-running American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco
annually features more than 70 films about and by American Indians
from the U.S. and First Nations communities in Canada.

It was the second award the documentary received in a two-month
period. In October, it received the "Founders Award" at the
International Cherokee Film Festival in Tahlequah.

"We are extremely gratified with the awards," Heape said. "But it's
equally gratifying that so many people have attended the screenings
and we are informing people about a tragedy that is neglected in U.S.
history books."

Since its premier and an extended two-week at the Dream Theater in
Tahlequah, the capital of the Cherokee Nation, the film sold out its
debut at the 19th Dallas Video Festival in August at the city's
Angelkia Theater, as well as two screenings in December at the 7th
annual Santa Fe (N.M.) Film Festival.

In September, it was the opening film of the Denver Indigenous Film
Festival at the University of Denver.

The documentary has been accepted for showing in January at the
Alaska Native Heritage Center Film Festival in Alaska and the New
York Festival in February. Heape said he has been informed that it is
a finalist in its category at the international New York Festival.

"The words that have been written about the tragedy of the Trail of
Tears evoke heartbreaking images, but the evil work is not much more
than a footnote in history courses in most high schools and
colleges," Heape said. One of the goals of the film by Heape and R.Y.
"Chip" Richie, director and producer, is to move the story from a
footnote to the forefront.

Education has been a primary mission of Rich-Heape Films since the
collaboration was formed in 1982. With the mission to inform, educate
and encourage awareness of tribal histories, cultures, languages and
aspirations of Native Peoples through the creation, production and
distribution of audio/visual productions, the company has produced a
number of award winning films.

"I take pride in feeling that we produce films that educate people
about subjects that typically you're not going to find in your every
day educational program. We produce films designed to celebrate and
perpetuate Indian culture and language, as well as educate
non-Indians about the true history of what happened to many Native
nations after European contact," Heape said.

The film is presented in the Cherokee language with English subtitles
by Cherokee actor Wes Studi, known for his lead role in the film
Geronimo, as well as roles in Last of the Mohicans and Dances With
Wolves. The narrator is actor James Earl Jones. Also featured are the
voices of actor James Garner, John Buttram and singer/songwriter
Crystal Gayle.

Let Cherokees decide who's Cherokee

The tribe's requirement that members must prove a blood connection isn't racist.

By Heather Williams, HEATHER WILLIAMS is a Cherokee citizen and an Indian freedmen descendant.
July 10, 2007

I'M PROUD TO BE a Cherokee citizen who is also descended from black slaves, and the Cherokee Nation I know is one of the most diverse, welcoming societies on Earth. Yet today, my tribe stands accused of racism and is the target of legislation introduced by Rep. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) aimed at cutting off our federal funding because we amended our tribal constitution to affirm that, in order to be a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, you must prove by-blood descent from Cherokee Indians.

Can a tribe be both inclusive and have a by-blood requirement? My experience proves that it can, and I believe that Indians deserve the right to preserve our heritage through a direct connection to our ancestors.

The constitutional amendment is a recent chapter of a long history. In 1906, a census called the Dawes Roll was created, listing by-blood Indians along with non-Indian residents of Cherokee Territory. Some of those residents were former Cherokee slaves or their descendants, known as freedmen, and an 1866 treaty with the U.S. government called for them to have "rights of native Cherokees." Watson refers to that treaty as the basis for her contention that all freedmen should be tribal members.

But of course that treaty was controversial. It came after the infamous Trail of Tears and at the end of the Civil War, which ushered in half a century of fierce U.S. government efforts to destroy Cherokee (and other tribes') sovereignty and land claims. Ultimately, the only "rights of native Cherokees" left to speak of were the right of individuals to a private land allotment and a cash payment from the U.S. government — which non-Indian freedmen and Cherokees alike received when the U.S. dissolved our territory and made Oklahoma a state.

Then, for a long time, there was no functioning Cherokee government. It wasn't until 1975 that Cherokees were able to revitalize their nation and lay claim to self-governance. The Cherokee constitution was written then, and its intent was that Cherokee citizens should be Indians who could trace their lineage to at least one by-blood Indian listed on the Dawes Roll.

However, a group of freedmen who aren't Indian descendants sued for citizenship in our tribal court. In 2006, the tribal supreme court ruled that the Cherokee constitution was not clear enough about their status — a ruling that effectively granted citizenship to about 2,800 non-Indians by court order. (Before this court order, non-Indian descendants of Cherokee freedmen had sued twice in federal court and lost, and they also lost a suit in tribal courts as recently as 2001.)

Once our court overturned its earlier decision in 2006, the Cherokee Nation then went back to its citizens, including the non-Indian freedmen descendants, to clarify the constitution. By a vote of 77%, we disagreed with the court and amended the constitution to reflect our passionate belief: We should be an Indian tribe made up of Indians.

The non-Indians have a right to appeal, and they are pursuing it. Until those appeals are exhausted, the freedmen descendants remain full citizens of the Cherokee Nation with the right to vote and use tribal services, such as our healthcare system.

Watson and others have tried to paint the Cherokee Nation's repeated attempts to make Indian descent a citizenship requirement as discrimination against blacks. As a freedmen descendant who looks black, and who is also a by-blood citizen, I'm offended by that. There was no racial issue when the Cherokee Nation welcomed me 14 years ago. In 1993, I received my citizenship card, which affirmed my connection to the tribe by blood through my great-great-great grandfather, Daniel Tucker — just as I am connected to my freedmen lineage through his wife.

For me, the crucial question is who decides who is an Indian? Does the United States government decide? Does misinformed public opinion decide? Or do Indians decide? And the issue is not one of discrimination but of how best to preserve Indian identity.

Through my own experience, I've come to believe that Indian ancestry is crucial to the preservation of our identity. It is simply what makes the Cherokees an Indian nation. As a group whose nation was almost erased, we know that defining that identity is crucial to maintaining it now. Establishing who is and who isn't a tribal citizen is the rightful function of a self-governing sovereign nation and a key to maintaining sovereignty. For virtually every tribe in the country, that means having a by-blood requirement for citizenship.

I treasure my African American roots, and I also feel fully a part of the Cherokee community. Some of my fondest memories are of participating in wonderful Cherokee traditions, and the Cherokee tribe accepts me regardless of my racial appearance. When I look at our schools, religious organizations and communities, I can see that this is the rule, not the exception. Multiracial and freedmen-descendant Cherokees like me are living proof that the nation welcomes all Cherokees equally.

But what unites us is our shared Indian ancestry. We should not be subject to false charges of racism and attack legislation when we seek to preserve and build on that shared history, enabling our children and grandchildren to keep their precious heritage alive.

War Trail

The Cherokee War Chief, had power only in war. He was called the Raven, wore red, and went straight into the enemy. He had 3 spies: the Owl (went to the right) ; the Wolf (went to the left), and the Fox (doubled back and came from behind). The war party walked in their leaders tracks to prevent detection. The only reason for war was to avenge a Cherokee’s death. Under the old Blood Law, the clan of the murdered Cherokee was responsible for revenge. The decision to go to war was voluntary. The men purified themselves for several days before going on the war trail by fasting, drinking the "black drink" and "going to water". The women sometimes went to war with their men.

Source: The Cherokee 1994 Heritage Calendar by Dorothy Sullivan, Memoray Circle Studio, Norman, Ok.

Traditional Cherokee dyes
By George Ellison

“Woven goods—baskets and mats—document what women did, when, and how. They illuminate the work of women who transformed the environments that produced materials for basketry. They point to women’s roles in ceremonial, subsistence, and exchange systems. As objects created and utilized by women, baskets and mats conserved and conveyed their concepts, ideas, experience, and expertise. They asserted women’s cultural identity and reflected their values.”

— Weaving New Worlds: Southeastern Cherokee Women and Their Basketry, by Sarah H. Hill (University of North Carolina Press, 1997)

I have for many years been interested in the materials the ancient Cherokees used to make basket splints and dyes. In this era of casino gambling and economic revitalization, I will be equally interested in how modern Cherokee artisans maintain their craft traditions, especially basket making, perhaps the one for which they are most famed. Here are some observations culled from previous Back Then columns regarding this topic.

