CHEROKI.
Intercourse between the Creek and the Cheroki Indians must have taken place in prehistoric times, as evidenced by local names, and more so by Cheroki terms adopted into the Creek language.
The Cheroki, or more correctly, Tsálagi nation is essentially a hill people; their numerous settlements were divided into two great sections by the watershed ridge of the Alleghany mountains, in their language Unéga katúsi ("white, whitish mountains"), of which even now a portion is called "Smoky Mountains." Northwest of that ridge lay the Cheroki villages of the Overhill settlement, Ótari, Ótali ("up, above"), along the Great and Little Tennessee rivers and their tributaries, while southeast of it, in the mountains of North Carolina and on the head waters of the Georgia rivers, extended the towns of the Lower Cheroki, or Erati (in Cheroki élati, below, nether). There were also a number of Cheroki villages in the northern parts of Alabama State, and du Pratz distinctly states, that the "Chéraquies" lived east of the Abé-ikas.[13] While calling a person of their own people by the name of Atsálagi, in the plural Anitsálagi, they comprise all the Creeks under the name of Kúsa, from Coosa river, or more probably from the ancient, far-famed town of the same name: Agúsa, Kúsa, Gúsa, a Creek person; Anigúsa, the Creek people; Gúsa uniwoní'hsti, the Creek language.
The Cheroki language was spoken in many dialects before the people emigrated to the lands allotted to them in the northeastern part of the Indian Territory, and even now a difference may be observed between the Western Cheroki and the Eastern or Mountain Cheroki, which is the language of the people that remained in the hills of Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee.[14] Mr. Horatio Hale has recently demonstrated the affinity of Cheroki with the Iroquois stock;[15] Wendát and Tuscarora form other dialectic branches of it, showing much closer relation to the Iroquois dialects of Western New York than Cheroki. Thirty-two terms of the Keowe dialect (Lower Cheroki), taken down by B. Hawkins, are embodied in an unpublished vocabulary, which is in the possession of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.[16] Another ancient dialect is that of Kitówa or Kitúa; this is the name by which the Cheroki are known among several northern tribes, as Delawares and Sháwano (cf. below); it was also the name of a secret society among the Cheroki, which existed at the time of the Secession war.
The Cheroki Indians are bodily well developed, rather tall in stature and of an irritable temper, flashing up easily. In the eighteenth century they were engaged in constant wars, and from their mountain fastnesses made sallies upon all the surrounding Indian tribes. The Iroquois or "Northern Indians" attacked them in their own country, as they also did the Kataba and Western Algonkins. A warlike spirit pervaded the whole Cheroki nation, and even women participated in their raids and fights.[17]
Wm. Bartram states, that the Cheroki men had a lighter and more olive complexion than the contiguous Creek tribes, adding that some of their young girls were nearly as fair and blooming as European women. H. Timberlake, who visited a portion of their villages (on Great Tennessee river) in 1762, represents them as of a middle stature, straight, well built, with small heads and feet, and of an olive color, though generally painted. They shaved the hair of their heads, and many of the old people had it plucked out by the roots, the scalp-lock only remaining. The ears were slit and stretched to an enormous circumference, an operation which caused them incredible pain and was adopted from the Sháwano or some other northern nation. The women wore the hair long, even reaching to the knees, but plucked it out from all the other parts of the body, especially the looser part of the sex (Memoirs, pp. 49-51). Polygamy then existed among them. They erected houses extending sometimes from sixty to seventy feet in length, but rarely over sixteen in width, and covered them with narrow boards. Some of these houses were two stories high, and a hot-house or sudatory stood close to every one of these capacious structures. They also made bark canoes and canoes of poplar[18] or pine, from thirty to forty feet long and about two feet broad, with flat bottoms and sides. Pottery was made by them of red and white clay (Ibid., pp. 59-62).
The male population was divided into a class of head-men or chiefs, recruited by popular election, the selection being made among the most valorous men and the best orators in their councils; and in two classes of "yeomen": the "warriors" and the "fighting men," these being inferior to the warriors.
Distinction in reward of exploits was conferred through the honorary titles of Outacity, "man killer," Kolona, "raven" and "Beloved," names to which parallels will be found among the Creeks. (Ibid., pp. 70, 71.)
Seven clans or gentes exist among the Cheroki, and many of them observe to the present day the regulations imposed by the gentile organization. They will not marry into their own gens or phratry, for instance. The totems of these gentes (anatáyaⁿwe, gens, clan) were obtained in 1880 from Mr. Richard Wolf, delegate of the people to the United States government, as follows:
1. Aniweyahiá anatáyaⁿwe, wolf gens, the most important of all.
2. Ane-igilóhi anatáyaⁿwe, long hair gens.
3. Anigodegē′we, the gens to which Mr. Wolf belongs. They can marry into all gentes, except into the long hair clan, because this contains their "aunts" (ä`loki).
4. Anitsī′skwa, bird gens.
5. Aniwō′te, paint gens; (wō′te, wo′de, clay; aniwō′ti, paint).
6. Anigo-ulé, anikulé, acorn gens.
7. Anisahóne, blue gens.