The Cherokee Writing System

The Cherokee language has 3 principal dialects. A’Tali or also called the upper principle is spoken throughout Northern Georgia, Eastern Tennessee, and western North Carolina and is exclusively used in the native literature of the tribe. Kituwah or also known as the middle principle is spoken chiefly on the waters of the Tuckasegee River in western North Carolina and is now prevailing dialect on the east Cherokee Reservation. Elati also known as the lower principle and is spoken on the heads of the savannah river, in South Carolina and Georgia and was the only dialect to have the “R” sound, which is now extinct. Many of the Cherokee’s 12,000 tribe members still use this language today.

Although this idea had been successfully implemented during World War I using the Choctaw Indian's language, history generally credits Philip Johnston for the idea to use Navajos to transmit code

The Cherokee were farmers, and their new land was infertile. The land was meant for cattle raising, which they didn't know ho to do. They built a capital city called Tahlequah, and their nation was declared in September 6, 1839. John Ross who was elected by the Cherokee as the President of the Cherokee nation in 1827 continues his roll in the land, shared with another seventy tribes. They had opened up schools in the Indian Territory to continue their education for their children. The first Cherokee school opened in 1801 when the people were learning their language. Their written language, which consists of 85 characters, was said to be created by a Sequoia (1760-1843), a Cherokee leader. The Cherokee had mixed blood from the early British settlers and traders. Therefore, the Cherokee were educated in both languages. For over half a century the Cherokee have abstained from becoming American Citizens until 1906 when the Unites States made all

These recent times have been tough for the tribe. Since the appearance of the Europeans upon our lands there has been a great plague upon our society. They brought with them unknown diseases that have infected much of the tribe and killed many others, the Europeans go to our hunting grounds killing hundreds of buffalo’s for pleasure and we have been restricted to a certain piece of land.

Day 1: It's day one of my expedition, exciting, we are documenting on a thought to be extinct tribe.

The language of the Cherokees is an Iroquoian language spoken by the many Cherokee Tribes around the world. It was said the Cherokee is the only Southern Iroquoian language and differs from that of any Native American Tribe.The Cherokee/ Iroquoian

In this paper the main focus is on the language of the Cherokee. Is the language of the Cherokee, or as they also call it Tsalagi, still alive? Is it still spoken among the members of the tribes, including the younger generations or do they have lost the language of their ancestors? Is there something to be done until it is irretrievably lost? In order to come to a solution on this matter, I will be taking a look at why Native American languages in general have become extinct in the first place. On the example of the Cherokee language a look will be taken at the initiatives set to revive and preserve it in order to prove it is still alive and will continue to be.

Navajo is a Southern Athabaskan language of the Na-Dene family; it has similarities and is related to spoken languages across the western areas of North America. The Navajo refer to themselves as the Diné or “People” and their language is known as Diné bizaad or “People’s language”. The earliest recorded history appears to between the years 1581-1583 when the Spanish made their first contact with the Navajos. Nearly 200 years later the Navajo were able to drive the Spanish settles from the Eastern regions off their land. 30 years after that in 1805, Spanish soldiers returned with a vengeance and killed more than 100 Navajo women, children and elders hiding in a cave; this tragedy is known as the Massacre at Canyon de Chelly. Nowadays, the Navajo language is predominately spoken in the Southwestern United States and currently the majority of the language is being used in the Navajo Nation political area. Navajo is one of the most widely spoken Native American languages and according to an article titled, “Navajo (Diné bizaad)” in 2011 it was estimated that there were nearly 170,000 Americans speaking Navajo. Though the number of speakers may seem large, the language has had difficulties keeping a healthy speaker base. This was caused by an aggressive effort made on the part of the public and mission schools on the western reservations, which taught young Native American students English. As referenced in Language, Culture and Society school administrators used such

In the 1830 there was an act that pass it’s called the Indian Removal it made the indians tribes move from their land. According to the text the cherokee leader sign the treaty of etocha to agree to move the cherokee but 90% percent of the cherokee didn’t want to leave. What should the best way for the cherokee to decide? We should remove the cherokee from their land so nobody gets hurt or kill. Another reason, some of their chief already sign the Treaty of Etocha agreeing them to move. Last reason cherokee killed a lot of people back then so they really don’t deserve it.

The U.S. government passed laws that made the Cherokee people think, speak, and practice the same religious views as the white folks. The Cherokee youth was taught English and had a new writing system for the Cherokee language. Although the civilization program was viewed as a compromise, as the Cherokees began to adjust to the culture of the

In the year of 1827 the Cherokee Indians declared themselves a nation by drafting a constitution. “The discovery of gold was made just after the creation and passage of the original Cherokee Constitution” (“A Brief History of the Trail of Tears 1”). Aware that the native Indian land was in danger of being encroached upon by new settlers, the Indians went to the government to create an arrangement to protect their lands. “The Cherokees signed treaties ceding portions of their land to the United States” (Bjornlund 8).

By the year 1838, there were only a small amount of Cherokees that left their homeland in Georgia for Indian Territory. The current President, Martin Van Buren directed General Winfield Scott and a large amount of soldiers to start the process of removing the Indians forcefully. Scott and his militia forcefully made the Cherokee Indians go into stockades at a place called Bayonet Point while their homes were robbed for their belongings. Then, they made the Cherokee walk more than a distance of 1,200 miles into the Indian Territory. During the trip plenty of problems happened. They encountered sicknesses such as dysentery typhus, and Whooping cough. Along with starvation becoming a widespread problem along the way. As a result, a large amount

Migration from the original Cherokee Nation began in the early 1800’s. Some Cherokees, wary of white encroachment, moved west on their own and settled in other areas of the country. A group known as the Old Settlers previously had voluntarily moved in 1817 to lands given them in Arkansas where they established a government and a peaceful way of life. Later, however, they were forced to migrate to Indian Territory.

The Cherokee Tribe lives in the area of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Alabama, North, North Carolina, North Georgia, and South Carolina. This area gets up to highs of low 90’s in summer, and

In the United States, an emphasize in learning the dominant language, English for example, can inevitably put other languages within the country in extinction. In reality, there are many other spoken languages in the United Sates, like those spoken by Native Americans, that are becoming endangered because of the immensity of more used languages. One may ask, what is an endangered language? According to Michael Cahill (Bonvillain), who has studied and researched many different endangered languages around the world, a language is endangered when "it is in fairly eminent danger of dying out." Cahill states two ways to quickly identify when a language is on its way to becoming endangered. One is when the