Cherokee

There is a county in Georgia, USA, called Cherokee County, Georgia, which see for more details.

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The Cherokee are a people native to North America, who first inhabited the Ozark Plateau before moving into what is now the eastern and southeastern United States.

Ethnologists today recognize that 5 to 7 million Cherokee descendants live worldwide.

Bands recognized by the United States government, but representing only 250,000 Cherokees, have headquarters in Tahlequah, Oklahoma (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma at http://www.cherokee.org (http://www.cherokee.org)), Cherokee, North Carolina[?] (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians at http://www.cherokee-nc.org (http://www.cherokee-nc.org)) and Waldron, Arkansas (United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians).

State-recognized Cherokee tribes have headquarters in Georgia and Alabama. Other large and small Cherokee organizations are located in Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and all over the United States.

The spiritual core of the nation is the Keetoowah Nighthawk Society (see http://www.keetoowahsociety.com (http://www.keetoowahsociety.com))

The name is an old pronunciation of Tsalagi, which is the Muscogee Creek name for the Cherokees. Their name for themselves is AniYunwiya, which means The Principal People.

Table of contents 1 Language and Alphabet 2 Mythology 3 Famous Cherokee 4 History

Language and Alphabet The Cherokee speak an Iroquoian language, which is written in a syllabary invented by Sequoyah[?] (a.k.a. George Guess). He had seen English writing, but misunderstood how it worked; thus, each symbol represents a syllable rather than a single sound, and while some symbols resemble Latin alphabet letters, but the sounds are completely different (the form of the letter for "a" resembles Latin D, for example).

It has many more letters than a typical alphabet, so they are more similar to each other.

Unicode Cherokee syllabary

Cherokee	English	Cherokee	English	Cherokee	English	Cherokee	English
Ꭰ	A	Ꮆ	LO	Ꮜ	SA	Ꮲ	TLV
Ꭱ	E	Ꮇ	LU	Ꮝ	S	Ꮳ	TSA
Ꭲ	I	Ꮈ	LV	Ꮞ	SE	Ꮴ	TSE
Ꭳ	O	Ꮉ	MA	Ꮟ	SI	Ꮵ	TSI
Ꭴ	U	Ꮊ	ME	Ꮠ	SO	Ꮶ	TSO
Ꭵ	V	Ꮋ	MI	Ꮡ	SU	Ꮷ	TSU
Ꭶ	GA	Ꮌ	MO	Ꮢ	SV	Ꮸ	TSV
Ꭷ	KA	Ꮍ	MU	Ꮣ	DA	Ꮹ	WA
Ꭸ	GE	Ꮎ	NA	Ꮤ	TA	Ꮺ	WE
Ꭹ	GI	Ꮏ	HNA	Ꮥ	DE	Ꮻ	WI
Ꭺ	GO	Ꮐ	NAH	Ꮦ	TE	Ꮼ	WO
Ꭻ	GU	Ꮑ	NE	Ꮧ	DI	Ꮽ	WU
Ꭼ	GV	Ꮒ	NI	Ꮨ	TI	Ꮾ	WV
Ꭽ	HA	Ꮓ	NO	Ꮩ	DO	Ꮿ	YA
Ꭾ	HE	Ꮔ	NU	Ꮪ	DU	Ᏸ	YE
Ꭿ	HI	Ꮕ	NV	Ꮫ	DV	Ᏹ	YI
Ꮀ	HO	Ꮖ	QUA	Ꮬ	DLA	Ᏺ	YO
Ꮁ	HU	Ꮗ	QUE	Ꮭ	TLA	Ᏻ	YU
Ꮂ	HV	Ꮘ	QUI	Ꮮ	TLE	Ᏼ	YV
Ꮃ	LA	Ꮙ	QUO	Ꮯ	TLI
Ꮄ	LE	Ꮚ	QUU	Ꮰ	TLO
Ꮅ	LI	Ꮛ	QUV	Ꮱ	TLU

Mythology See: Cherokee mythology

Famous Cherokee There were several famous Cherokee in American history, including Sequoyah, who invented the writing system, and American humorist Will Rogers.

History See: Trail of Tears

--this needs to be intergrated into either general history of Cherokee, aftermath of the Trail of Tears, or Indian Territory history:--

Once the Cherokee reached Indian Territory tensions ran high, and the suspension of the Cherokee Blood Law[?] was ignored. On June 22 1839, after the adjournment of the tribal meeting some of the prominent signers of the Treaty of New Echota[?] were killed, including the drafter of the Blood Law, Major Ridge along with John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot. This started 15 years of civil war amongst the Cherokee. One of the noteable survivors was Stand Waite[?].