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Jean Wolf: Halfway Resident Shares Her Language

by Patti Walker of the Hell's Canyon Journal
(Some graphics are from Ken Martin's History of the Cherokee website.)

If all goes well, 83-year-old Jean Wolf of Halfway will be busy this fall teaching a Cherokee language class in Baker City. Wolf, who is seven-eighths Cherokee, completed college in the Philippines and attended the University of Oregon. Teaching is nothing new to Jean, who taught school in Springfield, Portland, Hood River, the Dalles and Pendleton before moving to Halfway 33 years ago.

(Tslagi chief, Cumnacatogue, also known as Stalking Turkey, circa 1762, wearing a gift from King George III..)

According to Wolf, the Cherokee were the first Native Americans to have both an oral and written language, and to adopt many of the white man's ways, which included the development of a Cherokee Nation constitution and Supreme Court. Jean laughingly recalls a story passed down in her family about her great, great grandmother, who could read and write both English and Cherokee, but was taken as a teenager to a seminary, "to be civilized."
The Cherokee lived primarily in North Carolina, Alabama
and Georgia, until the 1830's when they were forcibly moved to Oklahoma. President Andrew Jackson, whose command and life was saved due to 500 Cherokee allies at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend* in 1814, authorized the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

     More than 3,000 Cherokee were rounded up in Georgia during the summer of 1838 after gold was discovered in that state, and marched 1,000 miles into Indian Territory, known today as the state of Oklahoma. In all, most of the 17,000 Cherokee in the southeast were removed from their homeland. (OMED: see Trail of Tears.)
     "They called it 'the trail that cried,'" said Jean of the forced march. "There was a great loss of life, so many were hungry, and the heat was unbearable. They were taken to Madill, Oklahoma, a place the Cherokee called 'the hot place.' "
    An estimated 4,000 died from hunger, exposure and disease.
    Some of Jean's family was relocated to Oklahoma, others escaped into the mountains and remained in North Carolina

    Not only adults will benefit from Jean's legacy, youngsters in the Halfway Head Start Program will also learn some Cherokee language this fall.
    "I sent some words to Katie Crawford who is interested in teaching the kids some of the language," said Jean.
    Jean, who is originally from North Carolina but has long made Halfway her home, traveled extensively with her family as a child. Her mother was a nurse, and her father a geologist on loan to foreign governments. The family accompanied him all over the world as he located and mapped natural resources.

Sequoya of the Tslagi. He invented the Cherokee alphabet, perhaps the first use of phonetics in America.. The greatest American tree, the Sequoia, is named for him. It was a good choice. Some Giant Sequoias in California today were alive a thousand years before the birth of Christ. These kings of the forest symbolize endurance in the face of great trial.

*The Battle of Horseshoe bend is a subject of much dissention. It took place in Mississippi Territory in March of 1814, at a place where a river turned back upon itself. Here's a paragraph from a Cherokee history site:

Although the leadership of the eastern Cherokee steadfastly maintained their independence and land base, they felt it was important to reach an ccommodation with the Americans. They refused Tecumseh's requests for Indian unity in 1811, ignored a call for war from the Red Stick Creek in 1813, and then fought as American allies during the Creek War (1813-14). 800 Cherokee under Major Ridge were with Jackson's army at Horseshoe Bend in 1814, and according one account, a Cherokee warrior saved Jackson's life during the battle. If Jackson was grateful, he never allowed it to show. At the Fort Jackson Treaty ending the war (1814), Jackson demanded huge land cessions from both the Cherokee and Creek. As allies, the Cherokee must have been stunned at this treatment, and reluctantly agreed only after a series of four treaties signed during 1816 and 1817.

If this description is accurate, then Jackson, when he became president double-crossed his former Cherokee allies. Since Jackson is famous for being a man of his word, and proved that with even stranger allies, Barbary Coast pirates, at the Battle of New Orleans, one might need to do some in-depth historical research to discover what exactly was behind this seeming betrayal. There may, in other words, be factual descriptions of the events at Horseshoe Bend that differ from the Cherokee view.