Origin of the word "Cherokee": Most of their neighbors called the Cherokees "Uplanders" or "Mountaineers", and the Cherokees referred to themselves as "the Real People" or "the Principal People", which in their language is Ani-yun'wiya' . But the Choctaw called them "Cave Dwellers" (choluk or chiluk).  This was rendered phonetically by the Portuguese as "Chalaque", by the French as "Cheraqui" and by the English as "Cherokee". As used among themselves, the form is "Tsalagi".

The following information is being hotly debated in learned circles all over the world.  Many self centered egotistical ‘learned men’ have pet theories that prohibit the introduction of new, radical data that may cast doubt on their reputations.  So they stick their collective heads in the sand and ignore any data that doesn’t fit their world-view.  I have studied Native American archaeology for 25 years with an open mind.  I may be slightly biased, as I dearly love the theory that Europeans are the direct descendants of Native Americans.  I began this article as a pure science article, but upon finding so much ‘misinformation’ in the Politically Correct ‘official’ websites, I draw my own conclusions from the available data.

Laguna Man 400,000 - 200,000 BP

 The Earliest known humans in America have been classified as ‘Laguna Man’ (Forbidden Archaeology).  Ancient human remains were found in the hills surrounding Laguna, California, during a mud-slide in 1976.  These skeletal remains have been dated by amino-acid-racemization to be between 200,000 to 400,000 BP (Before Present).  Rock structures have been located beneath the sands of the Mojave Desert nearby, which may be associated with Laguna Man.  Carbon dating techniques were inadequate for this study, as carbon dating is only able to determine up to 50,000 years of carbon decay.

 Laguna Man is believed to have crossed the Great Land Bridge (Beringia) during the Wisconsin period of the last Ice Age, and migrated south.  As the climate shifted, and game animals changed their feeding patterns, they moved from the high hills to the ocean shores of California.  Similar skeletal remains (skulls and tooth patterns) have been found in northern China, indicating that these people were genetically related.  The remains in China are related to reindeer hunting and cooking, as charred bones have been found in the associated deposits.  These bones are typically charred on the ends, which normally occurs when a leg of meat is roasted on a fire.  The Chinese caves in which these remains were found are located near Peking in the “Sacred Mountain” of  Tio-ko Tien. 

 The stone structure remains in the Mojave Desert have blackened stones around an apparent ‘fire pit’ or hearth, indicating the earliest use of fire in the New Word.  Skeletal remains have not yet been found in this area, associated with this site.  But, with carbon dating, the charcoal scrapings have been determined to be older than 50,000 years.  As the Mojave Desert has been classified as an ecologically sensitive area, I doubt that they will ever be given the chance to continue their digging.  Sorry if I burst your ‘bubble’, but I was studying archaeology at Cal Tech when these discoveries were made.

Clovis Man 200,000 - 100,000 BP

 The next oldest human habitation of America has been found in Clovis, New Mexico.  Charcoal samples associated with this site are also older than 50,000 years BP. Since Clovis is in close proximity to Sandia, NM, these people have been dubbed ‘Clovis Man’ or ‘Sandia Man’.    Archaeologist have discovered a cave site near Clovis, that has been partially excavated, and shows the development of stone tools from the crude three-bladed ‘axes’ of Neanderthal style, to the ‘modern’ highly developed ‘Clovis Point’.  To date, this is the only site in the world that shows a logical progression of the art of stone tools from the ancient to the modern ‘mousterian’ tool kit that is associated with all ‘Crow Magnon’ or Proto-European sites found in the rest of the world.  This site is the ‘Mother Lode’ for stone tool development.

Politically Correct archaeologists are focusing on the Clovis Point which was developed somewhere between 16,000 - 14,000 years BP.  They are completely ignoring the far older remains in the lower level of the cave, as the older material might poke a hole in some important archaeologist’s pet theory.  The excavation focuses on the floor of a cave that has seen continuous human habitation for 40,000 years or more.  The uppermost layer is littered with ‘modern’ Clovis Points.  The next lower layer has an ‘older’ style that is technically the ‘father’ of the Clovis design.  This pattern is repeated in several more layers, showing an unbroken chain of technological development from the oldest Flaked Stone Ax on the lower layer, to the ‘modern’ Clovis Point in the upper layer.

