The Cherokee Nation
Nancy Taylor
AIHE Colloquia
2010
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h1567.html
sonofthesouth.net
Florida Benchmarks
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SS.8.A.1.
Use research and inquiry skills to analyze American History
using primary and secondary sources.
SS.8.A.1.2
Analyze charts, graphs, maps, photographs and timelines;
analyze political cartoons; determine cause and effect.
SS.8.A.1.5
Identify, within both primary and secondary sources, the
author, audience, format, and purpose of significant historical
documents.
.8.A.4.4
Discuss the impact of westward expansion on cultural
practices and migration patterns of Native American and
African slave populations.
SS.8.A.4.13
Explain the consequences of landmark Supreme Court
decisions (McCulloch v. Maryland [1819], Gibbons v. Odgen
[1824], Cherokee Nation v. Georgia [1831], and Worcester v.
Georgia [1832]) significant to this era of American history.
In the early days of our Nation:
Cherokee people struggled to remain on their ancestral homeland
United States leaders struggled to understand the Constitution,
the checks and balances of the three branches
states rights
a federal government
the question of Indian lands
In 1700 when the Cherokee people made contact with the British for the most
part they were still living in the traditional ways of past
generations.
They were divided into seven clans.
Ah-ni-ga-to-ge-wi or Wild Potato Clan – keepers and protectors
of the earth
Ah-ni-gi-lo(la)-hi or Long Hair Clan – teachers and keepers
of tradition
Ah-ni-(k)a-wi or Deer Clan - keepers ofthe deer, deer hunters
and trackers, tanners and seamers, as well as keepers of the
deer medicines
Ah-ni-tsi-sk-wa or Red Tailed Hawk Clan – keepers of the birds,
sacred feathers and bird medicines.
Ah-ni-sa-ho-ni or Blue Holly Clan –keepers of all
children's medicines and caretakers of medicinal herb gardens
Ah-ni-wo-di or Paint Clan – the tribe's medicine men,
Dida:hnvwi:sgi (healers) and Adawehi (wise men)
traditionally came from this clan.
Ani'-Wah' Ya or Wolf Clan –( largest clan today) the protectors
of the people most prominent clan, providing most of the war
chiefs, and warriors
http://www.aaanativearts.com/cherokee/cherokee-clans.htm
Traditional Ways Before 1700
*women farmed and ran the family (Matrilineal Society)
*a husband moved into his wife’s dwelling
*women owned the household goods and the children
*land was held in common by all of he people
*men hunted, traded, made warfare and sat on councils
*women spoke at councils too
*no major chief
*no formal central government
*political questions and problems were solved by
council meetings
CHANGE 1700s -1800s
*white man’s way of life would interweave with theirs
*women would lose there place as head of household
*they would become a patriarchal society where
sons could inherit land from their fathers
*whites would surrounded their national territory
A commander of Fort Patrick
Henry sent Henry Timberlake as
a token of friendship after the
Anglo-Cherokee War. Timberlake
later takes three Cherokee to
*large portions of their land would be given up to the whites
London, 1763
*some would take up white ways to survive:
homes, farms, and plantations would begin to look like
those of their white neighbors - cleared land,
planted crops, livestock and orchards
*they would establish a government with a
written constitution that resembled the United States complete with legislative, executive and judicial branches.
.
Ostenaco, Standing Turkey, and
Wood Pigeon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickama
uga_Wars_(1776%E2%80%931794)
In 1791 during George Washington’s Presidency, the
United States Senate ratified -
The Treaty of Holston.
- recognized the Cherokee people as a nation with the right
to self-govern
- guaranteed their land and established boundaries
that they both agreed upon
- set the United States up in the role as their protector
Statue representing the signing of the Treaty of the Holston in
Downtown Knoxville
“Civilization” Program
(Initiated by George Washington in 1796)
Benjamin Hawkins, a Principal Agent for the Southern Indians appointed
by President Washington, was sent to help the Cherokee build model
farms.
He wrote the President in 1796:
The Cherokee said they would follow the advice of their great father
George Washington, they would plant cotton and be prepared for
spinning as soon as they could make it, and they hoped they might
get some wheels and carts as soon as they should be ready for them,
they promised also to take care of their pigs and cattle…That they were
willing to labour if they could be directed how to profit by it.
Lyman Vincent, A Solitary Tree and a Tornado – The How and Whys of Cherokee Assimilation and Removal 1796-1838,
Janus university Maryland Undergraduate History Journal. http://janus.und.edu/
Some of the Cherokee leaders began to encourage
American missionaries to start schools.