I’ve seen old photos of Cherokees coming down the Tuckasegee River from the Qualla Boundary (Cherokee) as far as Bryson City in canoes to gather cane. Most people don’t realize it, but up until the early 20th century, sizable canebrakes existed here in the mountains. That wouldn’t be feasible today because there is very little cane to be found, and what can be found is generally of poor quality. Ironically, the Cherokees — masters of cane implementation — are themselves having to venture into other states to locate suitable cane for their baskets, mats, flutes, and other items.

I had always supposed that the Cherokees had been utilizing white oak as a source for basket splints since they evolved as a distinctive culture a thousand or so years ago; however, I recently discovered, in Sarah H. Hill’s book (cited above), that it was the European settlers who introduced the Cherokees to white oak splints. Her research indicated that, “Even though Cherokees and whites lived in close proximity and traded with each other for two centuries before the removal (1838), no evidence indicates that Cherokee weavers fully incorporated white oak into their basketry traditions prior to the nineteenth century.”

The Cherokees were dye-masters. They could manipulate colors to obtain the exact shades they desired by the amount of pulp, the source of the pulp (root, bark, leaf, or husk), and the amount of time the splints were left in the boiling pot of water.

Mordants are reactive agents used to fix or set coloring matter in textiles, leather, basket splints, or whatever. Hill reported that the Cherokee weavers “may use soda, alum, or copper as a mordant. Some remember that their mothers added old iron froes, ax heads, or nails to walnut dye pots.” Several Cherokee basket makers have told me that ashes and urine were also used for this purpose.

Hill mentioned a number of dye sources used by the Cherokees, but in my experience they have traditionally favored the following: bloodroot for orange-red; black walnut for brown; butternut walnut for black; and shrub yellowroot for yellow. Pulped rootstock was always used from yellowroot and bloodroot. So as not to kill the walnut trees, however, they often used bark or hulls instead of rootstock.

Bloodroot is surely one of most widely admired wildflowers in the eastern United States. The first part of its scientific name (Sanguinaria) means “bleeding,” in reference to the peculiar red juice that oozes from the rootstock when broken. (Other members of the Poppy Family also produce this acrid fluid, which contains various akaloids.)

Black walnut is found throughout the lower elevations. But its little cousin, the butternut walnut (sometimes called white walnut), is becoming scarce due to an invasive fungus. Recently, I was pleased to learn at the Web site for the Revitalization of Traditional Cherokee Artisan Resources (www.rtcar.org) that, “The University of Tennessee [has contracted] to plant butternut seedlings to assist Cherokee artisans in the production of dyes for traditional baskets [and that] one thousand seedlings will be established on the Kituhwa property owned by the Eastern Band.” This property, the site of the original Cherokee mother town and locally known as Ferguson Fields, is situated along the north bank of the Tuckaseigee just east of Bryson City.

Shrub yellowroot grows along most streams here in the mountains. The leafy tops of the plant resemble carrot tops. Some years ago I interviewed Martha Ross, a resident of the Big Cove Community on the Qualla Boundary (Cherokee). She and her three sisters — Maggie Lossiah, Jane Taylor, and Dorothy Thompson — all learned basket making from their mother, Charlotte Lossiah.

“Mother didn’t use yellowroot as a dye too much except with honeysuckle,” Ross recalled. “She liked to use bloodroot. But I like yellowroot. We also use butternut and walnut.

“You can gather yellowroot anytime, but it’s best in spring when you get a brighter color. It’s a little dull in winter. The roots can be used if you beat them with a hammer, but I like the stems to get the prettiest yellow.

“You scrape the pulp into a kettle of boiling water on the stove. Pull the splints out to the edge so that the yellow fills up a little hole in the center. After 30 or 40 minutes it’s ready. I never dye a big batch at once, just enough to make a few baskets.”

Hopefully, the current generation of Cherokee artisans will be as interested as Ross was in listening, observing, and maintaining the old ways of doing things.

Letter to the Editor - issue of Cherokee rolls is Cherokee business My name is Gayle Ross and I am an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation. I want to respond to the remarks made by Marilyn Vann, but first I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak and to thank those who take the time to listen. You may know that Ms Vann has conducted extensive campaigns of both legal and public relations attacks on the Cherokee Nation. She represents herself as a victim of "racism" and to do that, she finds it necessary to distort our history and the facts. I can no longer listen to her shrill, strident invective smearing the Cherokee Nation in the name of "her rights". There is too much at stake to stand silently by as she continues her attacks. Ms Vann says Cherokee people were slaveowners and signed a Treaty with the Confederacy. What she hasn't told you is the majority of Cherokee wished to be neutral or remain loyal to the Union . The treaty with the Confederacy was signed under duress while Southern troops occupied our country. It was repudiated in less than a year and many more Cherokees fought and died to end slavery than practiced it. President Lincoln assured Principal Chief John Ross that he understood the Cherokee situation and that the Cherokees would not be treated harshly, but our hopes of fair treatment died with him. The Treaty of 1866 was a "reconstruction" treaty demanding many concessions Cherokees felt were unfair. The United States responded by threatening to sign a Treaty with the very Confederate Cherokees who actually had taken up arms against them. The Cherokees had been willing to offer land and certain rights to their freed slaves. The United States included the article calling for the "rights of native Cherokees." Ms. Vann did not tell you that freed slaves did not want tribal citizenship either. Congress, in 1865, sent Gen. John Sanborn to report of the status of the freed slaves of the Five Tribes and he reported that they wanted and expected the United States to procure a separate tract of Indian Territory for them. They wanted to own their own land rather than in common. They wanted autonomy under territorial law rather than tribal jurisdiction. The United States declined. Federal officials put Cherokees and Freedmen on the same path, knowing they wanted to go in different directions. It was a rocky road. The majority of Freedmen advocated allotment and the dissolution of the Cherokee government. Cherokees struggled to hold on to their land and their nation. Forty years later overwhelmed by forces from both within and without, our borders were obliterated and our government all but paralyzed. Freedmen interests were served. The United States ' interests were served. The Cherokee Nation was devastated. Throughout the coming decades, African-Americans fought a long and noble fight for their civil rights as Americans. Indian people fought to remain Indian. Our battles were against the policies of "forced assimilation"; boarding schools, termination of our governments, allotment of our lands, the banning of our ceremonies and the destruction of our cultures and our languages. We fought not just for the rights of our people, but for our rights to exist as nations. The Cherokee Nation survives today because Cherokee people refused to let it die. The first Freedmen supported the dissolution of our government to relinquish Cherokee citizenship for American citizenship. This was right….for Freedmen. Our own people voted to accept allotment, but it proved to be wrong for Cherokees. Now Ms. Vann would wreak devastation on the Cherokees to demand citizenship. In order to make this about race, Ms Vann has shrieked to the press about our citizens with low quantums of Cherokee blood, saying we accept "white" Cherokees but not "black" Cherokees. This is a lie. Our paperwork is color-blind. The citizens Ms. Vann sneers at may very well be part Cherokee, part white, part some other tribe, part Hispanic and part Black! We do not tell our children whom they may marry. Our enrollment is determined by a direct connection to a specific list of Cherokee citizens on the Dawes Rolls. Ms. Vann arrogantly says the Cherokee Nation "misapplies" the Dawes. That was what the vote was about, Ms. Vann. How to apply the Dawes. There are literally hundreds of thousands of "Cherokees" some with blood who cannot meet enrollment criteria. Different tribes use different rolls. It is our right to establish what we require for citizenship. Ms. Vann has asked Indian people to imagine how it would feel if this happened to your family. She doesn't know that most Indian people don't have to "imagine" this. I know many Indian people from many tribes who either have relatives or know a family with relatives who can no longer meet their tribe's legal requirements for enrollment. But mostly, when Indian relatives drop below a quantum requirement or a residence restriction, they go on being proud of their heritage, being active in their community and culture, honoring their ancestors. They know these things are not defined by enrollment, citizenship is. They know that the rights of their sovereign nations are more important than their individual rights. They do not seek to hurt their nations and their people by attacking them in federal courts or the press. Ms.Vann doesn't seem to understand this. I guess it's an Indian thing. In order to divert attention from our majority vote, Ms Vann tries to make this about Principal Chief Chad Smith . What an insult to Cherokee people. We see further ahead than the next election. And I am truly outraged at her suggestion that Chief Smith was "using" the Trail of Tears as a play for sympathy. Cherokee people don't play "victim", Ms. Vann. We remember our history to remember what our ancestors sacrificed so that OUR NATION might live. And your suggestion that the disenrollment of people who have had their cards for less than a year is a greater injustice than the loss of our original homeland and the deaths of 4,000 Cherokee people is truly beyond belief. Over the last thirty years since the Cherokee Nation revitalized its government, members of the Freedmen Association have taken their case to the court. They have screamed to the press. But, for the most part, they are so far removed from Cherokee communities that most Cherokees don't know any more about them than what they read in the newspapers. And there we read that we are "racist" or that we are too stupid to decide for ourselves but have listened to "lies" from the current administration. Can Ms. Vann not see how despicable this behavior is? Especially against the members of our traditional communities who spoke for the "by blood roll" with votes of 9 to 1 or 10 to 1. Ms. Vann doesn't seem to understand that traditional Cherokees can't hear you when you scream. I guess it's an Indian thing. Ms. Vann contends that the Cherokee Nation is endangering the sovereignty of all tribes by refusing to "honor the treaties". She apparently does not know or care how many articles of how many treaties the United States has failed to honor. She does not see or care that the threat to Indian sovereignty is in her continued demands that the federal government once again infringe on our rights as a nation. Cherokee people did not "ignore" the Treaty of 1866. They simply expressed their belief that the obligations inherent in the Treaty were fulfilled long ago. To the mixed Black/Cherokees on the Freedmen Roll who feel hurt that we limit our citizenship to a specific blood roll, I would ask them to understand that their heritage is theirs. Nothing can take that away. Heritage, culture, pride in your ancestors are all good things. But heritage and citizenship are not the same. Ms. Vann has refused to respect the jurisdiction of the Cherokee Supreme Court. They ruled that citizenship is for Cherokee people to determine. Ms. Vann has refused to accept the vote of the Cherokee people. She calls for the BIA to cut off our funding unless we accept her demands. She has brought down the wrath of the Congressional Black Caucus and the National Congress of Black Women on our heads. With these same misrepresentations of fact and distortions of truth. She has screamed about "her rights" as opposed to what Cherokee people believe IS right. She has screamed about "her rights" and said not a word about her responsibilities. She has demonstrated with her words and her actions that she does not respect Cherokee people, Cherokee culture, Cherokee law and interestingly enough, Cherokee treaties. Apparently Ms Vann has not read the entire Treaty of 1866. Only the article that applies to her. There is an article in the treaty that states that all disagreements among Cherokees arising in the Cherokee Nation are the sole province of the Cherokee courts. By demanding federal intervention, Ms. Vann is herself in violation of the Treaty of 1866. That is if she considers herself Cherokee. By making this a federal case, Ms. Vann is stating that she is NOT Cherokee. Which means she has no case. Sound like a Catch 22, Ms. Vann? Welcome to Indian Country. Gayle Ross Cherokee Citizen

