Essay On The Cherokee Tribe

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In old, but not so ancient times, native americans populated our land widely with different tribes diverged. One of the most widely known and popular tribes was named the Cherokee tribe and was formed as early as 1657. Their history is vast and deep, and today we will zone into four major points of their culture: their social organizations and political hierarchy, the tribe’s communication and language, a second form of communication in their arts and literature, and the Cherokee’s religion. In the social organizations of the Cherokee tribe, the oldest men of the tribe would carry the greatest prestige on their shoulders, helping with leadership and hunting most importantly. They kept order within the tribe and community, making sure everybody …show more content…

When writing, the Cherokee people used a font and word type they titled the “Digohweli Cherokee Unicode” and was designed to be an easy-to-read, all-purpose font. When speaking vocally, they used a form of Iroquoian language, more specifically, they took inspiration from southern Iroquoian language. Even though the Cherokee language takes heavy inspiration from southern Iroquoian language, they have a language that is all their own. It is a polysynthetic language, which means the words are made up of many morphemes and have “long-sentence” …show more content…

As the general population of america is of christian belief, the Cherokee worshipped nature, as did most other native american tribes. The most interesting part of their belief system, is that they believed the earth was a flat disc of water with a singular island in the middle, and was suspended by four cords. This is where the humans, animals, and nature lived in harmony. Above this world was a place called “Upper World” where the guiding spirits and animals lived. They believed that they kept harmony on the earth by participating in daily prayers, and did rituals often. One such ritual was called “going to water” and was performed on many occasions: at the new moon, before special dances, after bad dreams, and during illnesses. The Cherokee believed this ritual cleansed the body as well as the spirit. It was performed by stepping into an eastern water, and diving under and up seven times, finishing the ritual with a clear mind and extinguished bad

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