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?

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!

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?

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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

‘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.

Hey been going through jw Websters stuff for the last bit(just got his verbal book). And they purpose an interesting theory on why a verb takes a set a or set b based on cherokee way of thinking.

Broadly it is purposed set a are just for verbs that indicate shared experiences(like driving, baking or putting on pants) and further broken up to whether it's a or ga depending on how often we see the action.

Set b is defined as verbs that are expirences unique to the speaker like hunger or...wearing pants(since well you only know how that pants you are wearing are like).

I quiet like that system since it would make sense to marry language and cultural view but I've also been introduced to set a and set b determination in a very academic way like set a vs set b being transitive vs intransitive/stative(which does broadly reflect somewhat of Websters theory) and breaking up a and ga to just well memorize it.

Curious to hear my expirenced speakers take on the theory

This is the first class I’ve taken since I dropped out of university in 2018, so I feel really good even if it a small accomplishment. Ed Fields and Meli are awesome!

My mom's a member of the Tribe. I'm waiting for my paperwork to go through. Meantime, I'm learning the language, taking Ed Field's Cherokee 1. Finals are today, btw. But I'm learning the language, learning some history, learning some legends, some philosophy (ᏚᏳᎪᏛᎢ Duyugtvi), some Medicine ways... And I want a name.

I'm 50 years old, so my mom, she's up there in years, and I've denied my Cherokee genes and my relation to the Tribe for this long already, so I call my mom up and say "You know, you've still gotta give me a Cherokee name." She laughed at first but siad she'd think about it.

About a week goes by and she calls me up and says, "I've got a name for you. I don't know how to say it in Cherokee, but 'Man who will not marry.'"

Okay, first, I've been married twice already and had other beautiful relationships end horribly. Now, I'm with my forever-someone, been together eight years, mom loves her and wants me to marry her, and I have some feelings about US government in my relationships when the same protections can be accomplished through a lawyer - power-of-attorney stuff - but we haven't done that yet because reasons, whatever.

When I accused my mom of not taking me seriously, she calmly, but firmly, said it was I who wasn't taking her seriously.

Dang it.

I already know it's gonna be a mouthful, but can anybody help me out with a translation of "man who won't marry"?

*Edit to fix a typo

Interesting article on McGirt and its ongoing impact on the tribal government and reservation in Oklahoma. No mention of Stitt’s catfish habits, though.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/08/12/how-tribal-nations-are-reclaiming-oklahoma

Hi All - sorry about the wall of text below. I’ve got a question about supporting docs for my application

I’m putting together my application to join Cherokee Nation. My connection is through my 2nd great grandmother who was enrolled. None of lineal ancestors connecting me to her were enrolled. I have the certified birth and death certificates for all my lineal ancestors, but after reading Cherokee Nation Tribal Code, I realized I may need additional supporting documents.

My 2nd great grandmother was born in the mid to late 1800’s but lived into her 90’s, which luckily meant that I got her death certificate (1). I have her daughter’s (my great grandmother) delayed birth certificate (2) and her death certificate (3). She didn’t receive her birth certificate until her 60’s because she needed it to apply for social security.

Cherokee Nation Tribal Code Title 11, Chapter 2, Section 14, says that delayed birth certificates and death certificates are not fully acceptable by themselves and must be verified by at least one supporting document. Here’s the list of supporting documents:

“2. Acceptable supporting documents must be original or certified copies and are listed as follows:

a. County and district court records

b. Hospital birth certificates

c. Birth certificates issued by the Bureau of Census

d. U.S. federal census records

e. Per capita payment records

f. Enrollment census cards

g. Social Security numident or extract

h. Affidavits. Affidavits are written declarations made under oath before a notary public, must be submitted in original form and are used for the following: (1) For identification. Many people use more than one name. An affidavit may be used to certify that one person goes by two names or that two or more names actually refer to the same person. (2) To clarify discrepancies in names for identification purposes. If identification is not questioned, minor variations in spelling, etc., may not require further proof. (3) To help establish relationship. (4) To establish paternity of children born out of wedlock. An acknowledgment of paternity must be signed by the natural father and presented to the Bureau of Vital Statistics and his name must be added to the birth record.

i. Other documents. Other documents that define relationship may be considered.”

Reading over the list of supporting documents above, I’m immediately drawn to both the federal census records and the social security info. I can use the census for both my 2nd great grandmother and my great grandmother, and the social security info, if necessary for the latter. But obtaining certified versions of those documents could take months.

Instead, I’m considering obtaining affidavits and looking into the option for “Other documents that define relationship” since I think I can get those quicker. My question is has anyone else been through this when tying back to a distant relative where the main documents were 50 or 60 years old? If so, who did you get affidavits from? Did you provide other documents, and if so, what were they?

I’m planning on calling registration this week to discuss this but wanted to check here too if anyone had similar experience. Unless registration gives me different direction, I’m probably going to submit the application and order federal census and social security stuff just in case, then if I get the application back requesting more info, I’ll already have what I anticipate will be asked for in hand.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this!

As the title suggests im from Northwest Georgia and interested in learning the Cherokee language and have been ever since i started learning Latin but i dont know if its possible since i live outside of the 14 counties the Cherokee Nation occupies

Can someone answer this please

Syllabary doesn't actually have cases, like English does (technically the modern Latin alphabet, but I'm just going to call it English for convenience). In English, "ABCD" and "abcd" mean the same thing, but are completely different characters. Upper-case/capital letters are used to denote the start of sentences, proper nouns, etc, and the big-letter/little-letter paradigm is often extended even when all-caps is used, for things like Wᴀʀɴɪɴɢ Sɪɢɴᴀɢᴇ or Tɪᴛʟᴇs ᴀɴᴅ Sᴜʙʜᴇᴀᴅɪɴɢs.

Syllabary doesn't have an upper case and lower case; even when Unicode added "lower case" Cherokee, the symbols are identical, just smaller, like the block-caps above. So "ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ" and "Ꮳꮃꭹ Ꭶꮼꮒꭿꮝꮧ" are actually identical, except that in the second case, some of the characters are made smaller.

In most cases (no pun intended) Cherokee is written/printed in the first form, with no size differences. In the second form, a little more information can be conveyed (the same way it is in English for starting sentences, distinguishing names, titles, etc), and it looks a little more natural to English readers. I personally think it might be a little easier on the eyes (probably because I've been a first language English reader for several decades). Especially in long form text, like a novel, for instance.

What do y'all think? Do you prefer to stick with straight "all caps" Syllabary? Do you see a benefit to using "lower case?" Is one or the other easier on the eyes or more effective for your reading habits? Aesthetic preferences? Either way, is it influenced by your exposure to Cherokee language text or your thoughts on tradition?

As an aside, the Unicode "lower case Cherokee" is not yet fully implemented, so there are technical issues like upper and lower case not being mapped together, so searching for "Ꮳꮃꭹ Ꭶꮼꮒꭿꮝꮧ" will generally not match "ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ." That's a separate technical issue I'm ignoring for now.