Researchers interpret Cherokee inscriptions in Alabama cave
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
For the first time, a team of scholars and archaeologists has recorded and interpreted Cherokee inscriptions in Manitou Cave, Alabama. (Spirit Cave). These inscriptions reveal evidence of secluded ceremonial activities at a time of crisis for the Cherokee, who were displaced from their ancestral lands and sent westward on the Trail of Tears in the 1830s.
"These are the first Cherokee inscriptions ever found in a cave context, and the first from a cave to be translated," said Jan Simek, president emeritus of the University of Tennessee System and Distinguished Professor of Science in UT's Department of Anthropology. Simek is a co-author of the study "Talking Stones: Cherokee Syllabary in Manitou Cave, Alabama," published recently in Antiquity. "They tell us about what the people who wrote on the walls were doing in the cave and provide a direct link to how some Native Americans viewed caves as sacred places."
The research team that worked to understand the nature and meaning of these historic inscriptions included scholars from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees, and the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma as well as Euro-American archaeologists.
The researchers concentrated on two main groups of Cherokee inscriptions found in Manitou Cave, a popular tourist site near Fort Payne, Alabama. Until now, indigenous uses of the cave had been unrecorded, as typical archaeological evidence like artifacts or deposits have been removed during its time as a tourist attraction.
The first inscription records an important ritual event that took place in 1828, translated as "The leaders of the stickball team on the 30th day in their month April 1828." A nearby inscription reads "We who are those that have blood come out of their nose and mouth."
Stickball is a Cherokee sport similar to lacrosse.
"It is far more than a simple game," Simek said. "It is a ceremonial event that often continues over days, focusing on competition between two communities who epitomize the spirit and power of the people and their ancestors."
A second series of inscriptions is located on the ceiling nearer to the entrance of the cave.
"The ceiling inscriptions are written backwards, as if addressing readers inside the rock itself," Simek said. "This corresponds with part of one inscription which reads 'I am your grandson.' This is how the Cherokee might formally address the Old Ones, which can include deceased Cherokee ancestors as well as comprise other supernatural beings who inhabited the world before the Cherokee came into existence."
The inscriptions analyzed by researchers indicate that caves like Manitou were seen by the Cherokee as spiritually potent places where wall embellishment was appropriate in the context of ceremonial action.
Since their work in Manitou Cave, the researchers have identified several caves with similar inscriptions. They will continue to collaborate as scholars from the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes and archaeologists.
"Our research has shown that the Cherokee voice in Alabama did in fact outlast the Trail of Tears," Simek said. "We will continue to document and protect these previously unknown records of indigenous American history and culture."
If I can take the liberty to add some historical facts to this...The word ''Manitou'' as the caves in Alabama are named is not a Cherokee word or any word from any native language in the area. It is a Algonquin/Anishinaabe word from the the Upper Northeast and across Canada and Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and a bit of Montana.
The Cherokee are named as one of the Five Civilized Tribes, yet there language is not common to any of those tribes. They are The Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole and Cherokee...The Cherokee language is part of the Iroquoian language group. They are located in the northern Northeast of the US and into Canada.
There are theories that the Cherokee at one point lived in the NE US, but were driven out by the Algonquin and/or the Iroquois. This is a theory at this point but it's quite interesting when you look at the root of the Cherokee language and understand that it's part of the Iroquoian language group.
What is especially interesting in these writing is the time frame of the early 1800's. These discoveries could lead to more knowledge of the migration of the Cherokee people before the ''Trail of Tears''.
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For a fairly new or modern find (early 1800) the significance of these writing can lead to a whole area of discovery of the Cherokee.
The Cherokee didn't have a written language until the 1810's and 1820's, so I wonder whose language it really is.
Manitou Cave is a cave in Alabama, near the town of Fort Payne, in the side of Lookout Mountain. The cave was reputedly named for "the great spirit" by the Cherokee in the 18th century.
During the Civil War, the cave was a source of saltpeter for the Confederate Army. The mineral was mined by laborers to provide the essential ingredient for black powder.
The cave was first opened by the Fort Payne Coal and Iron company in 1888 as a tourist destination. The cave remained open as a public park through the early 20th century. After decades of neglect, Manitou Cave was reopened as a tourist attraction in 1963 by the Walter B. Raymond, Sr. family, who operated it through the mid-1970s. The cave is now closed to the general public, although adventure tours are offered by private tour companies.
With so much traffic into/throughout the cave, I'm really curious as to what they did find.
But, here is more information from Cambridge:
Talking stones: Cherokee syllabary in Manitou Cave, Alabama
Inside Manitou Cave in modern Alabama, nineteenth-century Cherokees carried out sacred ceremonies, recording their activities on the walls using Cherokee syllabary, a system invented in nearby Willstown by Cherokee scholar Sequoyah. Through collaboration between modern Cherokee scholars and Euro-American archaeologists, the authors report and interpret—for the first time—the inscriptions in Manitou Cave. These reveal evidence for secluded ceremonial activities at a time of crisis for the Cherokee. Pressures from the surrounding white populations disrupted the Cherokee ancient lifeways, culminating in their forcible relocation in the 1830s along the Trail of Tears.