Contents

Thanksgiving, Cherokee Style

The Cherokees were raising corn as early as 1,000 BC. Before European contact the Cherokees already participated in a ceremony giving thanks for crops and it was a form of worship in what is known as the "Green Corn Dance". This traditional dance was a very important ceremony for the Cherokees. This ceremony was the beginning of the New Year. Our ancestors gave thanks for the corn crop that they saw as a continued life for them. It was a time for forgiveness and grudges to be left behind - starting anew. A part of their celebration was fasting, then gathering at the ceremonial grounds to play stickball, dance and have a big feast.

Other traditions for the Cherokee included participating in sports mainly the stickball game and marble game; eating bean bread, wild game, and wild plants to mention a few; and for communication they used the wampum belts.

As settlers moved inland, Native Americans they encountered, including the Cherokee assisted the early settlers and traders with food and supplies. This was a continual process not just a single meal. The Cherokees also taught the early settlers how to hunt, fish, and farm in their new environment. They also taught them how to use herbal medicine when they became ill.

Sadly, as more English people came to America, they didn't need the Native Americans help anymore and the newcomers had forgotten how the natives helped the earlier Pilgrims. Mistrust began to grow and the friendship weakened. The Pilgrims started telling their Native neighbors that their native religion and native customs were wrong. The relationships deteriorated and within a few years the children of the people who ate together at the first Thanksgiving were killing one another in what led to the King Phillip's War.

In 1736, Christian Priber, a Frenchman, established himself among the Cherokees, learned their language, and taught them the European Christianity until he was arrested by the English and put in prison at Charleston, South Carolina. Even though the Cherokees worshipped in their own religion, the work of the missionaries converted some Cherokees to the European Christianity. The first known Cherokee converted to European Christianity was 1773. In 1801, the first permanent Christian Mission in the Cherokee Nation was called Moravian Mission. It was located at Springplace, which is in present-day Georgia. As more Cherokees became Christians the custom of observing the English National Thanksgiving Holiday became common.

D. W. Bushyhead, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, signed a proclamation on Thursday, November 26th, A. D. 1885 for Thanksgiving to be practiced by the Cherokees. The Proclamation reads, "The Cherokees have abundant reason to rejoice. They are favored in all things that should make a Nation prosperous and a people happy. They have an indisputable right to an area of land sufficient for the needs of generations of Cherokees to come. They have a perfect form of Government, wise laws, unsurpassed educational facilities for their children and money enough of their own invested to make these blessings permanent. It is true this Nation is neither numerous wealthy nor powerful compared with many others, but it stands and relies upon the plighted faith of a Nation that has become the strongest on earth by reason of its respect for human rights.

Today the major population of the Cherokee members celebrates the National Thanksgiving Holiday. There are a few Cherokees and other Native Americans who still celebrate the Green Corn Ceremony in July and the National Thanksgiving Holiday in November.

Information by Peoples Path

The Legend of the Kithuwa Cherokee sometimes refer to themselves as Ani-Kituhwagi, "the people of Kituhwa". Kituhwa was the name of an ancient city, located near present Bryson City, NC which was the nucleus of the Cherokee Nation. The common English phonetic spelling today is "Keetoowah", a name used by traditionalist Cherokee groups like the Keetoowah Society (followers of traditional religion) and the United Keetoowah Band (a Federally recognized faction of predominantly full blood Cherokees). The Legend of the Keetoowah, as recalled in 1930 by Levi B. Gritts, a prominent member of the traditionalist Keetoowah Society, places them on islands in the Atlantic Ocean east of South America. Anthropologists have discovered that Cherokee basket and pottery styles resemble those of South American and Caribbean tribes, differing from other tribes of the southeast U.S..

Seventy tribes attacked them but, by the guidance of God, they were victorious. The last warrior of their attackers, Ner-du-er-gi, was on top of a mountain overlooking their camp in the deep valley below. This warrior saw a smoke arising from the camp which "extended up beyond Heaven". The smoke was divided into three parts and in that there was an eagle holding arrows. When the warrior and his followers saw this, he ordered them not to attack the Indians for they were God's people and powerful and if they attacked they would be destroyed. When God created these people he gave them great, mysterious power to be used for the best interests of the people. They lived in large cities with tall buildings. Some wise men began to use their power different than was intended which troubled the people. God instructed them to take their white fire and move away from that place. Some went to Asia, some to India, and others to North America leaving the wise men behind. After they had gone to other countries, these large cities were destroyed when the ground sank and are now under the ocean. God turned to the people that came to America and gave them wisdom and guided them. There came a time when the people began to violate their teachings - committing crimes against each other, committing murders, and feuding between the seven clans. The people met with their medicine men around their fire to ask God for guidance. The medicine men were inspired to go up to a high mountain, one at a time on each of seven days. On the seventh day, they heard a noise over them and a light brighter than day appeared and a voice said, "I am a messenger from God. God has heard your prayers and He has great passion for your people and from now on you shall be called Keetoowah. Go back to your fire and worship. There is a white ball from way east, who is your enemy, coming and your grandchildren's feet are directed west. They shall have great trials on the edge of the prairie. They shall be divided into different factions and their blood shall be about only on half. Families shall be divided against each other and they shall disregard their chiefs, leaders, medicine men, and captains. But if these younger generation should endeavor to follow your God's instruction there is a chance to turn back east and if not, the next move shall be west, on to the coast and from there on to the boat and this shall be the last."