- First mission school opened in 1801
- Missionaries taught the boys the skills of reading, writing,
arithmetic, agriculture, and carpentry
- Girls were taught cooking, spinning, weaving, and sewing.
All were taught to read and write
- Cherokee parents who sent their children to the mission
schools believed it was important for their children, the
future Cherokee leaders, to be able to speak both the
language of the whites and the language of the Cherokee.
The Cherokee began writing down their laws in the early 1800s and
by 1828 their government mirrored the federal government of the
United States with a written constitution:
written laws
elected headsman
a legislative assembly
a court
a system of circuit riding judges
a marshal
They were committed to preserving their
nation and their territory. It was a
crime punishable by death to sell land to the whites.
www.americanantiquarian.org/
nativeamerican.htm
By 1828 the Cherokee Nation had their own
newspaper called the Phoenix.
- published laws and public documents,
articles about manners, customs, education, religion, art, and the news.
- place where they could share new ideas
- place where they could protest against anyone who wanted to remove them
from their lands.
- published in both the Cherokee language and the English language
- Newspaper articles from the Phoenix were also carried in some white
newspapers especially in the New England states.
http://chieftainstrail.com/images/cherokee_phoenix.jpg
In 1828 the Cherokee constitution
now written and printed showed
the Cherokees thought themselves
a sovereign and independent nation.
Georgia began to ask what the
United States government was
going to do about these beginnings
of a separate government within the
limits of their state.
Georgia Compact
In 1802 the Jefferson administration had made an agreement with the State of
Georgia. This agreement, the Georgia Compact, involved the selling of Georgia’s
western lands to the United States for $1,250,000 and ----------
a promise that Georgia would
receive legal title to the
Cherokee lands through
peaceful treaties
President Jefferson
November 22, 1803
January 10, 1809
Wrote to Georgia Governor
Milledge
Spoke to Cherokee Chiefs
“the acquisition of Louisiana
will it is hoped put in our
power the means of
inducing all the Indians on
this side to transplant
themselves to the other side
of the Mississippi, before
many years get about.”
…Tell all your Chiefs, your
men, women and children,
that I take them by the hand
and hold it fast. That I am
their father, wish their
happiness and well-being,
and am always ready to
promote their good.
Andrew Jackson
elected to the Presidency 1828
www.uni.edu/.../BRENDA/jackson-andrew.jpg
University of Northern Iowa
. . . all Indians must now be removed west of
the Mississippi. First address to Congress
. . . the Government kindly offers these people
a new home, and proposes to pay the whole
expense of their removal and settling on new
land. Second annual message to Congress
In 1828 gold was discovered on Cherokee
land at Dahlonega, Georgia.
Miners came.
Theft and violence followed.
The Cherokee vowed not to fight instead
took their grievances to the courts of Georgia.
They believed that the treaties they had signed
had guaranteed them their land and protection.
The Georgia courts refused to help.
Georgia Governor Gilmer shared that he
believed treaties were made with ignorant and savage
people to persuade them to give up without bloodshed
what civilized white people
had the right to own.
Gold-Mining in Georgia."
Harper's New Monthly
Magazine (June to
November 1879): 519.
The State of Georgia created laws for
the Cherokee people in 1829 - 1830.
These laws took away Cherokee rights.
They were designed to force the Cherokee to
move away.
The laws said all Cherokee law was nullified (the
Cherokee laws in the eyes of Georgia no longer
existed)and the Cherokee must follow Georgia
law.
The Cherokee shall not hold courts.
No Indian or descendant of any Indian shall be allowed to stand as a
witness in any court of Georgia to which a white person might be a party.
The Cherokee people can no longer meet as a council for the purpose of
making laws for their tribe.
The Georgia guard are authorized and empowered to arrest any person
legally charged with or detected in violation of the laws of Georgia on
Cherokee land.
***All white persons living within the Cherokee Nation
without a license from the Governor and who have not taken
an oath of allegiance to the Governor of Georgia shall be guilty
of a high misdemeanor and upon conviction be punished by
confinement in the penitentiary at hard labor for not less than
four years. ***
1830 the United States Congress
passed the Indian Removal Act.
It provided for the removal of Indians from their homelands in
the east to the territory west of the Mississippi River.
During Andrew Jackson’s presidential years the United
States Congress negotiated 94 treaties ending Indian titles to
land in the existing states.
