Memories

Please view our list of VOLUNTEERS and PARTNERS at the bottom of the page

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE ARCHIVES FROM 2001/2003/etc BELOW

ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎭᎨ ᏓᎪᏪᎵ ᎠᏎᎸᎯ The Cherokee Bible Project --- ᏦᎭᎾ ᏣᏑᏰᏓ ᎻᎩᏍ ᏫᏍ

The first thing we ever published online were the 10 Commandments and the Lord's Prayer back in 1998. We put the first few Chapters of John online in 2001. John was completed by 2003.

My dad was actively involved in our beginnings, and he spoke Cherokee. My dad was an enrolled member by blood of the Cherokee Tribe of Northeast Alabama (CTNEAL) until his departure from this life in January of 2000.

Many years ago, I contacted the American Bible Society asking permission to post the Cherokee New Testament online.

(got the first approval in 1998, but it was not until later -the year was 2001- that we were able to start posting anything)

They informed me that it was now in the public domain, but thanked me for asking anyway and then went on to encourage me to pursue this dream.

Along the way, many volunteers too numerous to mention have collaborated on getting pages scanned, transliterated, posted, proof read and shared on websites. I am thankful for you all!

We had some snags along the way: websites were lost, funds were depleted, technologies changed.

But we are pleased to report a great deal of progress has been made.

The work has been solely completed by volunteers.

All of the volunteers at the Cherokee Bible Project hope that you are blessed in using this website to study not only the Cherokee language, but also the Scriptures.

Please do not use this material for profit. It may not be resold but may be used in any situation covered by The doctrine of Fair Use.

The Cherokee Bible Project is an effort to translate ALL the Scriptures AND to make these verses available under FAIR USE guidelines so that these Scriptures are available online on the internet to all who want to read them.

WHO WE ARE

Most of you have met us, but below are some photos for you who have not.

We work on this project as volunteers and would be thrilled for more to join us in getting this accomplished.

Many Cherokee elders have expressed a desire to see this work completed.

So there are 2 very different

[and very good!]

reasons for providing these scriptures FREE to anyone interested

500 years of contact with Europeans and still the Bible has not been

completely translated!

We are working and praying to change that!

Cherokee Bible Project

attn: ᏦᎭᎾ ᏣᏑᏰᏓ ᏫᏍ [Johannah Tsasuyeda Ries]

30 George Allen Rdg

Arden, NC 28704

OUR MOTTO:

(if you cannot read the text below, and if it looks like little squares, you need to download the Cherokee Font-- see link on sidebar)

ᏂᎦᎥ ᎪᏪᎵ ᎤᏁᎳᏅᎯ ᎤᏓᏅᏖᎸᎯ ᏗᎪᏪᎳᏅᎯ, ᎠᎴ ᎣᏏᏳ ᎤᏓᏕᏲᏗᏱ, ᎤᏓᎬᏍᎪᎸᏗᏱ, ᎤᏓᎪᏗᏱ ᏚᏳᎪᏛᎢ, ᎤᏓᏕᏲᏗᏱ ᎣᏍᏛ ᎨᏒᎢ

ᎾᏍᎩ ᎠᏍᎦᏯ ᎤᏁᎳᏅᎯ ᎤᏤᎵᎦ ᎤᏍᏆᏗᏍᏗᏱ, ᎤᏓᏁᎵᏌᏛ ᎢᏳᎵᏍᏙᏗᏱ ᏂᎦᎥ ᎣᏍᏛ ᏗᎦᎸᏫᏍᏓᏁᏗ ᎨᏒᎢ.

[2 Tim. 3:16-17]

PHONETIC VERSION:

ni-ga-v go-we-li u-ne-la-nv-hi u-da-nv-te-lv-hi di-go-we-la-nv-hi, a-le o-si-yu u-da-de-yo-di-yi, u-da-gv-s-go-lv-di-yi, u-da-go-di-yi du-yu-go-dv-i, u-da-de-yo-di-yi o-s-dv ge-sv-i,

na-s-gi a-s-ga-ya u-ne-la-nv-hi u-tse-li-ga u-s-qua-di-s-di-yi, u-da-ne-li-sa-dv i-yu-li-s-do-di-yi ni-ga-v o-s-dv di-ga-lv-wi-s-da-ne-di ge-sv-i.*

Ꮳ Ꮃ Ꭹ [tsa la gi] {Cherokee} Ꮷ Ꭽ Ꭸ Ꮣ Ꭺ Ꮺ Ꮅ [tsuhage dagoweli] {Bible} Ꭰ Ꮞ Ꮈ Ꭿ [a se lv hi] {Project}

HISTORY

In 1824 the first portion of the Bible was translated into the Cherokee language: John 3, translated by a native Cherokee, At-see (also known as John Arch). It was circulated in manuscript, and was well received, being copied hundreds of times.

He completed the Gospel of John by 1824

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.

