Cherokee Blue Eyes: Keeping the Heritage Alive

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Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Showing of 1 reviews. Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. However, the title isn't about those few tribes but instead it's a way of representing people who have less indian blood in their DNA and therefore have a greater chance of blue eyes instead of the traditional brown.

This is not why I gave it 2 stars though, because even if it wasn't exactly what she wanted to learn about, it was still about Cherokee indians. So my review is not based on her misunderstanding. My mom ordered me a book when she ordered her own, before reading it yet. My grandmother saw it and wanted one as well.

So the three of us have the book and we came to a group decision. My grandmother points out that the author repeats the same things over and over as if to "fill" the book, as she puts it. My mother points out that he takes a very long time to continually say things that give the effect that he doesn't want to offend anyone, and then gives his opinion which seems to be the same things re-worded. She also says that she feels as though she learned nothing new from this book. My problem is the errors I found in the book.

I can't stand when I find typos and such things, it makes me feel as though the book was just spit out and published. For a few, examples near the beginning, on page 4 paragraph 3 he states, "I see ambitious young people that are seeking a chance to become what THAT want to be. So, I ignore it and continue, but only a few pages later I find what I believe to be another mistake. Page 7 paragraph 3, he begins to say that people make judgements because he lives 3 hours from a tribe then continues to say, "They are right, there is no possible way that a Cherokee could WONDER that far. There is nothing more sacred than remembering your Native American ancestors whose tears still remain.

Cherokee Blue Eyes beckons you to reach deep into your soul and honor those before you. The author describes his views of such a gesture and the controversy that one may face while doing so. Running much deeper than membership cards and blood quantum, this book will show that the love of your heritage keeps the fire in your heart perpetually alive. The Enlightened Sex Manual. A Tale of Desert Captivity and Survival. Medicine Man, Missionary, Mystic. Lewis and Clark Through Indian Eyes.

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Factors that Led to the U. Sustaining the Cherokee Family. The Removal of the Winnebago Indians. Far Away in the West. The Cherokee economy was based on agriculture, hunting, and fishing. Tasks were differentiated by gender, with women responsible for agriculture and the distribution of food, and men engaged in hunting and gathering. After contact, trade with Europeans formed a significant part of the Cherokee economy. During the eighteenth century, the Cherokee population was reduced by disease and warfare, and treaties with the English significantly decreased their landholdings.

Cherokees fought in numerous military conflicts, including the Cherokee War against the British and the American Revolution , in which they fought against the rebels. Cherokees were known as powerful allies, and they attempted to use warfare to their benefit, siding with or against colonists when they perceived it to help their strategic position. By the nineteenth century, Cherokee society was becoming more diverse. Intermarriage with traders and other Europeans created an elite class of Cherokees who spoke English, pursued education in premier U.

Missionaries lived within the nation, and an increasing number of Cherokees adopted Christianity. Following European models of government, Cherokees wrote and passed their own constitution in Sequoyah invented a Cherokee alphabet in , and the Cherokee Phoenix, a national Newspaper, was founded in In the s and s, the Cherokee nation was at the center of many important and controversial decisions regarding Native American sovereignty.

American settlers living around the Cherokees were anxious to acquire tribal lands. As early as , some Cherokees accepted land in Indian Territory now northeastern Oklahoma and relocated peacefully. After years of resistance to removal, a small faction of the Cherokee Nation signed the Treaty of New Echota in , exchanging the tribe's land in the East for western lands, annuities, and the promise of self-government. Some moved west at that time, but most rejected the treaty and refused to leave their homes.

In and , the majority of Cherokees were forced to make the journey, many on foot, from their. Over 12, men, women, and children embarked upon the trail west, but over one-fourth of them died as a result of the journey. Due to the harsh conditions of the journey and the tragedy endured, the trip was named the Trail of Tears. The Cherokees' trauma has become emblematic of all forced removals of Native Americans from lands east of the Mississippi, and of all of the tragedies that American Indians have suffered at the hands of the U.

