Cherokee Indians

The Cherokee nation was one of the largest native tribes who settled in the Southwest of the U.S.A .

Their ancestry was probably  of Iroquoian decent from around the Great Lakes  region .

Around the 1800s they began to adopt Euro American ways and styles of dress which included farming and building methods .

Their more traditional homes were not tepees but built cabins made of logs .

They were quite a strong Nation  of people with smaller bands led by a chief .

During the war of Independence, they along with the Choctaw and Creek sided with the British .

A century before in around 1730 some of the Cherokee group became unified under a Chief named Moyroy he became emperor  and working with the British recognized King George 2^nd as protector of the Cherokee people and Nation .

Latter on though white settlers began to break the treaties and agreements with the Cherokee and this led to some bands breaking from the main tribe and these groups moved Westward to the Mississippi to Arkansas and Missouri .

The U.S .government then created a reservation for them in Arkansas to live on .

Their old way of life was based on farming with the women growing Corn ,beans ,and Sunflowers whilst the men did the hunting . they would shoot Deer ,Bear , wild Turkey, and other game as well as fishing along the rivers and coastal areas .

Their spiritual beliefs were very strong, and they believed in the creator and worshiped through song and dance .

The women had an instrument that was called a shackle made from turtle shells with small stones and rocks inside .

These were attached by a piece of leather hung from the shell and tied or strapped to each leg  .

To day many of the Cherokee are Christian but keep some of the traditional spiritual ways alongside the Christian beliefs .

They were probably the only Native people to own slaves on Cotton plantations so today it is not uncommon to see Afro Indian people on the reservations and in the outside community .

The Cherokee people became quite good at growing cotton and selling for world use .

The Trail of tears .

The removal of the Cherokee people from their original lands began with other Native people in and around Florida and the Mississippi with Seminole Indians and continued for many years .

These were forced removals of the native people from their homelands by the U.S government at the time .

General Winfield Scott under the orders of the president Van Buren approved of their removal with 7000, U.S solders . They were forced into stockades at bayonet point whilst white settlers looted their homes and possessions .

They were then forced marched 1200 miles to Indian territory in Oklahoma .

Disease and starvation were epidemic and in the prosses nearly 5000 Cherokee people died as a result .

The trail of tears is over 5043 miles and covers nine states  .

It is possible to day to follow some of the existing parts of the trail that are accessible to see .

So today the Cherokee people have their own reservation in Oklahoma and have their own tribal government to administer every day running of the reservation as with other Indian reservations .

Their total revenue to day is probably worth around 216 billion dollars making it one of the more successful reservations in the U.S .