Cherokee Indians
By Brent, Darren, Bob, Andrew and
Joel
Cherokee Indian Cultural
Overview
Early Cherokee Indian Village
First European encounter
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Hernando de Soto
http://www.floridahistory.com
Retreat to the Blue Mountains
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http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.peakbagger.com/map/r16.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.peakbagger.com/range.aspx%3Frid%3D16&h=289&w=289&sz=20&hl=en&star
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Cherokee Indian Warriors
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http://www.cherokeemuseum.org/images/anikituhwa02.jpg
Cherokee Indians
History Leading to the Trail of Tears
Original Cherokee Indian Territory
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Culture was thriving
A time for intense change
Power of the New Americans
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Greed- money was power
Demand for more Cherokee
Land
1790’s- Group of Cherokee
Indians attack a group of
settlers in Tennessee.
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Attempt to stop movement for
more land
Raid almost took the life of a
lawyer, land speculator, and
future president Andrew
Jackson
Where else is President
Andrew Jackson found?
Andrew Jackson
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“Why do we attempt to treat with savage tribes that
will neither adhere to treaties or law of nations.”
- Former President Andrew Jackson
1791 Cherokee Territory
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Sold 2/3 of their land to
British, then to
Americans
Most Cherokee Indians
were upset with the sale
Interaction Between Cultures
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The Cherokee Indians
were overrun by New
Americans.
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New ideas
New way of doing things
Technology
Battles between
neighbors
Peace Treaty
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George Washington signs peace treaty with the
Cherokee hoping they’ll blend into general
population.
A direct example of Anglo-Conformity.
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A+B+C=A
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Language
Politics
Religion
Education
Conforming to New Ways
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Cherokee Indians
attempt to live in peace
with settlers.
Hunting grounds
depleted.
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Farming becomes main
source of food.
Adapt to new way.
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Rifles
Log cabins
Spinning Wheels
Scotch-Irish Arrival
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Blended with both
Cherokee tribe and
earlier settlers.
Married into Cherokee
Tribe
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Birth of John RossImportant Cherokee
Indian Icon.
Influential Leader of the
Cherokee
John Ross
“A soul of the Cherokee and tenacity
of a Scotsman”
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1/8 Cherokee Indian
Raised in Cherokee
ways
Lead Cherokee Tribe to
nationhood- not what
the New Settlers had in
mind
Most Americans wanted
the Cherokee relocated
New Lands
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1802- President Thomas
Jefferson signs compact
with Georgia-buying
western lands
1803- Doubles size with the
Louisiana Purchase
Some Cherokee Move westothers stake claim in their
land
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Ross believes it’s their God
Given Right to own that land
1805
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U.S. bribes Cherokee Indian
Doublehead into ceding
8,000 sq. miles
U.S. assures this is the Last
treaty for land
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Young Boy speaks outGeneral Ridge
Doublehead betrays once
again; killed by tribe.
Tribe established a National
Council
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Ross, General Ridge become
leaders
1813-1814
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Redstick Creek attack Alabama village
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Killing 400 settlers
Tennessee raises volunteer force for retaliation
March 27th, 1814- Battle of Horseshoe Bend
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Andrew Jackson-leader
300 Cherokee Indians Help Jackson defeat
Redstick Creek Indians
Cherokee Indian saved Andrew Jackson’s life
Jackson’s Reparations
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Money and Land from
Redstick Creek
Also takes land from
Cherokee Tribe
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Uproar for the Cherokee
Tribe
Citizens of Georgia
thought it was a
religious crusade.
1828
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Andrew Jackson elected President
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Meant removal of all Cherokee Indians
Relocation across Mississippi River
Jackson is quote: “Let me take you by the
hand, lead you to new land.”
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Picture-Jackson
Motivated by Greed and Ambition
1829-1830
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Gold discovered in Cherokee Indian Land
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General Ridge- Enacted blood act- Death to
anyone who sells Cherokee land without tribal
approval
Spring1830- Sends Indian Removal Act to
Congress
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Cherokee- major campaign against it
May 23rd- passes in congress by 1 vote
Indian Removal Act
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Georgia enacts own law- 6 months to leave
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Strips Cherokee Indians of Civil Rights
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Couldn’t mine gold
Couldn’t testify in court against White people
Couldn’t carry weapons
Forbid to meet in council
John Ross protests-appeals to Supreme Court
Chief John Marshal-Georgia Law is void
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President Jackson- “John Marshal has made his decision;
let him enforce it!