A number of Cherokees separated from those heading west and settled in North Carolina. These people and their descendents are known as the Eastern Cherokee.

Today, this portion of the tribe, in addition to the United Keetoowah Band and the Cherokee Nation, form the three major groups of contemporary Cherokees. After the survivors of the Trail of Tears arrived in Indian Territory they were commonly called the Ross party, due to their allegiance to their principal chief, John Ross , a period of turmoil ensued. Although this conflict was eventually resolved, tension remained and was exacerbated by the Civil War. During the war the Cherokee Nation officially allied itself with the Confederacy, but many Cherokee men fought for the Union.

The Civil War destroyed Cherokee lives and property, and the Union victory forced the tribe to give up even more of its land. During the second half of the nineteenth century, members of the Cherokee Nation rebuilt their government.

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By the end of the century it boasted a national council, a justice system, and medical and educational systems to care for its citizens. In the s, the U. Congress passed legislation mandating the allotment of land previously held in common by citizens of the Cherokee Nation. In , in anticipation of Oklahoma statehood, the federal government unilaterally dissolved the sovereign government of the Cherokee Nation.

Many Cherokee landowners were placed under restrictions, forced to defer to a guardian to manage their lands. Graft and corruption tainted this system and left many destitute. Despite this turmoil, many played an active role in governing the new state of Oklahoma, and Cherokees in Oklahoma and North Carolina kept their traditions alive. In the s, Cherokees pursued ways to commemorate their traditions and consolidate tribal affiliations. They formed organizations such as the Cherokee National Historical Society and initiated the Cherokee National Holiday, a celebration of their arts and government.

In , they elected a chief for the first time since Oklahoma statehood, beginning the process of revitalizing their government. In , Wilma Mankiller was elected the first woman chief. The renewed interest in tribal politics and the strength of services continues in the Cherokee Nation. After the Trail of Tears: The Cherokees' Struggle for Sovereignty, — University of North Carolina Press, Gender and Culture Change, — University of Nebraska, Formerly the largest and most important tribe in the Southeast, they occupied mountain areas of North and South Carolina , Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee.

The Cherokee language belongs to the Iroquoian branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock see Native American languages. By the 16th cent. Hernando De Soto visited them in They were frequently at war with the Iroquois tribes of New York but proved generally valuable allies for the British against the French.

Soon after , smallpox destroyed almost half the tribe. Formerly friendly with Carolina settlers, they were provoked into war with the colonists in , and two years followed before the Cherokee sued for peace. In they adopted a republican form of government, and in they established themselves as the Cherokee Nation, with their capital at New Echota, in N Georgia, under a constitution providing for an elective principal chief, a senate, and a house of representatives.

Literacy was aided by the invention of a Cherokee syllabic alphabet by Sequoyah. Its 85 characters, representing the syllables of the Cherokee language, permitted the keeping of tribal records and, later, the publication of newspapers. The s discovery of gold in Cherokee territory resulted in pressure by whites to obtain their lands. A treaty was extracted from a small part of the tribe, binding the whole people to move beyond the Mississippi River within three years. Although the Cherokee overwhelmingly repudiated this document and the U.

Supreme Court upheld the nation's autonomy, the state of Georgia secured an order for their removal, which was accomplished by military force.

President Andrew Jackson refused to intervene, and in the tribe was deported to the Indian Territory now in Oklahoma. Thousands died on the march, known as the "Trail of Tears," or from subsequent hardships. Their leader at this time and until was Chief John Ross. The Cherokee made their new capital at Tahlequah Okla. Civil War their allegiance was divided between North and South, with large contingents serving on each side.

By a new treaty at the close of the war they freed their black slaves and admitted them to tribal citizenship, but in the Cherokee voted to strip the descendants of those slaves of their citizenship; the change took effect in after it was upheld by the tribal supreme court. In the Cherokee sold their western territorial extension, known as the Cherokee Strip ; in they approved the division of the reservation into allotments; and in tribal sovereignty was abolished.

