Talk:Oconostota

Stalking Turkey
I see that Stalking Turkey and Oconastota were merged into the same article. According to the Encyclopedia of North American Indians, they're not the same guy. Whoever merged the two articles might want to recheck their sources. --Kevin Myers | (complaint dept.) 19:58, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

The problem here is that Oconostota translates directly to "standing turkey" or "stalking turkey" in Cherokee. However, the distinction between "Standing Turkey" and "Stalking Turkey" may be key. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.236.68.161 (talk • contribs)

"Standing Turkey" and "Stalking Turkey" translate almost identically, depending on the verb used. However, Oconostota probably took this as him name in honor of his uncle, Standing Turkey, who was Principle Chief and Emperor of the Cherokee briefly from 1760-1761. However, this information comes from family sources, so other references will have to be found in order to substantiate this merge.

From Oliphant's history of the Anglo-Cherokee War:
 * Connecorte (Old Hop): Uku (Fire King) of Echota to 1760
 * Kanagatucko / Standing Turkey: Connecorte's successor, assocated with Oconostota
 * Oconostota: Warrior of Echota, war leader of the nation.

The portrait is Francis Parsons's Cunne Shote, but there appears to be disagreement on whether that is Oconostota or Kanagatucko. Gazpacho 07:03, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

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Unfortunately, it was not uncommon for Cherokee leaders to use many different names and titles (Attacullaculla used more than eleven), and it would not be unthinkable for Oconostota to have used Standing Turkey or Stalking Turkey, as it is associated with members of his family, and was traditional to take the title of an esteemed predecessor. It is possible that there were as many as three different people all using variations of this title (although none of them would have been at the same time). This is the case with the name Moytoy, distinguished usually by "the younger / the elder" or "Moytoy I / Moytoy II."

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Oconastota's gravestone at Chota has the dates of his birth and death as 1710-1783. The Wikipedia article on Kanagatucko has the same years as his birth and death. Does the gravestone confuse Oconastota and Kanagatucko, or were they roughly the same age? Bms4880 10:39, 1 March 2007 (UTC)