How old is the oldest layer ???  European Neanderthal ‘Cave Men’ were using the same design of flaked stone ax 67,000 years BP.  Carbon dating will not reach that far into the past.  The scientists must find a sufficient quantity of bone (animal or human) that can be subjected to amino-acid-racimization.  Another branch of archaeology studies the rock of the cave, and the assumed weather patterns, to determine how rapidly the roof flakes off onto the floor each year.  Then they perform a SWAG (scientific wild ass guess), and publish the results.

Adjacent to this site, and as far away as 5,000 miles, Woolly Mammoth skeletons have been found with Clovis points wedged firmly between the bones.  These people were hunting mammoths with ‘high tech’ spears, when the Neanderthals were still driving animals over cliffs and clubbing them to death.  The ‘Mousterian’ tool kits have been found from Clovis, NM, north through the coastal plains, across Alaska, and into Siberia.  From there, these people spread out throughout Asia, and eventually, into Europe.  There is no evidence that they ‘hunted’ the Neanderthal or engaged them in warfare, it is more likely that they simply out-competed them for the available resources.  So far, the European archaeologists have found crude (two and three flaked) Neanderthal stone axes and the highly refined Mousterian stone tools, but nothing even hinting at the development from the older form to the newer more refined tools.

Land Bridge

 During the period from 65,000 to 45,000 years BP, the Ice Age had locked up so much of the worlds water, that ocean levels had dropped as much as 500 feet below what they are today.  This vast receding of the oceans exposed large sections of land that are currently under water.  The resultant ‘Land Bridge’ was over 1,000 miles wide (north to south).  This Land Bridge joined the peninsulas of Siberia and Alaska.  The northern reaches of the new ’continent’ were exposed to the glaciers which provided the plants and water for most of the animal species, and the southern coast was warmed by the Japanese Current.  The Land Bridge was not a one-way street.  Animal herds migrated, and people followed the herds in both directions.  When the ice finally melted, the mammoth hunters were mostly in Siberia, and the caribou hunters were mostly in Alaska, with the fishermen on both sides of the Bering Strait.

Most authorities agree that the Land Bridge (Beringia) was partly above water as late as 16,000 to 14,000 years BP.  During the period after 45,000 years BP, the climate was very cold and very dry, unable to support vegetation beyond widely separated clumps of tundra grass, and not much of that.  Imagine the preparations for a walking trip across a 2,000 mile wide tundra, not to mention the ‘near tundra’ conditions of Siberia and Alaska at that time.  You would have to pack enough food and water for nearly a year, and walk constantly for nearly 6 months.  Animals could feed on the grasses, and meat eaters could feed on the animals, but with the climate so dry, there would have been no water for the animals.  Only at the time when Beringia was at its widest (65,000 - 45,000 BP), could the climate have supported enough game and water for such an extended journey.

Adaptation

The Alaskan ‘natives’ soon lost their stone tool technology as the ground is covered with ice and snow for much of the year, so they reverted to using ‘older’ bone technology for tools and weapons.  While harvesting whales and seals, they invented a unique ‘toggle’ barb on their spears which developed into the harpoon.  With the lack of wood for construction or fuel, they turned to whale and fish oil for heat and light, and discovered that shelters could be constructed from blocks of ice.  The dome-shape of the igloo is uniquely suited to the weather conditions where wind velocities can be as high as 75 miles per hour for several days.  This is a good example of how humans can adapt and utilize available materials and animals for their survival.

Immigration Patterns

According to Linguistic Anthropologists, immigration into America was done in several ‘waves’ over a period of 10,000 to 20,000 years.  The first group, sharing a similar language, came across the Land Bridge, through Canada, into America, and spread out as resources and population pressures demanded.  The next ‘wave’ of  immigrants followed the same path, but found the land thinly populated.  This second wave pushed the first wave outward toward the coastal areas.  This process was repeated several more times over the next 10,000 to 15,000 years, resulting in concentric ‘rings’ of language groups.  The newest arrivals tended to occupy the center of the land mass, and the earliest arrivals tend to be concentrated in the coastal areas.  The first wave of immigrants came to this land about 65,000 BP when the Land Bridge was first opened, and the most recent wave arrived about 45,000 BP when the Land Bridge was finally closed. 

In the early years of the Wisconsin Ice Age, Most of Canada and a large portion of America were covered with a massive glacier.  This left open a marginal strip of land (50 to 100 miles wide) on the ocean side of the Pacific Cascades, as a migration route.  As the millennium passed, and the ice melted, the glaciers shrank toward the center of Canada and the Ancient Freeway was widened.  Theory has it that the early humans followed the warmer ‘coastal’ or Southern route on Breingia.  Since most of this ‘continent’ are now submerged, most of the traces of human habitation are waiting patiently between 300 - 500 feet below the ocean.  Deep core-samples from this region have revealed fragments of worked stone and bone, similar to the Clovis technique.

