The Early Native American Tribes

The Choctaws had a strong tradition of doing business. They were very intelligent people. The tribe developed a strong economy based

Cherokee Indians have been around for many years, but when the topic of Native Americans is discussed it is only about the struggles and hardships they went through but never their actual culture of how and where they originated or how they came to be. There are many interesting things to learn about Cherokee Indians such as their heritage, religion, language, and their traditional songs, dances, and food.

The native tribes of the Great Plains and the Eastern Woodlands have surprisingly different adaptions and responses to their expansions by settlers; not only in their cultures, but in their subsistence, warfare, peacemaking, and gender roles as well. Both tribes were forced to adapt and change due to the overtaking on the European settlers, but both managed to do it in different ways.

The Cherokee tribe is known as one of the earliest and largest Indian tribe in North America. They are federally recognized even today among several states(museum). While they slowly became Americanized by the Europeans who came over to America, some still practice their typical Indian rituals publicly today. Most converted to Christianity and their government in Oklahoma is based off the American government with three branches. One would believe that the Trail of Tears could have completely vanquished these Indians but many made it through the horrendous trial and kept the Indian bloodline going even present day (Conley).

The early relations with the natives were a mix of cooperation and conflict. This goes back to Verrazzano reporting that the natives were willing to trade with them, but were not willing to put their trust in the Europeans. Then on the other end of the spectrum, we have Powhatan. He wanted to absorb the Europeans into their own ways through hospitality and gifts. “By 1609, [he] realized that the English intended to stay. Moreover, he was disappointed that the English did not return his hospitality nor would they marry Indian women (an affront from the Native perspective).” (Colonial Settlement)

The northern tribes used bones and deer antlers to make knives, scrapers, awls, fishing tools, whistles, and pendants. The first tribes denpended on agriculture were those that lived on the Atlantic Costal Plain. They learned how to make pottery and cloth. The cloth was woven with thread made from soft layers of splint baskets. They made musical instruments like pipers, rattles, drums, nd they were played during ruitals and ceremonies dances. They built two types of houses, long houses, and wigwams. The first type was formed by bending poles into a cone or dome shape and by tying the poles together with vines. The frame was covered with woven mats, bark, or hide . These people grew corn, squash, beans, pumpkins, and tobacco.

One famous Indian tribe is the Cherokee. The Cherokee are original residents of the American southwest region, but now they occupy most of Oklahoma.There are three recognized Cherokee tribes. Most Cherokee people speak English today, but many still speak the Cherokee language. Children had jobs to do after school just like men and women had their own jobs. Many Cherokee Indians died when president Andrew Jackson forced them to leave their homes in Georgia. In the following essay I will be talking about the Cherokee life before,during,and after the Westward Expansion.

When Europeans came to the American continent, contact with the Native Americans who were already living there was inevitable. In the colonization of early America, the various groups of European settlers: the Spanish, French, English, and Dutch each had unique experiences with, and therefore individual opinions of the Native Americans whom they interacted. Each of these nations also shared commonalties in their colonization processes and in how they viewed Native Americans. Furthermore, the Native Americans held differing opinions of each group of Europeans whom they encountered while some features of their relationships with Europeans were consistent despite the tribe or nation involved.

     The Cherokee culture went through some drastic changes. Schools were set up to instruct the Indians. Men farmed instead of hunting. They established some of their own laws. In 1827, the Cherokees wrote a constitution that provided for a bicameral legislature, a chief executive, and a judicial system (Perdue 13). The Americans tried to make the Indians become Christians. They developed their own writing system. They even began to publish their own newspaper called the Cherokee Phoenix (Perdue 14). The Cherokees became more civilized than in the past. The Cherokees tried to become civilized to make their relationship with the Americans better.

The Cherokee tribe is an excellent example of the havoc and devastation caused by the Europeans. Prior to the arrival of the Europeans, the Cherokee people were one of the largest of five Native American tribes that were settled in the American Southeast, although they were originally from the Great Lakes region of the country. They were of Iroquoian descent. Contrary to the stereotypical assumption that many people make that all Native American Indians lived in teepees, the Cherokee people lived in log cabins. They were a large, highly religious tribe split into several smaller sections, each section led by a chief. Interestingly, when the American Revolution occurred, the Cherokee Indians assisted and supported European soldiers, even going as far as to partake in several attacks and battles. Around the time of the 1800s, the Cherokee Indians had adopted the European culture, dressing similarly and utilising European methods of farming, building and cooking. During the year of 1828, the discovery of gold was made by Europeans on the

Native American, or American Indians, have a rich culture comprised of struggle, strife and success. For this paper, i will discuss the Native American Culture and it's history.

Native Americans have had a long important part of American history. Many of them started out from different descendants and eventually joined up for protection. One of these tribes became massive and ended up getting the name seminoles. The seminoles started out in Florida and had small groups form in Georgia and Alabama. But some were forced to move to Oklahoma in the 1800s. The seminoles lived by the river valleys, mountains, and the swamp mostly for food, water, and shelter (Seminole Tribe). They had many natural resources including fruit, seeds, nuts, and pumpkins (Seminole Tribe). Overall the seminoles had a great location and plentiful resources.

The Cherokee was a very large tribe that lived in Georgia and unlike other tribes, they constructed large log cabins to live in. During the American Revolution, they sided with the British and even fought battles alongside them (Cherokee Indians, Indians.org). During the 1800s they began to assimilate to the European culture and took on many European customs and this continued until the 1820s when gold was discovered on Cherokee lands and they were then asked by President Andrew Jackson to vacate the area. This came to a surprise to the Cherokee because years before during the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814, 500 Cherokee Indians assisted Jackson and possibly saved his life (A Brief History of the Trail of Tears, Cherokee. Org).

In history classes, students are taught about the Cherokee Indians, who they were and what happened to them. The Indian Removal Act forced the Cherokee Indians to relocate to another location because European settlers wanted their land. What followed was the Trail of Tears, it was a gruesome journey that the Cherokee Indians had to take to the southeastern regions of the United States. Many suffered and died before even reaching the final destination. Remnants of the trail and their housing can still be seen today. The Cherokee Indians were a huge part of the American history, but where are they now? Today, they both lack privilege as well as have some specific privileges because of who they are. It is important to study other cultures and understand who they are, especially when they help make up part of the population of the United States. Why do we not hear about the Cherokee Indians anymore?

With such a magnitude of land their influence was relevant. By mid-18th century, many Cherokee men and women realized that their ways of doing things were different than their European settlers. With as much power and influence that the Cherokee had, it was only time