The Cherokee People.
In today's blog we are going to discover and learn about another indigenous culture, The Cherokee People. This topic is close to me because I live in the mountains that the Cherokee once called home and I am not very far from the Cherokee reservation. My soulmate is also part Cherokee and has great interest in the culture.
As with most indigenous people of the America's, the Cherokee were driven from their land by settlers and forced onto reservations. One of the saddest things that most people think of when they hear about the Cherokee is the trail of tears. The long walk west that the Cherokee endured when they were forced off their land and driven to a new place the settlers wanted them to occupy. This resulted in death, illness and turmoil from the Cherokee. But most people stop there. They don't get to know who these people are and the history of their culture. Let's learn about them together.
The Cherokee are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeast woodlands of the United States. Before the 18th century their homes were located in Southwestern North Carolina, Southeastern Tennessee, Southwestern Virginia, Western South Carolina, Northern Georgia, and Northeastern Alabama.
The Cherokee language name for Cherokee is Aniyvwiyai and it translates as principal people. The earliest Spanish translation of the name is Tchalaquei and dates back to De Soto. The Iroquois called the Cherokee the inhabitants of the cave country.
Where did the Cherokee come from? There are some elders who give account to stories that in prehistoric times they migrated South from the Great Lakes region. They had occupied territories where earthworks mounds were built during the earlier Woodland and Mississippian culture periods. Another theory is that they have been in the South for thousands of years and the proto-Iroquoian developed there.
The first contact between Cherokees and Europeans was in 1540 when Hernando De Soto traveled through Cherokee territory during their expedition. Historically the Cherokee Nation was led by a principal chief who was regularly elected by chiefs from Cherokee towns within the Cherokee nation.
Due to successive treaties made with the British crown, by 1817 the remaining lands of the Cherokee was limited to SouthWestern North Carolina, Southeastern Tennessee, and Northern Georgia. The Cherokee remained under unrelenting pressure from the US government to relinquish even more land. In 1817 Cherokee towns in Northern Georgia were enticed by the government to abandon their homes and voluntarily west of the Mississippi. Eventually they would end up on the Cherokee reservation in Eastern Oklahoma.
In 1835, President Andrew Jackson was determined to move the Cherokee off their land. He created the Treaty of New Echota which said the Cherokee would leave their land and move west. However, the Cherokee that Jackson got to sign the treaty were not authorized to do so and most Cherokee refused to honor the treaty and remained on their land.
Because of the failure of the Treaty, in 1838 troops under the leadership of Winfield Scott were deployed to forcibly gather up the Cherokee people into relocation camps and begin to forcibly move them west of the Mississippi. This would become known as the trail of tears. 4,000 Cherokee, ¼ of the population, who were forced to leave their homes and march west perished in camps on the trail of tears. I want you to think about this when you hear the names Andrew Jackson and Winfiekd Scott. Don't remember them for the supposed good that the American education system wants you to program you to remember them. Remember them for the atrocities they committed against an indigenous culture.
What was early Cherokee culture like? The early Cherokee possessed a variety of stone tools including knives, axes, and chisels. They wove baskets, made pottery, and cultivated maize, beans and squash. Deer, bear and Elk would supply meat and clothing. Their dwellings were bark-roofed windowless log cabins with one door and a smoke hole in the roof. A typical town would have 30 to 60 houses and a council house where meetings were held. Important religious ceremony was the Busk, or Green Corn festival, a first fruits or new fire celebration.
The life of traditional Cherokee was guided by faith in supernatural forces that linked humans to all other living things. Values rested on a relationship of people and place, family and clan, and community and council. They owned little personal property. The tribe was matrilineal. Women had use of the land and one's clan membership came through the mother. A “beloved woman” and Council of Women had substantial powers including the right to declare war.
Here is one of the most interesting things I discovered, and I think my soulmate will like this one. In the 18th century the traders and British government agents who dealt with the southern tribes of the Cherokee people were nearly all of Scottish Ancestry. Many of these agents had Scottish Ancestry tying them to the Highlands. Many of these men would marry Cherokee women and had many mixed-race children who the majority of remained with the tribe. Some of these children would go on to become significant leaders among the Five Civilized tribes of the Southeast.
Today there are 316,049 enrolled tribe members. 819,105 people claimed Cherokee Ancestry on the 2010 census. Oklahoma has the largest population with 102,580. Registered tribe members in other states are: California 22,124, North Carolina 16,158, and South Carolina 3,428. Canada has 11,620 Cherokee residents.
There are many topics that I have scheduled to write on Cherokee culture. I previously wrote a blog on the Cherokee language. I have also discovered some new topics to write about while researching this blog. I hope you have been able to learn and discover many things about the Cherokee.
The Cherokee People. It is important that we learn about all of the cultures of the world. It is important that we keep these cultures alive. The more we know about each other, the better we can support each other.
Blessed Be!
By Michael Walters
The Ancestors Fire
Writing the voices of the unheard.
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