Gave Georgia license to kill
Supreme Court decision ignored- Jackson wants all land
Fight for Land
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General Ridge and, editor of Cherokee Paper
Elias Boudinot, give up and support removal
Winter of 1835- Ross goes to Washington to
fight off removal; Ridge follows.
Jackson realizes Ridge’s weakness, strikes
deal.
Treaty of New Echota
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Dec. 1835-Met in secret at Elias Boudinot’s
estate.
Treaty gives all land to U.S.
May 22nd, 1836- Jackson gets his wish- signs
treaty of New Echota.
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2 years to leave-across Mississippi.
May 23rd 1838
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Deadline is here
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2,000 left voluntarily
Ridge family, Boudinot family already had
relocated
Other Cherokee Indians wait for John Ross to save
them.
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Cherokee Indians were being forced out.
Civil war veteran- “I’ve fought through the civil
war, yet this is the cruelest thing I’ve ever seen.”
June 1838
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2500 Rounded into pens-much like cattle
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Steamboats were the means of relocation
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Water level became too low
2000 die
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Bad food
Poor sanitation
No supplies
Only clothes on their back
Measles
Whooping cough
Dysentery
John Ross pleads to Jackson
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Lead own removal; Jackson approves
Trail of Tears
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October 1st, 1838
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Fort Payne- Benges Route
Chattanooga- Northern Route
November 1838
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Weather Conditions
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Cold, Freezing rainSnow
Muddy trails
Cherokee groups would
send status to Ross
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Many deaths occurredstarvation, pneumonia,
tuberculosis
Ross lost his wife on this
journey
Trail of Tears
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Nearly 4,000 Cherokee
Indians died
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Female started with 8
children, made it with 1
Dogs were starving;
would fight over the
bloody footprints left by
the Cherokee
January 4th, 1839
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First Wagon reaches Indian
Territory- now the state of
Oklahoma
Cherokee Indians were
exhausted and upset
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Secret Indian group met
without Ross
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Blamed General Ridge and
Boudinot
Blood Act-Devised a plan to
Kill Ridge and Boudinot
Successfully completed
their plan
Cherokee Nation vs.
Georgia
Background
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Many laws enacted to remove Cherokee from
Georgia
John Ross – (Chief) to resolve disputes in noncustomary ways
Andrew Jackson – to support Georgia with the
Indian Removal Act
Case
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William Wirt – (Attorney General) Selected to
defend Cherokee.
Cherokee deemed “Domestic Dependent
Nations”
Could not go to the Supreme Court
Cherokee stripped of their own government to
follow Georgia law
Worcester v. Georgia
Background
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Georgia enacted laws about whites being on
Cherokee land.
Samuel A. Worcester and six others arrested
for not having permits.
Worcester a target because of helping fight the
removal act.
Case
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U.S. Supreme Court – Over ruled Cherokee
Nation v. Georgia.
Cherokee along with other Native Americans
are now “distinct communities”
Georgia with no more jurisdiction
Worcester remained in prison 4 more years
Cherokee went on to sign removal treaty
American Indian Boarding Schools
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Idea derived from Captain Richard H. Pratt
 1879 “Kill the Indian and save the man.”
 Cheaper to Assimilate than kill
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Solving the “Indian Problem”
Rounding up children
 Some Indians volunteered their children for the process
 Most resisted
 Fall Roundups
Movie: “Where the Spirit Lives”
Abductions
Ashtecome transformed to Amelia
 Teachers & Mission
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American Indian Boarding Schools
Day Schools
Inexpensive
Least opposition from
parents
Possibility that school
would serve as
messenger for parents
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Off Reservation Schools
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Able to assimilate better
• High opposition from
parents
• Parents granted
visitation rights
Beginning Cultural Genocide
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Process began by cutting the
long hair off
Clothing
Renaming
Children would learn every
aspect of day to day
existence (eating, sleeping,
working, learning, praying)
Strict Discipline policy
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restrictions
punishments
The common schools
are the stomachs of the
country
in which all people that
come to us
are assimilated within a
generation.
When a lion eats an ox,
the lion does not become an
ox
but the ox becomes a lion."
Henry Ward Beecher
Techniques of Assimilation
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Indian boarding school students wore military uniforms and were forced to march.
They were given many rules and no choices. To disobey meant swift and harsh
punishment.