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."

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.

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.

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 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.

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

In 1998, we began inquiries and in 2001, published excerpts. By 2003, The Gospel of John, Matthew, Mark, & Luke were added to the website, along with excerpts from the Old testament.

This is the OFFICIAL home page of the Cherokee Bible Project.

Enter our CONTEST !!!

PRAY FOR GETTING THESE 31 MISSING BOOKS

Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Malachi

Please do not use this material for profit. It may not be resold but may be used in any situation covered by The doctrine of Fair Use.

Many years ago, I contacted the American Bible Society asking permission to post the Cherokee New Testament online.

(Asked permission in 1998, but it took time to put anything up; our first posting was in 2001; From 2001 and onward, we have steadily added to the internet presence); our first website complete with the Gospel of John and Various other NT books that were either (or both)transliterated or posted as scans online was hosted by WINX (2001-2006) then by GODADDY (2006-2008) but each was lost due to funding issues.

[we could not find an example of posts prior to 2003 (probably because of the format they were in/on) BUT we do have a link to a post from 2003: 2003

We now post solely on the (now) free google sites. Progress was painfully slow at first as there was no Unicode back then, few tools were available to help, and most of the work had to be done by hand one syllable at a time. We honor those volunteers of those early days who overcame those difficult situations.

The ABS (in the 90's) informed me that it was now in the public domain, but thanked me for asking anyway and then went on to encourage me to pursue this dream.

Along the way, many volunteers too numerous to mention have collaborated on getting pages scanned, transliterated, posted, proof read and shared on websites. I am thankful for you all!

We had some snags along the way: websites were lost, funds were depleted, technologies changed. Fonts changed.

But we are pleased to report a great deal of progress has been made.

The work has been solely completed by volunteers. No one who works on the website project gets paid. We do this out of love and hope.

All of the volunteers at the Cherokee Bible Project hope that you are blessed in using this website to study not only the Cherokee language, but also the Scriptures.

Currently, what has been translated is entirely in the western dialect.

There is no other dialect available to date.

Persons we must remember WHO HAVE ASSISTED IN SOME WAY

Whether it was with the assitance with one word, one phrase, or whole sections- we want to acknowledge you.

Those who wish to remain anonymous, we have honored that request. Those whose names were overlooked in the publishing of this page, we apologize and will add once we realize.

The original work of the American Bible Society

The original work of the translators and the original PHOENIX newspaper in Georgia

everyone who supported the translation work in the centuries past

SGI! To everyone who taught us language!

SGI! To my college professors of New Testament Greek and Linguistics!

SGI! To my devout Jewish friend who patiently taught me Biblical Hebrew at her kitchen table.

SGI! To the Cherokee Museum for hosting Language Classes for several years

SGI! To WCU for Cherokee language courses

and today's assistants:

Anuyo

Tom Belt

Jean Bushyhead

Rev. Bushyhead

Amory Nelson Chamberlain

Edohi

Dr. Francis Hartwell

The Lawson Family of AL, NC, & TN

Garfield Long

Matthew Mason

Stefani E. Mason

The Meeks Family AL, GA, KY, NC, & TN

Nula

Mack Oswalt

Selani Oswalt

Rev. James "Bo" Parris

Joyce Rheal

Dale "Walosi" Ries

Jadon Ries

Johannah "Tsasuyed" Ries

Prentice Robinson

Willena H. Robinson

Anita Sixkiller

Marjorie Shower

Emily Wolfe Smith

James "Bo" Taylor

Velma Taylor

Jerry Wolfe

Edith Woodley

Randy Woodley

Patreon Supporters of Tsasuyeda

also we wish to acknowledge those who assisted us but also worked on separate projects including the publication of a bilingual version:

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 that 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.

We are seeking for folks to Pray daily for this important work.

Prayer Supporters commit to give 15 minutes each day in prayer for this work.

We are seeking financial sponsors as well.

888.743.7775

Photo of a copy of the Cherokee New Testament

We are in the midst of a fundraiser to raise funds that will be used for things such as

--incorporating as a 501c3 (in order to be eligible for grants to fund this work)

--purchase source documents

You can support by contributing at

http://www.gofundme.com/Cherokee-Bible

send donations to

(please do not send cash in the mail)

Cherokee Bible Project

30 George Allen Rdg

Arden, NC 28704

If you would rather not go online to use a credit card, call 888-743-7775 and we will contact you in order to make arrangements for those donations to be received (using secure services of either Amazon card Swipe or "square reader")

ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎭᎨ ᏓᎪᏪᎵ ᎠᏎᎸᎯ

using the "wayback" machine we were able to snag this screen shot of the Cherokee Bible Project website--how it looked way back

in 2002 /2003

ᏦᎭᎾ ᏣᏑᏰᏓ ᏫᏍ September 2004

ᏦᎭᎾ ᏣᏑᏰᏓ ᏫᏍ September 2006