The Story of the Cherokee People
by
Tom B. Underwood
According to historians, ancient people traveled across a land bridge in Alaska and moved down the continent of North America, eventually making it into South America. We refer to these people as Native Americans or Indians. The number of tribes that existed before the European settlement of the New World could have been in the thousands. Many are tribes that we have studied in social studies classes in grade school. Tribes such as the Shawnee, Apache, Shoshoni, Comanche, Souix, Iroquois, Navajo, and the Mandan are just a few of them. But I think all of us have heard about a group of Indians from the Southeastern United States called the Cherokee Indians. The Cherokee Indians and
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there tragic removal from their homelands in Tennessee and South Carolina make them one of the most well known groups of Native Americans in this land. The Ancient Times Before the last Ice Age, a land bridge existed between Alaska and Russia. Groups of people followed mammoth and buffalo across this land bridge into the Americas. As these hunters came to the new land, they discovered that life was easier. Men eventually invented the arrow and made hunting easier. Women discovered farming. This allowed the people to settle down in one place. A group that would become known as the Cherokee tribe settled along rivers in the east coast, mostly in the Carolinas. The Early Times The Cherokees developed a very advanced civilization.
The social structure consisted of seven clans-Bird, Paint, Deer, Wolf, Blue, Long Hair and Potato. All clan members were considered blood brothers and sisters. They were led by two chiefs-a war chief and a peace chief. One of the most important festivals was the fire festival. It was held at the end of the old year and the beginning of the new year. Fires were put out and fire places were cleared of ashes. Part of the fire festival was a game called The Little War. It was a very rough game where sticks and a ball was used. It resulted in many people getting broken bones, The planting of corn and harvest time were also celebrated with elaborate festivals. The Cherokee believed that all living things lived in the sky in the beginning. They believe The Great One punished man for bad deeds and separated the heaven and earth. He put man on the earth. The first mountains on the earth were the Great Smoky …show more content…
Mountains. The Colonial Period For nearly 100 years after Europeans came to the New World they had little contact with the Cherokee. When they did have contact, they pretended to be friendly with the Indians. But they saw them as savages. They thought the Cherokees had no right to the land. The Cherokee asked for treaties with the white men. But they were not honored. Sequoya The greatest Cherokee was a man named Sequoya. His mother was a full blooded Cherokee and his father was a white soldier. He invented an alphabet for the Cherokee language. He taught his alphabet to friends who in turn taught it to others. The Holy Bible was translated into Cherokee using Sequoya's alphabet. The Phoenix was a Cherokee newspaper that was printed in both English and Cherokee. Sequoya worried about the lost Cherokee in Mexico and Texas. He decided to go find them and help them. He left his home in 1842 and never returned. To honor him, great redwoods were named after him. The name it came down to was Sequoyas. The Cherokee Removal In 1721 the first treaty with the American government was made. A little over a hundred years later, the Cherokee lost almost all the land they had. Treaty after treaty took more of their land until there was almost nothing left. The state of Georgia treated the Cherokee the worst. They refused to obey any laws made by the government concerning the Cherokees. Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Davy Crockett fought hard for the Cherokee Indians. But they failed. In 1838, General Winfield Scott issued an order for forced removal of this gentle, peace loving group of people. The Cherokee were dragged from their homes and gun point. They were rounded up and forced into stockades to await their fate. Children were often separated from their parents. Men working in fields were arrested. Women were dragged from their homes by men who spoke a language they did not understand. They were given no time to gather anything. If a family member was away from home when the soldiers showed up, they were left behind. In the stockades, the government provided a small ration for the Indians.
But the food wasn't the type they were used to eating. So they became physically weakened and became sick easily. As result, many died of malnutrition. Some died of heartbreak.
A few mountain Cherokee hid out in the forests. They refused to leave and escaped into places the soldiers could not find or get to. A few years later, the government created a Cherokee Indian Reservation called Qualla Indian Reservation. This group was known as the Eastern Cherokee.
It was a chilling rain in October when they were forced into wagons or walked on foot and began their journey west. Many of these helpless people did not have blankets and were barefoot. The weather turned cold and snowy. They had to sleep on the ground or in wagons with no fire. Many died of pneumonia, exposure to the cold, or poor
treatment. The long painful journey ended in March 26, 1839. The Indians were forced to leave their homes in October and arrived in Oklahoma, their new home, in May. The weather during the six month journey was treacherous. Most of the Cherokee will ill prepared for such a good winter. Over between 4000-5000 men, women, and children died on the journey. This six month journey is known as “The Trail of Tears”. The Cherokee Indians were strong, smart, and very protective over others. They knew a lot about human survival and protection. Their tragic removal from their own lands and forced to leave causing The Trail of Tears made them one of the most well-known Native Americans in the lands. I thought that the Cherokee Indians were smart, safe, and resourceful with what they do against the dangers towards them.