Students were forbidden to speak their language.
They were forbidden to practice their religion and were forced to memorize Bible verses
and the Lord’s Prayer.
Their days were filled with so many tasks that they had little time to think.
Indian students had no privacy.
Boarding school students were expected to spy on one another and were pitted against
each other by administrators and teachers.
Students were taught that the Indian way of life was savage and inferior to the white
way. They were taught that they were being civilized or "raised up" to a better way of
life.
Indian students were told that Indian people who retained their culture were stupid, dirty,
and backwards. Those who most quickly assimilated were called "good Indians." Those
who didn’t were called "bad" Indians.
The main part of their education focused on learning manual skills such as cooking and
cleaning for girls and milking cows and carpentry for boys.
Students were shamed and humiliated for showing homesickness for their families.
Blauner – Colonialism
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1. Forced entry into a culture
2. One of those cultures becomes destroyed by forced
entry
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3. Group that comes in establishes new forms of
social control
4. RACISM
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Easier to control destroyed culture
Taking away bonds
Justification of actions
5. Dominant Group in control
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Control of money jobs, who does what
Inadequacies of Boarding Schools
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Schools had high infection levels
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consumption (tuberculosis)
Trachoma
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Partial loss of sight or total blindness
Malnutrition
School discipline process was against their employees
using abusive language, ridicule, corporal punishment
or any other cruel or degrading measures in the
education/assimilation process.
American Indian Boarding Schools
End Result
www.english.uiuc.edu
Implications Today
“A little while ago, I was supposed to attend a
Halloween party. I decided to dress as a nun
because nuns were the scariest thing I ever
saw.”
-Willetta Dolphus Age 54
Student body assembled on the Carlisle Indian School Grounds.
Photo courtesy of Carlisle-www.army.mil
Dawes Act
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1887
Gave Native Americans land rights for
registration.
This was a way of forced assimilation into
becoming farmers.
Many whites and Native Americans scammed
the system by making up names to acquire
land.
Census Information
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60% of Native Americans live on reservations
.9% of the United States Population
37% are of mixed-race status
$3 Billion given to the Native Americans annually.
Even with Casinos, Native Americans have lowest
income, education, house, and health levels, with the
highest unemployment. Lower than any other
minority, they are the poorest of the poor.
Geographic Location
Cherokee formerly holding the whole mountain region of the south
Alleghenies, in southwest Virginia, western North Carolina and South
Carolina, north Georgia, east Tennessee, and northeast Alabama.
Before European Invasion
Post Revolutionary War
Photos courtesy of www.cherokeehistory.com Photos courtesy of www.cherokeehistory.com
Geographic Location
Before Removal
Photo courtesy of www.cherokeehistory.com
Geographic Location
 The Highlighted area
represents the Cherokee County
 After removal the majority of
Cherokee’s settled in North-eastern
Oklahoma
 Today most Cherokee reside in
Oklahoma
Today
Cherokee Culture Survives
Pre-Europeans (1540) = 30,000
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located in Southeastern U.S.
1700 = 16,000
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due to disease and war
Today = 200,000
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most residing in Oklahoma
•Eastern band (western NC) = 12,500
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Largest Native American group in
the U.S.
Keys to survival
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The Cherokee have there own:
language (second most widely used Native
American lang.)
 culture
 Tribal Government which is
primarily responsible for keeping their culture alive
today.
the Cherokee language is a required subject in their
schools
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The Cherokee have been successful
in retaining their culture, yet they
faced many struggles which are still
being fought today and seem to be
never ending.
Issues of discrimination today
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Many of the Issues surrounding the Cherokee are seen across the Native
American culture.
The struggles seem to be universal, if the Cherokee are affected chances are
other tribes are also affected.
Contents:
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Tribal sovereignty
Sales Tax
Cherokee Flag
National Holiday
Bones
Mascots
Storing wastes
Rebuilding
Tribal Sovereignty
Definition: Power of people to govern themselves
 Cherokee have been fairly successful in creating tribal
sovereignty
Attributes of sovereignty:
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1. Form a government,
2. Determine tribal membership,
3. Right to tax,
4. Regulate tribal property ,
5. Regulate individual property ,
6. Right to maintain law and order ,
7. Right to regulate domestic relations,
8. Right to exclude non-members from tribal property
Tribal sovereignty
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Problems with tribal sovereignty:
The U.S. government recognizes American Indian
tribes as sovereign nations,
BUT, the U.S. congress has the right to limit the
sovereign powers of tribes
• Even though the Cherokee are recognized as a
sovereign nation many issues still arise
For example…..
