Most of these stories I have learned from Tsali Hicks, a family member who was born in the Going Snake District in Indian Territory.  I learned and wrote these stories down as a boy in the 1940s.  Tsali learned these stories from his grandfather, who was a novice adawehi when he came to Indian Territory over the Nvnadaultsvyi, "Trail where they cried."  When I add stories from other sources, I will give the names and dates, if I have them.
  Let me be up front and say that we are Tsalagi from the Ani-Tsalagi, not Cherokee.  Cherokee came from a word used by the Choctaw tribe as our name.  The called us Chulaki, "People from the cave country."  The first use of the word by a European was by the Spanish explorer Desota.  It is reported that in 1540 he used Chalague to name our tribe.  In 1718, in English Colonail history of North and South Carolina they used the Cherikee, and also in 1747 they used Charokee.  They used the r from the Eladi Anigadugi, "Lower Towns," dialect.  Over the years there have been 50 different spellings of the name.
  I only use Cherokee to people who refuse to understand the difference.
  My mother kept my writings on schoolboy note book paper.  Later she gave them to my wife, who kept them with our household goods as we traveled in the army.  I wish to keep this information for my children and later descendants of my father's people.
  I will also use the Gatusideli dialect, for that is the dialect I learned when growing up.  Some of the terms are different than those used in Oklahoma and on Qualla Boundary in NC.  None of the dialects of our languages is wrong, for everyone must remember that language is a living thing and changes with time.

Chief D. L. Hicks
Ugu (Head Chief)