Cherokee Indian Museum


Cherokee, NC (2006) – Most people don’t realize just how long the Cherokee tribe has been around Western North Carolina. Direct descendants of the first people in North America, Cherokees have had – to use a modern term – staying power. Power, over 11,000 years worth, that has made them one of the oldest continuous cultures on earth. Thinking back to dreaded history class, that makes the Cherokee tribe older than the Mayans and Aztecs of South America. And to illustrate this fact, The Museum of The Cherokee Indian in Cherokee, NC has designed an award-winning, interactive space that celebrates the tribe’s longevity with much more excitement than any textbook.

A trip through the museum is an interesting merging of the very ancient with the very modern. With help of writers and designers from Disney Imagineering, interactive features, stunning video and special effects audio make the tour as much about entertainment as education. Here, members of the museum staff draw on their ability to be storytellers in addition to being archivists, historians and teachers.

“We have put a lot of emphasis on making the history of our people an exciting adventure for guests,” said Ken Blankenship, executive director of the museum. “We understand that while many people know we are here in North Carolina, they have no idea what significance the Cherokees have in world history until they step inside our doors. You can see their eyes light up with that realization.”

The self-guided tour starts in the intriguing story lodge where animated Cherokee myths surround guests and immerse them in a significant part of the tribe’s culture. Then, it is on to hunting mastodons in the Paleo period from 11,000-8,000 B.C., or 13,000 to 10,000 years ago. Next comes a trip through the Archaic period, 8,000-1,000 B.C. (10,000 to 3,000 years ago), when the Cherokee began to develop agriculture, fishing and extensive trade. And to the Woodland period, 1,000 B.C. to 900 A.D., where Cherokee people lived in villages, with developed agriculture, the creation of pottery and use of bows and arrows.

The Mississippian period follows, dating 900-1,500 A.D. (500-1100 years ago), where farming was based on corn, mounds dominated the center of villages and the arts flourished. The Green Corn Ceremony dates to this time and continues today, along with the stickball game, chunkey game, songs and dances, many of which are illustrated on the tour with life-size figures and voices of Cherokee people.

Guests are introduced to the legendary Sequoyah, creator of Cherokee written language. He is the only man in 5,000 years of recorded history to invent a language while not being literate. The Sequoyah syllabary contains eighty-five syllables representing sounds of Cherokee language. The Cherokee national council approved this syllabary in 1821 and in one year, more than 90% of Cherokee people learned to read and write.

An especially poignant stop at the museum is at the Trail of Tears exhibit, where the reality of that event is presented in moving detail. Many people have heard the words “trail of tears” before. However, few realize the event’s magnitude before touring the museum, which is the official interpretive site for the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, administered by the National Park Service.

It was along this trail in 1838 that more than 15,000 Cherokees were forced to leave this region and walk over 1,000 miles to Indian Territory, now the state of Oklahoma. They were an established people by this time, with a written constitution, bilingual newspaper and Christian churches, and they resisted removal with petitions, lobbying efforts and Supreme Court cases. But, they were ultimately forced to leave their ancestral home. Between 4,000-8,000 Cherokees, almost half of the tribe, died along the way. Approved by Congress in 1987, the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail covers 2,200 miles in nine states and commemorates this tragic part of America’s history.

Along with permanent exhibits, the museum offers new exhibitions and special events to honor Cherokee history each year. Its newest exhibition, “Emissaries of Peace: the 1762 Cherokee and British Delegations,” is open now through September 30. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the traveling exhibition has received a special presidential designation as a “We the People” exhibit and will end its tour at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

The exhibition was created at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian based on the memoirs of British Lt. Henry Timberlake, which details his three-month visit to Cherokee in 1762. A brilliant observer and writer, Timberlake provided the most complete account of Cherokee life of that period. The exhibition includes compelling stories, supported by diary entries, artifacts from the region, British newspaper accounts and original artwork. The exhibit was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Cherokee Preservation Foundation, Harrah’s Foundation, First Citizen’s Bank and the Cannon Foundation.

In addition to painting a picture of Cherokee and British diplomacy at the time, the exhibition has led the way to new additions at area cultural attractions. Timberlake’s detailed descriptions enabled a group of Cherokee dancers to recreate the Welcome/War Dance and Eagle Tail Dance, some of which will be included in the all-new production of the outdoor drama “Unto These Hills.” His writings go on to describe huge twenty-gallon Cherokee pots that have also inspired members of the Cherokee Potters Guild to recreate the vessels, one of which is featured in the exhibition. And, Timberlake’s notes on Cherokee clothing led to additional research by Barbara R. Duncan, Ph.D., the museum’s education director. Duncan directed redesign of clothing for the Warrior’s dance group and Cherokee hosts at Oconaluftee Indian Village, which will be a new addition in 2006.

The Museum of the Cherokee Indian has received numerous awards, including the North Carolina Governors Award for Cultural Arts Organizations, Public Interpretation Award from the National Association of Interpretive Media, Western Carolina University Mountain Heritage Award, NC Folklore Society Community Traditions Award and WNC Historical Association 2000 Achievement Award. It is also the Primary Arts Organization for the North Carolina Arts Council.

The Museum of the Cherokee Indian is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Days. Admission is $9 for adults and $6 for youth 6-13. Other Cherokee, NC attractions include: Oconaluftee Indian Village, a 1750 replica of a Cherokee village; tribal art galleries such as Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual; and the region’s renowned outdoor drama “Unto These Hills.” For information, visit www.cherokee-nc.com, call (866) 554-4557 or (828) 497-3481.

Registration for the Cherokee Nation Language class is now open. Enroll now as the classes fill quickly. You have your choice of live interactive or prerecorded.good luck to ya all.

Kanuchi is considered to be a real delicacy. The nuts are gathered in the fall and allowed to dry for a few weeks before the kanuchi making begins. It is a simple process, but that does not necessarily mean that is easy. The hickory nuts are cracked and the largest pieces of shell removed either by shaking the pieces through a loosely woven basket, or picking them out by hand.

Traditionally, a log was hollowed out on one end into a bowl like shape. The shelled hickory nuts are placed in the hollowed log and pounded with a long heavy stick with the end rounded to have the same contour, more or less, as the cavity in the log. The nuts are pounded until they are of a consistency that can be formed into a ball that will hold its shape. Kanuchi balls are usually about three inches in diameter and must be stored in a cold place. Today kanuchi is usually preserved by freezing.

To prepare kanuchi for the table, place a kanuchi ball in a saucepan with about a quart of water and bring it to a boil to dissolve the ball. Allow the kanuchi to simmer about ten minutes and then poor it through a fine sieve. (A colander lined with cheese cloth works very well for this.) All the remaining shells are left in the sieve. If you have the time and patience you can pick the larger bits of nut meat from the shells in the sieve and add them to the liquid kanuchi. The kanuchi should be about as thick as light cream. Most traditional cooks will add about two cups of homemade hominy to a quart of kanuchi. Some cooks prefer hominy grits, which are prepared according to package directions and added to the kanuchi. Others add cooked rice. Such things as consistency and how much hominy or hominy grits to add are, of course a matter of taste, as is the addition of salt or sugar.

Serve kanuchi hot as soup.

The John Howard Payne papers, a document from 1835 where elders were interviewed for their knowledge, states that a thick drink was made from hickory nuts which had been pounded, but it was made with cold water and allowed to thicken without the addition of hominy or rice.

Info provided by various sources.

SAN FRANCISCO - It started as a summer project in 2004. Now there are hundreds of them: laminated cards, each with a Cherokee word and picture. Adanhdo: ''heart,'' nvnohi: ''path,'' atseluhisdi: ''saxophone.'' They travel with bicycle messengers all over the world, a mobile international exhibition that Cherokee/Swedish artist America Meredith calls ''Cherokee Spokespeople.''

Meredith, an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, began the project because she wanted to do something that was both educational and ''uniquely Cherokee.''

''The most tribally specific art that we have is definitely our syllabary,'' she said.

The Cherokee sylabary was created by Sequoyah in the late 18th century.

''According to Cherokee Nation tribal leadership, our current generation, the fourteenth since European contact with the Cherokees, is said to be the generation that decides whether the language grows or dies,'' Meredith wrote on the Web site www.ahalenia.com.

