Reflective Essay: Cherokee, North Carolina

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

The Cherokee people were forced out of their land because of the settler’s greed for everything and anything the land had to offer. Many Cherokee even embraced the “civilization program,” abandoning their own beliefs so that they may be accepted by white settlers. Unfortunately for the Cherokee though, the settlers would never accept them as an equal citizen. A quote from historian Richard White says it very well, “The Cherokee are probably the most tragic instance of what could have succeeded in American Indian policy and didn’t. All these things that Americans would proudly see as the hallmarks of civilization are going to the West by Indian people. They do everything they were asked except one thing. What the Cherokees ultimately

die. The Red Chief was also in charge of the lacrosse games which were called

In the early 1800s the Cherokee started their own Cherokee Nation. Some of these Cherokees did not like the fact that white people were invading their land and decided to move out to the west and start their own society. The reason why the white people were coming onto Cherokee land is because of all the gold that is there. The whites began to make friends with the Cherokee so they could get some of the gold. Later the white people decided it was time that the Cherokee people need to be eliminated from the area. This lead to the Cherokee losing their land, farms, and their houses. President Andrew Jackson was the one who caused the removal of the Cherokee people.

American Indians had been living in North Carolina for at least 9,500 years before European explorers first encountered them in the 1520's. For the past several decades an increasing number of Americans have been identifying as American Indians. For centuries before European contact, these native people lived in harmony with the natural environment, taking no more from the land than they needed to survive. Of all the states in the Union, North Carolina has witnessed the largest increase in Native American population during the past 100 years, based upon official government census documents.

The Cherokee Indians were one of the civilized tribes in the United States. They were located in the southeastern part of the U.S. This includes the western parts of North and South Carolina, The northern parts of Alabama and Georgia, Southwest Virginia and the Cumberland basin of Tennessee. It appears the Cherokee settled in 1000 A.D. to 1500 A.D. Their development took place in two stages or phases. The Pisgah which took place 1300 A.D. to 1540 A.D. and the Qualla which took place 1540 A.D. to 1750 A.D. The first period was primitive and the second was influenced by European contact. They were a large tribe that was part of the Iroquian language group even though their language is very different. Despite this the

Migration from the original Cherokee Nation began in the early 1800’s. Some Cherokees, wary of white encroachment, moved west on their own and settled in other areas of the country. A group known as the Old Settlers previously had voluntarily moved in 1817 to lands given them in Arkansas where they established a government and a peaceful way of life. Later, however, they were forced to migrate to Indian Territory.

Most of the displaced Cherokee walked west on the roads, although some went by boat. Rounded up into assembly centers, sent to emigration depots, and then herded west, most Cherokee followed the overland route of Lieutenant B.B. Cannon. Cannon led a group of Cherokee who voluntarily relocated west in 1837. Armed soldiers flushed the Cherokee out of their homes and stripped them of valuable possessions. Tightly packed in holding centers, they found that food and water were scarce and disease and death were common. From those assembled at Rattlesnake Springs, for example, 13 organized detachments made the journey west. While most walked, the infirm and mothers with young children traveled in wagons. Space was limited because food, blankets, and other supplies occupied most of the room. Those who were still alive five months later found

After Lord Dunmore’s War, the Shawnee people were forced to move from their homes. The tribe was split up. A tribe called the Absentee Shawnee migrated to Missouri. Another tribe called the Loyal Shawnee moved to a small reservation in Kansas. Some Shawnee moved to eastern Oklahoma. In 1869, some of the Loyal Shawnee moved onto land given to them by the Cherokee tribe in Oklahoma. Though some Shawnee remained in

Archaeologists believe that the first human beings to enter North America traveled from Siberia between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago. During the Ice Age, a period in time named for the reduction in the Earth's temperature, ocean levels receded, exposing land that was previously covered by the Bering Sea (2). The ancestors of Native Americans were able to walk across the land from present-day Siberia to the landmass that, today, is known as Alaska. Prior to 1550, the ancestors of Native Americans were nomadic hunters and gatherers, meaning they traveled in search of food. Around 1550, Native American tribes were practicing settlement. Settlements consisted of small villages that were centered on hunting, fishing, or farming (2). Approximately thirty Native American tribes settled on the land that is now known as North Carolina including, the Cherokee, the Catawba, the Tuscarora, the Cape Fear, and the Waccamaw tribes (2).

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).

It is a pleasure to greet you and introduce you to the idea of the construction of a Cherokee Museum, which will be carried out with the Federal Grant we have been provided with. The purpose of said edification is to create awareness in our population towards indigenous groups of this region; specifically the Cherokees, by presenting them to the public not as a dead civilization, but as a living legacy that needs to be preserved and appreciated.

Most of us have learnt about the Trail of Tears as an event in American history, but not many of us have ever explored why the removal of the Indians to the West was more than an issue of mere land ownership. Here, the meaning and importance of land to the original Cherokee Nation of the Southeastern United States is investigated. American land was seen as a way for white settlers to profit, but the Cherokee held the land within their hearts. Their removal meant much more to them than just the loss of a material world. Historical events, documentations by the Cherokee, and maps showing the loss of Cherokee land work together to give a true Cherokee

The last glimpses of the dark blue truck which my mother was driving in disappeared behind the trees, and we realized that we were truly on our own. My dad, older sister, and myself began our journey along the most difficult part of the Foothills Trail. This was our first backpacking trip, and I had a feeling that we were vastly unprepared for the task which was at hand. On the trail side was a sign which read: “Table Rock State Park-14.0 Miles”.

We decided that we would go hiking near Fishing Bridge because there's a lot of forest around there and there’s water so there should be some animals in that area that we can see. When we first got on the trail it was really fun and I was having a great time on the trail being able to see and the trees and some of the small animals and bugs in Yellowstone that live there. I told my mom and dad that I wanted to go deeper into the forest and go off the trail they said that we shouldn’t because it will be dangerous and people easily get lost in the forest. I didn’t listen to them and when they weren’t looking that is when I wondered into the forest, at first I knew were I was and how to get back to the trail, but after a few turns in the forest and going different was I was completely lost and had no clue where I was and how to get back. The only lucky thing about this was that I had the backpack which was full of snacks and water plus bear spray I was really lucky that I had a blanket in the backpack that I brought, so I could sleep in the car when are driving back to the hotel from the trail. With all the snacks and the water I should be able to survive for three days it just depends on how hungry and thirsty I get. I started telling loudly “MOM,DAD” but they couldn’t hear me, I was to far in