Indians of North America -- Ohio; Mounds -- Ohio; Ohio -- Antiquities
Following the same course of migration from the northeast to the
southwest, which leads us from the Hurons of eastern Canada to the
Tuscaroras of central North Carolina, we come to the Cherokees of
northern Alabama and Georgia. A connection between their language
and that of the Iroquois has long been suspected. Gallatin, in his
"Synopsis of Indian Languages," remarks on this subject: "Dr.
Barton thought that the Cherokee language belonged to the Iroquois
family, and on this point I am inclined to be of the same opinion.
The affinities are few and remote, but there is a similarity in
the general termination of the syllables, in the pronunciation and
accent, which has struck some of the native Cherokees."
The difficulty arising from this lack of knowledge is now removed,
and with it all uncertainty disappears. The similarity of the two
tongues, apparent enough in many of their words, is most
strikingly shown, as might be expected, in their grammatical
structure, and especially in the affixed pronouns, which in both
languages play so important a part.
More complete vocabularies of the Cherokee language than have
hitherto been accessible have recently come into possession of the
Bureau of Ethnology, and their study serves to confirm the above
conclusion that the Cherokees are an offshoot of Iroquoian stock.
On the other hand, the testimony of the mounds all taken together
or considered generally (if the conclusion that the Cherokees were
the authors of the North Carolina and East Tennessee mounds be
accepted) seems to isolate them from all other mound-building
people of that portion of the United States east of the Rocky
Mountains. Nevertheless there are certain remains of art which
indicate an intimate relation with the authors of the stone
graves, as the engraved shells, while there are others which lead
to the opinion that there was a more intimate relation with the
mound-builders of Ohio, especially of the Scioto Valley. One of
these is furnished by the stone pipes so common in the Ohio
mounds, the manufacture of which appears also to have been a
favorite pursuit of the Cherokees in both ancient and modern
times.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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