Meredith, 35, worked as a bicycle messenger for 10 years. She gives away her illustrated cards to members of the close-knit international bicycle messenger community who send her back a photo or video of the card in the spokes of their bicycle in their city. In this way, Cherokee words have spread to Tokyo, London, Zurich, Tapei, Aukland and other cities.

Originally from Oklahoma but now living in San Francisco, Meredith is not a fluent Cherokee speaker herself, but relies on her friends and acquaintances who are fluent. Some of the words on the cards are traditional Cherokee words. Others are created by Cherokee speakers for modern ideas or objects. That's how nuhlisdi gynisdisgi (microwave) and galuyidohi (chopper) came to be a part of her international exhibit.

Though she was a good artist from childhood, Meredith said she was never a good student. In high school, she had a 1.0 grade point average. At the Institute for American Indian Arts, that shot up to a 4.0.

''Oh, I thought, maybe I can make this artist thing work,'' she laughed.

Meredith laughed a lot when she talked, reflecting the wry humor infusing much of her artwork, which ranges from the spokecards to paintings which portray specific moments in American Indian history, sometimes mixing Disney cartoon images with real people.

Choosing specific historical incidents in her paintings, she believes, helps combat the spread of gross generalizations about Native cultures.

In ''Heavens to Murgatroid! Charles Curtis,'' for example, a cartoon Pink Panther stands next to Charles Curtis, the controversial vice president under Herbert Hoover of Kaw, Osage and Potawatomi descent who authored the Curtis Act, which disbanded the governments of the Five Civilized Tribes and broke their land into individual allotments.

In other work, she focuses on incidents of collaboration between Indians and whites, like the Choctaw aid to the Irish people during the 1840s potato famine or the assistance of the longshoreman's union during the occupation of Alcatraz by Indian activists in 1969.

In 2006, she shared an award for Best Painter of San Francisco with Mitsy Avila Ovalles, given by the San Francisco Weekly.

Currently, she is working on using found street signs in a series of portraits of Native bicycle messengers, as well as giving talks on Cherokee artwork.

In all of her work, she balances traditional knowledge and history with the realities of postmodern culture.

The most intimidating talk she had to give was to a group from the United Keetoowah people and the Cherokee Nation, she said. The other two people at the panel discussion didn't show up, and she hadn't brought any slides.

She ended up handing out spokecards and having a conversation.

''Presenting my artwork back to very traditional people in my tribe, it's like very intimidating; do I pass or fail? But they liked the project. I was really happy.''

She recently helped create the Web site for Intertribal Wordpath, an organization that works to preserve Native languages in Oklahoma.

The Cheyenne in that state have 400 fluent speakers left; the Comanche, 100; the Osage, one.

''We are fortunate that we still have a lot of Native speakers,'' Meredith said of the Cherokee, who have about 10,000 speakers in the United States.

She hopes her ''Cherokee Spokespeople'' will help make this generation the one in which the language grows stronger.

''It's all about connection,'' she said.

Redbird Smith

Redbird Smith believed the greatest danger to the survival of the Cherokee as a culture was ‘acculturation.’ He feared the people would be absorbed into the ways of the white people around them and forget their own ways. Many of the ceremonials were already forgotten during Redbird’s childhood. He was born July 19, 1850; his father was Pig Smith, a fullblood Cherokee of a very conservative family which always had a sense of mission regarding the preservation of the ancient Cherokee religion. Pig also served in the Cherokee government as a Senator. The name ‘Smith’ was acquired because he was a blacksmith by trade.

Pig Smith settled in an area of the Cherokee Nation that was mingled with traditional Muscogee (Creek) Indians as well as remnants of the Natchez tribe. The latter were well known for their knowledge of the old religious practices of the Southeastern Indians before contact as well as Removal (Trail of Tears). These religious beliefs and practices brought these groups together, particularly during the dangerous and conflicting times of the Civil War. The conditions for the Cherokee after the Civil War were far worse than when they first arrived after Removal. Approximately eight thousand were refugees in camps and the Nation was flattened with buildings burned, and crops and pastures destroyed. Reconstruction was started when the Treaty of 1866 was signed.

About the same time as the Treaty was signed, there was an important meeting of the Keetowahs in the Saline District near present-day Salina, Oklahoma. John Smith, one of Redbird’s sons, relayed this story as it had been told to him.

". . . All the people camped up there. All the old men were seers. They kept themselves clean with medicine. They could see a long ways ahead. The medicine men investigated the future of the Keetowahs. They saw that Pig Smith’s seed would be the leader of the Keetowahs in the time of their greatest trouble. Pig Smith saw that his life was short and his son was just a boy. He looked for a man to teach his son the ways of the Keetowah and to guide him spiritually. He decided on Creek Sam, a Notchee Indian. He told him he could leave his son in his care and teaching and that he would be his advisor even to the time of his (Pig Smith’s) grandchildren."

Redbird married Lucie Fields, who originated from present-day Braggs, Oklahoma. Her father was Richard Fields who died in Washington, D.C. while serving the Cherokee Nation as Attorney General. The family is of Cherokee / Natchez ancestry. They had ten children named John, Sam, Richard, Thomas, George, Mose, Kiah, Stoke, Ella and Susie.

Since the Keetowah Society had been organized before the Civil War, it had largely been a political organization. Many of the spiritual Keetowahs never became interested or involved with this group. They decided to change the direction of the Society. Because of the two developing factions, the similarities of the old Cherokee White Chief (peace) and Red Chief (war) system began to resurface. The White faction had a meeting at Long Valley, located in the Goingsnake District of the Cherokee Nation in 1859. They drew up an amendment to the Keetowah Society constitution which stated that the Keetowah Society would be religious, as well as political. A church was built at Long Valley so that services could be held during future conventions which were planned for Long Valley.

Redbird was a "Little Captain’ of the Keetowah Society prior to 1889, but after these changes were made and factionalism became more evident, he became more active. Within several years time, he was made ‘Head Captain’ for the Illinois District. The following year, he was elected a member of the Cherokee National Council. He came to develop his spiritual beliefs, which followed the White philosophy. This later became known as the "White Path." During the years that many political changes were happening in the Cherokee Nation, the Keetowahs were still meeting and observing the old ways. Redbird’s sympathetic nature and extensive knowledge of the old ways made him a very influential man among the fullbloods and traditional Cherokees. At Sulphur Springs, in the Illinois District, the Four Mothers Society was formed. Much like the Keetowahs, the society was based on the ancient Southeastern religion. Largely made up of Natchez people, the group also consisted of members of the Cherokee and Muscogee (Creek) nations. These people banded together to fight assimilation into the non-Indian world as well as the breaking up of tribal lands. They turned to the Sacred Fire. Redbird Smith was one of the Keetowah Cherokee who became involved with the Four Mothers. Redbird continued to develop his philosophy and coupled with the Natchez-Creek traditions with the Keetowah. He was active in the Four Mothers for some time, and agreed with their politics but later broke with them because of a disagreement over procedures. The Four Mothers are still active as a religious organization, with their main ceremonial grounds in the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. By this time, Stomp Dancing had basically ceased. The ceremonies of the ancient religion, such as the Green Corn Ceremony, the Friends Made Ceremony, and all the New Moon ceremonies had become extinct. By the middle of the 1890’s, a Stomp Dance was held in the Illinois District with a group of Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek) and Natchez traditionalists. Redbird had often attended ceremonies at the Notchee Town fire on Greenleaf Mountain, near Sulphur Springs. The knowledgeable elders today maintain that the original fire used by Redbird had come from the East during Removal and never died. It was tended by the people of Notchee Town.

To the Cherokee, the Sacred Fire is much more than a fire. It is a physical, living manifestation of the Creator. The smoke of the Fire carries prayers to heaven and it is the smoke that carries spiritual messages from place to place around the world. The fire and its smoke can do good or evil, based on how the fire is built and how it is used. The Keetowah have always used the force for good and peace. Redbird taught, "If you are following the White Path, God will give you protection. If you are following the White Path and a man strikes you in the back, do not turn around. If you do, you will be off in the black."

