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Cherokee
Indian Tribe
Hunter with Bow & Arrows
The
Cherokee
Indian Tribe (who refer to themselves as the "Tsalagi" or the "Aniyunwiya" in their native
American tongue) are thought to have originated in the Great Lakes Area
where the majority of other Iroquoian-speaking (Algonquin) peoples lived.
At the time of first contact with
colonizing Europeans, the Cherokee Indian Tribe was one of the principle tribes inhabiting the
Southeastern United States (Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee). The
Cherokee were traditionally polygamists with a man having multiple wives.
However, their society was matriarchal and matrilineal, meaning that the
women controlled inheritances, property, and their children were born into
their the clan of their mother. In addition, their society was matrifocal,
with the married couple living with the wife's family and her oldest brother
was a more important to her sons than was their own father, because he was a
member of a different clan than his son. By tradition, a Cherokee woman
could divorce her husband and remarry, retaining both her children and any
property. Similar to most Native American Tribes, the Cherokees were
forced to abandon their native lands due to the influx of Anglo
settlers. In fact, Thomas Jefferson is reputed to have first proposed
a Indian Removal Plan by the US Government and he believed that Indian
Tribes living in Eastern North America should be removed by force and
relocated west of the Mississippi River (for their own well-being, of
course). Despite many treaties with the US guaranteeing their Indian
Tribe the right to retain some of their traditional territories, the
Cherokee Indian Tribe was by and large forced to migrate west and the famous
Cherokee Trail of Tears bears witness to this fact. In the year 1830,
the US Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which authorized that the
Cherokee Indian Tribe be forcible relocation to a new Indian Territory in
Oklahoma, east of the Mississippi River. The majority of the Cherokee
people walked over 1,300 km and some estimate that as many as 4,000 died due
to disease, hunger and exposure. Perhaps surprising to some, many Cherokees
were slaveholders, and they took their black slaves with them to the new
Indian Territory. During the American Civil War, the majority of
Cherokees sided with the Confederacy, having disastrous consequences for the
tribe. After the war, the US government made the Cherokee Tribe sign a new
treaty because it supported the Confederacy and advocated slavery. The 1866
Treaty required the emancipation of all black slaves possessed by the
Cherokees. At present the majority of the Cherokee Indians live in
the State of Oklahoma, distant from their traditional territory. Despite
years of war, forced deportation, and the loss of their traditional
territory, the Cherokee Indian Tribe at present has an estimated population of
over 316 thousand American Indians, making it the largest federally
recognized Indian Tribe in North America.
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