/r/cherokee

Photograph via snooOG

A sub dedicated to Cherokee language, history, and culture

ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ Cherokee is a beautiful language, and we aim to encourage the study of basic Cherokee language & culture here.

If you are offering "a word of the day" style post please include [part of speech] word - meaning - example usage, in the title.

For example: [question word] ᎦᏙ gado - what - ᎦᏙ ᎤᏍᏗ gado usdi? - what is it?

Provide other details or comments in the text description.

Cherokee syllabary is highly encouraged, but not required. ᏩᏙ!


  • For those who need help learning the writing system: click here

/r/cherokee

4,574 Subscribers

5

Which CN Facebook group?

After a couple of years without Facebook I've decided to go back, mainly just to play with Meta's AI, but I was trying to find the Facebook equivalent of this sub, and it turns out that there are several "Cherokee" and "Cherokee Nation" Facebook groups. Which one is the real deal?

6 Comments
2024/11/30
23:05 UTC

7

What are you doing Friday for Native American Heritage Day?

Looking for meal and celebration ideas, and recipes if you got a good one to share.

4 Comments
2024/11/28
12:32 UTC

24

tips for learning the language

siyo! my family had no interest in teaching me of our culture, and i really want to reconnect with it. i have been learning as much as i can, but im having some trouble with where to start with learning the language. i have no relatives who can teach me, and i was curious for some good (mostly online if possible) trustworthy resources for an absolute beginner. thank you friends!

9 Comments
2024/11/18
05:51 UTC

13

Oklahoma at Large citizens - when do we have to give up our plates?

So the license compact for At Large expires on the 31st of December. Does that mean we are all driving illegal tags in on the 1st? Or do we get to keep them until the tag’s expiration date?

Bonus question- are there any alternatives to the OK Maga Red ugliness?

5 Comments
2024/11/16
02:11 UTC

8

What's the difference between ᏍᎠ and Ꮜ?

I was looking over the Wikipedia article for the Cherokee language and one of the example words are ᎢᏀᎵᏍᎠᏁᏗ and it having ᏍᎠ instead of Ꮜ confuses me

21 Comments
2024/11/07
18:57 UTC

23

Be Kind to yourselves today. Practice good medicine

0 Comments
2024/11/06
16:26 UTC

10

The state of *our* Nation is strong.

The colonies are now more divided than they've been since their "Civil" War, but still Cherokee Nation is united. I take a great deal of pride in knowing that I can look at all their issues and say, "Yeah, my nation doesn't have those problems."

We've dealt with the most violent and murderous colonial politicians history could throw at us, and we're still here, still moving forward, still innovating, still committed to properly educating our children, still actively working to improve the lives of our people, still dedicated to environmental stewardship.

Let's not lose sight of ourselves because of our giant neighbor's internal drama. Despite everything, the state of our Cherokee Nation is strong.

16 Comments
2024/11/06
16:25 UTC

14

Great new folk blues album in Cherokee!

This album is wonderful! I love "We Live in the Woods" https://www.agalisigamackeymusic.com/

1 Comment
2024/11/01
15:14 UTC

2

Question about the copula in cherokee(I am x construction)

Hey just curious about some sentence structures. I know cherokee usually inflects the nouns/adjectives to represent like I am(tsi-tslagi or tsi-sgaya) consturctions and there does exist a verb to be used for emphasis or other tenses. But how does one write like say I am a dog, you are a cat as far as I am aware those nouns or like animals don't take the inflection would you use the verb to be in that sense and what would it look like?

3 Comments
2024/10/30
15:24 UTC

12

Nasgino Inage Nidayulenvi (It Started in the Woods), by Agalisiga

Cherokee language country music album ᎾᏍᎩᏃ ᎢᎾᎨ ᏂᏓᏳᎴᏅᎢ (Nasgino Inage Nidayulenvi, "It Started In The Woods") by Agalisiga Mackey released today by Horton Records of Tulsa. Agalisiga's song Gatlohiha ("I'm Cryin'" or "Cherokee Yodel") was included in the Cherokee language ᎠᏅᏛᏁᎵᏍᎩ (Andvdvnelisgi, "Performers") album in 2022, also from Horton Records.

5 Comments
2024/10/18
12:40 UTC

18

To our eastern relatives

I just wanted to hop on and check in with y’all. I’ve been on Facebook checking in with folks over there, but I haven’t heard or seen anything from our folks on Reddit.

