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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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…
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
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
They learned to be humble and obedient by doing jobs nobody else wanted to do like digging canals, and sweeping the temples. Religion The Cherokee religion was polytheistic (meaning many gods). They had a god for pretty much anything you can think of. Their main god was the god of the sun. Their philosophy was be good to the earth and it will be good to you.
One band of Native Americans, the Cherokee Indian tribe is a renowned tribe that is still widely recognized today. “The word ‘Cherokee’ is believed to have evolved from a Choctaw word meaning ‘cave people’” (everyculture). The location of the Cherokees ranged anywhere from Georgia to Virginia. They mostly resided in the Southeast. Many Cherokees still exist today.
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.”
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
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 ...
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...
In 1838, the United States government made the Cherokee people leave their homelands. The forced march of the Cherokee to Okalahoma became known as the Trail ...
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
The Choctaw Indians were into cultivation , they hunted and raised corn along with a host of other crops. One of their chief religious ceremonies was a harvest celebration called , “The green corn dance.” According to one legend, the Choctaw were created at a sacred mound called Nanih Waiya, near Noxapater ,Mississippi.
(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
...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