[Aztlan] Cherokees and Iroquoians

[Nick Hopkins]

On May 26, 2006, at 7:38 PM, wolfhawk wrote:

> The Cherokee are Iroquoian and from the north. They came south to  
> what is now NC, TN, GA, and SC. Some small, earlier groups joined  
> the Cherokee and some joined with the Creek (safety in numbers) to  
> create the modern Cherokee and Creek nations.  wolfhawk

Actually, if you look at the whole context of the family of Iroquoian  
languages, you can reasonably argue that the homeland of the family  
(i.e., where their ancestors were before the family members began to  
disperse and diverge from one another) was in the south.  Proto- 
Iroquoian dates to about 1500-1800 BC, when the family split into two  
branches that we can call Coastal versus Mountain.  Mountain  
Iroquoian ultimately becomes Cherokee.  The other branch breaks up  
about 400 BC-AD 100, leaving one population in the coastal area (to  
become Tuscarora-Nottaway) and the other branch to migrate north to  
the area we think of as the Iroquoian homeland (Huronian, Laurentian,  
and the Five Nations).  There are much later (historical) migrations  
that take some Tuscarora-Nottaways north to live with their cousins,  
and of course the mixing with Creeks, etc..  There is some support  
for this model in that early Iroquoian didn't have terms for conifers..

Nick Hopkins