Welcome-thread for America's Long Walkers at:
Welcome!

The Tsalagi, "Cherokee" lived in mountains of Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas and Virginias. They are thought to have migrated from the upper Ohio Valley or the Great Lakes region, or were perhaps forced south by conflicts with the Iroquois and Delaware. Along with the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole, the Cherokee were one of the Five Civilized Tribes.

The Tsalagi language is most closely related to the Iroqian tongues, but has been a distinct language for around 3500 years. The name Cherokee is derived from the Creek word Chelokee, which means people of a different speech, though today Tsalagi, the word for Cherokee in their own language, is the preferred name.

The Kituwah lands are in what is now called, North Carolina, located close to Bryson City, NC. Every year Tsalagi people from all over the Tsalagi Territory made a pilgrimage to Kituwah which they call, “The Mother City”. Since before recorded time, Tsalagi have come annually to take fire from the Sacred Fire of the Keetoowah which was kept burning here and to bring ashes from their hearths to add to the mound. The name Kituwah has come to mean “home” in the Tsalagi language. It is the spiritual center of our people who once numbered more than 36,000 and populated 140,000 square miles of the Eastern United States.



Towns and Government
The Tsalagi built their towns near rivers. Enclosed by walls made of wooden poles lashed together and covered with mud, the towns were often constructed so as to be difficult to enter. Sometimes there was a gate too low for a horse, or one side would open onto a steep embankment. Each town had thirty to sixty houses, a central open square, a games field, and a large council house.

The council house was usually a circular structure with seven sides and was often built on a mound, a relic of the earlier Mississippian culture. The council house was used for public discussions and religious ceremonies, and contained the sacred fire. The largest of these houses could hold up to five hundred people. Inside, there were benches along each of the seven walls, one wall for each clan's representatives.

Each town had two chiefs, who could be male or female. These positions were not necessarily hereditary. There was a red, or war chief, and a white chief. The white Chief was known as the Most Beloved Man or Woman and was responsible for civil, religious, economic and judicial matters. The town council had only limited advisory powers. The towns were joined in a loose confederacy, but were essentially independent. The whole tribe joined for festivals and in times of war.


Clans
The Tsalagi were divided into seven clans, affiliation with which was inherited through the mother.

Wolf Clan (aniwahiya)
The red chiefs usually came from this largest and most important clan. This was the only clan allowed to hunt wolves.

Long Hair Clan, also called Twister, Hair Hanging Down, or Wind Clan (anigilohi)
White chiefs usually came from this clan and were distinguished by their intricate hairstyles and upright twisting stride.

Paint Clan (aniwadi)
These were the healers and medicine men, and responsible for making red paint.

Deer Clan (anikawi)
These were the deer hunters, known for their speed when running.

Bird Clan (anitsiskwa)
The members of this clan were messengers and bird hunters.

Wild Potato Clan, also called Raccoon, Bear, or Blind Savannah Clan (anigategewi)
These were gatherers of wild potatoes in the swamps.

Blue Clan, also called Panther or Wild Cat Clan (anisahoni)
Members of this clan made medicine from a blue colored plant to ward off sickness in children.


Housing
The Tsalagi began building their circular houses by setting up a framework of large poles. Saplings and branches were woven between the poles to form the walls. The outside was then plastered with a mixture of grass and mud. This technique was called wattle and daub. The roof was constructed of woven saplings and covered with bark shingles.

Inside there was a firepit in the center, underneath a smokehole in the roof. Bread was baked on circular stones next to the fire. Sleeping benches were built of oak and padded with broomsage and hemlock branches. Animal skins were used as blankets.

Many families also had a granary and a storehouse for skins. The houses and their contents were owned by the women.


Life Among the Tsalagi
Tsalagi towns typically had a large communal garden, though each family had smaller gardens, both tended mainly by the women, children and elderly. Their main crops were the three sisters - corn, beans and squash - along with sunflowers, onions, pumpkins, melons. They planted orchards, notably apples and plums, and supplemented their diet by gathering wild plants and nuts. They also grew gourds planted from seeds gathered in the wild.

