Bible translations into Cherokee

Last updated

Cherokee is a member of the Iroquoian language family.

In 1824 the first portion of the Bible was translated into the Cherokee language: John 3, translated by a native Cherokee, ᎠᏥ (At-see, also known as John Arch). It was circulated in manuscript, and received with wonderful avidity, being copied hundreds of times. [1] He completed the Gospel of John by 1824 [2] The complete New Testament was translated in September 1825 by David Brown, also a native Cherokee; this was also circulated in manuscript form, as a type for the Cherokee syllabary had not yet been created. Both Archer and Brown translated the full New Testament into Cherokee. [3]

The first actual printing of a Bible portion in Cherokee appeared in the Missionary Herald of December, 1827, and consisted of the first verse of Genesis, translated by Samuel Worcester. In 1828, David Brown, together with a man named George Lowrey, translated Matthew. This was printed in the Cherokee Phoenix from April 3, 1828 till July 29, 1829. It is uncertain whether this translation was ever published in book form or not.

Samuel Worcester, and Elias Boudinot, editor of the Cherokee Phoenix, published a revised translation of Matthew in 1829. This was published by the Cherokee National Press, New Echota. In the second edition, published in 1832, there is a statement that this translation had been "compared with the translation of George Lowrey and David Brown." [4] A third edition was printed by the Park Hill Mission Press in 1840.

Worcester and Boudinot continued with translation, publishing Acts in 1833 and John in 1838. Worcester, together with Stephen Foreman, published John 1–3 in 1840, 1 and 2 Timothy in 1844, James in 1847, 1 and 2 Peter in 1848, Luke in 1850, Exodus in 1853, Genesis in 1856, Mark in 1857, and Romans through Ephesians in 1858. With the assistance of Charles C. Torrey, they published Philippians through 2 Thessalonians, Titus through Hebrews and Jude through Revelation in 1859. Besides the first three books translated together with Boudinot, Matthew (1829), Acts (1833), and John (1838), which were published in New Echota, Georgia, all the rest of Worcester's texts were published by the Park Hill Mission Press. In the meantime, Evan and John B. Jones had published Mark, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Titus, Jude, and Philemon in 1847, and Galatians through Colossians, 1 and 2 Peter in 1848 and Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Hebrews and Revelation in 1849. Their work was published by the Cherokee Baptist Mission. [5] The full New Testament was published by the American Bible Society in 1860.

With the help of Stephen Foreman, Worcester also translated portions of Psalms, Proverbs, and Isaiah. [6]

Jonah, translated by Amory N. Chamberlain, was published in Tahlequah in 1888. Joshua was at an advanced stage of translation, and was perhaps even completed [7] but was never published.

A "corrected version" of old Testament portions, prepared by M.A. Pearson, was published in 1953 by the American Bible Society.

Revisions of John (1948) and the New Testament (1951) were published in Westville, Oklahoma. [5]

In 1965 the Perkins School of Theology published a translation of Haggai by Jack and Anna Kilpatrick. [8]

In 2001, The Cherokee Bible project [501(c)3] , with permission of the American Bible Society, placed the book of John online in both Cherokee Syllabary and in Latin phonetic transliteration and accompanying English translations. This was and is a bilingual version available starting with the gospel of John. The earliest remaining example of this is from 2003. [9] The addition of phonetics with syllabary had never been done on a scale of this project, and was suggested by Rev. James "BO" Parrish in discussions with him in May 2000. All postings by the Cherokee Bible Project are published under a Creative Commons license in order to make it widely available for all Cherokee speakers and students.

The Cherokee Bible Project 2001 bilingual passages were speedily followed by postings of the entire New Testament as well as portions of the Old Testament that were available in 2005, including the entire books of Jonah, Haggai, Genesis, Exodus, and portions of many others including Kings, Proverbs, Psalms, Isaiah, Samuel, and Obadiah. The printed copy of Haggai was donated by a generous supporter after it was located in a library discard and posted online in 2013. After consideration for the size of the project and to save costs, it was moved to google sites for hosting. [10]

In 2012, the Cherokee Bible Project highlighted the section of the words of Jesus and these were changed to red in the New Testament. Later formatting issues on google sites have not allowed some of that to remain but a majority of it is still viewable. During this time, the Cherokee Unicode underwent significant changes and much of the work had to be heavily edited and replaced with the latest available for ease of reading.

In 2009, the bilingual Spanish Site was under development and subsequently posted online for Spanish Speakers who wish to read the Cherokee Bible. [11] It is dependent upon volunteers and is in development.