Earliest Cherokee settlements

It looks like the Cherokee first settled in southeastern North American between A.D. 1000 and 1500, probably around 1300. The 240 period from then until de Soto made contact with the tribe in 1540 might be described as a formative one, during which the Cherokees established themselves in their new home an began to shape their civilization.

The view of the current scholars began its evolution in 1823, when John Haywood published the first theory of Cherokee origins, and concluded that two nations with diverse cultures had in the past merged to from the Cherokee tribe. The first of these groups built mounds, erected fortifications, constructed wells with adobe-brick walls, worshipped idols, performed human sacrifices, used seven as their most sacred number, and ruled themselves by autocratic princes. Their place of origin was southern Asia, and their culture was linked to that of ancient Hebrews and Hindus. When they migrated to North American, they settled in the southeastern area dominated by the Natchez tribe. Later, a second tribe, democratic in organization and with a strong military came from northeast Asia, took control of eastern Tennessee and gradually merged with the first group, to form the Cherokee tribe that existed when the first whiter arrived in A.D. 1540.

Haywood's' ideas has been rejected, and the currently accepted view is that similarities of language, warlike spirit, common traditions and the use of the Iroquois unmatched arrow point and grooveless ax indicate that Cherokees were once part of the Great lakes Iroquoian family. Then, some form of discord caused the Cherokees to separate themselves from the other Iroquoians, and to migrate southward through what are today known as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Finally, the Cherokees found a suitable new home, and laid clam to a vast wilderness empire. The limits of this domain can be established by drawing a line that begins fifty miles north of present Charleston, South Carolina, and runs northward along the Kanawha River to the Ohio River. From there, it follows the Ohio to Tennessee River turns southward for a hundred miles into northern Alabama, and finally goes eastward to the starting point, passing slightly north of Atlanta, Georgia.

The Cherokees divided into four regional settlements: the eastern, Lower settlements ( Southern Piedmont Province ), central which were the heartland of the tribe, composed by the Kituhwa (Middle) and Valley settlements ( Blue Ridge province, Great Smoky Mountains included) and the Overhill or Tennessee settlements ( north and west in Appalachian Great Valley Province ).

No one knows how large the Cherokee tribe was when it migrated, but it was large compared with most other tribes.  Guesses are that in 1650 the population was 22,000.

Major Culture Phases

In researching Appalachian archeology, experts have compiled  a list of seven distinctive phases:

• Qualla phase (ca. A.D. 1500 to historic times)

• Pisgah phase (ca. A.D. 1000 to 1500)

• Connestee phase (ca A.D. 100 or 200 to 1000)

• Pigeon phase (ca 200 B.C. to A.D. 100)

• Swannanoa phase (ca 750 to 150 B.C.)

• Savannah River phase ( ca 2500 to 750 B.C.)

• Morrow Mountain phase (ca. 4300 to 2500 B.C.)

Only two of these periods are associated with Cherokee, Pisgah and Qualla.

Pisgah phases sites have been found throughout an area of about 14,000 square miles in the South Appalachian Province. In its earliest years, many of these sites were occupied for relatively short periods of time, but in the interior of the region, sites were occupied throughout the phase. Settlements sites varied in size form a quarter of an acre to six acres. This phase is thought to represent in the Appalachian summit area the development period pf a primarily Mississippian cultural pattern. When we seek an establishment date for the Cherokee, it is interesting that while Pisgah sites discovered thus fat contain permanent houses, palisades and platform mounds, they are not identical to the later Cherokee towns and villages to the south and west. In other words, for some portion of the Pisgah phase we are not yet dealing with actual Cherokee culture. The Garden Creek site was an important center in its day, but it does not compare in size and complexity with the great Cherokee centers in the Tennessee Valley.

Anthropologist believe that the Qualla phase of A.D. 1500 to historic times, represents the spiritual and material culture of the Cherokees as it was until it was replaced by the Euro-American material and economics culture in the 19th century.

The information we have about ancient Cherokee life makes it clear that the people had an specially dynamic culture whose composition was the result of adventuring, diverse contacts, and mergers. This truth gives us our first hint about a Cherokee trait of some consequences in their national evolution, which was adaptability that welcomed and made use of the new things and ways they encountered.