Tribal entities still exist, however, and many Oklahoma Cherokee live on tribal landholdings. With a population of about ,, the Cherokee, while scattered, are by far the largest Native American group in the United States. Close to 6,, the descendants of the few who successfully resisted removal or returned after the removal, live on the Eastern Cherokee Qualla reservation in W North Carolina.

Starkey, The Cherokee Nation , repr. Malone, Cherokees of the Old South ; J. Gulick, Cherokees at the Crossroads ; D. Corkran, The Cherokee Frontier: Conflict and Survival, — ; G. Woodward, The Cherokee ; I. Peithmann, Red Men of Fire ; T. Wilkins, Cherokee Tragedy ; J. Ehle, Trail of Tears ; L. Filler, The Removal of the Cherokee Nation They sided with the British during the American Revolution. When gold was discovered on their land in Georgia in the s, they were forced to move w. In the nineteenth century, the Cherokee shifted from a tribal government to a republic based on that of the United States.

Their first constitution, adopted in , established distinct executive, judicial, and legislative branches. By that point, the Cherokee had an advanced culture that focused primarily on agriculture. However, given their location in the Appalachians, they remained quite isolated from the Europeans. When the Virginia colony was founded in , the Cherokee began to maintain more contact with the British. This contact became almost continuous once the Carolina colonies were established in the s.

First, the Cherokee began to shift their focus from agriculture to trading for various goods. Second, even though they only maintained contact with white traders, their system of government slowly evolved. Previously, elders and priests were the leaders; after contact with the Europeans was established, the younger men the warriors took over and become more focused on profit. From the s to the mid- to late s the Cherokee fought a number of wars with the Iroquois tribes to the north, and their dependence on trade goods led them to become allies with the British against the French and Spanish.

Between the s and s they were decimated by several waves of smallpox that eventually reduced their tribe by half. By the s tension had grown between the state of Georgia and the Cherokee, because the former did not want a group of people to live independently within its borders, whereas the latter did not want to move elsewhere or lose their cultural identity.

As a result, Georgia signed the Compact of Georgia of , in which Georgia agreed to cede the land that eventually became Alabama and Mississippi; in return, the U. When the Cherokee refused to move, the government elected not to force them. In an attempt to improve their relations with their white neighbors, the Cherokee decided to merge their own culture with that of the Americans.

By the Cherokee had abandoned the tribal structure of their government and replaced it with a representative republic made up of executive, legislative, and judicial branches. In they wrote their constitution and declared themselves the Cherokee Nation, with their capitol in northern Georgia. The constitution was written in their own language, which had been given a syllabary script in which each character represents a syllable in by Sequoya c. In John — Ross was elected chief.

Modeled on the U. The territory was divided into eight districts. The legislative branch of government was made up of two bodies: The executive branch was headed by a principal chief and assistant principal chief, both selected by the General Council to serve four-year terms.

Each law passed by both houses of the legislature was to be signed by the principal chief within five days or returned to the legislative house in which it originated for further consideration. If the law was then passed again by two-thirds of each house, it became law over the objections of the principal chief. The two chiefs were advised by a committee of three counselors selected annually by the legislature. The judicial branch included a Supreme Court made up of three judges selected by the legislature to serve four-year terms, as well as Circuit Courts and justices of the peace.

Individuals with Cherokee blood qualified for citizenship, with the specific exception of those with African ancestry. The vote was restricted to free males of at least eighteen years old, again specifically excluding those of African ancestry. Stand Watie — and Major Ridge — were part of a small faction—the Western Cherokee—that believed that relocating the Cherokee was in the best interest of the tribe. The tension increased when the Cherokee Nation sent a commission to Washington, D.