I know a lot of folks are still without cell reception and internet, but if you see this, know that a lot of us are praying for you and your communities. Let us know if there’s anything you need or that we can do to help!

4 Comments
2024/10/06
23:51 UTC

15

I met this acorn...

I was dropping my son off at his job at a Walmart in a nearby town. I dropped him off at the door and had nearly left the parking lot when I thought of something I wanted to grab while I was there, so I looped back and parked. It was sunny and the blacktop was warming up, and as I'm walking, I spot this acorn. It has no cap and had this beautiful shell. Kinda reminded me of a buckeye if a buckeye looked like an acorn. And here it was in the middle of the Walmart parking lot. Probably fell from the bed of a pickup truck that parked beneath the shade of an oak tree. This little nut made it's way to the big city (embellishing to call it a big city), fell out when the tailgate dropped to load some groceries, only to find itself with blacktop beneath it and a bright sun overhead. It could have gotten run over, maybe crushed under a boot heel, because people do that. They see a nut and wanna crack it. So I decided to grab it up and rescue it from the horrible Walmart fate I'd imagined in that moment.

I watched some YouTube videos. It's a Red Oak. It passed the float test, meaning it's good for planting. It's now wrapped in a damp paper towel in a plastic container in my refrigerator for the next 45 days.

I heard a Cherokee storyteller talk about getting in trouble once for cutting down a tree. His mother told him, "That tree was a living thing just trying to live it's life..."

Now here's this acorn.

It's just a baby and already has a whole back story.

I've had gardens and plants, but I've never been so... invested.

I don't think I'll name it since I don't speak Tree and don't know what would be a good Tree name.

Btw, I've also been learning about the trees and plants on our property. Anyway, I have other trees out front, but no Oaks. I've got a prime spot for it.

Do you have a plant you're particularly attached to? Or maybe once were?

Now that I think about it, I had a Weeping Willow hideaway in Tupelo, Mississippi when I was a boy. When I was a teen, there was a big Mimosa in Searcy, Arkansas with a huge, perfectly shaped perch that I loved to sit on in the evenings.

I hadn't thought about them in the context of having a relationship with them. I only ever thought of them as places I liked to be.

Well, that's a whole rabbit trail. It's time to get some sleep. Getting over a cold, too. Rambling on Reddit for no good reason.

But I figure somebody gets it. I mean, plant lovers are plant lovers, sure, but I've always had a more utilitarian relationship with plants, never a personal relationship. Now here I am with an acorn in my fridge, a plan for its welfare, and a vision for its future.

That's perfectly normal, right?

7 Comments
2024/10/06
10:11 UTC

15

Just a yarn.

I got my tribal enrollment card (and my US gubment card) a few days ago. I'd expected it to take four to six months, but it took just near three.

I've been sitting on it a few days. Marinating on it.

September 20th. That's when my enrollment was officially approved. I think that's gonna be my Cherokee birthday.

I've been looking into CN politics. I'm in awe of what the tribe does and has done since landing west of the Mississippi after the Removal. I'm excited for both the present and future of the tribe. That makes me feel some kinda way. Y'know?

I've completed the Cherokee 1 course and taking Cherokee 2 now. Ed Fields... C'mon! What a great guy! I come away from every lesson feeling good, smiling. He makes learning a complex language feel obtainable, makes you feel like you can do this.

I've known about my Cherokee genes my whole life. But the air breathes different now that I'm "officially" Cherokee.

It's also resulted in a new perspective.

I heard Chief Hoskins at this year's State of the Nation, and when he said, "We don't ban books and we don't ban kids for who they see when they look in the mirror," that's when I realized I can now look at the problems in the US and say, "My nation doesn't have those problems."

Our nations' fates are inescapably intertwined and complicated, but... my nation doesn't have those issues. I don't know if I can convey just how mind-blowing that realization was.

Tsi Tsalagi. I am Cherokee.

I still need some more time to let it all sink in, and I have so much to learn, but Cherokee Nation and Cherokee people have my heart. I'm all in.

That's all.

For now.

I've actually got an acorn story, but that's a yarn for another time. I've been up all night and my eyes are tired, but I wanted this to be the last thing I do before bed, and here we are.

Donadagohvi.

