Another major source of early cultural history comes from materials written in the 19th century by the didanvwisgi (Cherokee:ᏗᏓᏅᏫᏍᎩ), Cherokee medicine men, after Sequoyah's creation of the Cherokee syllabary in the 1820s.
Unlike most other Indians in the American southeast at the start of the historic era, the Cherokee spoke an Iroquoian language.