Iʻnadu-naʻi—“Going snake,” a Cherokee chief prominent about eighty years ago. The name properly signifies that the person is “going along in company with a snake,” the verbal part being from the irregular verb astaʻi, “I am going along with him.” The name has been given to a district of the present Cherokee Nation.
iʻnageʻhi—dwelling in the wilderness, an inhabitant of the wilderness; from iʻnageʻi “wilderness,” and ehi, habitual present form of ehu, “he is dwelling”; geʻu, “I am dwelling.”
Iʻnage-utasunʻhi—“he who grew up in the wilderness,” i. e., “He who grew up wild”; from iʻnageʻi, “wilderness, unoccupied timber land,” and utasunʻhi, the third person perfect of the irregular verb gaʻtunskuʻ, “I am growing up.”
Inaʻli—Black-fox; the common red fox in tsuʻla (in Muscogee, chula). Black-fox was principal chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1810.
Iskagua—Name for “Clear Sky,” formerly “Nenetooyah or the Bloody Fellow.” The name appears thus in a document of 1791 as that of a Cherokee chief frequently mentioned about that period under the name of “Bloody Fellow.” In one treaty it is given as “Eskaqua or Bloody Fellow.” Both forms and etymologies are doubtful, neither form seeming to have any reference either to “sky” (galunʻlahi) or “blood” (giʻga). The first may be intended for Ik-eʻgwa, “Great day.”
Istanare—see Ustanaʻli.
Itaba—see Iʻtawaʻ.
Itaguʻnahi—the Cherokee name of John Ax.
Iʻtawaʻ—The name of one or more Cherokee settlements. One, which existed until the Removal in 1838, was upon Etowah river, about the present Hightower, in Forsyth county, Ga. Another may have been on Hightower creek of Hiwassee river in Towns county, Ga. The name, commonly written Etowah and corrupted to Hightower, cannot be translated and seems not to be of Cherokee origin. A town, called Itaba, Ytaun or Ytava in the De Soto chronicles, existed in 1540 among the Creeks, apparently on Alabama river.
Itsaʻti—commonly spelled Echota, Chota, Chote, Choquata (misprint), etc.; a name occurring in several places in the old Cherokee country; the meaning is lost. The most important settlement of this name, frequently distinguished as Great Echota, was on the south side of Little Tennessee. It was the ancient capital and sacred “Peace town” of the Nation. Little Echota was on Sautee (i. e., Itsʻti) creek, a head stream of the Chattahoochee, west of Clarksville, Ga. New Echota, the capital of the Nation for some years before the Removal, was established at a spot originally known as Gansaʻgi (q. v.) at the junction of the Oostanaula and Canasauga rivers, in Gordon county, Ga. It was sometimes called Newton. The old Macedonia mission on Soco creek, of the N. C. reservation, is also known as Itasʻti to the Cherokee, as was also the great Nacoochee mound. See Nagutsiʻ.