April 17, 2010 - O-SI-YO!! In Cherokee this means "hello"! Unbeknownst to us, Ed and I have been traveling along parts of the famous (or infamous) Trail of Tears. The Trails runs from the Great Smokey Mtns in NC, Georgia, TN all the way to eastern Oklahoma. This is the trail that the Cherokee were driven as they were moved out of the southeastern states that they had called "home" for countless years. Many lives were lost during this forced march, mostly children and old people. The 1835 Treaty of New Echota, backed by President Andrew Jackson, took away Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole lands in the southeast in return for relocating the Indians to reservation land west of the Mississippi. Here in Oklahoma are many of the Indian reservations which, of course, today are quite different from back in the 1800s. Today there are nice houses, businesses and casinos but they struggled mightily to get to this point. Yes, I sympathize with the Indians and they have now what they have always deserved, a place in American society.
We visited the Cherokee Heritage Center and Museum in Tahlequah, OK today and while there had a tour of their Ancient Village site which they built as a model of what their homes were like before the 1800s. The Cherokee people are divided into clans and are a matriarchal society which means it's based on the mother's lineage or clan. A woman's brother would help to raise and educate her children in the ways of their clan instead of the father who would be from another clan. Apparently he would be helping his own nephews and nieces with knowledge of their clan. Very confusing to us maybe but it worked for them. It was a very intricate society. Each clan was headed by a male chief but the head matriarch (female) is closely listened to when making decisions (very smart if you ask me!!).
We stopped by Sequoyah's preserved cabin today before the heritage center. It was not open for the day yet but we were able to learn about him from an info board outside the closed area. He was the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet and brought a high degree of literacy to the Cherokee people. There are 86 characters, some are Roman letters he got from a spelling book, Cyrillic or Greek letters, Arabic numerals and English letters. This was the only time in recorded history that a member of an illiterate people independently created an effective writing system. Many Cherokee stories and lessons are still being learned today in this language by Cherokee young people.
Okay, I'll get away from the history lessons....shoulda been a teacher (or an archaeologist, hmmm, can't make up my mind!). Our drive today through the Oklahoma countryside was beautiful....lots of green trees, rolling hills and spacious vistas! It's raining today but spring is making itself felt all over. Yesterday Ed was working around the 5th wheel and found the beginnings of a bird nest in the outside shower compartment. It's relatively protected (when Ed's not messing around in it!) and about birdhouse size, perfect place for a little birdie home. Well, it could not be because we had to move on but Ed said there was an angry bird squawking at him from the trees as he was clearing it out. He put it careful on the ground in case the twigs and bits could be used again in another place.