OK, here it is. Bill D, you are right in your assumption that the Tsalagi language existed before there was a need for the word Republican.

Like all languages, Tsalagi has to play catch up and add new words that fit within the constraints of that language. The Cherokees simply had no need for the word republican because our central govt. was far different than that of the United States. The first time that the U.S. govt. really affected Tsalagi life was in 1830, the time of the Indian Removal Act. White settlers wanted Indian territorial lands to settle on. Not just Tsalagi, but Lenapes, Creeks, Choctaws, Seminoles, and Senaca, just to name a few. All Eastern Indian nations were to be forcably removed from their lands and moved across the Mississippi into 'Indian Territory.'Andrew Jackson was president at the time. He HATED Indians. He was a Republican, like all presidential candidates at that time.

My deduction is that the word for 'cold' already existed and was expanded at the time of the IRA to mean Republican as well.