The men hunted for small game such as squirrels, rabbits and birds with bows and arrows, snares and blowguns. Fish and larger animals such as deer, bear and elk were taken with spears and bow and arrows. The best bows were made from cedar and had hide strings, though in earlier times the strings were made from bark. Arrows and spears were tipped with carved flint. The larger animals furnished clothing as well as meat. The male hunters of the village traveled up to 250 miles during the winter hunt, which began after the last harvest and lasted until the spring planting season, in their search for meat.

The Tsalagi used knives, axes and chisels made from stone and flint, and crafted dugout canoes from the trunks of the yellow poplar tree. They produced wooden mortars and pestles, pottery from the clay along the riverbanks, and drums and rattles. They traded flint and animal products for shells and pipes with tribes nearer the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Their weapons of war were clubs, tomahawks, and bows and arrows.

Women were skilled at finger weaving using the fibers of hemp and mulberry root bark, and at making baskets with geometric designs from reeds and wood. They used plants and bark as dyes.

The men typically dressed in a deerskin loincloth in the summer, adding leggings, shirts and robes in the winter. Women wore deerskin dresses over long fringed undergarments. Men painted their faces and tatooed their bodies, adorning their hair with buffalo horns during times of war. Women dressed their hair with bear grease, decorating it with red or yellow dust. Both sexes wore ornaments in their pierced ears and noses, along with bracelets and necklaces.

The men played a stickball game using a netted racquet to handle the ball, a forerunner of modern lacrosse. Chunky was another popular game. Players threw a pole after a rolling stone disc, with scoring based on the number of hits to the disc. The Red Chief was in charge of these games as well as races and other athletic competitions between the clans, which often involved gambling.


Beliefs
The Tsalagi believed that there was an upper world in which they lived, and a lower world. Each was inhabited by spirits associated with specific places and things. They observed their beliefs with ceremonies, myths and symbols, and social customs, rules and taboos. Shamans served as religious leaders and healers, though their powers could be used for both good and ill. The main purpose of their ceremonies was to further the success of crops or hunting, or as a method of healing. The Tsalagi paid great attention to their dreams. They believed that diseases were caused by dreams or animals, though they had a number of more concrete methods of curing the sick such as herbals, sweats, dietary changes and massage in addition to the more spiritual remedies.

The dead were buried with their heads to the east in the ground or under piles of rocks, their possessions interred with them.

The yearly cycle of the Tsalagi was marked by six major festivals, each lasting a week or less. The First New Moon of Spring was marked in March. The Green Corn Ceremony was held in late June or early July, followed by the Mature Green Corn Ceremony about 45 days later. The Great New Moon Festival marked the beginning of the new year in October. A cleansing festival was held ten days later at which time the old sacred fire was extinguished and a new one lit. A sixth festival was held during the winter, celebrated by feasting and dancing.


Kituwah
Kituwah is the heart of all the Tsalagi peoples. We have lived close to the sacred mound for 10,000 years. It was here that the great spirit first gave us fire and named us The Tsalagi, called by The Europeans,"Cherokees".

When The Europeans drove the Tsalagi from their homes, the sacred land of kituwah was lost to us, but in 1996 a group of Eastern Tsalagi purchased the mound and 309 acres which surrounded it and Kituwah is once again the heart of the Taslagi Nation.

The ancient ones have long ago passed into the land of dreams. Nothing shall ever bring them back, but here in the electric dream of Ancient Worlds you may live once more among them in the green hills of Kituwah at one with the earth and the sky of The Tsalagi Territory. Come back to the earth.......... Come to Kituwah.

Help to keep alive the fire which has burned since the first morning of creation.


Sources:
Hoxie, Frederick E., editor. Encyclopedia of North American Indians. Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Cherokee History
Oconoluftee Indian Village
Cherokee Festivals

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