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Have you checked this with someone who knows the Cherokee language? There are many, many "urban legends" about the so-called meaning of names in Native American languages that turn out to be false when they are checked out with those who really know the language. Tenaya seems to me to be much more likely taken from the name of the lake in Yosemite National Park in California. This lake was in turn named after Chief Tenaya of the Ahwahneechees. The Cherokees would have been no place near Yosemite, so a Cherokee derivation seems very unlikely to me.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Tenaya