Cherokee

Cherokee, Native Americans of the Iroquoian language family and of the Southeast culture area. Before Europeans arrived in North America the Cherokee controlled a large region of the Southeast. Their territory eventually came to extend through eight present-day Southern states. Various Cherokee bands played an important role in colonial America and in United States history. They remain one of the largest tribes in the United States, and many Americans of all backgrounds claim Cherokee ancestry.

The origin of the name Cherokee is uncertain. It may come from the Choctaw name for them, Tsalagi, meaning “people of the land of caves,” or the Creek name for them, Tisolki, meaning “people of a different speech.” The Cherokee call themselves Ani-Yun'wiya, meaning “principal people.”

II

HISTORY

Archaeological and linguistic evidence indicates that the Cherokee migrated in prehistoric times from present-day Texas or northern Mexico to the Great Lakes area. Wars with the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) tribes and with the Delaware (Lenni Lenape), both of whom controlled extensive lands in the region, pushed the Cherokee southeast to the mountains and valleys of the southern part of the Appalachian chain. They settled in modern western Virginia, western West Virginia, western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, southeastern Kentucky, northwestern South Carolina, northern Georgia, and northern Alabama. The Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto encountered them in the Appalachians in 1540. By 1715 smallpox had reduced the Cherokee population to about 11,000.

During the British and French struggle for control of colonial North America, the Cherokee provided warriors in support of the British, but revolted against them in 1760 in the Cherokee War under Cherokee war chief Oconostota. During the American Revolution (1775-1783) tribal members aided Great Britain with sporadic attacks on outlying settlements. In 1785 a number of bands negotiated a peace treaty with the United States, but Cherokee resistance continued for a decade thereafter. In 1791 a new treaty reconfirmed the earlier one; part of Cherokee territory was ceded to the United States, and the permanent rights of the tribe to the remaining territory were established. Between 1790 and 1819, several thousand of the tribe migrated west of the Mississippi.

In 1820 the Cherokee established a republican governmental system modeled on that of the United States, with an elected principal chief, a senate, and a house of representatives. In 1827 they drafted a constitution and incorporated as the Cherokee Nation.

Meanwhile, valuable gold deposits were discovered in tribal lands, which by previous cessions had been reduced to about 2,830,000 hectares (about 7 million acres) in northwestern Georgia, eastern Tennessee, and southwestern North Carolina. In 1819 Georgia appealed to the U.S. government to remove the Cherokee from Georgia lands. When the appeal failed, attempts were made to purchase the territory. In retaliation the Cherokee Nation enacted a law forbidding any such sale on punishment of death. In 1828 the Georgia legislature outlawed the Cherokee government and confiscated tribal lands. Cherokee appeals for federal protection were rejected by President Andrew Jackson. In 1832 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Georgia legislation was unconstitutional; federal authorities, following Jackson’s policy of Native American removal, ignored the decision.

About 500 leading Cherokee agreed in 1835 to cede the tribal territory in exchange for $5,700,000 and land in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Their action was repudiated by more than nine-tenths of the tribe, and several members of the group were later assassinated. In 1838 federal troops began forcibly evicting the Cherokee. Approximately 1,000 Cherokee escaped to the North Carolina mountains, purchased land, and incorporated in that state; they were the ancestors of the present-day Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina.

Meanwhile, most of the tribe were driven west about 1,285 km (about 800 mi) in a forced march, known as the Trail of Tears. About 4,000 perished through hunger, disease, exposure, and attacks by bandits during the journey or in stockades awaiting removal. Others died after their arrival in the Indian Territory from disease or food shortages. In the Indian Territory the Cherokee reorganized their government under their chief, John Ross, and became known as the Western Band, or the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. The Cherokee, along with other Southeast tribes relocated to the Indian Territory—the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole—became known to non-Indians as one of the Five Civilized Tribes because of their having adopted many Euro-American customs.

During the American Civil War (1861-1865), after great internal conflict, the tribe sided with the Confederacy; a postwar treaty with the United States freed the black slaves belonging to tribal members. Under the General Allotment Act of 1887—uncompromisingly resisted by the Cherokee—plots of tribal land were forcibly allotted to individual members. Surplus lands not assigned to Cherokee individuals were parceled out by the federal government, and in 1891 the tribe’s western land extension, the Cherokee Strip or Cherokee Outlet, was sold to the United States; in 1893 it was opened, mostly to non-Indian settlers, in a famous land run. The Cherokee government was dissolved, and its people became U.S. citizens when Oklahoma achieved statehood in 1907.

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CULTURE

The Cherokee economy, like that of other Southeast tribes, was based on intensive agriculture, mainly of corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers. They also grew tobacco. Deer, bears, and elk were hunted with bows and arrows. Smaller game, such as raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, and turkeys, were hunted with long cane-stem blowguns that propelled wood-and-feather darts. For fishing, hooks and lines, spears, and traps were used. Wild plant foods gathered by hand provided another source of nutrition. These foods included roots, greens, berries, and nuts.

The Cherokee were divided into seven matrilineal clans that were dispersed in war and peace moieties (half-tribes). The people lived in numerous permanent villages, typically placed along rivers and streams. Some villages belonged to the war moiety, the rest to the peace moiety. Cherokee families typically had two dwellings: rectangular summer houses with cane and clay walls and bark or thatch roofs, and cone-shaped winter houses with pole frames and brushwork covered by mud or clay. The Cherokee crafted pottery as well as baskets. The Busk, or Green Corn Ceremony, was a time of thanksgiving, forgiveness, rekindling of sacred fires, and spiritual renewal. It was held in mid- to late summer, when the corn was ready for roasting.

In the early 19th century, the Cherokee demonstrated unusual adaptability to Western institutions, both in their establishment of a republican government and their adoption of Western methods of animal husbandry and farming, including the plantation system. Public schools were established and in the 1820s, Sequoyah, a tribal member, invented an 85-character syllabary script for the Cherokee language. Widespread literacy followed almost immediately. In 1827 the Cherokee wrote down their constitution in their native language. In 1828 they published the first Native American newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix, which also used the syllabary.

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CONTEMPORARY LIFE

In Oklahoma, among the Western Band (Cherokee Nation), traditional Cherokee culture was severely weakened. Today, the Cherokee live both on and off their federal trust lands, as protected native lands in Oklahoma are now known, scattered in urban centers and in isolated rural regions. Their occupations range from fishing to industrial labor to business management.

The old ways, including traditional crafts, are most strongly preserved by the Eastern Band, some of whom continue to live on the Qualla Reservation in North Carolina. The quality of North Carolina Cherokee basketry is considered to be equal to or better than that of earlier times. Farming, forestry, factory work, and tourism (about 5 million tourists annually) are sources of income for eastern Cherokee.

In 1984 the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians met in a joint council for the first time in a century and a half. Since then these two groups have held a joint council every two years. Smaller Cherokee groups without federal recognition live in a number of Southern states.

In the 2000 U.S. census about 281,000 people identified themselves as Cherokee only; an additional 448,000 people reported being part Cherokee. The Cherokee language is spoken by an estimated 12,000 to 22,000 people.