U.S. Supreme Court Case
Worcester v. Georgia 1832
The court ruled that the Cherokee Nation
was independent from the state of Georgia
and all dealings with the Cherokee fell
under Federal, United States, jurisdiction.
www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/.../m-7259.jpg
Chief Justice Marshall wrote in his opinion:
The Cherokee nation, then, is a distinct community, occupying its own territory …
in which the laws of Georgia can have no force, and which the citizens of Georgia
have no right to enter, but with the assent of the Cherokee themselves … the acts
of Georgia are repugnant to the constitution, laws and treaties of the
United States.
The “Treaty of New Echota” ratified
in 1836 gave the Cherokee people
5 million dollars in return for their
land and removal.
The treaty after a hot debate was ratified by the
United States Senate in May1836 by one vote.
georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/tdgh-dec/dec29.htm
Georgia Info
Although the majority of the Cherokee were opposed to removal, the policy did
have some powerful proponents. Major Ridge, before signing, stated:
I am one of the native sons of these wild woods…[but] they are strong and we
are weak. We are few, they are many…I know we love the graves of our
fathers…We can never forget our homes…I would willingly die to preserve
them, but any forcible effort to keep them will cost our lands, our lives and the
lives of our children…Make a treaty of cession.
Major Ross John Ehle, The Trail of Tears The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation, New York 19
"We will make and sign this treaty
. . . we can die, but the great Cherokee Nation
will be saved." - Elias Boudinot
December 1835
Persons of great courage or traitors?
Major Ross
http://www.georgiatrailoftears.com/images/majorridge.jpgGeorgia
In May 1838 the United States began rounding up Cherokee
and placing them in stockades.
In the fall thirteen to fifteen thousand Cherokee set out on the
800 mile journey in the winter.
It is believed that as many as four
thousand died along the way.
www.intimeandplace.org/cherokee/index.html
In Time & Place the Cherokee Removal
This forced march was known to the Cherokee as “Nunna-da-ul-tsun-vi”
the place where they cried.
“The Trail of Tears.”
http://www.edb.utexas.edu/faculty/salinas/students/student_sites/Fall2008/4/
Painting “International Indian Council” by John Mix Stanley housed at the Smithsonian Art
For the next eight years there would be a bloody battle for control of the Cherokee
Nation in the West. The three group: first, the Western Cherokee, who had come
west years before and were already settled on the land with their own government –
second, the new comers, the Old Nation Cherokee led by John Ross – and third, the
Treaty Party made up of those who had signed the Treaty of New Echota giving
away the eastern lands would all seek revenge against one another.
In the Treaty of 1846 the three groups came together.
John Ross became the leader with little challenge.
The Cherokee Nation began to
rebuild.
Bibliography
Benedict, Michael Les, The Blessings of Liberty A Concise History of the Constitiution of
the United States, D.C. Heath and Company, Lexington, Massachusetts, 1996.
Ehle, John, Trail of Tears The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation, Anchor Books,
New York, 1988.
Hakim, Joy, A History of Us The New Nation 1789-1850,Oxford University Press,
New York, 1999.
Lyman, Vincent, “A Solitary Tree and a Tornado – The How and Whys of Cherokee
Assimilation and Removal 1796-1838” Janus University of Maryland Undergraduate
History Journal.
http://janus.und.edu/
Perdue, Theda and Green Michael (editors), The Cherokee Removal A Brief History
with Documents, Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, Boston, 1995.
Rozema, Vicki, Voices from the Trail of Tears, John F. Blair Publisher,
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 2003.
Stein, Conrad R., Trail of Tears Cornerstones of Freedom, Childrens Press,
Chicago, 1993.
Atlanta History Center www.atlantahistorycenter
PBS http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2959.html
In 1835, the United States government
commissioned a census of all Cherokees east
of the Mississippi. The Office of Indian Affairs
was directed to take the census. .The
government wanted to know about property,
the Cherokees skills and how much the land
farmed was producing. The census gave an
accounting of “property…productivity…skills.”
2,635 Cherokees were identified by the census
takers as head of households.
The community of Long Savannah was located
in what is today Hamilton, County, Tennessee.
The editors, of The Cherokee Removal A Brief
History with Documents Theda Purdue and
Michael Green, selected Long Savannah
because it “was typical of most of the
Cherokee Nation.
The Cherokee Removal A Brief History with Documents edited by Theda Perdue
and Michael Green (Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 1995.) p. 48.
Cherokee Census 1835
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2635 heads of household
16, 542 Cherokee
77 % full blooded
1,592 slaves
201 intermarried with whites
44,000 acres cultivated … over ½ million bushels of corn
Slightly more than ½ of the households had a least one reader
of Cherokee
• 18% of households had a reader of English