The flag of the Cherokee Nation was adopted by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma on October 9, 1978. View of Claremore with Rogers Tomb

Background

The Cherokee Nation is the largest of the three federally-recognized tribes of

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

in the United States. First recognized under the Franklin Roosevelt administration in 1941, it drafted a constitution under the name "Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma." The constitution was not finally ratified by tribal members until 1976.

Design

A flag for the new nation was designed by Stanley John, and approved by the Cherokee Tribal Council on October 9, 1978. The flag has an orange field with the "Great Seal of the Cherokee Nation" at its center. The seal is surrounded by seven yellow stars with seven points. Each of the stars points toward the star in the center of the seal. The seven-pointed stars represent the seven clans of the

. The current version comes the flag being modified in a resolution passed by the council on September 9, 1989. Then, a black seven-pointed star was added to the upper right-hand corner of the flag to represent the light that went out with the deaths of those who perished on the

Trail of Tears The Trail of Tears was an ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of approximately 60,000 people of the " Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government. As part of the Indian removal, members of the Cherokee, ...

. The official flag also has a green-and-black rope edging. The Cherokee script in the central seal reads: "''Tsa la gi yi A ye hli''" (translation: "Cherokee Nation").''Cherokee Flags''
Webmaster account; Rootsweb .com; on-line webpage; accessed July 2020

Historic flags

Peace Flag

Oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985) ...

states that the earliest Cherokee flag was the Cherokee Peace Flag, which had seven red stars with seven points, arranged in the form of the

Big Dipper The Big Dipper ( US, Canada) or the Plough ( UK, Ireland) is a large asterism consisting of seven bright stars of the constellation Ursa Major; six of them are of second magnitude and one, Megrez (δ), of third magnitude. Four define a "bowl" ...

asterism on a white field. Tradition also states the Cherokee War Flag was the same design as the Peace Flag but with the colors inverted.

Confederate Flags

In the 1860s, Cherokee Confederate troops, part of the

Indian cavalry Indian cavalry is the name collectively given to the Midwest and Eastern American Indians who fought during the American Civil War, most of them on horseback and for the Confederate States of America. Indian units in the CS Armed forces Cherokee ...

, carried battle flags adapted from the first

Confederate flag The flags of the Confederate States of America have a history of three successive designs during the American Civil War. The flags were known as the "Stars and Bars", used from 1861 to 1863; the "Stainless Banner", used from 1863 to 1865; and ...

, most notably the Cherokee Braves Flag of the 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles. One was captured at the Battle of Locust Grove. It displayed the original Stars and Bars with the addition of five red stars in the center of the white stars. The red stars represented the

Five Civilized Tribes The term Five Civilized Tribes was applied by European Americans in the colonial and early federal period in the history of the United States to the five major Native American nations in the Southeast—the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek ...

, who were aligned with the

Confederate States The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

. The center red star represented the Cherokee Nation.

Current

The flag used by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma is not the same as that used

Eastern Band of Cherokee The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᏱ ᏕᏣᏓᏂᎸᎩ, ''Tsalagiyi Detsadanilvgi'') is a federally recognized Indian Tribe based in Western North Carolina in the United States. They are descended from the sma ...

, as their seals differ.

References

{{US state flags Cherokee Nation Cherokee Nation Cherokee Nation Cherokee Nation