Yahnie Ann Littlejohn Squirrel, 78, of Cherokee, opened her eyes in Heaven on Sunday, July 6, 2025. She was a native of Cherokee born on Dec. 7, 1946 to Owen and Agnes Bigwitch Long Littlejohn. She was a member of Macedonia Baptist Church often attending church with her dad as a child.
Yahnie, or Dosh, or Toot as she was affectionately called by some of her grandkids grew up in the Wolftown Community in a fluent Cherokee-speaking household. She spent her days running up and down the many trails of Washington’s Creek with her siblings. Using her imagination she often recounted the story of how she made herself a doll out of a corncob and an old doll’s head she found and wrapped in a blanket.
When she entered her teen years, Yahnie and her sister Annabelle decided to attend Sequoyah Indian High School in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. She admitted she did get home sick but her dad encouraged her to keep going. She made many lifelong friends there and learned how to type and sew among other things. Her grandsons later attended high school there as well and were very proud to see their grandma’s senior picture still hanging in the hallway representing the class of 1966.
Upon her return to Cherokee, N.C., she met John Adam Squirrel through her brother, Ammons. She and John Adam were later married, and she moved to the Yellowhill Community. Together they raised two daughters. She was a stay-at-home mom and spent her days canning, being very active in volunteering time in the girls’ classrooms, being the team mom for her girls softball team, babysitting for different families and just spending time with her kids. Yahnie had a big heart for every child and often took her nieces and nephews home with her. She did her best to make sure every child got a little something for Christmas.
She was also very active in various causes that she believed in. She jokingly referred to herself as a radical. She was on the frontlines along with her husband to protest the TVA dam being built and the development of a highway that would run through an elder’s home. As the girls got older she even dabbled in politics and fought for her name to be put on the ballot for a council seat. She also decided to attend Southwestern Technical College to work toward a degree in Early Childhood. This drove her to venture into the workforce for Cooper Enterprises and the Oconaluftee Indian Village. This helped supplement the family income when John couldn’t do his rock mason work due to the winter weather. She prided herself in being able to help her little family in this way.
In her later years she enjoyed going for rides on the Blue Ridge Parkway, visiting her sister Betty, attending church, helping her daughter teach Cherokee language community classes, watching her grandchildren play, shopping with her sister Laura (and always making the stop at Ammon’s Drive In for a hot dog) and talking with her good friend Kathy.
She and John were married for 54 years each complementing the other when one was weak, the other was strong. She took care of John when a stroke finally slowed him down and he, in turn, took care of her when she was in a car accident. They shared more laughter than tears and made a happy home for their children and later their grandchildren. Yahnie, like John, prayed without ceasing for her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She would scold you when you needed it no matter who you were (even a council member or two) but that is how she showed you that she cared. She is already missed so big…her humor, her straightforward talk, her Cherokee words, her voice mails and her ever present warmth.
Yahnie is preceded in death by her siblings, Annabell Cucumber, Arnessa Wilnoty, Ammons Littlejohn, Johnson Lee Littlejohn; and her late husband, John Adam Squirrel.
She is survived by two daughters, Charlene Mejorado, Angela Squirrel; son, Joseph Smith and wife Cherry; grandchildren, Jack, Kayla, Greg, Angel, Malaya, Adam, Gabby, Aaronn and Fernando; many great grandchildren, special great grandson, Little Joe Smith; sisters, Laura Saunooke of Robbinsville, Betty Locust of Cherokee; and several nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, July 10 at Macedonia Baptist Church. Pastor Dan Conseen and Pastor Merritt Youngdeer will officiate with burial in the Littlejohn Cemetery.
The family will receive friends from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday at the church.