In 2006, Timothy Legg began a project to compare the English and Cherokee translations of the New Testament, with verse-by-verse scans and transcriptions. In 2019, Legg abandoned that website and a copy was published to another site. [12]

In 2015, A group of fluent speakers and associates produced a bilingual version of the Scriptures in English and Cherokee. Bro. Bob Doom, Asheville, North Carolina, and acknowledge the participation of the following:

the Cherokee Indian Missionary Baptist Association of Cherokee of North Carolina, for their financial help and spiritual support; the proofreaders Dennis Sixkiller, Anna Sixkiller, David Crawler, all from Oklahoma, and Marie Junaluska of Cherokee, North Carolina; Bro. Gil Breedlove, Pastor, Boiling Springs Baptist Church, Whittier, North Carolina, for the countless hours of typing, editing and preparing this work for publication, Pastor Brandon Harrell, Bethesda Baptist Church, Flat Rock, NC, and Sis. Neta Cox, Grace Fellowship Baptist Church, Arden, NC, both for English proofreading.

In the following year of 2016, a limited selection of passages from the Old Testament were published in a bilingual version of English and Cherokee and the following were acknowledged: Bro. Bob Doom, Global Bible Society, Asheville, North Carolina, for advice, fundraising, and the securing of the printed portion of this work; the Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas Texas for their publishing of the Book of Haggai in manuscript form, and for the translators, Anna and Jack Kilpatrick of Oklahoma (both deceased,) who translated the Book of Haggai in 1955. Proofreaders were Dennis Sixkiller, Anna Sixkiller, David Crawler, all of Oklahoma, Marie Junaluska of Cherokee, NC. Last but not least Bro. Gil Breedlove, Pastor, Boiling Springs Baptist Church, Whittier, North Carolina.

Translation John (ᏣᏂ) 3:16
American Bible Society 1860ᎾᏍᎩᏰᏃ ᏂᎦᎥᎩ ᎤᏁᎳᏅᎯ ᎤᎨᏳᏒᎩ ᎡᎶᎯ, ᏕᏅᏲᏒᎩ ᎤᏤᎵᎦ ᎤᏪᏥ ᎤᏩᏒᎯᏳ ᎤᏕᏁᎸᎯ, ᎩᎶ ᎾᏍᎩ ᏱᎪᎯᏳᎲᏍᎦ ᎤᏲᎱᎯᏍᏗᏱ ᏂᎨᏒᎾ, ᎬᏂᏛᏉᏍᎩᏂ ᎤᏩᏛᏗ.
(Transliteration)nasgiyeno nigavgi unelanvhi ugeyusvgi elohi, denvyosvgi utseliga uwetsi uwasvhiyu udenelvhi, gilo nasgi yigohiyuhvsga uyohuhisdiyi nigesvna, gvnidvquosgini uwadvdi.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherokee</span> Indigenous American people of the southeastern United States

The Cherokee people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern North Carolina, southeastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia, edges of western South Carolina, northern Georgia and northeastern Alabama consisting of around 40,000 square miles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Park Hill, Oklahoma</span> Census-designated place in Oklahoma, United States

Park Hill is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in southwestern Cherokee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 3,909 at the 2010 census. It lies near Tahlequah, east of the junction of U.S. Route 62 and State Highway 82.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherokee language</span> Iroquoian language spoken by the Cherokee people

Cherokee or Tsalagi is an endangered-to-moribund Iroquoian language and the native language of the Cherokee people. Ethnologue states that there were 1,520 Cherokee speakers out of 376,000 Cherokees in 2018, while a tally by the three Cherokee tribes in 2019 recorded about 2,100 speakers. The number of speakers is in decline. The Tahlequah Daily Press reported in 2019 that most speakers are elderly, about eight fluent speakers die each month, and that only five people under the age of 50 are fluent. The dialect of Cherokee in Oklahoma is "definitely endangered", and the one in North Carolina is "severely endangered" according to UNESCO. The Lower dialect, formerly spoken on the South Carolina–Georgia border, has been extinct since about 1900. The dire situation regarding the future of the two remaining dialects prompted the Tri-Council of Cherokee tribes to declare a state of emergency in June 2019, with a call to enhance revitalization efforts.

Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. 515 (1832), was a landmark case in which the United States Supreme Court vacated the conviction of Samuel Worcester and held that the Georgia criminal statute that prohibited non-Native Americans from being present on Native American lands without a license from the state was unconstitutional. The opinion is most famous for its dicta, which laid out the relationship between tribes, state, and federal governments. It is considered to have built the foundations of the doctrine of tribal sovereignty in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elias Boudinot (Cherokee)</span> American Indian leader (1802–1839)

Elias Boudinot was a writer, newspaper editor, and leader of the Cherokee Nation. He was a member of a prominent family, and was born and grew up in Cherokee territory, now part of present-day Georgia. Born to parents of mixed Cherokee and European ancestry and educated at the Foreign Mission School in Connecticut, he became one of several leaders who believed that acculturation was critical to Cherokee survival. He was influential in the period of removal to Indian Territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elias Cornelius Boudinot</span> American politician (1835–1890)

Elias Cornelius Boudinot was an American politician, lawyer, newspaper editor, and co-founder of the Arkansan who served as the delegate to the Confederate States House of Representatives representing the Cherokee Nation. Prior to this he served as an officer of the Confederate States Army in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War. He was the first Native American lawyer permitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sequoyah</span> Cherokee polymath and creator of the Cherokee syllabary

