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Cherokee National Holiday Celebrations
“The Eastern and Western Cherokees having again re-united, and become one body politic, under the style and title of the Cherokee Nation…”
~ Preamble to the Constitution of the Cherokee Nation, 1839
For Cherokee Nations Day, the Cherokee Gaquenvdi tartan—its name meaning “Cherokee wrap”—celebrates the Cherokee people and their heritage in the American Southeast. Its colours were drawn from the Cherokee Nation flag: orange for courage and endurance, green for land and nature, yellow for prosperity, brown for earth and tradition, white for peace, and black in remembrance of those who died on the Trail of Tears.
The traditional Cherokee homelands extended across parts of present-day Georgia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. The Cherokee speak an Iroquoian language related to languages historically spoken much farther north. Their communities were organized around towns and seven matrilineal clans—Wolf, Deer, Bird, Paint, Blue, Long Hair and Wild Potato. Clan identity passed through the mother, and women held authority within the household, clan and agricultural life of the community.
Sequoyah, a Cherokee silversmith and scholar, completed the Cherokee syllabary in 1821, providing a writing system specifically for the Cherokee language. Within a few years it was in widespread use, and in 1828 the Cherokee Phoenix began publication in Cherokee and English—the first Native American newspaper in the United States. The Cherokee Nation also established a written constitution, courts, schools and an elected government as it sought to maintain its sovereignty and homeland.
In 1838–39, thousands of Cherokee people were rounded up by American troops and forcibly removed west to Indian Territory along what became known as the Trail of Tears. Nearly 4,000 are believed to have died from disease, exposure and exhaustion. The black crossing the Cherokee Gaquenvdi sett commemorates those deaths, carrying their memory through colours representing land, tradition, endurance, prosperity and peace.
Today there are three federally recognized Cherokee tribes. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is centred on the Qualla Boundary in the ancestral homeland of western North Carolina. The Cherokee Nation and United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians are centred in northeastern Oklahoma, where Cherokee communities re-established themselves following migration and removal.
Cherokee is the Native identity most frequently reported in the United States. Approximately 1.5 million Americans—about one in 220—identified as having Cherokee ancestry. I
This year, celebrations take place from Friday through Sunday, to mark the September 6th adoption of the 1839 Cherokee Nation Constitution.🧡 🖤 🤍 💛 💚 🤎 📜 🏛️ 🤝 🗣️
The Cherokee are an Indigenous people whose ancestral homelands covered parts of present-day Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia. Traditionally organized into towns and seven matrilineal clans, they speak a language belonging to the Iroquoian language family.
During the early nineteenth century, the Cherokee Nation established a written constitution and government. Around 1821, Sequoyah introduced the Cherokee syllabary, making widespread literacy possible and leading to the publication of the bilingual Cherokee Phoenix newspaper in 1828.
Despite adopting many features of American government and successfully defending their sovereignty before the U.S. Supreme Court, most Cherokee people were forcibly removed west in 1838–39. Thousands died along the routes remembered collectively as the Trail of Tears. Some Cherokee remained in North Carolina, while those removed rebuilt their government in Indian Territory, now Oklahoma.
Today, Cherokee people are represented principally by three federally recognized tribes: the Cherokee Nation, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The Cherokee Nation, headquartered in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, is the largest of these and continues to preserve Cherokee language, culture, government, and sovereignty.
For more on this year's celebrations, click the Flag of the Cherokee Nation.