Gonna keep my eyes on this one - gonna be interesting.
The word Manitou is an Algonquin/Anishinaabe word. I've researched every world that I could find that the Cherokee used for, Great Spirit, God etc...None is even close. It make you wonder two things. The whites in the area could have named it since they have little knowledge of the various native languages. I have huge doubts that they Cherokee named it Manitou. Or part of my family were on a camping trip and named it...Hey, it's possible.
It been said by many ''experts'' that natives didn't have a written language...This has been disproved many times and the Anishinaabe language dates back over 1,000 years and proof is in the Smithsonian.
Perhaps some were along the migratory trail of the Cherokee they had a language that they kept hidden or only specific individual within the tribe would use.
This is actually true in some of the South Pacific cultures/language, Samoan is one that has two language, one a common language and one that is considered a ''high'' language used by chiefs and healers.
A whole of of mystery going on here..
I almost forgot, Sequoia invented the Cherokee written language in 1821 and it was fully adopted by the Cherokee in 1825. The writing in the Manitou Cave is dated 1828 and 1830...So it's possible that it is the Cherokee language.
Good links 1st.
You know something Kavika, the shop I am workingg for these days is doing work for the Mitsitam Cafe' in the Smithsonian Native American Museum. My understanding is, it is the most favored of all the Smithsonian Restaurants. Since learning of my heritage and favorable reviews of the restaurant, the shop owner would like to take some of us to dinner there. If this come to be, I will certainly look for that display. If it is not on public display I will ask how it is possible to see it. Phone camera in hand if allowed.
BYW, do you still plan on the Austin trip?
The word "Manitou" is used in Ontario - There is a Lake Manitouwabing, and I recall a summer camp being called "Camp Manitouwabing". As well I noticed that there is also a "Camp Manitou". Of course Ontario uses many Indian names, such as Toronto (which I believe means 'meeting place') and Canada's capital city is Ottawa.
Dinner at that restaurant sounds like it would be a lot of fun.
The writings are part of the midewiwin scrolls named mide wiigwaas. They are on display but I don't know if photos are allowed.
I'm planning on the Austin trip but it will probably be next year. With the move and all things got changed around.
It makes sense that ''Manitou'' would be used in that area Buzz, since the Ojibwe have been there for thousands of years.
Alabama is a whole other situation for the Anishinaabe language to be used in.
My great grandmother wrote and she was not literate in English, so she must have been writing in her native language. Being Alongquin, it must have been the Anishinaabe language or a derivative language.
Really great articles Kavika and 1st. So much to learn!
It could have been any of the Algonquin language group...Numerous tribes converse in Algonquin or a offshoot of it.
There are many tribes that are part of the Algonquin language. From the Ojibwe, Blackfoot, Shawnee and Penobscot, to two tribes in California. I believe that are over 30 tribes that are part of the language group.
Great article, Kavika. A mix of history and mystery.
Everyone loves a good mystery, pat. This seems to have the making of a really good one.
One only has to look at the history of the Greeks, Romans, Syrians and Egyptians to see how many times
the great libraries of the world were burned as heresy and witchcraft etc.
While the Cherokee did not invent file cabinets, they obviously had a written language for many decades before they
interacted with Europeans........
Sequoia gave that language the legitimacy it deserved, regardless of when it was first practiced and handed down the traditional way.
Or the Spanish burning all the codices of the great Mayan culture. Only 6 survive.
The Cherokee had no written language prior to Sequoyah's development of it.
Between the years of 1809 and 1821, he accomplished a feat, which no other person in history has done single-handedly. Through the development of the Cherokee Syllabary, he brought our people literacy and the gift of communicating through long distances and the ages. This one person brought to his people this great gift without hired educators, no books and no cost."
In fact, he and his daughter were put on trial and would have been executed for witchcraft for the development of ANY written "language".
What I'm amazed at is that the Cherokee claim the warriors of the court for Sequoyah and his daughter, after "acquitting" them, learned the writing method and alphabet in "a few days". After approval by the General Council, the Cherokee language was "learned" and used within a few months.
Hell, I'm living with a Venezuelan wife (a high school Spanish teacher), daughter and grand-mother - have been for 15 years and am still having trouble learning Spanish.
Dear Brother Kavika: Any forensic anthropological DNA evidence to connect the Cherokee to NE Native American nations?
Would be interesting to get that perspective.
E.
The strongest connection is the language of the Cherokee which is an part of the Iroquoian language group. It is thought by many historians that long before the arrival of Europeans there was a mass migration of the Cherokee people from the areas around what is now upstate NY and into the Hudson Bay area. At one point in time the Cherokee and the Iroquois here one tribe. There are words in the Iroquoian language that describe the Cherokee people...
Interesting to say the least.
Very.
Upstate NY is where Spikegary and I reside.
Rest of the population here is a bookmark.
LOL.
E.
There is that ''Lost Tribe'' showing up again...LOL