The two parties eventually agreed on the terms and signed the Treaty of New Echota. Despite protests by the Eastern Cherokee, Congress ratified the treaty. In Watie, Ridge, and most of the Western Cherokee moved west. In Georgia passed a series of laws that denied Cherokee their rights, with the intention of driving the Cherokee from their tribal lands.

In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia the Cherokee argued that these laws would effectively put them out of existence, but the U. Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee Nation was not a state and therefore was not under the jurisdiction of the Court. However, in Worcester v. Georgia the Court also ruled that Georgia could not impose its laws on the Cherokee Nation.

When Cherokee Nation officials learned of this treaty, they maintained that it was invalid because they did not approve it. Senate approved the treaty by one vote in In the Cherokee submitted a petition of protest containing fifteen thousand signatures to President Martin Van Buren — Ignoring the petition, Van Buren ordered General Winfield Scott — to forcibly remove any Cherokee who still remained behind to their new land in the west.

The forced — migration became known as the Trail of Tears, during which the Cherokee were driven more than eight hundred miles in less than four months; about four thousand Cherokee died due to starvation, disease, and exposure. Left behind were approximately one thousand Cherokee who had either managed to obtain U.

They formed the basis of what is now known as the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation. In the United States government dissolved the government of the Cherokee Nation in preparation for Oklahoma being granted statehood, and the following year, when Oklahoma became a state, the Cherokee became U. In later years the Cherokee Nation, along with other Native American groups, was federally recognized as a sovereign tribal government. Like state governments, tribal governments have jurisdiction over local matters and have the right to impose taxes and enforce civil and criminal laws.

They are subject to the federal laws of the United States. In a Cherokee committee amended the constitution, and in Cherokee voters ratified these amendments by a large margin. Among the amendments, the Cherokee revoked citizenship to the Cherokee Freedmen descendants of African slaves , provoking intense controversy. For the first time in nearly years, the Western Band of the Cherokee Nation met with the Eastern Band in a joint council in Since then, the two bands gather in a joint council every two years.

According to the Census, , people identified themselves as Cherokee and another , identified themselves as part Cherokee. The Cherokee Nation is the largest of the Native American tribes. The Cherokee run several businesses, including Cherokee Nation Industries, which is a large defense contractor. University of New Mexico Press, The Cherokee originally lived in parts of eight present-day southeastern states: In tribal lands of the Cherokee Nation spanned , acres throughout 14 counties in northeastern Oklahoma.

Although it is not a reservation, the U. In the early twenty-first century most Cherokee live in northeastern Oklahoma, North Carolina , and Tennessee. In there were an estimated fifty thousand Cherokee. From the mids to the s there were about twenty-five thousand. In a the U.

Census, , people identified themselves as Cherokee.

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In the census that number dropped to ,, but the Chrerokee kept their status as the largest tribe in the United States. Many people also claim some Cherokee blood; , people said they have a Cherokee ancestor. Many historians believe that the very early ancestors of the Cherokee moved from territory that is now Mexico and Texas to the Great Lakes region. Then between three thousand and four thousand years ago, after enduring conflicts with the Iroquois and the Delaware tribes, the Cherokee moved again—this time to the southeastern part of the present-day United States.

Their traditional enemy was the Chickasaw tribe. In the early s there were three major tribal groups and more than fifty other organizations in at least twelve states that claimed to have Cherokee origins. Before the arrival of Europeans in their territory in the Cherokee were an agricultural people numbering about 50, who controlled 40, square miles , square kilometers of land.

Over the years the tribe lost many of its people to wars and to diseases brought by white settlers. White people coined this term because these groups had formed institutions that white culture valued, such as constitutional governments and school systems. This, however, did not help them when settlers wanted their land. During the nineteenth century the U. They formed a new government and school systems in Indian Territory , but the U. In spite of these tragedies the Cherokees went on to become the largest Native American group in the United States and to enjoy a high standard of living.

