Cherokee Tribe: An Unusual Alliance in American History

Imagine this: you’re living in the United States, and the country goes to war with an enemy, but instead of fighting with your home country you decide to fight with the enemy. The Cherokee tribe was important in American history for this because they had a great alliance with Britain against the United States during wars. Initially they were a part of the Iroquois tribe, and lived in the Northeast near the Great Lakes. When they broke away and became their own individual tribe, they moved to the south toward the east coast (“Cherokee Indians”). They were then located in the Southeastern US. Some of these states included North and South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Georgia and Alabama (Chenocetah). After the Trail

Whenever Sequoyah noticed this he tried to find a way to fix it. He first tried to make a symbol for each word in the language, but the number of symbols quickly became too many. Next he began listening to the sounds that made up the words. He came up with eighty-five syllables that made up all of these words, and then he began limiting the syllables to even less that could form any word (“Sequoyah and the Cherokee Syllabary”). In 1827, the Cherokee Nation drafted a Constitution modeled on the United States’ version with executive, legislative and judicial branches and a system of checks and balances (“Sequoyah and the Cherokee Syllabary”). The Cherokees had many myths and legends that they created to explain different things. One example of a myth created by the Cherokee’s was the story of Kenati and Selu. In this myth, Selu was Kenati’s husband, and they were the parents of two sons. Everyday she would go out and return with a basket of corn, but the boys weren’t sure where the corn was coming from. One day they decided to follow her out and they saw her go into the storehouse and begin to shake herself. As she was shaking the corn started falling from her body into the basket. Since in this time period they believed in witches, the two boys thought their mother was a witch and planned to kill her. Their mother knew what they were going to do so she gave them these instructions in order to

They were very good allies of the British so during the many wars at the beginning of our existence as a new country, the Cherokee were fighting against us on our own land (Boulware). The Yamasee War is an example of when the Cherokee Indians were making war even more hectic. They went in and killed many Creek Indians which was the start of a forty year war between the tribes. The US wasn’t established yet, but this was the war that established the alliance between the Cherokee’s and Britain (Boulware). Another example of this alliance was during the Seven Years’ War. The Cherokee’s went to aid the British against the French, but they began feeling under appreciated and they didn’t think they got paid enough. This led to the Cherokee’s plundering settlers on the frontier and in the backcountry. The end result of this was fighting amongst the Cherokees and British and many deaths (Boulware). During the American Revolution, the Cherokees waged war on the southern states, even though many of them wanted to remain neutral. The Cherokees handled fighting the frontiersmen while Britain handled the mainlands. They moved farther into Georgia and joined with other Native tribes to fight the colonists. They continued this activity until the Treaty of Paris was signed and their homeland was invaded repeatedly (Boulware). Other than being a part of many