Redbird made a pledge to return to the old ways, and decided that the first step was to locate the Sacred Wampum Belts, which were woven of wampum shells to record the history, tradition and laws of the Keetowah and Cherokees in general. The Wampums are believed to have a special power within themselves, and are guarded very carefully to this day by the Keetowah Society.

Between 1891 and 1901, factionalism once again surfaced amongst the Keetowah Society. The Curtis Act, and the impending allotment of Cherokee land by the Dawes Commission were feverishly spoke against by traditionalists and Keetowahs. These government acts threatened to cease tribal governments for both the Cherokee and Muscogee (Creek). The Keetowahs held another meeting, this one at Moody’s Spring, near present-day Tahlequah. They decided that allotment was the only option they had. Redbird would not give in, so he and his followers withdrew from the Keetowah Society and formed the Nighthawk Keetowah. The Nighthawk Keetowah were determined to not only hold onto what culture and religion remained, but now what land and government, as well. In 1905, the split was even more defined, as the Keetowah Society officially incorporated without the Nighthawks. By 1902, some 5,000 Cherokee had succeeded in resisting enrollment with the U.S. government, and the Indian agents began making arrests of the leaders. Redbird Smith was arrested and taken to Federal jail in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Although he finally enrolled, many others did not. The Dawes Commission took the names of those Cherokee who appeared on the Census of 1896 and enroll them without their knowledge or permission.

Later in 1902, the Nighthawk Keetowah broke from ceremonial affiliation with the Four Mothers. Redbird wanted the Nighthawks to be more Cherokee in tradition, and less Natchez. The main fire of the Nighthawk was first established at Long Valley. Because Long Valley had been the convention ground of the Keetowah before the political schisms started, it was maintained for some time. It was the main fire of the Nighthawk Keetowah until 1906. However, because Long Valley Ceremonial Ground was also affiliated with the Long Valley Baptist Church at that time, Redbird desired to slowly move. He was convinced that it was important for the Cherokee to worship in their traditional way and not the way of the white man. A ceremonial ground on Blackgum Mountain, near Redbird’s home, was slowly designed and laid out in 1902. The fire mound was built, a stickball pole erected, and four arbors placed around the dance ground. Later, Redbird changed the number to seven, one for each Cherokee clan. The council became based on advisors from each of the seven clans, as well.

By 1905, there were 22 fires established within the Cherokee Nation. The fire keepers and spiritual leaders of each ground assembled at a meeting at Sulphur Springs to learn more about the customs and rules pertaining to the fire. They were instructed by Charley Sam, son of Creek Sam.

The following year, a convention was held at Long Valley, and Redbird Smith was named Chief of the Nighthawk Keetowah. Shortly after this, the fire on Blackgum Mountain became the main fire of the Nighthawk. Redbird began traveling back and forth between all 22 grounds in the Cherokee Nation to give teachings of the old ways from the Wampum Belts.

By 1910, Redbird delivered the following speech to the Council of the Nighthawk Keetowahs.

"After my selection as chief, I awakened to the grave and great responsibilities of the leader of men. I looked about and saw that I had led my people down a long and steep mountainside, now it was my duty to turn and lead them back upward to save them. The unfortunate thing in the mistakes and errors of leaders or of governments is the penalty the innocent and loyal followers have to pay. My greatest ambition has always been to think right and do right. It is my belief that this is the law of the Great Creator. In the upbuilding of my people, it is my purpose that we shall be spiritually right and industriously strong.

"Our pride in our ancestral heritage is our great incentive for handing something worthwhile to our posterity. It is this pride in ancestry that makes men strong and loyal for their principle in life. It is this same pride that makes men give up their all for their government."

In July, 1914 Redbird traveled to Washington, D.C. with his son John and a Nighthawk officer, Ocie Hogshooter. They appealed to President Woodrow Wilson. Senator Lane advised Redbird, through his interpreter, that the fullbloods and traditionalists must accept their allotments and learn to be happy in the system. Redbird was understandably disappointed, and returned home where he turned to the Sacred Fire. Medicine men from each of the clans met with him, and they prayed for spiritual information. The enlightenment they received was that the Nighthawk Keetowah should only be a religious organization, and they should leave political matters alone. A Nighthawk Constitution was drawn which was based on the ancient forms of the Keetowah. At a convention in 1915, the rule was adopted that all members must know their clans. This was as important of an event as the reinstatement of the Stomp Dance. Many Cherokees did not know their clans, and had to ask the elders if they could recall the clan of the grandmothers. This became known as "The time we found our clans." The ceremonial fires began to flourish within the Cherokee Nation. Stomp Dances at individual fires were held every two weeks, and the lighting as well as feeding (sacrifice made to) the fire was carefully observed by all grounds. In addition, two general meetings were held during the year. In September, a three- or four-day meeting was held at Long Valley Ceremonial Grounds and the Keetowah business was transacted there. There was a bar-b-cue, hog fry, stickball games, and general fellowship. People came from miles around and each night of the meeting a Stomp Dance was held around the ceremonial Fire.

On Redbird’s birthday, July 19, people would come from miles to Redbird’s home and bring food and pay their respects. The celebration eventually became so large that it was moved to the ceremonial grounds near his home. This tradition continues today.

Around 1916, membership in the Nighthawks and Keetowah societies began to decline. With the loss of tribal land and attempted loss of tribal government, people became more and more disenchanted and acculturated with non-Indian society. However, those Keetowahs who gained spiritual strength from the Fire remained faithful As World War I progressed, many young Cherokees enlisted. A special ceremony was held each month for the protection of the young soldiers, and all of them came home. In 1917, the Nighthawk Keetowahs made a first of several community investments for their membership. Two hundred head of Aberdeen Angus cattle were bought.

The following year, in November of 1918, Redbird Smith passed away. He was buried with the death ceremony of the Keetowah. About a year earlier, he had wrote the following words, "I have endeavored in my efforts. . . for my people to remember that any religion must be an unselfish one. That even though condemned, falsely accused and misunderstood by both officials and my own people, I must press on and do the work of my convictions. This religion as revealed to me is larger than any man. It is beyond man’s understanding. It shall prevail after I am gone. It is growth like the child, it is growth eternal. This religion does not teach me to concern myself of the life that shall be after this, but it does teach me to be concerned with what my everyday life should be. The Fires kept burning are merely the greater Fire, the greater Light, the Great Spirit. I realize now as never before it is not only for the Cherokees but for all mankind. . ."

The History of Sequoyah
"And the Sequoyan Syllabary
for the Cherokee Language"

Information provided by the
Cherokee Nation Cultural Resource Center
E-mail: cultural@cherokee.org

[**Note: Cultural information may vary from clan
to clan, location to location, family to family,
and from differing opinions and experiences.
Information provided is not 'etched in stone'.]

---

History of Sequoyah, and the Sequoyan Syllabary for the Cherokee Language

"Your invention of the alphabet is worth more to your people than two bags full of gold in the hands of every Cherokee." -Sam Houston

Family tradition tells us that Sequoyah (S-si-qua-ya) was born west of Chillhowee Mountain, which is approximately one and a half miles east of Tasgigi, Monroe County, Tennessee. This location is only about 8 miles from Echota, the capital of the old Cherokee Nation. As far as his birth year, the best estimation is from 1760 to 1765. Sequoyah stated that when an Iroquoian Peace Delegation visited at New Echota in 1770, he was living with his mother as a small boy and remembered the events. While in Washington in 1828, he told Samuel Knapp he was about 65.

Although each signature of Sequoyah, which has been located, is in the Cherokee syllabary, which he invented, as S-si-qua-ya, an annotation on the Treaty of 1828 states his English name was George Guess.

As the traditional Cherokee society is matrilineal, and one’s clan is obtained through the mother, this information is of most relevance when researching the man’s history and background. Her name was Wu-te-he, and she belonged to the Red Paint Clan. She had two brothers, Tahlonteeska and Tahnoyanteehee. The only certain information regarding his father is a statement made during Sequoyah’s lifetime about his father, which appeared in the Cherokee Phoenix (August 13, 1828). This stated his paternal grandfather was a white man. Sequoyah’s father was half Cherokee and his mother a full blood. His father’s name has been identified as either George Gist, a German peddler, or Nathaniel Gist, a friend of George Washington’s and ancestor of the Blair family of Washington, D.C.

