The Lone Wolf Band of Cherokee Indians
Indiana's Cherokee people.

THE ORIGINS OF THE CHEROKEE PEOPLE.
There is a great portion of our ancient Cherokee history that remains unknown and still remains today...a mystery. Stories of the historic age of the Cherokee have long been lost and forgotten. But the search for our history still continues to this day as more and more Cherokees desire to know the answer.

It has been believed that the Native American people, including the Cherokee people first came across the land bridge of the Bering Straits entering Alaska, then into Canada, and eventually into the northern and northeastern United States sometime before or at the beginning of the ice age.

Before the nineteenth century, and during the annual Green Corn Festivals, which are held in June, Cherokee story tellers and tribal leaders would gather the people around the fire and speak of the great Cherokee tribal migration. The stories and legends said that the Cherokee originally came from the north. Stories were told of the battles won and battles lost along the way. “The towns of people of many nights encampment removed” (a term depicting one year) was mentioned many times throughout this migration which indicated such a migration took a long time. The stories and legends also told of the lands that were discovered, the strange sights and people that were met were numerous. But somewhere during the 19th. century, for some unknown reason, the history of the Cherokee migration was deleted from orations by the chiefs. For no known reason, the stories were no longer told, thus, by the end of the 19th. century this facet of oral Cherokee history was barely remembered, even by the oldest of the tribe. As time passed by, so did the Elders who might have the answers to this mystery. In time, the stories were all forgotten. The Cherokee could not rely on written history about their past because the Cherokee did not keep any written records, or as far as we know. So the history was lost as the old story tellers and leaders passed on.

The Delaware traditions mention a prehistoric migration of the Cherokees. According to the Delawares’ Walum Olum (ancient sticks painted with hieroglyphics of Delaware’s history). According to the Delawares, their first encounter with the Alligewi or Talligewi was when the Delaware were expanding their territories westward from the coastal areas of the United States. It was stated that their advancement was halted by a powerful and tall people, who were occupying the country along what was believed to be Ohio. Missionary Heckewelder also noted that he believed that the Cherokee occupied land in the upper Ohio prior to 1780. the Delaware fought the Cherokee throughout the time; of three Delaware chiefs and at a time when the Delaware were inhabitants of the Eastern seaboard, which included parts of Ontario, Canada, New York, New England, Ohio and Pennsylvania almost to Washington. And eventually, according to the Walum Olum, early in the 1800's (noted by missionary Heckewelder in 1819) The Alligewi or Talligewi had large earthen forts and fought so well that the Delaware latersought the help of the ‘Mengwe” or Iroquois, which without, the battle would have been lost. With the two tribes joining forces, the Cherokees were conquered and driven southward from the Great Lakes. (Lake Erie and Lake Michigan) beyond the Ohio River. After a war that took many years, the Alligewi were finally defeated and the survivors fled down the river.Having won the land, the Delaware and Iroquois tribes parceled out the lands, most which went to the Delaware, and included the land to the south and east, and the Iroquois choose the land around the Great Lakes. Today’s ethnolists state that “the Cherokees were once a powerful detached tribe of the Iroquoian family” and that they originated in the north, prior to the 1540's. Why the Iroquois fought against the Cherokee, since they were kin, is not known.

John Haywood,, an early Natural and Aboriginal historian, told of yet another tradition that confuses the chronological order of events was that the Cherokee came from Virginia, where they lived at the Peaks of Otter, which is a noted landmark of the Blue Ridge, near the point where Staunton river breaks through the mountains. From careful sifting of the evidence Haywood concludes that the Cherokee had entered that region from the north and northeast areas of Virginia, making temporary settlements along New River and the upper Holston, until continued hostile pressure from the north (Delaware), again forced them to move farther south, fixing themselves upon the Little Tennessee, which later became known as the middle towns, along the Nolichucky River, where they lived for a long period of time.