The Cherokee people were actually a confederacy consisting of as many as two hundred separate towns nestled in the river valleys of the southern Appalachian Mountains. The people in these towns shared a common language and customs, but each town had its own chief, and there was no overall chief or government for the confederacy. The Cherokee had been farming in the southern Appalachian region for one thousand years when they first encountered Europeans in , as Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto c.

After that the Cherokee had very little contact with outsiders until the s, when white traders moved into the region. The tribe traded with them for manufactured goods such as metal tools, glass, cloth, and firearms. In exchange they supplied the whites with deerskins, which became an important source of leather in Europe.

This partnership changed the Cherokee culture. The people no longer farmed and hunted for survival. Instead they engaged in buying and selling, and hunters replaced priests as the leaders of Cherokee society. For generations the tribe had shown great respect for nature, but eighteenth-century Cherokee hunter-traders killed as many deer as they could to keep up with the booming fur trade. One report shows that the number of deerskins the Cherokee sold in a year increased from fifty thousand in to around one million in Further changes took place when white traders built stores near Cherokee towns and married Cherokee women.

Instead of remaining with their people, women often went to live with their white husbands. Traditional Cherokee people did not accumulate possessions, but the children of these couples inherited personal wealth. In the peace treaties that followed each of these wars, they lost large portions of their lands. With the creation of the state of Oklahoma, the government abolishes the Cherokee tribal government and school system, and the dream of a Native American commonwealth dissolves. The first modern-day meeting between the Eastern Band and the Cherokee Nation is held.

Between and several groups of Cherokee moved westward in an attempt to hold their culture together against the threat of increasing numbers of white settlers. By this group had five thousand members. But the majority of the Cherokee people stayed in their southeastern homeland.

Terrible smallpox epidemics raged in the mids, killing nearly half the Cherokee population. A series of treaties between and resulted in the loss of even more Cherokee land. Christian missionaries joined with government forces to make the Cherokee assimilate to, or adopt, white culture. Many Cherokee had already turned away from traditional ways in the hopes that the government would let them stay in their homelands. Two conflicting factions arose within the Cherokee nation.

One was called the Treaty Party. Its members, who were mostly well-to-do slave-holders, merchants, and plantation-owners, believed in assimilation. They thought the Cherokee should sell their homelands in Georgia to the U. Resistance, they warned, would be a disaster for the Cherokee. They created a law under which selling or bargaining away Cherokee land was an offense against the tribe punishable by death. His system used a syllabary—a writing code using symbols for syllables rather than for single letter sounds as in the English alphabet.

Many Cherokee quickly learned to read and write in the Cherokee syllabary. From to the Cherokee Phoenix, a weekly newspaper printed in both English and Cherokee, was published and widely read. In the early s the Cherokee established a capital in New Echota, Georgia. They wrote a constitution for a government in that was, in many ways, similar to the U.

They wished to establish their own government and the right to preserve their homelands in Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama. The Georgia legislature, however, passed a series of laws that abolished the Cherokee government and appropriated took for itself Cherokee land. When the state of Georgia tried to remove the Cherokee from their lands, the Cherokee took the case to the U. They based their case on a clause in the Constitution that allows foreign nations to seek redress compensation or remedy in the Supreme Court for damages caused by U. The court ruled that Native American nations are not foreign nations but dependent, domestic nations.

Up until that time, U. Although the Cherokee lost this case, in a case in the Supreme Court ruled that Georgia could not remove the Cherokee from their land, stating that only the federal government had the right to regulate Native American affairs; states could not extend their laws over Native American governments. But this Cherokee victory was temporary. During the s the U. In the U. Indian Territory at the time was comprised of what are now Oklahoma, Kansas, and parts of Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming.

Supreme Court that the Removal Act went against the terms of the U. Instead he made plans to enforce the Removal Act. Angry Cherokee leaders refused to talk with government agents about an exchange of their land for land in Indian Territory. The majority of the Cherokee people were outraged at the signing of such a treaty. The Treaty Party was a small group with neither the authority nor the right to represent the entire tribe. In response Chief Ross and sixteen thousand tribal members signed a petition of protest against the treaty.