Sequoyah also had at least two brothers; one was named Tobacco Will who was a blacksmith in Arkansas and also a signer of the Cherokee Constitution. The Old Settler Chief, Dutch (U-ge-we-le-dv), was another brother.

While many historians have mentioned Sequoyah’s lameness, much speculation has been made regarding the origin of his condition. The Cherokee Advocate (June 26, 1845), gives the following information, "He was the victim of hydro arthritic trouble of the knee joint, commonly called ‘white swelling,’ and this affliction caused a lameness that characterized him during life." Because of this physical limitation, he worked for many years as a trader. His mother was of the same industry, and after her death in 1800, he carried on her business. He also later became a silversmith as well as a blacksmith. Making his own tools, such as hammers and drills, he also constructed his own bellows and forge.

In approximately 1809, Sequoyah gathered with some friends in his shop, and the conversation led to a discussion regarding the non-Indian’s method of communicating through writing. Many thought that it was some sort of witchcraft, but Sequoyah seemed to understand that the writing stood for words. He pondered devising a way for the Cherokee to be able to do the same thing, although many of those around him were skeptical.

Sequoyah's plans were interrupted by the War of 1812. He volunteered at Turkeytown on October 7, 1813, and a month later was involved in the battle of Tallaschatche. His total length of service was three months, but three weeks after the term ended, he reenlisted. On March 27, 1814, he fought in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. Just 15 days later, he was discharged and was paid $66.80 for 147 days of service.

In 1815, Sequoyah was married to Sally Waters of the Bird Clan. He parents were Robert and Lydia Otterlifter and her brother was Michael Waters, whose family later settled near the Sallisaw area. After his marriage, he continued to study the idea of a way to write the Cherokee language. The first attempts were to make a symbol for each word in the language, but very quickly the number of symbols was becoming astronomical. This caused him to become more selective in the form of writing the language, and he began listening more intently to the individual sounds that made up the words. After a long study, he realized that there were 85 individual syllables, which were used to make up the many words of the Cherokee language. He was then able to limit the symbols to a much smaller number than he originally developed and they could be used in combinations to form any word. His first student was his brother-in-law, Michael Waters, and the first to read and write with the invention was his daughter, A-Yo-Ka.

Although the system was foolproof and easy to learn, Sequoyah and A-Yo-Ka were charged with witchcraft, and were brought before George Lowery, their town chief, for trial. Due to a Cherokee law enacted in 1811, it was mandated to have a civil trial before an execution was allowed to take place. Lowery brought in a group of warriors to judge what was termed a 'sorcery trial'. For evidence of the literacy claims, the warriors separated Sequoyah and his daughter to have them send messages between each other until they were finally convinced that the symbols on paper really represented talking. At the end of the trial, the warriors asked Sequoyah to teach them. Within a week, all were able to read and write their own language. The warriors are known historically as a fierce war group of Cherokees, but with their protection, literacy spread throughout the Cherokee Nation. Within a very few months, a large part of the Nation had achieved literacy. This gift benefited not only the teachers and missionaries, but helped preserve history, culture and spiritual practices.

Dr. Samuel Worcester urged that type and a press be furnished to his mission so that scriptures could be translated into the native language, and the press evolved into a business which produced a newspaper, hymn books, hand bills and most other printing needs. The type, which was cast by Baker and Greene of Boston, was not identical to the designs Sequoyah originally developed, but were modified. Michael Waters had stated that "Sequoyah was studying for characters to make use of in printing and that he copied some of the letters from the Waters family Bible and said these would do for print and the old ones for writing."

The completion of the syllabary was accomplished after his arrival in present-day Polk County, Arkansas. He returned east in 1821 to present it to the tribe, and then returned to Indian Territory in 1822, where he first taught the written language in the west.

In 1824, the General Council of the Cherokee Nation voted to give Sequoyah a large silver medal as an honor for his creation of the syllabary. Because he did not return east for many years, Chief Path Killer and John Ross had it sent to him.

In January 1828, Sequoyah traveled with a group of "Old Settler" Arkansas Cherokees to Washington, D.C. to sign a treaty. Article Five was for the benefit of Sequoyah, "It is further agreed that the United States will pay five hundred dollars for the use of George Guess, a Cherokee, for the great benefit he has conferred upon the Cherokee people in the beneficial results they are now experiencing from the use of the alphabet discovered by him, to whom also in consideration of his relinquishing a valuable saline, the privilege is hereby given to locate and occupy another saline on Lee’s Creek." Lee’s Creek is located in present-day Sequoyah County, Oklahoma. Sequoyah received only $300 of this money.

In 1829, Sequoyah and 2500 other Cherokees were moved to the Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma by the United States government. The land was exchanged for the land they had been occupying in what was later to become Arkansas. The Osage Nation, however, occupied the land. Sequoyah settled near present-day Sallisaw, Oklahoma, where he built a log cabin, which is still standing and open to the public.

The Cherokee Advocate, June 26, 1845, gives a report of Sequoyah’s last travels as given by a Cherokee called "The Worm" who had traveled with him. In the spring of 1842, Sequoyah, his son Teesey, The Worm, and six others left Park Hill. They crossed the Arkansas River near Fort Gibson, passed the present town of Holdenville, then Edwards Settlement, and then traveled down the road laid out by Lt. Levensworth. Fifteen days further into their journey, they crossed the Red River near the present town of Sherman, Texas. For approximately 35 days, they traveled among the Wichita villages along the Red River. During this time, Sequoyah became very ill from a lack of food. After purchasing 3 bushels of corn from the Wichitas, his health improved. At that time, all of the party except The Worm and Teesey returned to the Cherokee Nation. The three continued on south to about 80 miles north of San Antonio, Texas, where all their horses were stolen. Instead of attempting to recover them, Sequoyah sent The Worm and Teesey on to San Antonio to see if they could obtain more horses as well as supplies. When they arrived, they were questioned and finally given supplies. However, no horses were to be spared, as they were in use by the U.S. Army. The Worm and Teesey returned to Sequoyah, and he told them he wished to stay where he was while they went on to find Mexican settlements to try and obtain horses. They found a cave where he could have shelter, gathering honey and venison to nourish him while they were on their journey. Their journey south took then nineteen days, at which time they came to a large river. They started working on a raft in order to cross it, and a Mexican on the other side called to them that there was a ferry further downstream. When they arrived at the ferry, The Worm and Teesey were taken to a town six miles away where they were presented to the head man. The next morning, "an officer came and requested us to walk about the town with him, we complied and followed him about for some time. . . . It being after the hour of 12 o’clock, there was but little business doing so nearly all the shops were closed. While yet rambling about the place, a soldier came to request us to go back to our lodgings, upon reaching which we found the soldiers on parade, ready to march off a short distance. By invitation, we joined them and kept along with them until we came to a kind of public square, where there were a number of large kettles containing soup, beef and bread. . . . From these large pots the waiters served the officers, ourselves, and the soldiers in order by taking up pieces of meat with a fork and giving it to us in our hands. What was given me I ate through politeness, but with some difficulty, so highly seasoned was it with pepper, some of which I was so unfortunate as to get in my eyes."

". . . After the second morning, we left and went to a town called San Cranto, about thirty miles away, where we spent the night. Our luck was good and we found a Cherokee, whose name was Standing Rock. He answered many of our questions. We were then assured it would give the Cherokees in Mexico great pleasure to see Sequoyah." Standing Rock then went with Teesey and The Worm to "the Cherokee village, situated within a large prairie, in a grove of timber, held a mile wide, and some three miles long and watered by means of a ditch, from a large spring some two miles distant" which was about 10 miles from San Cranto. Although the Cherokees were glad to see them, they were not able to provide any horses, as all of theirs had perished after their arrival in Mexico.

The party then returned to San Cranto where they were able to borrow a horse from the Mexican Army, and was supplied with bread, meat, salt, sugar and coffee for their trip. There were nine in the party. After seventeen days, they reached the Mauluke River and noticed the tracks of a man after they crossed it. They recognized the characteristic tracks of Sequoyah because of his limp. They traveled on to the cave and confirmed that he was not there; he had left a not bound to a tree which said that the water had rose within the cave and had washed away his supplies. He had decided to come on the way and to set fire to the grass as a trail so they could find him. They followed his trail and tracks and found evidence that he acquired a horse and food. The next day, they found his camp because they happened to hear the neighing of a horse. There they found him sitting by a fire. He had suffered greatly. He told them that some Delawares had given the horse and fresh supplies to him.