Heckewelder wrote of several great earthen mounds built by the Tallegwis for defense against their enemies, the Iroquois and the Delaware. He also mentioned two such mounds which were found in the vicinity of what is now Sandusky, Ohio. Under these mounds, remains and artifacts were found by the hundreds and these artifacts matched the style, colors and decorations which were believed to be Tallegwis. When reenforced by archaeological and linguistic data, this ancient Delaware tradition about the Cherokees gains momentous impact. Archaeologists have discovered Indian burial mounds in Ohio, Illinois, Virginia, and Tennessee, presumably built by the Tallegwis or ancient Cherokees en route to the Alleghenies. In the center and at the base of these mounds were found pipes similar to the ones used in later era by southern Allegheny Cherokees. Imbedded in layers of earth from their base to apex were found fragments of charred crematory posts similar to those of southern Allegheny Cherokees. Set in hard clay saucer-like depressions, these post fragments were accompanied by artifacts and residue of bones thought to have belonged to the Tallewi or ancient Cherokees, the builders of these mounds.

We have also been told the at one point the Talligewi occupied the ‘eastern lands” which the Delaware desired. The Delaware enlisted the aid of the ‘Talamatan or Wyndot and other Iroquoian tribes. Then a war ensues which continues through the terms of four successive chiefs (years?) Until the Talligewi are defeated and head south. Then the land was divided and the Talamantan or Wyndot taking the northern portion of the land and the Delawares, south of the lakes.

In either account, 29 chiefs successive serve until at last the Delawares in their advancement east, reach the ocean. Then it is stated that another unknown number of chiefs serve for an unknown time. Then six more chiefs serve until the landing of the Dutch in 1609, the seventeenth century. By then approximately 25 chiefs have served before the Talligewi are successfully driven from the land and the coming of the Dutch in 1609. This leads one to only speculate the dates of the wars between the Iroquois and the Delaware. Then consider the migration which was most likely on foot. How far backwards in time must we go to determine how long it took them to be discovered on the Tennessee River in 1540. According to DeSotos’ four croniclers noted in the book,“The Cherokees” by Grace Steele Woodward , she describes the Cherokees being found by DeSoto on the Tennessee River in 1540, .. If accurate, or even close, this would mean that the Cherokees migrated from the north prior to 1540.

It has also been told that the Cherokee, after being defeated by the Delaware, traveled south to the mountains of the “Koweta” or Creeks where they took refuge and lived. The Delaware still continued searching for the Talligewi and making raids in the mountains of the Creeks, long after the coming of the white man.

Further evidence of an early habitation of the ancient Cherokees in what is now the Great Lakes region of the United States comes from linguists who have discovered that the Cherokee and Iroquoian languages are in many respects similar; as a result of this discovery, many linguists now classify the Cherokee as a branch of the Iroquoian family originating in the north

If the Delaware, pushed the Cherokee farther than the Ohio River, then we must think that the Cherokee went west until they encountered the Iroquois. With the lakes to the north, the only way they had to go was south. So that brings us to Indiana. Ancient Indian burial mounds use to be in St. Joseph County, Indiana, in the areas of Lydick and the “Chain of Lakes,” and in Bremen, Indiana in neighboring Marshal County at “Lake of the Woods.” These small earthen mounds stood before the building of the homes in the early 1900's, around both lakes. Now these mounds are gone but it is highly possible that these mounds were the burial mounds of our ancestors. Others however would argue that they would have been the mounds that were built by the Miami or Potawatomi Indians who occupied these areas of land in the 1500's. But if the migration periods are correct, the Cherokee could have passed through this area one hundred years before the coming of any other tribes. So the old earthen mounds could have been made by our Cherokee ancestors. What and if there were any other mounds built in those areas (such as lodges or ceremonial mounds) is not known. By the early 1900's, such mounds may have just been seen as ordinary hills to the local people and eventually used for farmlands or later excavated for homes.

As far as written history of the Cherokee, there was none until DeSoto entered Cherokee country on Tuesday, May 25th., 1540. DeSoto then began the study of the Cherokee people and began the first recorded history of the Cherokee people.

Today however, we are proud that many college educators, educated Cherokees, and people just trying to connect to their Cherokee ancestors, are still studying our past and in doing so, many of the mysteries of our ancient ancestors and the lands we walked upon may yet be uncovered. However, sadly, much of our history may have well been lost over time.

Although very slow, between 1540 and 1906, the Cherokees developed from a primitive warrior society, into a much higher form of civilization than any other North American Indian tribe The removal of the Cherokees in the 1830's. Approximately one thousand Cherokees remained in the western North Carolina mountains. Prior to the Civil War, they lived mostly traditional, if sometimes impoverished lives.

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