Senate passed the treaty anyway, however, and ordered the tribe to move west within two years. Most of the Cherokee refused to leave voluntarily. Seven thousand government troops removed the Cherokee from their homes, gathered them in disease-infested camps, and then forced them to travel about miles 1, kilometers , many on foot, for three to five months to reach what was to be their new homeland. The Native Americans set off on their journey without food, supplies, or shelter. Once on the trail whites attacked them and stole the few possessions they managed to carry along. About 17, Cherokees began the tragic march, and before it was over about 2, of them had died.

Some were left unburied at the side of the road.

The route of the forced march—a painful reminder of an agonizing experience in Native American history—was later named the Trail of Tears. In North Carolina about one thousand Cherokee escaped removal with the help of state officials who were sympathetic to them. One North Carolinian, William H. Thomas called Wil-Usdi by the Cherokee , bought land in his name for the Cherokee, went to court in their defense, and even visited Washington, D.

Once they moved into Indian Territory, conflicts among the Cherokee were initially intense. As the Cherokee groups settled into their new home, a new leadership—sometimes called the National Party —arose and worked to establish an effective form of government. The National Party invited the full participation of the two other Cherokee groups already living in Indian Territory: In whites had forced them to move farther west to Indian Territory, where they set up their community according to their old ways.

The Old Settlers resented the arrival of the newcomers, and the three Cherokee groups could not reach any agreement. Several years of violent conflicts came to an end with a ceremonial day of unity in , during which the Cherokee people dedicated themselves to making the best of their circumstances. They did this to avoid being divided into two tribes by the U. The American Civil War —65; a war between the Union [the North], who were opposed to slavery, and the Confederacy [ the South ], who were in favor of slavery threatened to divide the tribe once again.

Chief John Ross at first favored neutrality not taking sides. In time, however, he agreed to fight on the side of the Confederacy—a move encouraged by wealthy Cherokee landowners who held a lot of power in the Cherokee Nation and favored the South. The Old Settlers and many others, however, joined the Union Army. Experts estimate that 25 percent of the entire Cherokee population died in the Civil War. In new treaties signed in and large portions of Cherokee lands were taken for use by the railroads, for white settlements, and to house other Native American tribes.

Thus began a series of broken promises that the government had made to the Cherokee.

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Within fifteen years whites outnumbered Natives in Indian Territory. For years the Cherokee earned money by providing grazing land to white ranchers for their cattle. Without explanation, the government halted the grazing land practice in The poverty-stricken Cherokee were forced to sell their land to white settlers. Worse luck followed when terrible dust storms forced many Cherokee farmers to leave Oklahoma in the s. In the s, after years of hardship for the Cherokee, the U. Since that time the Cherokee tribe in Oklahoma has become a national leader in education, health care, housing, and economic matters.

The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma adopted a new constitution in , elected its own officials, and began governing itself once again. While the Cherokee Nation adapted to its western home, the Cherokee that had remained in North Carolina organized in the East. The people called themselves the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. In the tribe reached an agreement with the U. In more than thirty thousand people attended a two-day meeting at which representatives of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and the Eastern Band discussed common concerns.

The two groups continue to meet for cultural exchange programs and joint Tribal Council meetings to address issues of concern for all of the Cherokee people. At that point in time a group of Cherokee refused to adopt the white way of life and instead agreed to trade their lands in North Carolina for lands farther west in Arkansas, where they lived for the next eleven years. In , however, the federal government removed them from Arkansas to Indian Territory, where they set up their headquarters in Talequah, Oklahoma. Because they did not intermarry with whites as other Cherokee groups did, the descendants of the UKB represent the largest group of full-blood Cherokee people in the United States.