They stayed for five days, long enough to gain a good supply of meat. They all then continued on their journey and reached the river near the Mexican village. Sequoyah stayed in the village while The Worm went to recover the stolen horses. After some time, a party of Caddos returned from Mexico reported that Sequoyah had died.

"His death was sudden, having been long confined to the house, he requested one day some food, and while it was preparing, breathed his last."

Sequoyah's death was not reported in the Cherokee Nation for almost two years, when some Cherokees returned from Mexico and gave the following statement to Cherokee agent Pierce M. Butler, "Warrens trading house, Red River, April 21, 1845. . . . We the undersigned Cherokees direct from the Spanish dominions, do hereby certify that George Guess, of the Cherokee Nation, Arkansas, departed this life in the town of San Fernando in the month of August 1843. Given under our hands, day and date above, written Standing Rock, by mark, Standing Bowles, by mark, Watch Justice, by mark, witness Daniel C. Watson and Jesse Chilsom."

Another report to agent P.M. Butler, Ou-No-Leh stated that he had met with Teesey, The Worm, Gah-Ne-Nes-Kee, the Standing Man and the Standing Rock.

"The Standing Rock. . . attended Sequoyah during his last sickness and also witnessed his death and burial." The statement was dated May 15, 1845, Bayou District.

Between the years of 1809 and 1821, he accomplished a feat, which no other person in history has done single-handedly. Through the development of the Cherokee Syllabary, he brought our people literacy and the gift of communicating through long distances and the ages. This one person brought to his people this great gift without hired educators, no books and no cost.

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Cherokee Nation News Release (918) 453-5378 FAX (918) 458-6181 Cherokee Nation Director of Communications@cherokee.org © Cherokee Nation - All Rights Reserved June 24, 2007

Cherokee Nation General Election Results

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — Cherokee voters re-elected Principal Chief Chad Smith, elected 17 Council members and passed a referendum affirming a Constitutional amendment during the June 23 general election.

Smith received 7,974 votes, or 59% of the vote, beating challenger Stacy Leeds, who received 5,593 votes, or 41%.

The race for Deputy Chief saw incumbent Joe Grayson, Jr. defeating Raymond Vann. Grayson received 8,230 votes, 61% of the total cast. Vann finished with 5,205 votes, or 39%.

The following results for Council seats were decided at the polls on June 23:

District One - Cherokee District (Cherokee County - 2 Seats):

In Seat 1, incumbent Bill John Baker with 1576 votes (63%) defeated Barbara Dawes Martin who brought in 911 votes (37%). In Seat 2, incumbent Audra Smoke Connor will face-off against Tina Glory Jordan for the Seat 2 spot. Smoke Connor received 583 votes (24%) and Glory Jordan received 1083 votes (44%). David Walkingstick and Amon A. Baker, also vying for Seat 2, received 360 (15%) and 455 (18%) votes respectively.

District Two – Trail of Tears District (Adair County - 2 Seats)

In Seat 1, S. Joe Crittenden received 905 votes (57%) and defeated Rita Bunch, who garnered 690 votes (43%). In the race for Seat 2, incumbent Jackie Bob Martin who received 538 votes (33%) will face off with Jody Fishinghawk, who received 484 votes (30%). Other hopefuls in the Seat 2 race included Bob G. Leach with 286 votes (18%), Jack L. Christie with 281 votes (17.3%) and Ronnie Joe Hale with 34 votes (2%).

District Three – Sequoyah District (Sequoyah County - 2 Seats)

In the race for Seat 1, incumbent David W. Thornton with 612 votes narrowly defeated Sam Ed Bush, Jr. who received 610 votes. In Seat 2, challenger Janelle Lattimore Fullbright defeated incumbent Phyllis Yargee by a vote of 729 (58%) to 535 (42%).

District Four – Three Rivers District (Muskogee, Wagoner and McIntosh Counties – 1 Seat)

Incumbent Don Garvin will retain his seat, defeating challenger Micky Igert by a vote of 732 votes (69%) to 326 votes (31%).

District Five – Delaware District (Delaware and part of Ottawa Counties - 2 Seats)

In Seat 1, challenger Harley L. Buzzard with 610 votes (53%) won over incumbent Melvina Shotpouch who received 455 votes (40%) and Susan Lamb Reed with 87 votes (8%). In Seat 2, challenger Curtis G. Snell received 699 votes (67%) to defeat incumbent Linda Hughes O’Leary, who received 349 votes (33%).

District Six – Mayes District (Mayes County - 2 Seats)

In Seat 1, Chris Soap, 403 votes (56%) defeated Sue Fine, 250 votes (35%) and Jerry D. Troglin, 62 votes (9%). Meredith Frailey, who ran unopposed, will retain her position in Seat 2, with 615 votes.

District Seven – Will Rogers District (Rogers County - 1 Seat)

Incumbent Cara Cowan Watts will retain her seat with 716 votes (76%), defeating challenger Thelda Rucker Boen, who had 225 votes (24%).

District Eight – Oolagah District (Washington County & part of Tulsa County- 2 Seats)

For Seat 1, incumbent Buel Anglen, with 745 votes (75%), won over challenger Roy Herman, who had 250 votes (25%). For Seat 2, Bradley Cobb with 681 votes (69%) defeated Stephen D. Earley who received 304 votes (31%).

District Nine – Craig District (Nowata and Craig counties - 1 Seat)

Charles “Chuck” Hoskin, Jr., who received 490 votes (69%), defeated Rodney Lay who had 224 votes (31%).

At-Large District (outside the 14-county Cherokee Nation boundary - 2 Seats)

In Seat 1, Julia Coates, with 1,935 votes (74%) defeated Taylor Keen, who received 676 votes (26%). In Seat 2, Jack D. Baker, who had 1,952 votes (75%) will retain his seat, defeating challenger Sean R. Nordwall, who received 650 votes (25%).

In addition to the races held for elected officials, the resolution affirming the 2003 Constitutional amendment which removed the federal approval requirement from the Cherokee Nation Constitution, passed by a vote of 7,912 to 3,896 (67% to 33%).

Although results are not official until certified by the Cherokee Nation Election Commission, it is not expected that results will change significantly.

The run-off election for the two Council seats is scheduled for July 28, 2007.

For detailed election results, visit the Cherokee Nation web site at www.cherokee.org

Kanuchi

Kanuchi is considered to be a real delicacy. The nuts are gathered in the fall and allowed to dry for a few weeks before the kanuchi making begins. It is a simple process, but that does not necessarily mean that is easy. The hickory nuts are cracked and the largest pieces of shell removed either by shaking the pieces through a loosely woven basket, or picking them out by hand.

Traditionally, a log was hollowed out on one end into a bowl like shape. The shelled hickory nuts are placed in the hollowed log and pounded with a long heavy stick with the end rounded to have the same contour, more or less, as the cavity in the log. The nuts are pounded until they are of a consistency that can be formed into a ball that will hold its shape. Kanuchi balls are usually about three inches in diameter and must be stored in a cold place. Today kanuchi is usually preserved by freezing.

To prepare kanuchi for the table, place a kanuchi ball in a saucepan with about a quart of water and bring it to a boil to dissolve the ball. Allow the kanuchi to simmer about ten minutes and then poor it through a fine sieve. (A colander lined with cheese cloth works very well for this.) All the remaining shells are left in the sieve. If you have the time and patience you can pick the larger bits of nut meat from the shells in the sieve and add them to the liquid kanuchi. The kanuchi should be about as thick as light cream. Most traditional cooks will add about two cups of homemade hominy to a quart of kanuchi. Some cooks prefer hominy grits, which are prepared according to package directions and added to the kanuchi. Others add cooked rice. Such things as consistency and how much hominy or hominy grits to add are, of course a matter of taste, as is the addition of salt or sugar.

Serve kanuchi hot as soup.

The John Howard Payne papers, a document from 1835 where elders were interviewed for their knowledge, states that a thick drink was made from hickory nuts which had been pounded, but it was made with cold water and allowed to thicken without the addition of hominy or rice.

Info provided by various sources.