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_.
[Footnote 13: Le Page du Pratz, Hist. de la Louisiane, II, p.
208 sq. (Paris, 1758): "A l'est des Abé-ikas sont les
Chéraquis."]
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Cheroki), taken down by B. Hawkins, are embodied in an unpublished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.
[Footnote 14: The Mountain Cheroki are centering around
Quallatown, Haywood county, N. C., and an United States agent is
residing in their country. Their population is about 1600;
others live in Northern Georgia.]
[Footnote 15: H. Hale, "Indian Migrations, as evidenced by
language." American Antiquarian, vol. V, pp. 18-28 and 108-124
(1883).]
[Footnote 16: The name Keowe is taken from a narcotic plant used
for catching fish, which grew in the vicinity of that village.]
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]
[Footnote 17: Lieut. H. Timberlake, Memoirs (London, 1765), pp.
70. 71. Urlsperger, Nachricht, I, p. 658, where they are called
"Tzerrickey Indianer." D. Coxe calls them Sulluggees.]
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).
[Footnote 18: The term for _poplar_, tsíyu, is also the term for
_canoe_ and for _trough_.]
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.