The Cherokee Indians are a tribe from the southeastern area of what is now the United States. The Cherokees were identified as one of the most socially and culturally advanced Native American tribes. Sometime in the sixteenth century the European explorers came in contact with the Cherokee Indians, and the Indians learned things from the Europeans to better their cultural elements. Their society and culture developed more. The Native Americans managed to shape a government and society matching most civilized cultures of the day. Sometime in the 1830’s gold was found in the Cherokees homeland. That caused outsiders to come into the Cherokees territory. When these settlers came to the Cherokees homeland they wanted to remove …show more content…
They built communities, homes, and churches. The new Cherokee capital was called Tahlequa.Tahlequa was the major hub of regional business activity. The Cherokees made a new constitution in September of 1839.The Cherokees had advanced in many ways. The first newspaper in Indian territory, the Cherokee Advocate was printed in 1844.The Cherokees had also developed a school system. The school system consisted of one hundred and forty four elementary schools, and two higher education institutions. Their school system was so advanced that the white settlements bordering the Cherokees took advantage of it.They payed tuition to go to the superior learning institutes, and schools. The Cherokees built a progressive lifestyle after the trail of tears. From the time after the trail of tears to around the 1860s was referred to as the Cherokees “Golden Age. “More lands and rights were taken by the government after the war. There was war between the Cherokees because of loyalties during the civil war. Some of the Cherokees sided with the confederacy. This caused Cherokee tribe lands to be divided into individual allotments, and distributed out to Cherokees listed in the
The Cherokee Trail of Tears resulted from the execution of the Treaty of New Echota (1835), an “agreement” signed under the Indian Removal Act of 1830 (The Cherokee and the Trail of Tears). With the expansion of the American population, the discovery of gold in Georgia, and the need for even more land for American results in the push to move the Natives who were “in the way”. So with the Indian Removal Act of 1830, Congress acted to remove Natives on the east coast of the United States to land west of the Mississippi River, something in which was never embraced or approved by them (The Cherokee and the Trail of Tears). Many state governments, such as Georgia, did not want Native-owned land within their boundaries, while the Natives did not want to move. However, under the Removal Act, the United States Congress gave then-President Andrew Jackson the authority to negotiate removal treaties.
The federal government proceeded to find a way around this decision and had three minor Cherokee chief’s sign the “Treaty of New Echota” in 1835 giving the Cherokee lands to the government for 5.6 million dollars and free passage west. Congress got the treaty ratified by only one vote. Members of their tribes murdered all three chiefs who took part in the signing of the treaty. After this event there was not much the Cherokee’s could do and were forcibly moved west on what they called and are known today as the ‘Trail of Tears,’ which became a constitutional crisis in our history. In this instance the lack of cooperation between the branches of the government was the downfall for the Cherokee nation. The way the Cherokee’s were forced west caused losses of up to twenty percent of the nation. This figure is only a guess and scholar’s think it was more a third of the nation was lost. The ‘Trail of Tears’ was also a morale issue in the United States, later having an impact on our history the way other Native American races in general are treated in the future.
76. In 1838 and 1839, as part of Andrew Jackson Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present day Oklahoma. The cherokee people called this journey the " Trail of Tears", because of it devastating effects.
Before there was a United States of America, there were tribes of Native Americans living off the land. In the southeastern part of the country, the largest group of Native Americans were the Cherokee people (Boulware, 2009). Cherokees are networked through vast kinship lines that separates them from other tribes in the region (Boulware, 2009). They once occupied a territory that ran throughout the Appalachian Mountains (Boulware, 2009). Cherokees spoke a common language known as Iroquoian, different from the surrounding tribes (Boulware, 2009).
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.
The Trail of Tears- During the 1830s the Americana's viewed the Natives as a problem and felt as if they were entitled to the land the natives had inhabited far longer then them. As more settlers began to colonize the Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, and Georgia, gold and other treasures were discovered on Indian territory. The Americans grew determined to gain this land and it riches. They decided that the best way to avoid clashes between the natives and white settlers was to encourage English culture such as Christianity and learning to speak and read English. Officials met to discuss a removal treaty at New Echota, the Cherokee capitol, and later formed the treaty of New Echota (Constitutional Rights Foundation). This
Many Cherokees died on the journey to Oklahoma, thousands died. The Indians were forced off their lands by the Americans. There was a discovery of gold on their land and Georgians wanted it. The Cherokees had treaties with the U.S so they could stay on there land but that did not help the Indians much. Their strategy was to assimilated, learned English to try to communicate with the Americans, became Christians, also they had American style farms. They tried to have peace with them but all they got in return was unfair.
The Cherokee nation was full of culture, successful agriculture, and a trusted community. This changed when the Europeans broke that trust with greed and dishonesty. The Cherokee land had many things that the intruders wanted, such as gold and crops. Not only did the Europeans become disloyal, but so did some of their own native blood. When Andrew Jackson passed the Indian Removal bill, even against the Supreme Court's decision, the tribe started to decline. Some became scared for their people, while others were going to stand their ground. A few of the ex-council members signed a contract stating that the US government could have their land. In exchange for protection on the move to their new home by Mississippi, new churches and schools,
The white settlers coveted the land of the Cherokee Indians for a couple of different reasons. First, the Cherokee Indians occupied the mountains and valleys of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. This land was very fertile and the Cherokee Indians had become proficient farmers. “Cotton quickly was becoming king in the south, and the Indians occupied land suitable for cotton growing” (Perdue 54). The white man discovered that an abundance of gold could be found in Georgia, the heart of the Cherokee territory. With this knowledge they would soon use cruel and brutal tactics in attempt to drive the Cherokee out of their land.
In the years before the occurrence of the relocation of the Cherokee Indians and their neighboring tribes, they were settled in areas such as present day Georgia, North and South Carolina, Kentucky, Alabama, West Virginia, and Tennessee (Pierce). These Native Americans were part of a nation with much opportunity and with so much to offer. They had great
In the early 1800s as the United States was expanding into the South, white settlers faced a barrier. The area they were expanding into was home to the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole nations. To the white settlers, these nations were standing in the way, so they pressured the federal government to take away the land from them. These nations were forced to take a route that led to reservations west of the Mississippi River known as the Trail of Tears.
2. “Cherokee Culture and History.” Native Americans: Cherokee History and Culture. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2014. .
In 1839, the Cherokee Nation was forced to give up its land east of the Mississippi river and move to an area in present-day Oklahoma. This migration was a part of Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Policy. The Cherokee people often called this journey the “Trail of Tears”, because of its devastating effects. There were also four more tribes involved with the Indian Removal. The Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, and Seminole tribes. Altogether they were called the Five Civilized Tribes.
The Cherokee Indians lived in the southeastern Untied States where current Georgia and South Carolina now reside. They were forced to move to current day Oklahoma during the Trail of Tears conflict. The climate changes was a very important factor for the Cherokee since the changes in temperature affected their ability to hunt and gather for food. Due to the cold weather dear would not come out to eat which hurt the Cherokee people since they used deer for food and clothing. During the 20th century there was an estimated 42,000 Cherokee people living in the Cherokee Nation. This is low due to all the new diseases and laws being forced upon them by the
When the Spanish and the English first arrived to America they were greeted by none other than the Native Americans, the first to populate America. Native Americans have populated the lands of American for hundreds of years before the English and the Spanish had arrived and took over the land with their new ways and their teachings. In this research project there will be information provided about the Cherokee tribe.