8 Comments
2024/10/05
11:59 UTC

3

Name question

Hey yall, so I found the name “Lawnoetuchu” in my lineage, it belonged to my ancestor William Lawnoetuchu Parks, brother of Shawnee chief Joseph Parks. I was wondering if anyone was familiar with it or might know what it means? Idk if there’s any folks in here that are familiar with the Shawnee or have dual citizenship with the Cherokee and Shawnee after the tribe got re-established and federally recognized.

0 Comments
2024/10/03
06:04 UTC

9

Osiyo!

I’m from a family that hasn’t been very connected culturally (despite mostly living in the nation). I’ve done a lot of work for myself and my sibling to learn and preserve the culture as much as I can, which as well all know can get tricky with all the misinformation.

Given that I wanted to reach out to the online community with a question. I’m getting married soon and want to incorporate Cherokee culture somehow. I plan on having a traditional Christian ceremony, however I wanted to represent my Cherokee heritage as well.

What are y’all’s thoughts and ideas on incorporating Cherokee culture into a wedding? I haven’t found anything online so far that I feel is from a trustworthy source.

3 Comments
2024/09/26
10:34 UTC

5

Trying to understand what is triggering some vowel deletion in some set b words

So I'm looking at the verb to want (incompletive stem aduliha). From what I see the 3rd person sing is uduliha which seems to be both not what I expected seeming to take the before consonant form and missing the a from the stem. I surmise that since the a is deleted it becomes u...what triggers the deletion of the a on the stem?

Another one is the noun my home diquenvsv? What causes the a deletion here and changes the plural market from d to di?

10 Comments
2024/09/19
21:06 UTC

40

Smoky Mountains highest peak is reverting to the Cherokee name Kuwohi

From the article: The US Board of Geographic Names voted on Wednesday in favor of a request from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to officially change the name Clingmans Dome to Kuwohi. The Cherokee name for the mountain translates to mulberry place.

https://apnews.com/article/clingmans-dome-kuwohi-smoky-mountains-tennessee-carolina-b8fbb2c029e738021ba15de383e09fe4

3 Comments
2024/09/18
20:32 UTC

11

Interesting 23&Me results

This is not about proving or disproving Cherokee connection—me and my partner are both enrolled citizens of Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. This is more of a discussion of results as they relate to myth and legend and traditional stories.

In reading Mooney and hearing origin stories, we have a few different ones. Mooney claims that our origin story has been lost—we know this isn’t true, because we have the story of the land of the giant turtles. We also have the stories of the first fire and how the world was made. There are also origin stories.

My partner and I have both had 23&me tests done. We had our curiosities and then when we decided to have a baby, we wanted to see if our genetics had anything that would put our kid at risk for anything… especially wanting to make sure that we aren’t related since we are both Cherokee lol. The results for ancestry were more or less what I expected for myself—I’m lower on the BQ scale, he’s much, much higher. And no, we are not cousins! 😂

If we are to believe our origin stories, it’s speculated that the land of the giant turtles existed in the Caribbean. After we were kicked out, we made our way to the Great Lakes region, eventually moving on to Appalachia, and for western Cherokee, ending up in Oklahoma. Understanding how languages, cultures, and societies evolve, this would take thousands and thousands of years—certainly more than what is currently speculated about indigenous peoples arriving and existing in North and South America.

My partner’s results were far more interesting than mine. He got a hit back for having an ancient relative who was found in the Caribbean. He thinks that this proves our origin stories, but I am far more skeptical about it. I think that one of his more recent ancestors potentially migrated from that part of the world, but we don’t know who that could have been and it still would have been more distant, because no Caribbean ancestry shows in the last 7-8 generations.

I’m bringing this discussion here to see if there are other Cherokees with surprising results, especially higher quantum folks. Please, help me put this to bed in my own household… it’s annoying lol

20 Comments
2024/09/14
23:41 UTC

5

Learning the Language

‘Siyo! I’m a citizen of the CN, but my fam has been in California since my great grandpa moved here from Stilwell.

The language wasn’t spoken in my fam growing up, but I want to learn it. I’m having a hard time starting because I REALLY don’t want to feel like a culture vulture. While I was raised in a large family of cherokees, I look like the colonizer lol. I would prefer to learn more about the culture and the language from another Cherokee, so using the internet to learn the language just feels kinda bad.

Have any of y’all dealt with this? I’d love some advice because I’m kinda stuck figuring out how to do this without being an ignorant asshat.

I’m aware of the Cherokee Language courses through the CN btw.

21 Comments
2024/09/13
17:55 UTC

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