The soldiers lacked basic necessities such as clothing and food. In Document B it Dr. Albigence Waldo states, "There comes a Soldier, his bare feet are seen thro' his worn out Shoes, his legs nearly naked from the tatter'd remains of an only pair of stocks". In other words, these soldiers clothing were very worn out due to being used so often and were not provided with brand new attire. Since there were many mouths to feed, food became scarce, which left many soldiers starving. Around the camp soldiers cry
Pages one to sixty- nine in Indian From The Inside: Native American Philosophy and Cultural Renewal by Dennis McPherson and J. Douglas Rabb, provides the beginning of an in-depth analysis of Native American cultural philosophy. It also states the ways in which western perspective has played a role in our understanding of Native American culture and similarities between Western culture and Native American culture. The section of reading can be divided into three lenses. The first section focus is on the theoretical understanding of self in respect to the space around us. The second section provides a historical background into the relationship between Native Americans and British colonial power. The last section focus is on the affiliation of otherworldliness that exist between
During their western voyage, the group notoriously known as the “Donner Party” inevitably became trapped in a snowstorm in the winter of 1846 and 1847. Originally, the group set out for California in search of new opportunities. Figure 1 shows the path that the party followed to arrive in their set destination. After departing from Springfield, Illinois, the Donner’s first stop was in Independence, Missouri where they joined the rest of their traveling companions. The party had then planned on arriving at Fort Bridger to join another expedition, but they were too late and the expedition left without them (Johnson, 1). They left from Fort Bridger on July 31, 1846 using their own navigation skills in hopes of landing at their destination (Diamond, 2). When an unfortunate snowstorm hit, the group was left stranded. To make matters worse, they were split up between Truckee Lake and Alder Creek. They struggled during this time for they had few supplies and a limited food source. Of the 81 person party, only 45 survived the horrendous conditions (Johnson, 1). That number of casualties may seem fairly typical based on the condit...
The Choctaw Indians is a tribe of Musksgean stock .The Choctaws were once part of a larger tribe that included the Greeks and Seminoles and are considered one of the five civilized tribes (Cherokees , Greeks, Choctaws , Seminoles, and Chickasaws) . At one time Choctaw territory extended from Mississippi to Georgia, but by the time Europeans began to arrive in North America they were primarily in Mississippi and Louisiana.
The Cherokee lived in the southeast part of the United States. They lived in what is n... ... middle of paper ... ... train as warriors. All boys led a tough life.
Settlers maintained their crops and livestock, but while doing so the temperature drops past the freezing point. Children were attending school when the blizzard started to make its way toward the prairie. Unprepared with the proper clothing to at least have a fighting chance to stay warm during the frigid temperatures. These children were without over coats to keep warm, in one situation with two sisters Eda and Matilda, the author wrote “the older sister Eda took off her wrap to cover the younger sister.” (Laskin, 46) Times were very different then they are today, where heavier clothing are required and more available may not have been accessible to the settlers of that time. It was understood that so many children died with only a blanket of some sort, while walking against the heavy winds that was strong enough to rip it from the shoulders of the children. Many of these settlers died because of not dressing for the weather, or not having the resources to make or buy the
Thornton, Russell, Matthew C Snipp, and Nancy Breen. The Cherokees: A Population History Indians of the Southeast. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1990.
The Cherokee Indians lived in the south of the Appalachian Mountains for hundreds maybe thousands of years before the
The Native Americans of the southeast live in a variety of environments. The environments range from the southern Appalachian Mountains, to the Mississippi River valley, to the Louisiana and Alabama swamps, and the Florida wetlands. These environments were bountiful with various species of plant and animal life, enabling the Native American peoples to flourish. “Most of the Native Americans adopted large-scale agriculture after 900 A.D, and some also developed large towns and highly centralized social and political structures.” In the first half of the 1600s Europeans encountered these native peoples. Both cultures encountered new plants, animals, and diseases. However, the Indians received more diseases compared to the few new diseases to the Europeans. The new diseases resulted in a massive loss of Native Americans, including the Southeast Indians which had never encountered the new diseases. Three of the main tribes in the southeast were the Cherokee and the Creek. They were part of a group of southeast tribes that were removed from their lands. These tribes later became known as “The Five Civilized Tribes because of their progress and achievements.”
(6) The suddenness of the winter storm caught people by surprise. A roar “like an approaching train” was all the warning the storm gave. (130) The roaring wind and snow brought darkness and dropping temperatures. The people who were inside when the blizzard struck faced a dilemma. Staying inside and doing nothing seemed “heartless,” but going into the storm “on a rescue mission was likely to be fatal to the rescuer and useless to the lost.” (143) The people who were unfortunate enough to be away from home, whether they were at school or working with their livestock, had to make a difficult decision. They could either risk trying to make it home or chance it out and stay where they were. Schoolteachers had to decide whether to send the children home or keep them at the school. If anyone ventured outside, he or she risked frostbite, hypothermia, and likely
A lot of the colonists died because of starvation. In document B it shows a timeline that shows about how long they went with it raining and not raining. The longest unbroken time they went without rain was year 1610. Due to the drought none of their crops could grow because they needed to keep some of the rainwater to drink. During this time they barely had food for everyone to eat and they barely had enough water for everyone to drink. According to document B this time period was known as the ‘starving time”. In document D Francis West sailed up the Chesapeake Bay to hopefully trade corn with the Patawomkeke Indians. In document D they knew that the supply would last them to their way back to Jamestown. But no one thought that the
American Indians had been living in North Carolina for at least 9,500 years before European explorers first encountered them in the 1520's. For the past several decades an increasing number of Americans have been identifying as American Indians. For centuries before European contact, these native people lived in harmony with the natural environment, taking no more from the land than they needed to survive. Of all the states in the Union, North Carolina has witnessed the largest increase in Native American population during the past 100 years, based upon official government census documents.
advantage of the rich black soil for farming. Corn was their main source of food,
The Cherokee lived in the present day United States of America hundreds of years before its occupation by the Europeans. History proclaims that members of this community migrated from the Great Lakes and settled in the Southern Appalachians. When the Europeans started settling down in America, the Cherokee decided to co-exist peacefully with her foreign neighbors. The Cherokee lands consisted of Alabama, parts of Virginia, Kentucky, North and South Carolina and Georgia.... ... middle of paper ...
...ear and hunger and torture. However, many were still full of despair. Millions were gone: parents, siblings, spouses, and friends--"at the wave of a murderer's hand." 5