•
Taxing
State Taxation: A basic rule of sovereignty is that governments do not tax other
governments. For example, the State of Oklahoma does not pay taxes to the federal
government. Likewise, Indian tribes do not, and should not, pay taxes to other
governments.
Example: Taxes on Tobacco products
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Selling tax-free cigarettes to non-Indians
Lawsuit to collect lost revenue and to force the reservations to charge sales tax
Many store owners who are not located on the reservation claim that they have lost a lot
of money to the Indian sales, but claim that the real issues is that of principle.
Why are the smoke shops allowed to work outside the law and damage everyone else’s
business ( sovereign nations )
“you cut off the cigarette revenue,
and you cut off the
livelihood of the tribe”
Mr. Gumbs- Shinncocks tribal chairman
Cherokee Flag
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Issue of flying the Cherokee
Flag at the Oklahoma State
Capital
Representative Cox of
Oklahoma stated, any flag
associated with the
Confederate flag family was a
symbol of racism, he states
the Cherokee Braves flag is
part of that family of flags
Representative Cox also
compares anyone fighting
against the US government
during the Civil war should be
looked upon as the terrorist
attacking America today.
National Holiday
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request for a Federal Holiday for Native American
This holiday would pay tribute to Indian Tribal Leaders
pay tribute to those that endured the world's longest holocaust and most
costly in human lives.
Indian Governments nor its people find reason to celebrate Columbus Day.
Seventeen states do not recognize Columbus Day. The state of South
Dakota has changed Columbus day to Native American Day.
It is inappropriate for Indian children and children of America
to celebrate Columbus discovering a nation of people and not
having a holiday paying tribute to the people of those nations.
National Holiday
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In United Native Americas quest to bring about a federal national holiday for
Native Americans, Cherokee Chief Chad Smith is unwilling to call upon the federal
government to stop using our tax dollars to pay for Columbus Day and not having it
as a national holiday, he has stated to me, that would be pitting the Indian
community against the Italians.
The Cherokee Nation does not recognize Columbus Day as all Indian nations do
not. Seventeen states do not recognize Columbus Day as a state paid holiday,
Oklahoma is one of those states.
Cherokee Chief Chad Smith's view on not wanting to change Columbus Day to
Native American day is not in line with the vast majority of Native Americans to
include most Americans.
Columbus is the equal of Hitler to the Native American community, there would
never be a tax paid holiday for Hitler in America for the German American
community, nor should there be a national holiday for Columbus in America!
Mascots
Mascots
American Indians are People, not mascots
* National Coalition on Racism in Sports and
Media (NCRSM)
* Racial, cultural, and spiritual stereotyping
* Cleveland's chief Wahoo, Washington redskins,
Kansas City chiefs, Atlanta braves
* Should it be seen as respect?
Rebuilding the Cherokee Nation
community
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Americans visit tribal communities in Oklahoma or in other
places, they look around and they see all the social indicators
of decline such as high infant mortality, high unemployment,
alcoholism, poor housing and neighborhoods, etc.
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There are a lot of historical factors that have lead to where the
Cherokee are today, to understand contemporary issues and
contemporary problems we have to understand the history.
Destruction of the Cherokee Nation
Community
Cherokee lands had been opened up for settlement,
- Cherokee tribal government was left with just a
skeleton.
- schools were closed down,
- courts were closed down, were forbidden from
electing their own tribal leaders,
- land we had held in common was divided out in
individual allotments of 120-160 acres per family.
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Rebuilding the Cherokee Nation
Community
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Cherokee put together a new political system,
signed a new constitution in 1839,
built institutions of government,
built an extensive judicial system,
began printing newspapers in Cherokee and in
English,
rebuilt an economic system,
and built an educational system.
Keys to rebuilding
* Leadership
* Healthcare
* Education
* Politics
* Language
* Tribal sovereignty
Understanding the Truth
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We don’t hear about the true events of the past
Trail of tears was and is taught
That is the extent of it
US. Government used small pox and anthrax against
the Native American community, the federal
government shipped disease infected blankets and
meat into the Indian tribes to kill as many men,
women and children as they could, all this was done
under the American flag we have today.
Yet it is not taught in public schools.
Conclusion