Sequoyah, also known as George Gist or George Guess, was a Native American polymath and neographer of the Cherokee Nation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherokee syllabary</span> Writing system invented by Sequoyah to write the Cherokee language

The Cherokee syllabary is a syllabary invented by Sequoyah in the late 1810s and early 1820s to write the Cherokee language. His creation of the syllabary is particularly noteworthy as he was illiterate until its creation. He first experimented with logograms, but his system later developed into the syllabary. In his system, each symbol represents a syllable rather than a single phoneme; the 85 characters provide a suitable method for writing Cherokee. The letters resemble characters from other scripts, such as Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and Glagolitic, however, these are not used to represent the same sounds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty of New Echota</span> 1835 treaty between the U.S and a Cherokee faction

The Treaty of New Echota was a treaty signed on December 29, 1835, in New Echota, Georgia, by officials of the United States government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction, the Treaty Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Echota</span> United States historic place

New Echota was the capital of the Cherokee Nation in the Southeastern United States from 1825 until their forced removal in the late 1830s. New Echota is located in present-day Gordon County, in northwest Georgia, north of Calhoun. It is south of Resaca, next to present day New Town, known to the Cherokee as Ꭴꮝꮤꮎꮅ, Ustanali. The site has been preserved as a state park and a historic site. It was designated in 1973 as a National Historic Landmark District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Ridge</span> American Indian politician (c. 1802–1839)

John Ridge, born Skah-tle-loh-skee, was from a prominent family of the Cherokee Nation, then located in present-day Georgia. He went to Cornwall, Connecticut, to study at the Foreign Mission School. He met Sarah Bird Northup, of a New England Yankee family, and they married in 1824. Soon after their return to New Echota in 1825, Ridge was chosen for the Cherokee National Council and became a leader in the tribe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherokee clans</span>

The Cherokee clans are traditional social organizations of Cherokee society.

<i>Cherokee Phoenix</i> Native American newspaper

The Cherokee Phoenix is the first newspaper published by Native Americans in the United States and the first published in a Native American language. The first issue was published in English and Cherokee on February 21, 1828, in New Echota, capital of the Cherokee Nation. The paper continued until 1834. The Cherokee Phoenix was revived in the 20th century, and today it publishes both print and Internet versions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Worcester</span> Christian missionary to Cherokee (1798-1859)

Samuel Austin Worcester, was an American missionary to the Cherokee, translator of the Bible, printer, and defender of the Cherokee sovereignty. He collaborated with Elias Boudinot (Cherokee) in Georgia to establish the Cherokee Phoenix, the first Native American newspaper, which was printed in both English and the Cherokee syllabary. The Cherokee gave Worcester the honorary name A-tse-nu-sti, which translates to "messenger" in English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherokee history</span>

Cherokee history is the written and oral lore, traditions, and historical record maintained by the living Cherokee people and their ancestors. In the 21st century, leaders of the Cherokee people define themselves as those persons enrolled in one of the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes: The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, The Cherokee Nation, and The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brainerd Mission</span> United States national historic place

The Brainerd Mission was a Christian mission to the Cherokee in present-day Chattanooga, Tennessee. The associated Brainerd Mission Cemetery is the only part that remains, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Biblical translations into the indigenous languages of North and South America have been produced since the 16th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Brannon</span> American book artist

Frank Brannon is a book and paper artist, and the proprietor of Speakeasy Press.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Cherokee language</span>

The Cherokee language is the indigenous American Iroquoian language native to the Cherokee people. In 2019, the Tri-Council of Cherokee tribes declared a state of emergency for the language due to the threat of it going extinct, calling for the enhancement of revitalization programs.

References

  1. ↑ Foster, Biography of Se-Quo-Yah, p. 120
  2. ↑ Cherokee Messenger, by Althea Bass
  3. ↑ Dodds, Richard T. (22 July 2022). "Cherokee - English (2014) Diglot New Testament" (in Cherokee). Franklin, North Carolina: Cherokee Bible Project, American Bible Society . Retrieved 16 September 2024– via Digital Bible Society.
  4. ↑ Early Bibles of America, by John Wright, pg. 278
  5. 1 2 Eric North, Eugene Nida, The Book of a Thousand Tongues, United Bible Societies, 1972
  6. ↑ Early Bibles of America: Being a Descriptive Account of Bibles Published in the United States by John Wright
  7. ↑ American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (1857). The Missionary herald. Published for the Board by Samuel T. Armstrong. p.  241 . Retrieved 30 October 2012.
  8. ↑ "The book of Haggai translated into Cherokee | WorldCat.org". search.worldcat.org.
  9. ↑ "Archived copy". www.cherokeebible.com. Archived from the original on 22 June 2003. Retrieved 13 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. ↑ "Cherokee Bible Project online since 2001". sites.google.com.
  11. ↑ "Google Sites: Sign-in". accounts.google.com.
  12. ↑ "Cherokee Dictionary". www.cherokeedictionary.net. Retrieved 2024-04-18.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.