Mysterious Cherokee tribal writing inside Alabama cave decoded, reveals its secrets
Archaeologists and Cherokee scholars have teamed up to decode a set of mysterious tribal inscriptions written in an Alabama cave.
The inscriptions inside Manitou Cave, near Fort Payne, are evidence of the tribe's syllabary, which the Cherokee scholar Sequoyah developed using symbols for each sound. It was formally adopted as the tribe's official written language in 1825.
Experts published their study of the inscriptions in the journal Antiquity.
The first inscription makes reference to the leaders of a game of “stickball,” the Cherokee version of lacrosse, that occurred in April 1828. With players entering the cave before the games and during intermissions, another nearby inscription reads: “We who are those that have blood come out of their nose and mouth.”
The study’s authors explain that stickball was a ceremonial event that often lasted a number of days. “Each team undergoes ritual preparation in private before the game, and access to purifying sacred waters is necessary,” they say. “This is the event recorded on the walls of Manitou Cave — the ballgame players preparing themselves spiritually for the game and cleansing themselves in the secluded subterranean waters.”
Another decoded inscription, which addresses sensitive religious matters, was written backwards. The researchers note that the inscription was written as if addressing readers inside the rock itself. “If Manitou Cave was seen as a portal to the spirit world, then words must be written backwards to be legible to the spirit residents,” they explain.
The inscriptions offer a fascinating glimpse into secluded sacred ceremonies that were carried out 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,” the authors explain.
The cave inscriptions offer a glimpse into the lives of the local Cherokee tribe. (A. Cressler, appearing in Beau Duke Carroll et al’s study in Antiquity.)
A host of Native American tribes in the southeastern U.S. were forced to leave their homes and give up their lands in exchange for federal territory west of the Mississippi following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The resulting forced migration is known as the Trail of Tears.
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