They prefer the name Keetoowah to Cherokee. The UKB have retained traditional ways to a greater extent than other groups, and many still speak the Keetoowah language. As part of the Indian Removal Policy of , the Western Territory Bill called for the establishment of an Indian commonwealth or territory in the removal area. It was to be governed by a confederation of tribes and was to be composed of present-day Kansas, Oklahoma, parts of Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming. As other states were organized, the U.

By this territory, known as Indian Territory, was the only unorganized territory without a state government in the lower forty-eight states. In the Oklahoma Organic Act reduced Indian Territory to the eastern portion of the territory and established a U. After much dispute, the U. The promise of a free Native American state dissolved. In Chronicles of Oklahoma historian Edward E. I went to bed and cried all night long. Since Oklahoma became a state Native American tribes have kept their status as self-governing and independent communities, except for limitations placed on them by treaties, agreements, or laws.

Oklahoma Indians have the lowest income level and the highest unemployment rates of any of the population of Oklahoma. Native Americans once owned all the land in the state of Oklahoma. By Oklahoma tribal lands amounted to only 65, acres. Individual Native Americans owned about one million acres. In the early twenty-first century,about four hundred thousand Oklahomans identify themselves as Native Americans—more than in any other state.

In a mile kilometer radius around the city of Tulsa, there is the highest non-reservation population of Native Americans anywhere in the world. As far back as the s the Cherokee tribe was divided in its religious beliefs. The Sun took over and created plants, animals, and people, then continued to watch over and preserve the Earth. The Cherokee holding these beliefs worshiped various heavenly bodies, animals, and fire.

They had messengers who visited the world to take care of human affairs. The two groups of believers participated in the same ceremonies. For both, the primary god was the Creator, who was called Yo wah or Ye ho waah. Where there was order, there was goodness; where there was disorder and confusion, there was evil, represented by Uktena , a creature who was part snake, part deer, and part bird. Cherokee ways changed when Europeans came, and many Cherokee converted to Christianity; today many belong to Protestant Christian churches.

During the early s, though, some Cherokee chose not to adopt white religion and ideas. The elders formed a secret society to keep the old ways alive. The Keetoowah tribe in Oklahoma still practices the Stomp Dance religion. In the early twenty-first century there are several ceremonial dance grounds in Oklahoma that belong to the Keetoowah, where traditional Native ceremonies are held. The Cherokee language is the southern branch of the Iroquoian language. It is quite different from northern Iroquoian languages like Mohawk see entry.

In the Cherokee language verbs and nouns are not single words, but phrases that include descriptions of an action or object. Cherokee differs from English and other European languages by placing the subject of a sentence after the object. Cherokee believe that humans often the subjects of sentences are not superior to other living things often the objects of sentences but rather are equal to and partners with all creation. The Cherokee language has its own unique written form. In the early s a Cherokee man named Sequoyah invented a system for writing the Cherokee language.

Soon most Cherokee could read and write their language. In the late s at least fourteen thousand people spoke Cherokee, and schools in Cherokee communities offered classes in both English and Cherokee.

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Those who sought to preserve the language shot video footage of Native speakers, who were careful to pronounce words properly and assume the correct facial expressions as they spoke. In the Cherokee Nation began a ten-year program to increase language usage in the home and community. Although only 15 percent of the people spoke the language at that time, their fifty-year goal was for 80 percent to become fluent. In traditional times each Cherokee town had a chief who led in wartime and a priest who led in peacetime.

Chiefs sought the guidance of a town council, made up of men and women who discussed issues until they reached an agreement. In early times the Cherokee did not have a single chief who ruled over all, and the entire group came together only for ceremonies and wars. During the nineteenth century they created the post of principal chief to unify the nation, especially in its dealings with whites.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee formed in Its current government is made up of a principal chief, a vice-chief, and a member tribal council whose members are elected to two-year terms. The council deals with tribal issues, while another group runs the court system.

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